How to be a great CVC investor: 4 lessons from GCV’s Rising Stars and Emerging Leaders

Matthew Raeside has one of the more interesting paths into corporate venturing among this year’s Rising Stars. He was an officer with the UK’s Royal Navy before joining Swiss bank UBS’s principal investments team. But, he says, startup investing is not so different to work on a battleship – at least in terms of intensity and the resourcefulness needed.

Michael Stewart, managing partner at Microsoft’s M12 investment arm, meanwhile, might have the record for the number of patents personally held by a GCV Emerging Leader – 40. He is an inventor and engineer at heart, but currently leads M12’s investments in the red-hot area of AI.

Meanwhile, at HG Ventures, the investment arm of the US construction and chemicals group, Ginger Rothrock — another Emerging Leader —  has a PhD in chemistry and a history of working for the US Environmental Protection Agency. She brings that knowledge to her investments focused on industrial recycling.

And then there is Matthias Leibetseder, senior investment manager at Wave-X, whose nickname is “The Crazy One”.

Paths into corporate venturing can be nontraditional and every year the GCV Rising Stars and Emerging Leaders lists uncover an array of colourful backgrounds, from scientists to former founders and those who forged multi-decade corporate careers before switching to startup investing. Each type of corporate investor brings their own skills.

In fact, bringing together a wide array of skills and backgrounds, is the secret to creating a stong corporate venturing team, says Artur Faria, CEO of Oxygea and another of our 2025 Emerging Leaders. “We are like a jazz band – everyone has their own solo,” says Faria. But the band, ultimately, plays the same piece of music.

The full lists of this years 50 Rising Stars and 50 Emerging Leaders can be found here:

The full list of 2025 GCV Rising Stars

These corporate venture professionals are typically at an earlier stage of their careers but already achieving outsized success.

Some 42% of this list is female and includes corporate venturing professionals from 13 countries.

The full list of 2025 GCV Emerging Leaders

These corporate venture professionals are typically in the mid-stage of their career and emerging as top performers.

Some 22% of this list is female and includes corporate venture professionals from 17 countries.

Looking at the careers of these leading CVC professionals – as varied as they are – we can also pick out common themes in how they they work. These are the behaviours that have made them rise in the profession.

Boldness combined with adaptability

Bravery was a theme that came up often in interviews with this year’s Rising Stars and Emerging Leaders – as long as it was coupled with a willingness to be flexible.

“Boldness and adaptability are what matters,” says Jordy Klaassen, investment manager at Eneco Ventures.

Corporate investors have a specific task of pushing boundaries at companies, making the rest of the organisation look further out into the future than they would normally. This means they can’t be shy. But they must be diplomatic to win people over.

Every investor has their own way of bringing this combination to the table. Sara Olson, senior director at Leaps by Bayer, is a good example. She originally became an investor because she wanted to “pound the table” on behalf of brilliant startups. Her day-to-day modus operandi, however, is a mixture of “radical authenticity and open-minded kindness”, which helps bring people along even in tough negotiations.

You are only as good as your network

If there is one bit of advice every corporate venture professional mentioned, it was the importance of networking. It is not enough to be a good investor, says Tanvi Lal, investor at Intuit Ventures. “A lot of the job is partnerships-driven and your success as a CVC investor is driven by how well you can build connectivity between startups and the business,” she says.

Shobhit Gupta, senior associate at GM Ventures, says he owes his success to following advice he was given by a senior figure early in his career: spend at least one day a week networking.

That network needs to be both inside and outside the company, says Thomas Molleker, senior associate at BMW i Ventures. “It is important to have a network inside the corporate on the one side, but also to have a strong network with the startup community and your potential co-investors. It is not one or the other, but a mixture of those worlds,” he says.

“This is a very relationship-driven ecosystem,” agrees Sebastián Spena, managing director at Galicia Ventures. “You need to build strong rapport, confidence and position yourself outside and inside your organisation.”

Startups must be the north star

Rising Stars and Emerging Leaders are also very clear that their prime role is to champion the startups in their portfolio. The secret to doing corporate venture well is being focused on helping founders, believes Krishna Ramachandran, principal at LG Technology Ventures.

“That tends to be the difference between the top 5% versus everyone else – the ability to be laser
focused on founders and portfolio companies. If you prioritise them and are in service of them, the returns on capital will come,” he says.

“It is all about bringing value to the founders that you are working with,” agrees Alex Smout, investment director at Maersk Growth.

And finally – be patient. This is a long game

Another key quality for leading corporate venture professionals is patience. Startups take a long time to build and scale, and corporate venture investors must be prepared to weather a long run of highs and lows.

“Being resilient is important,” says Saadia Rashid, director of incubation and external innovation at Technip Energies, as it could take stakeholders “a couple of years” to see the merits of a particular investment. Sticking by an underperforming portfolio company through times of doubt is tough. But it is important to do it, because reputation is everything. A track record is built as much in the tough times as the good ones and takes a long time to earn.

As Sean Wright, investment principal at JLL Spark, puts it: “Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Your investment career is going to be something that proves itself over decades not a couple years.”