These are the 100 most influential people who are influencing the corporate venturing industry.

The best of times and the worst of times for CVC

This is both the era of corporate venture capital power and a time of great challenge for this asset class. The number of corporations backing startups has tripled in the past decade and now stands at some 2,344. Corporate investors are part of one-in-six startup funding rounds globally. Investments in AI startups by companies such as Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon and SoftBank are setting new records on valuation. The $40bn funding found for AI-developer OpenAI, led by SoftBank earlier this year, was the largest funding round for a startup to date.

The GCV Powerlist, a list compiled every year by the Global Corporate Venturing editorial team to showcase the leaders of this industry, reflects this era of power. The size of the funds that many Powerlisters command is sizeable. Stefan Gabriel at Hitachi Ventures, for example, is one of the most recent to join the “unicorn” club of CVC units, with funds of more than $1bn. Aramco Ventures is one of the largest, with some $7bn across several funds, and SoftBank is an extreme outlier, with $170bn.

This year’s Powerlist also reflects the increasingly global nature of CVC, with investors from 20 countries represented. And the CVC sector is still growing: we added 36 new names to the list this year.

At the same time, the CVC sector has never been more vulnerable. Corporations are demanding more from their investment arms. Almost every investor we spoke to for the Powerlist was laser-focused on making sure the unit was providing strategic benefits for the parent corporation.

A few units have closed this year, and JetBlue Ventures, led by Powerlist veteran Amy Burr, was sold off to Sky Leasing, as parent JetBlue focuses on returning to profitability.

There is also some shifting in models. Venture clienting is gaining in popularity, alongside venture investing. Lars Roessler was ahead of the curve when he founded BSH Startup Kitchen to focus on this six years ago. Meanwhile, Piyush Puri, founding partner of Mercurius Media Capital, is pursuing an alternative media-for-equity investment model.

In short, CVC is powerful, but in flux. Where it goes next is still unfolding, but will be largely in the hands of these 100 leaders showcased in the 2025 Powerlist.

Powerlist 2025 (alphabetically in order of surname)