The top 50: Crispin Leick, managing director, EnBW New Ventures
Crispin Leick is the managing director of EnBW New Ventures (ENV), the $110m corporate venturing unit set up as revolving evergreen by Germany-listed utility EnBW in 2016.
EnBW’s chief financial officer Thomas Kusterer said of Leick’s achievements at ENV: “Crispin is building and leading EnBW’s corporate venturing arm since its inception 2016. EnBW’s venturing activities are an open innovation platform, driven by financial return and focusing on scaling smart infrastructure startups.”
Leick’s philosophy as a corporate venturer is to give entrepreneurs the freedom to drive their business while having a strong financial return-driven focus, enabling, but not forcing, open cooperation with the corporate investor. To measure a startup’s success, however, he looks at not only the money raised but also the strength of the business model and its long-term sustainability and competitiveness.
Recently ENV has announced the €21m Series B financing round of cybersecurity startup Intigriti as well as their participation in GetHenry’s €16.5m financing round, a full-service-mobility subscription for e-bikes.
ENV is the second such fund Leick has helped to launch, having first raised $100m in Innogy Venture Capital in early 2008 for Germany-based energy utility RWE’s renewable energy subsidiary RWE Innogy.
Leick holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
