Stephan Baral has left his partner role at Porsche Ventures, German carmaker Porsche’s corporate venture capital arm, and joined US urban air mobility company Joby Aviation.
Porsche hired Baral in 2012 as manager of financial controlling and his duties included mergers and acquisitions, new company establishment, and sales and marketing.
The firm’s digital technology subsidiary, Porsche Digital, took in Baral as head of corporate development shortly after its launch in 2016. The unit focuses on digital business models for the parent firm. He was in charge of startup partnerships, venture capital investments and M&A.
Porsche Ventures was created in 2019 to ramp up strategic investments. In that year, Baral assumed dual positions as head of product at Porsche Digital and partner at Porsche Ventures, before being promoted to managing director and member of board of directors at the former in 2020.
Joby, on the other hand, was founded in 2009 and provides electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for air taxi services in cities. Baral has become head of corporate development at the company.
Ride-hailing app Uber invests in Joby, as does chipmaker Intel, airline operator JetBlue and automotive manufacturer Toyota.
Joby went public on the New York Stock Exchange through a $6.6bn reverse merger in February 2021. Bonny Simi, a GCV Powerlist mainstay and founder of JetBlue Ventures, joined the company two months prior as head of air operations and people. Joby recently appointed her president of operations.
