US-based credit card company American Express (Amex) made a big splash in corporate venturing when it hired Harshul Sanghi, who had formerly been head of Motorola Mobility’s corporate venturing unit.
Sanghi said he helped establish Motorola Ventures after the phone equipment provider’s purchase of his previous employer, Ucentric Systems, as the “go-to standard for corporate venturing”. That group was divided in half three years ago, into Motorola Mobility Ventures and Motorola Solutions Ventures, when its parent company Motorola was also split in two, with Sanghi becoming head of Motorola Mobility Ventures but leaving before search engine Google’s purchase of the parent business last year.
Sanghi’s role at Amex is an attempt to put the company at the forefront of the digital age. He said: “Amex was looking to set up an office in Silicon Valley to accelerate the transformation into digital commerce.
“The larger initiative, in addition to corporate venturing, is to plug American Express into all the innovation going on in the Valley. They needed someone connected who understood both the entrepreneurial perspective and the venture capital ecosystem, as well as someone who had experience navigating large corporations.”
He added: “The story in mobile/wireless is that, five years ago, Silicon Valley was nowhere when it came to wireless and mobile. There was Nokia out of Europe and Sony Ericsson was the upcoming group. Really Silicon Valley was nowhere. You fast-forward five years and you have Apple with IOS and the Android platforms, and Silicon Valley is the centre of the universe as far as mobile is concerned.”
Under Sanghi, American Express Ventures has backed the following investments. In commerce it has backed Warby Parker, Wrapp, Rent the Runway, If Only and Shop Runner, in data and analytics, it has backed Ness, Radius and SkyTree, while in digital marketing it has backed Saving Star, Kiip and Capillary. It has also backed LearnVest in the digital wallet sector, as well as Stripe, iZettle, SumUp and EzeTap in payments.
What is the future of your sector?
Sanghi said: “I think the convergence of at-home, in-store and mobile commerce merging into one seamless experience is transforming the industry and opening up opportunity for us to enhance and impact how our customers, both merchants and consumers, continually engage.
“The transformation hasn’t been without its hurdles, but the future holds great promise and we are excited to be at the forefront.”
