2012 Powerlist: Markus Thill, Robert Bosch Venture Capital

Markus Thill was one of the co-founders of Germany-based industrial group Bosch’s corporate venturing unit in 2008.

Thill, managing director, said: “I joined the strategic group in Bosch in 2005. The old topic of venture capital came up during this time, which led to the creation of the corporate VC group. I quickly found out talking to people in the industry there is a lot of innovation we should know about. Our analysis showed we should be present in the market as a high double-digit percentage of deals are relevant and could potentially affect Bosch.”

Robert Bosch Venture Capital is also looking to expand its team. Thill said: “We have just finished the investment period of our first venture fund and are investing out of the second venture fund. With more capital under management we need more staff to manage the capital.

“We will be investing at roughly €50m a year during the whole investment period, with the proviso we will do follow-on investments after the investment period. The key framework is what makes sense. No one forces us to invest €50m a year, and I am very confident if we have dealflow we could invest more.”

He added: “We have a corporate and financial mandate. Yet if you are not among the best on the financial side, no one wants to co-invest with you. So as a symbol to the outside world one is not less important than other. I care for the commercial side, Claus [Schmidt, another managing director] for the technical side. As we are co-heading the unit we are equally responsible for our target achievement.”

Thill holds a doctorate in mathematics and physics from University of Paris. He said because of this academic background “technology and innovation are close to my heart”.

Lessons from the top: Thill said: “You need to have both an extremely good internal network and provide strategic value, which is the reason for your existence, and act as much as possible like a reliable venture investor to the outside world. You should have a pretty stable venture team with all
the relevant know-how and all the relevant corporate venturing experience. The key is expectation management, both outside as well as inside. You should act like a normal venture investor, and people should understand that internally. You have to talk the talk and walk the walk. Also within the corporate you need to have a very good network with all levels of the hierarchy. We should not have the feeling we are the most important unit Bosch has, but they also should not think of us as unimportant.”