Stefan Williams, VP of corporate development at Snowflake, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2024 Powerlist.
When Stefan Williams joined data analytics giant Snowflake in late 2019, after a three-year stint in corporate development and ventures at enterprise software specialist ServiceNow, there was no venture programme yet in place. Having got approval to set up the unit in 2020, Snowflake Ventures now has a team of five and has made more than 40 investments.
As vice president of corporate development, Williams’s remit also covers mergers and acquisitions, providing plenty to keep the unit busy. “One of the interesting things about this role is that every deal is unique and you get to take something new away from each experience,” says Williams.
“Our aim is to foster innovation through investing in growth-stage companies that demonstrate a commitment to mobilising data, provide value to our customers and expand opportunities for the data cloud,” said Williams at the time of Snowflake Ventures’ founding.
One of the interesting things about this role is that every deal is unique and you get to take something new away from each experience.
The unit’s more recent participations in venture rounds include investments in data management platform Coalesce, data observability platform Metaplane, computer vision technology developer Landing AI, data productivity tools developer Coda, AI products company Mistral, cybersecurity company Anvilogic, cloud analytics company Sigma, and Observe.AI, a generative AI technology provider for call centres.
Late last year, Snowflake launched its Powered by Snowflake Funding Programme, through which it plans to invest up to $100m in startups developing Snowflake native apps. As part of the programme, Amazon Web Services is also providing $1m in free Snowflake credits per year.
“Innovative enhancements in AI enabled through Snowpark, the Snowflake Native App Framework, and Snowflake’s data privacy, security and governance, make it easier than ever for startups to build, deploy and monetise enterprise apps,” says Williams.
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.
