Top 50 Rising Stars 2021 continued (in alphabetical order by CVC unit): Jennifer Diedrichs, investment manager, EnBW New Ventures
Jennifer Diedrichs is an investment manager at EnBW New Ventures, Germany-based energy utility EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg’s investment arm formed in 2015.
Crispin Leick, managing director of EnBW New Ventures, said: “I would very much like to nominate Jennifer Diedrichs from my team to Global Corporate Venturing’s Rising Star.
“She has been promoted this year to investment manager and has closed our lead investment into 3Yourmind, which marks our first strive into the additive manufacturing space, where we see a lot of potential for sustainable and digital logistics as well as competitive advantages for infrastructure operator.
“She has joined EnBW New Ventures and the VC world in February 2018, while she was active more on the business model and consulting world before that.”
Diversity and inclusion are important for EnBW New Ventures, half of whose team members are women. Diedrichs said: “More diverse team is something we strive to promote not only among startups, but we try to walk the talk ourselves. [Our] female share is 50% headcount, and even higher in terms of FTEs (full-time equivalents) – breaking down yet another prejudice against women primarily working part-time.
“All studies show diverse teams are more successful – in hard [financial] terms. For VCs and startups. Our 50% female share is no reason to be complacent. We want to do better!”
EnBW New Ventures has two dozen portfolio companies including solar power leasing company DZ-4 and Lumenaza, a developer of energy control technology for utilities.
3D printing software provider 3YourMind, call centre automation platform BabelForce, car parking technology developer Cleverciti and smart meter software developer Greenbird are among the unit’s portfolio companies, as are cloud infrastructure management software provider GridScale, augmented reality technology developer Holo-Light, IT infrastructure optimisation startup Replex, superconductor manufacturer Theva and artificial intelligence-infused road maintenance provider ViaLytics.
EnBW New Ventures has also made a limited partner commitment to investment firm ETF Partners.
