Global Corporate Venturing runs global councils for CVCs across the main sectors of the economy from energy, health, finance, industrial, media and communications, AI and deeptech, and consumer.
Through these councils and its wider group members, more than 150 corporate venture investors told Global Corporate Venturing their trends and technologies of importance from this year.
The quotes, a selection included here and to be published in the World of Corporate Venturing annual review in February next year, offer a unique snapshot of verticals and horizontals that have caught the attention of these investors throughout 2021. Next month GCV will publish their views on the potential opportunities for 2022.
It would be no overstatement to say that the covid-19 pandemic has marked the past two years and this is still manifest in some investors’ responses, which highlight areas like the “future of work” (or remote work), telehealth and digital health. These are identified hand in hand with tech, such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), machine learning (ML), automation, industry 4.0, electric vehicles (EVs) and the internet of things (IoT), among other areas.Notably, we have also seen responses pointing to climatetech, decarbonisation and hydrogen as the world increasingly focuses on net zero.
The important trends for 2021
“Artificial intelligence, blockchain, biotech, 3D printing and materials science” Sead Bajrovic, Grundfos Ventures
“Healthcare and food delivery” Maho Miyamoto, KDDI Open Innovation Fund
“Decarbonisation and sustainability” Kyle Sugiyama, Kanematsu Ventures
“Fintech and insurtech [financial and insurance technology], crypto cybersecurity” Steve Bernardez, Avanta Ventures /CSAA Insurance Group
“Fintech” Gen Tsuchikawa, Innovation Growth Ventures / Sony Corporation and Daiwa Securities
“From automotive and mobility perspective: The continued maturation of the EV [electric vehicle] market coupled with [US President Joe] Biden administration has meant customer EV service propositions saw a huge step in the ‘why now’. The covid impact meant a renewed focus on supply chain resiliency software and tools for enterprises. And the impact on travel patterns gave e-bikes their time to shine” Alex Smout, InMotion Ventures / Jaguar Land Rover
“Covid continuing to drive no-touch work and life from home and the continued development of analytics, automation and IoT” Stephen Socolof, Tech Council Ventures
“Hydrogen, carbon accounting, net zero fuels” Girish Nadkarni, TotalEnergies Ventures
“Coming off a tough year for many folks with forced introspection given broad-based shelter-in-place orders coupled with a reprioritisation of what is important, there is a welling momentum behind ESG (environmental, social and governance). Granted, many investors have this as a stated focus, but I think everyone felt the fragility of the world we live in and a visceral change is palpable for many to delve much more concertedly in. Tech serves to enable and democratise even as we as a society continues to grapple with the shared experiences of last year” Dennis Liu, Ford Motor Company – Palo Alto
“Blockchain” Mizuki Enomoto, Nissho Electronics USA
“Gaming, esports, agritech” Josie Lai, Genting Ventures
“1. Provenance (proof of identity) 2. AI and ML in industry (for example metal recovery) 3. New materials (composites, polymers) 4. Robots and cobots” Ivan Kuzmenkov, Prospective Ventures / Norilsk Nickel
“Expansion of precision fermentation deals” Naotaka Gotoh, DIC Corporation
“IoB – internet of behaviours. Making better use of data to predict and understand aspecific audience” Richard Zeiger, MSW Capital
“Embedded finance, cybersecurity, federated learning, fintech, insurtech” Naoki Kamimaeda, Global Brain
“Electromobility” Crispin Leick, EnBW New Ventures
“Blockchain, metaverse, electrification, artificial intelligence, industrial cybersecurity, robotic process automation” Anshul Agarwal, LG Technology Ventures
“Energy transition, climatetech, industrial decarbonisation” Kemal Anbarci, Chevron Technology Ventures
“Defi (decentralised finance) and green chemistry” Kip Frey, HG Ventures / Heritage Group
“Advanced robotics” Josh Berg, Magna Innovation Ventures
“Decarbonisation” George Gogolev, Severstal Ventures
“Synthetic biology, cleantech, agand food” Kris Kemeny, Tekfen Ventures
“Batteries, point-of-care diagnostics, hydrogen” Anil Achyuta, TDK Ventures
“Digital first, remote first” Toshiya Maruta, Japan Post Capital
“Industry 4.0, connectivity, AI and ML” Drew Amato, Lear Corp
“The omnipresence of ‘non-traditional’ investors such as hedge funds investing in tech” Grant Allen, SE Ventures /Schneider Electric
“Digital transformation of industries” Chris Stern, Trimble Ventures
“Telemedicine and digital health adoption and fledging efforts around ESG” Lisa Suennen, Manatt Venture Fund
“Agtech companies” Francisco Schuler, Wayra / Telefonica
“AI, robotics, power storage, foodtech, hostile cyber attacks, carbon scrubbing,biotech” Rod Brown, Centaur Robotics
“Energy transition and decarbonisation technology” Roy Brown, Worley Technology Ventures
“Artificial intelligence” Rodrigo de Alvarenga, The Bakery Brasil
“Healthtech” Mohamed Nazir Azmirly, Raya FutureTECH
“Battery and EV related technologies” Wade Sheffer, GM Ventures /General Motors
“Automation and robotics” Mark Johnson, Husqvarna Ventures
“Use of AI in healthcare delivery and diagnostics” William Taranto, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund
“Sustainable aviation, carbon capture” Matt Ridley, Hangar 51 / International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG)
“NFT (blockchain), 5G, quantum computing” Yean-Chau Ong, Origgin Ventures
“Energy transformation” Nicolas Sauvage, TDK Ventures
“Post and with covid-19” Takeshi Kodama, 31Ventures / Mitsui Fudosan
“Climate technology is coming strong and being looked at in the context of old trends (for example mobility, construction)” Raymond Zheng, Honda Innovations
“The 3 As – artificial intelligence (in its many forms), analytics and automation” Tony Palcheck, Zebra Ventures
“Hybrid cloud, edge cloud” Paul Asel,NGP Capital / Nokia
“AI applications, data stratification and analytics” Gustavo Cavenaghi, Kortex Ventures / Fleury and Sabin
“Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), edge computing, quantum computing, virtual reality and augmented reality, blockchain, IoT, 5G” Rahul Parekh, 2150 Venture Capital / NREP
“In food and agriculture, the most important technology trends were around digitising the supply chain, making transactions all the way from farm to fork more streamlined, and creating a greater sense of transparency for stakeholders.” Erin VanLanduit, Cargill Ventures
“Applied AI, distributed infrastructure, growing application of IoT, clean and medtech” Ron Arnold, 11eight
“The emergence of distributed infrastructure in insurance is particularly interesting. With advances in cloud computing, insurers have better alternatives for core platforms, allowing them to better adapt and address the needs of the customer, access new ecosystems and actually generate meaningful insight from the vast sources of data available.” James Orchard, QBE Ventures
“Non fungible tokens (NFTs)” Mark Brooks, Syngenta Group Ventures
“Rapid adoption of virtual communication tools” Donald Hoang, Varian, a Siemens Healthineers Company
“5G and connectivity. Virtual and augmented reality in industrial settings (especially during covid), automation, AI” Faran Nouri, Lam Capital
“AI and ML, cyber privacy, continued cloud migration” Reese Schroeder, Allstate Strategic Ventures
“Software-defined Vehicle” Vito Giallorenzo, IVY Innovation Fund, BlackBerry
“Cloud, AI, fintech, healthtech” Jeff Hennig, Xilinx Ventures
“Access control to restart economic activities, sustainability” Suzanna Chiu, Amadeus Ventures /Amadeus IT Group
“Hydrogen and carbon capture” Johann Boukhors, Engie New Ventures
“Climate technologies” Sergio Escobar, BCF Ventures
“Connectivity in its broadest sense across the patient care journey that can drive meaningful ROI (return on investment) for patients, payors and providers in terms of better outcomes and cost improvement.” Oliver Keown, Intuitive Ventures
“Hydrogen” Roee Furman, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures
“Modular construction, AR and VR, 3D concrete printing” Burak Gursel, Simpson Strong-Tie
“Rise of defi and web3, rise of climatetech, collaboration tech (covid), asynchronous LMS (learning management system)” Francis Rosenberg, GSV Ventures
“Spacs. Digital transformation emergence of AI. The start of government action against big tech, privacy, social media. Maybe this was 2020, but it is accelerating” Paul Glaser, Hewlett Packard Pathfinder
“Hydrogen value chain” Hee Suk Jung, SK Gas
“Disaggregation of the financial services and insurance value chains” Anton Kleingeld, Old Mutual New Ventures
“API for value-based payment management” John Uribe, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
“Increased pace of investment, foodtech, cloud everywhere” Andrei Zuzin, Fuel for Growth / EFKO Group
“Carbon neutral [tech]” Michihiko Kasai, KDDI
“AI and blockchain technologies continued to be the highlight of 2021. AI transforming businesses across industries (from healthcare, to real estate and security) and blockchain is coming into the forefront with new use cases that go beyond crypto.” Rita Waite, Semapa Next VC
“Remote and digital health services” Kaare Helle, DNV Ventures
“The pandemic forced people and companies to embrace cloud-based services, even the most conservative of industries. Now they are over that mindset the doors are open to further growth.” Noel Hurley, Arm
“Aftermath of covid – for example ecommerce, travel, future of work” Brandon Yahn, Convivialité Ventures /Pernod Ricard
“Democratisation of biotechnology in various applications” Kenichi Funaki, Hitachi
“AI, machine learning, big data, analytics” André Strauss Vasques, Leverage Partners
“Automation” Stuart Domingos, Zurich Insurance
“Compute networks now trusted enough to not only manage your money but *become* your money. Casual and leisure activities can be monetised.” Michael Stewart, M12 / Microsoft
“Rapid acceleration of digital transformation” Paul Price, IBM Ventures
“Climatetech, DACC [cryptocurrency]” Christian Lindener, Airbus Scale
“Open APIs, blockchain applications” Suleiman Arabiat, Elevator Ventures / Raiffeisen Bank International
“Blockchain” Edouard van Tichelen, Natixis Investment Managers
“Artificial intelligence” Dong-Su Kim,LG Tech Ventures
“NFT, XR” Florian Hofmann, 1886 Ventures / Daimler
“ML, AI, IoT, AR and VR (artificial and virtual reality), robotics, security, digital currency” Daisuke Tojima, Konica Minolta
“Blockchain, crypto, gaming, AR, creative economy” James McClurg, Sky Ventures
“Storage, AI, off-grid green electricity” Kendra Rauschenberger, Siemens Energy Ventures
“Artificial Intelligence, digital platforms and ecosystems, RPA and RDA [robotic desktop automation], edge computing” Kai Engelhardt, Brose Ventures
“In agtech: marketplaces, fintech in agriculture. Remote sensing for carbon credits” Erkki Aaltonen, Yara Growth Ventures
“Decarbonisation and climate action circularity” Gonzalo Galindo, Cemex Ventures
“Virtual meetings, and personalisation of healthcare” Les Hine,Once Ventures
“Network” Kuni Kawase, Presidio Ventures Europe / Sumitomo
“Rise of EVs in the auto industry” Tony Cannestra, Denso
“Lipid nanoparticles (LNP)-based messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines” Barbara Dalton, Pfizer Ventures
“Blockchain” Dominique Mégret, Swisscom Ventures
“Blockchain” Noel Chan, Drive Catalyst / Far Eastern Group
“Sustainability” Dimitris Triantafyllidis, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures
“The rise of the SPAC especially among space related companies. The rise of edge machine learning and tinyML“ Eileen Tanghal, In-Q-Tel International
“Vaccine development. Virtual care and telehealth” Dave Schulte, McKesson Ventures
“Anything cleantech-related – it seems established companies are beginning to move past affordability as a singular motivation for development, investment and evolution” Jaci Sager,Caterpillar Venture Capital
“Non-fungible token (NFT)” Mauricio Cardoso, Casa Azul Ventures / O Povo
“Sustainability – new materials and carbon sequestering” Ben Price, Saint-Gobain NOVA External Venture
