PwC’s EMEA Center of Excellence for Corporate Venture Capital rises to the Global Level
01 July, 2022
Frankfurt am Main, 29.06.2022
Two and a half years ago PwC established the EMEA Center of Excellence for Corporate Venture Capital (EMEA CoE CVC) because of the increasing relevance and demand of CVC in the innovation ecosystem. This is reflected by the fact that globally, the portion of direct investment quadrupled from 2015 to 2021 and reached an all time high last year with $169.3B in CVC-backed funding. Simultaneously as innovation becomes increasingly essential for corporates to sustain competitive, collaborating with innovative startups becomes essential as well.
The EMEA CoE for CVC plays a key role in the ecosystem by building bridges between (corporate) venture capital, young tech companies, family businesses and corporations. PwC’s mission is to support corporates which want to invest in startups and establish their own corporate venture capital fund with a holistic view from strategy to execution. This implies support in four major areas: culture, strategy, structure and processes.
Firstly, the culture and thinking within the company needs to allow a successful implementation of a CVC unit. Therefore, an experienced and competent team with the right mindset is a precondition for every CVC unit in order to establish an innovative culture within the company.
Secondly, strategy refers to the development of a CVC strategy aligned with the corporates goals and resources. This requires the definition of primary objectives and the focus of the investments.
Third, structure implies support with the development of the right structure of the CVC unit from a tax and legal perspective.
Lastly, processes relate to the objective to generate a substantial deal flow for the CVC unit. This requires the definition of investment criteria and KPIs to measure the performance in terms of strategic and financial return. Moreover, it also includes the search for the right co-investors and assisting in the sale and acquisition process.
The CoE for CVC already supports over 40 CVC units successfully in existing and planned CVC activities in the EMEA region across a variety of industries. On the occasion of the Global Corporate Venturing and Innovation (GCVI) Summit in Monterey (US), Florian Nöll, Head of the CoE for CVC, just announced the launch of the Global CoE for CVC. Florian Nöll attended the world's leading CVC conference this week with a small delegation and formally launched the Global CoE for CVC. The GCVI Summit is the world's premier gathering for the corporate venturing ecosystem. This year, 600+ business leaders from the corporate venturing and innovation professionals ecosystem as well as exciting speakers such as Bill Coughran from Sequoia Capital, Jacqueline LeSage from Munich Re Ventures, Chris Tacy from Mach49 and many more joined.
Together with Jeremy Lipshitz (PwC Finland), Paul-Marc Schweitzer (PwC US), Patrick Yeo (PwC Singapore) and other PwC experts in this topic, Florian Noell (PwC Germany) and his team at the Global CoE for CVC will be supporting clients on an international level to foster their innovation activities and explore opportunities for their business.
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