Our project to highlight the outstanding women working in corporate venturing now focuses on the UK.
Continuing our mission to find women in the corporate venturing ecosystem, we now move to the UK.
A common theme that emerged from the interviews for this list was the importance of diverse teams and their value when it came to decision-making and better returns. The women featured here include seasoned CVC professionals – unit heads, partners, managing directors, senior investment leads who’ve seen the corporate venturing landscape gradually open up to include more diverse voices – as well as newer entrants into the field.
Corporate venture capital, overall, tends to compare favourably to the rest of the venture capital sector when it comes to gender balance. Our latest GCV Keystone benchmarking survey showed that 43% of CVC teams globally have a relatively even or majority female gender distribution. That is higher than the 31% mixed or all-female teams for venture capital overall, as estimated by VC Labs.
Over the past four years, GCV has been featuring women working in CVC, region by region. We have completed the updates for regions of the US (East Coast, West Coast and South and Midwest) and will be updating the regions of Mediterranean Europe, DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Asia, the Middle East and Latin America with new faces. We continue to look for women in the sector to add to our lists. If there is anyone we have left off, please let us know.
Annie Goman
Managing director
Btomorrow Ventures
Based in London, UK
Annie Goman describes her experience of the corporate VC world to be “highly collaborative and welcoming”, compared to the other industries she’s worked at.
“My industry peers have proved always open to a conversation and to share knowledge and experiences. I also have several inspirational women (albeit not within the CVC world) that I look up to and learn from here at BAT [British American Tobacco] as well, so I feel lucky to be surrounded by a supportive environment – internally and externally,” she says.
Goman is currently the managing director of Btomorrow Ventures (BTV), the CVC arm of British American Tobacco – a role she took over in December 2024, marking her foray into corporate venturing.
Goman says she’d always been interested in the trends and innovations shaping industries, particularly within the consumer goods space.
“At ZX Ventures (the CVC and growth incubator arm of drinks company AB InBev), this involved establishing and later leading Europe’s ecommerce and DTC business. And now at BTV, my role as MD is very much to support the ambitious transformation agenda of BAT, through investing in the most innovative start-ups and technologies.”
Since its launch in 2019, BTV has made almost 30 investments in companies specialising in biotech and science, technology and consumer brands across functional food and beverages.
Goman is currently focused on delivering BTV’s £200m Fund II mandate.
“Our team are proactively landscaping and building a robust pipeline of new investments and our goal is to close several exciting new investments in 2026, as well as to continually support our existing portfolio and founders.”
On the topic of diversity in CVC, Goman believes it’s no longer just a nice to have.
“Results show that increased diversity leads to better business outcomes. That being said, a lot of the senior positions within CVC are still held by non-diverse candidates, which isn’t something that changes overnight. Like any good pipeline it takes time to build.
“So, all funds, and leaders in positions who can, should be encouraged to nurture and grow their diverse talent – as well as to take some bold leaps to advocate and sponsor these candidates so we can start to see leadership in CVC reflect our society better.”
Anna Ohlsson-Baskerville and Rachel Harris
Partners
Unilever Ventures
Based in London, UK
Anna Ohlsson-Baskerville and Rachel Harris are currently partners at Unilever Ventures, the venture and growth capital arm of consumer goods firm Unilever. They’ve been with the unit for over two decades, having joined soon after it was set up in 2002.
“At the time I joined, Unilever Ventures was in the process of being set up and I was the fourth employee. I’m very fortunate to have been part of its evolution from the outset through to our fifth fund today,” says Harris, who began her career in finance at Unilever before moving into corporate venturing.
Ohlsson-Baskerville, on the other hand, started her career in investment banking before moving into a VC role. She joined Unilever Ventures a year after it was set up after becoming intrigued by their aim to work with early-stage companies across both consumer and technology, in areas relevant to the FMCG industry.
Unilever Ventures focuses on early-stage investment opportunities that lie at the intersection of consumer goods, commerce and technology across North America, Europe and Asia.
Ohlsson-Baskerville and Harris are primarily focused on the beauty and wellbeing sector. Their role covers the entire investment journey – starting from the scouting stage right up to the end by helping brands find an acquirer or by finding a new, later-stage investment partner to replace them in the next phase of the brand’s development.
The majority of Unilever Ventures’ investments are as a minority shareholder with a team member typically taking a non-executive director or observer seat on the boards of their portfolio companies.
Ohlsson-Baskerville and Harris believe in the importance of diversity – and that it should extend beyond just CVC.
“It provides a wealth of perspectives and experiences which allow for healthy discussion and better-informed decision making.”
The Unilever Ventures team embodies this – of the five partners, two are female and the investment team is fairly evenly split between men and women. The team is also cross-generational and includes multiple nationalities.
More importantly, 45% of their 70 portfolio companies across North America, Europe and Asia have female founders or cofounders.
Neither Ohlsson-Baskerville or Harris had a specific mentor through their careers, but they’re continuously inspired by the vision, passion and grit of the founders and executives they work with.
“It must be one of the best parts of our jobs that we get to interact and work closely with so many outstanding entrepreneurs and co-investors. We both also feel fortunate for our close mutual working relationship and friendship. We have guided, complemented and supported each other at Unilever Ventures for over 20 years,” they said.
Lucy Hoy
M&A analyst
ArcelorMittal’s XCarb Innovation Fund
Based in London, UK
Lucy Hoy is a mergers and acquisitions analyst at ArcelorMittal’s XCarb Innovation Fund, the company’s corporate venture arm dedicated to technologies that accelerate the decarbonisation of steelmaking.
While studying natural sciences at UCL, Hoy realised she wanted to stay close to technology but work outside the lab. This coincided with her becoming increasingly motivated by climate change mitigation.
“I discovered that I was most energised at the intersection of science and real-world industrial impact, which led me toward climate tech investing. That’s how I first came across CVC and found XCarb.”
At XCarb, one of the things Hoy focuses on is industrial robotics.
“We’re also working on a spinout process for an in‑house steelmaking technology we’ve been incubating, which is exciting because it sits right at the core of the decarbonisation challenge.”
Hoy’s experience as a woman in CVC has been positive thus far.
“I’m fortunate that the fund is led by a woman with 20 years of M&A experience and given how the industry looked 10–20 years ago, I have huge admiration for what she must have navigated. Having her as a mentor has been incredibly valuable.”
She also acknowledges the importance of diversity when it comes to CVC. “It materially strengthens investment judgement by challenging ideas and bringing in different perspectives – an important factor while evaluating risky, early-stage technologies.”
Jennifer Moreland
VP and head
BP Ventures
Based in London, UK
Jennifer Moreland is an experienced senior banker and treasury professional who recently took on the leadership of BP Ventures, the corporate VC arm of UK-headquartered oil and gas company BP – in December 2025.
Prior to this, she was a vice-president in BP’s treasury team and prior to BP worked for five years at Barclays, where she held various roles in the UK bank’s treasury department.
Founded in 2007, BP Ventures has backed innovative technologies and founders in the energy sector. The unit prefers to invest in series A onwards but have, in some cases, invested in earlier stages. The unit has invested in 75 startups and deployed $1.2bn in capital. Its investments are focused on helping the parent move to net zero by 2050.
Jill Tully
Partner and CIO
Shell Ventures
Based in London, UK
Jill Tully is a partner and chief investment officer at Shell Ventures, the corporate VC arm of oil and gas company Shell, where she is responsible for defining the unit’s investment strategy and ensuring capital is deployed where it can create the strongest strategic and financial value.
“A key priority has been strengthening Shell Ventures’ approach to full lifecycle management. This means taking an end-to-end view of how we manage our portfolio – from portfolio construction, through to portfolio enhancement, and ultimately portfolio rationalisation.”
This holistic model ensures capital is deployed in a disciplined and value focused way.
Tully is also focused on deeper collaboration across Shell to maximise strategic and financial value, as well as ensuring the CVC unit acts as Shell’s eyes and ears across the energy and venturing ecosystem.
“A key part of my role is working with my team to bring those insights into the organisation and ensure they are effectively shared and utilised to inform future decision making. Through regular updates and engagements with senior leaders and the wider Shell network, we help enable decision making that is more informed, data driven and connected across teams.”
While energy and venture capital are sectors that have traditionally been male dominated, Tully’s experience has been shaped by exceptional leaders of all genders.
“A common characteristic that I have noted from these leaders is that across each stage of my career, particularly during pivotal transitions such as returning from maternity leave or stepping into new roles, I’ve been fortunate to receive the space, support, and advocacy needed to move forward with confidence. These leaders have pushed me constructively, championed my development, and stood firmly behind me, in return they have my enduring loyalty.”
Diversity in CVC is not an option for Tully. She considers it fundamental to building high-performing teams since it shapes better thinking, decision-making and investment outcomes.
“Equally important is fostering diversity across cultural and ethnic backgrounds, which broadens perspective and strengthens our ability to understand and serve global markets. Continuing to champion representation, create inclusive environments, and spotlight and learn from diverse leadership are all essential to sustaining positive progress.”
And though the industry is still short of where it needs to be, Tully is encouraged by the momentum she can see, particularly within Shell where she’s supported by “an exceptional leadership line of women” – an uncommon feature in the energy sector.
“Shell Ventures is one of the few CVCs globally where the managing partner, chief financial officer and chief investment officer roles are all held by women,” she states.
Nicola Tongue
Director and head
Coca-Cola EuroPacific Ventures
Based in Nottingham, UK
Nicola Tongue is the head of ventures at Coca-Cola EuroPacific Partners, a multinational Coca-Cola bottling company that invests in startups to achieve net zero emissions by 2040.
Founded in 2019, CCEP Ventures represents Coca-Cola’s European and Asia Pacific region – equating to a third of the world’s Coca-Cola volume and is the largest bottler of Coca-Cola. The business is involved in the entire production of beverages, from sourcing raw materials to manufacturing and distributing Coca-Cola products, which include several well-known brands such as Sprite, Fanta and Schweppes.
CCEP Ventures, which invests from the parent company’s balance sheet, has around 15 investments in its portfolio. The ventures team takes equity stakes in early-stage startups and also sponsors academic research.
Tongue joined the sales team at CCEP in 2017 and moved to the ventures team in 2020 – soon after the unit was formed. As head of ventures, she plays a leading role in the development of the unit’s investment strategy and supports several portfolio companies as a board member.
Sheena Amin
Director
ITV AdVentures
Based in the UK
Sheena Amin leads broadcasting television network ITV’s media-for-equity investment fund, supporting consumer startups and scaleups to grow and scale through the brand building power of television.
But this isn’t the first time she’s worked at a media-for-equity investment fund. In 2018, Amin launched and ran a similar fund at UKTV, a channels business owned by BBC Studios. The role allowed her to combine her investing and TV/media experience.
“I led that fund for almost 5 years and then in 2022 I made the move to head up ITV AdVentures – a newly launched media-for-equity fund at ITV.”
ITV Adventures invests premium commercial advertising airtime across ITV’s television channels and its streaming service ITVX in exchange for a minority equity stake in consumer businesses.
“We help consumer startups and scaleups grow and scale through the power of TV advertising — we help them build a brand, acquire new customers and supercharge their growth,” says Amin.
“We invest between £1m and £5m in consumer businesses with mass market propositions with broad appeal. We see ourselves as a strategic value-add investor offering highly favourable media terms, dedicated media planning expertise, creative support and access to best-in-class measurement.”
The fund is going through an active phase at present, having closed three new investments and two follow-on investments over the last two months.
Amin sees diversity serving a huge competitive advantage in the world of CVC since it has been shown to correlate with stronger financial returns. This is because diverse CVC teams are more likely to spot underserved markets or products with high growth potential as well as identify and attract a more diverse set of founders when building out an investment or innovation pipeline.
Team composition, sourcing strategy and accountability are the three key areas that drive diversity within CVC, according to Amin.
“Hiring processes should focus on building out a diverse investment team in the broadest sense, including diversity across gender, age, ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds. The team should also feature a good mix of experience levels, spanning investor, corporate, operator, and founder backgrounds. Deal sourcing should seek to build relationships with diverse founder networks to gain access to the broadest range of founder talent.
“Finally, measuring clear metrics and setting goals is important to drive progress, as this provides clarity for the CVC unit and holds them accountable. These can include the percentage of diverse founders in the pipeline, the percentage of funds deployed to diverse founding teams or the diversity of the makeup of portfolio company boards for example.”
Sam Nasrolahi
Principal
InMotion Ventures
Based in London, UK
Sam Nasrolahi is a principal at InMotion Ventures, the corporate VC arm of carmaker Jaguar Land Rover.
A member of the ventures team since 2022, Nasrolahi sources and leads deals across the industrial and enterprise sectors. She also sits on the boards of multiple portfolio companies and regularly advises founders in areas such as GTM and new product development.
She has previously worked at mobility startup Via where she managed the launch of the company’s ridesharing and on-demand delivery services in EMEA and the US. Prior to that, she worked as a ventures analyst at oil and gas company BP.
Founded in 2016, InMotion Ventures invests in pre-seed to series A stages in enterprise software, industrial tech and climate across UK, EU, USA and Israel.
Sophia Nadur
Managing director, Asia and Middle East
BP Ventures
Based in London area, UK
Sophia Nadur was asked to join BP Ventures, the investment arm of the UK-headquarted oil and gas company, in 2020 after she successfully co-led the development of BP’s global e-mobility business. Nadur spotted a gap in VC capital investment in Asia in enterprise tech, AI and deep tech linked to e-mobility and other energy related sectors. Her efforts since – particularly in India – have been well recognised in the investor community.
As managing director of Asia and Middle East, Nadur leads the sourcing of venturing deals in India, Australia, China, Japan, elsewhere in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. She also works on driving strategic value to BP from the investments and supporting the companies on growth fundraising. She holds non-executive board director roles at two Indian startups, Zingbus and Magenta Mobility, and is the investment committee chair at Catalyst, a cleantech accelerator based in the UAE.
Speaking of her experience as a woman in CVC, Nadur says, “At the start, I was often the only female on investor panels in the UAE and in India, but the pace of change has been rapid, thanks in no small way to regional trailblazers like Ostara Advisors Founder Vasudha Madhavan, Head of MENA Ventures at Mubadala Muhra AlMulla, and Theia Ventures partner Priya Shah.
“I’ve benefited from Meghan Sharp’s thoughtful mentorship when I initially moved into the ventures’ team. Ex-Total CVC managing director and now Lightrock Partner Demi Edosomwan has been another source of wisdom over the years. Emma Boon and Grace Chan – two excellent investment principals at bp Ventures – have also reverse mentored me which has been hugely helpful too.”
A GCV Emerging Leader in 2022, Nadur believes diversity in CVC drives superior investment performance, enhances innovation and mitigates risks associated with groupthink, ultimately leading to better financial outcomes and strategic growth for both the CVC and startup.
“As a diverse leader who ‘ticks’ 4 diversity boxes (ethnic minority, female, social mobility and gay) and personal experience even today of ‘glass ceilings’ and ‘sticky floors’, it remains important that I speak up and encourage others to create a culture where all team members feel safe to contribute and, in turn, make better investment decisions.”
Alex Fuiks
Investment manager
Siemens Energy Ventures
Based in London area, UK
Alex Fuiks is an investment manager at Siemens Energy Ventures, the VC investment arm of German energy technology company Siemens Energy.
Siemens Energy Ventures was launched in 2020 and works with cleantech startups through venture capital, ecosystem partnerships, venture building and venture clienting. The fund prefers to invest in series A, B and growth stages.
Prior to this, Fuiks was a principal at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan where she focused on venture and growth capital direct investments in climate tech and sustainability. She has also held investment roles at private equity company Accel-KKR and capital market company Safeguard Scientifics and investment banking roles at UBS and Deutsche Bank.
Karen Xiang
Investment lead
Btomorrow Ventures
Based in London, UK
Karen Xiang was working with later-stage companies in private equity when she got the urge to try something in the venturing world. She joined a consumer goods ecommerce startup as one their first employees.
“I got to truly experience what it was like to not only invest into early-stage brands, but also see first-hand as an operating partner, the grit and perseverance it takes to build and scale a company. These experiences paved the way for me to later hold investing roles at CVCs including Distill Ventures and now at Btomorrow Ventures.”
At Btomorrow Ventures, the corporate VC arm of British American Tobacco, Xiang and her team are focused on identifying and partnering with the brands, businesses and technologies that can transform BAT’s core business.
BTV invests in companies focused on functional food and beverage, technology and emerging capabilities, reduced risk nicotine products and impact and sustainability, which aligns with their wider corporate mission to build ‘A Better Tomorrow’.
“The beauty of CVC is the ability to directly provide startups both capital and strategic access to the corporate ecosystem – in parallel, what we do here at BTV is playing a pivotal role in driving long term-industry transformation,” explains Xiang.
Speaking on her experience as a woman in CVC, Xiang mentions, “I hail from sectors where women have traditionally been underrepresented. Before I came to BTV, I hadn’t directly encountered many women – and certainly very few at executive levels that I looked up to or aspired to become. At BTV, our team is filled with inspiring women across all functions. BTV is also led by our managing director, Annie [Goman], who has been both an influential leader to our team and mentor to me.”
As for the importance of diversity in CVC, she says, “In the world of CVC, we’re constantly balancing strategic and financial priorities, which can be challenging without taking in the bigger picture from a variety of angles. We need to cultivate a culture that welcomes a difference in perspective, as well as healthy discourse – this should hopefully lead to learning opportunities, stronger decision making and better outcomes.”
Hannah Redgewell
Investment principal
Channel 4 Ventures
Based in London, UK
Hannah Redgewell is an investment principal at Channel 4 Ventures, the corporate VC arm of the eponymous UK television channel, where she invests in high-growth, consumer startups using Channel 4’s advertising space.
Channel 4 Ventures was founded in 2015 and has over 20 years of experience in the media-for-equity space in the UK. The fund seeks to invest between seed to pre-IPO stages and has backed 40 companies till date and had nine exits.
Redgewell joined the ventures team in 2019 as an investment manager and was promoted to principal in 2021. She was previously in a corporate strategy and M&A role at PwC’s Strategy&.
Liliia Chechel
Investment director
Taranis Carbon Ventures
Based in London, UK
Liliia Chechel got into corporate venturing in 2021 when she was approached by Shell Ventures to join their team. She found the transition natural thanks to her freelance experience with a Ukrainian sovereign innovation fund that had been established to support early ventures and stimulate the country’s innovation ecosystem.
“It gave me early exposure to venture investing – sourcing, evaluating and supporting emerging technologies,” said Chechel.
“Shell Ventures taught me how to combine transaction discipline with venture investing. I learned that CVC has a strategic mandate to align innovation with long-term business transformation – an understanding that was foundational to my development as an investor.”
Chechel is currently an investment director at Taranis Carbon Ventures, the investment and impact project development arm of oil and gas company Perenco Group, and focuses on sourcing and leading investments in hardware-enabled climate solutions in industrial decarbonisation spaces.
Taranis Carbon Ventures was launched in 2024 and has deployed over $228m (£170m) across 12 portfolio companies since then. The fund prioritises companies that have demonstrated technical validation at pilot or early commercial scale, preferring to support them in scaling up rather than taking an early technology risk.
Chechel described her experience as a woman in the heavily male-dominated energy and industrial sector as one with challenges.
“I have often been a minority – not only in terms of gender, but also nationality, as someone originally from Ukraine. In corporate venture, the complexity is not only external; it is often internal – navigating hierarchies, aligning strategic agendas and earning conviction in rooms where capital allocation decisions are made.”
At the same time, Chechel acknowledged the exceptional female leaders she’s had the fortune of working with and learning from within corporate venturing and energy.
“Their mentorship has been instrumental in shaping my confidence, resilience and leadership style.”
She also spoke of spoke of diversity in CVC being fundamental to investment performance. According to her, venture investing requires an openness to non-consensus ideas – something that can only emerge from diversity of background, perspective and experience.
“Corporate venture funds, being embedded within larger organisations, sometimes evolve more gradually than independent financial VCs. However, the leverage point is clear: meaningful diversity must exist at the top. When diverse leaders sit at decision-making tables, they influence hiring, capital allocation and governance. That is where structural change begins.”
Chechel does believe that progress is visible, with leadership teams increasingly recognising that inclusion and diversity are strategic, not symbolic.
“Change requires both patience and persistence, and I am optimistic that the industry will look meaningfully more inclusive for the next generation.”
