Tony Sun, director of corporate venture capital at GC Ventures, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.
Tony Sun is director of corporate venture capital at GC Ventures, the investment arm of PTT Global Chemical, the Thailand-headquartered chemicals company. The GC Ventures team is lean but focused, with three investors covering North America, one dedicated to European activities and three investors in Bangkok. The portfolio currently stands at 13 direct investments and eight LP positions, with approximately 80% of its allocation concentrated in North America.
The team is focused on investing in startups that can build meaningful collaborations with the parent company and its broader ecosystem. “Our mandate is to support our CTO to convert innovation budget into EBITDA-positive programmes,” says Sun.
Last year, the team made a strategic hire – a dedicated business development professional based in Bangkok – to help accelerate the process of building internal connections.
“We try to stay away from two-year, three-year hypes. But we keep a close eye on the ones that can drive real growth.”
The team’s investment thesis focuses on advanced materials, circular economy and decarbonisation. The chemicals industry is a mature business, with companies hungry for real growth, but also cautious when commodity prices are low. In the current economic environment, says Sun, “investors are generally more conservative… trying to understand where the world economy is going.”
Nevertheless, GC Ventures remains active, with a strategy that prioritises long-term potential over short-term hype. “We try to stay away from two-year, three-year hypes,” says Sun. “But we keep a close eye on the ones that can drive real growth, both in near-term and in the longer-time horizon.”
A recent success story is the team’s backing of Tidal Vision, a startup extracting and commercialising chitosan, a biodegradable biopolymer, from crab shells. GC Ventures was an early investor in the company, which recently raised an oversubscribed $140m series B funding round.
“That is a huge number in our sector, especially in a tough fundraising market,” says Sun. “The round ended up being oversubscribed because investors understand that the company has very good fundamentals, both in terms of financial numbers and in terms of its technology potential.”
The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
