Boaz Peer, managing director of Europe and Israel for Qualcomm Ventures, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2025.
Boaz Peer has been with chipmaker Qualcomm for almost 20 years, joining Qualcomm Ventures in 2016, before moving his way up to a managing director position. He is someone who enjoys his work.
“This is one of the best jobs in the world,” he says. “You meet great people and great teams that can really change the technology landscape. They are different technologies that are changing over a long time.
“Being close to that, supporting them, being part of their success and helping them – that is a great thing to do.”
Peer is the Israel-based head of the unit’s Israel and Europe branch, running a three-person team that includes representatives in Switzerland and London. He was promoted to his current role in mid-2023 and has led 12 investments in startups, including internet-of-things tech providers Flolive and Wiliot, computer vision technology developer Prospera, quantum computing startup Quantum Machines, cybersecurity software producers CyberX and Cynet, autonomous video tech developer Guidde, inventory management platform Verity and manufacturing automation company CoreTigo.
“This is one of the best jobs in the world. You meet great people and great teams that can really change the technology landscape”
“I am involved as managing director doing my own deals, as well as supporting the team’s deals,” he says. “But they have a lot of independence, which is important for a fund like us. We are trying to keep it the way it was before, and would be ideal, moving forward.”
The large geographical area his team covers and the variety of technologies are both part of the reason that Peer enjoys his role. What interests him is the way AI and robotics – both areas Qualcomm as a company is involved in – are coming together on the startup side.
Add to that how AI agents can disrupt the software industry and the way smaller language models targeted at specific datasets can outperform their larger rivals, and it is an exciting time to be an investor.
“This year is going to be better in terms of investments and in terms of recovery over the past two years,” he says. “You are going to see the highest concentration of money going to the best companies.”
See the full list of Emerging Leaders 2025 here.
