GlobalCorporateVenturing

Tramayne Monaghan, a GCV Emerging Leader, was the chief venture officer at Next176. Tramayne Monaghan has stepped down from his role as chief venture officer at Next176, the venture building and investment arm of South Africa-headquartered insurer Old Mutual.

Rather than building every capability itself, eBay is using venture investing to remove the friction holding back the growth of the circular economy. Ecommerce platform Ebay, one of the pioneers in selling pre-loved items online, is investing in startups not just to stay abreast of emerging technologies in the market, but to further a broader ambition of making recommerce more efficient, scalable and mainstream.

As VP of venture investing, Olive Xu will focus on investments in enterprise tech and AI across North America. Olive Xu has joined Citi Ventures, the strategic investment arm of financial services group Citi, as vice president of venture investing. In her new role, Xu will be focusing on enterprise technology and AI investments across North America.

As M&A rebounds, corporations are increasingly looking to acquire companies they already back through their VC arms. The revival in global mergers and acquisitions is doing more than lifting deal volumes. It is reshaping how venture-backed companies achieve liquidity, with strategic acquirers increasingly using acquisitions to consolidate fragmented markets, deploy abundant capital and absorb businesses they have often backed for years. Alphabet provides one illustration of the trend.

Channel 4 Ventures was founded in 2015 by Vinay Solanki and is the largest media-for-equity fund in the UK. Vinay Solanki is leaving his role as founder and head of Channel 4 Ventures, the media-for-equity arm of Channel 4, the UK TV channel with a reputation for alternative programming, after 11 years. A GCV Titan, Solanki and his team were responsible for building the largest media-for-equity fund in the UK by backing consumer tech startups, using only Channel 4’s airtime.

GCV provides the global corporate venturing community and their ecosystem partners with the information, insights and access needed to drive impactful open innovation. Across our three services - News & Analysis, Community & Events, and the GCV Institute - we create a network-rich environment for global innovation and capital to meet and thrive. At the heart of our community sits our membership, providing privileged access to all our services and resources.

In the latest edition of GCV Blueprint, editor Maija Palmer recaps the known, critical and surprising shifts in CVC that emerged during the GCV Symposium. Every GCV conference is a mix of familiar themes and surprises and often serves to articulate subtle shifts that have been bubbling up under the surface in the profession. The Symposium in London was no exception.

As president of Asia Pacific at Phoenix Tailings, George Kellerman will focus on the company’s strategic growth, customer partnerships and government engagement. George Kellerman, former managing director of Woven Capital, the $1.6bn growth investment arm of carmaker Toyota, has joined mining company Phoenix Tailings as president of Asia Pacific.

The GCV Symposium packs in two days of main stage and breakout sessions amid, interspersed with intense one-on-one networking and technology showcases. It is impossible to attend every talk, so we have distilled the key learnings for you here.

GCV provides the global corporate venturing community and their ecosystem partners with the information, insights and access needed to drive impactful open innovation. Across our three services - News & Analysis, Community & Events, and the GCV Institute - we create a network-rich environment for global innovation and capital to meet and thrive. At the heart of our community sits our membership, providing privileged access to all our services and resources.