What is Corporate Venture Capital and how to do it well with Mike Smeed, Managing Director @ InMotion Ventures
Mike Smeed from InMotion Ventures challenges conventional thinking about corporate venture capital, arguing that the traditional strategic versus financial return framework is outdated and broken. He reveals why CVC leaders typically get fired after 3.5 years despite investments taking 15-20 years to mature, and explains how automotive CVCs are uniquely positioned to navigate complex regulatory challenges that pure financial VCs can't solve.
Key takeaways
- •CVC leaders face a structural mismatch where investments take 15-20 years to mature but leadership tenure averages just 3.5 years, creating organizational survival challenges.
- •The traditional strategic versus financial CVC framework is outdated and doesn't capture how modern corporate venture capital actually operates.
- •Corporate VCs collaborate rather than compete with each other, frequently co-investing because they're solving the same industry-wide challenges.
- •CVCs derive their power from internal parent company connections, which is why successful CVC teams increasingly hire from within the parent organization.
- •Corporate venture capital excels in highly regulated industries like automotive where deep industry networks and regulatory expertise provide advantages over traditional VCs.
corporate-venture-capitalautomotive-techstrategic-investingindustry-transformationstartup-partnerships
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