Editor-in-chief James Mawson reflects on how the CVC industry has changed over the years.
“Welcome to the era of being the cool kid,” Darcy Frisch, partner at Hearst Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the US-based media group, said in her closing remarks as co-chairwoman of the GCV Synergize conference in New York City last month.
It seemed a suitable high point to end the event that, in partnership with the National Venture Capital Association, a US trade body for investors, saw Frisch and co-chair David Horowitz, chief executive of Touchdown Ventures, bring a series of case studies and greater understanding between corporate venturers as syndicate partners alongside VCs and as limited partners in their funds.
Being the cool kid is a far cry from the industry’s perception when Frisch and Horowitz started out as CVCs nearly 20 years ago. For much of the past 20 years and before the dotcom boom and bust, CVCs were pejoratively seen as “dumb money”, overpaying…
