Tarik Galijasevic, head of Allstate Strategic Ventures, is one the leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2024 Powerlist.
While many venture teams have scaled back in the tougher investment climate, Tarik Galijasevic, head of Allstate Strategic Ventures, the CVC of US insurer Allstate, has overseen the creation of two new funds.
The venture team recently moved from the company’s technology division to the investment unit. One of the new funds is a purely financially driven fund for investing in startups; the other is a strategic and financially driven fund to invest in startups with a longer-term innovation horizon.
These new funds are in addition to its existing strategic fund, which will continue to invest in startups that have a near-term strategic horizon in areas ranging from deep tech to mobility, proptech, insurtech and climate tech.
Galijasevic says the team saw an opportunity to create a new fund to invest in startups where the parent company’s business units are not ready to engage with the startups, but where it believes it can generate strong financial returns.
The third fund is designed to invest in companies where there is “an opportunity to future proof Allstate”, says Galijasevic. “This might include investing in novel technologies, such as quantum computing, or companies that will future proof against climate change.”
The team navigated the downturn in the investment climate by being selective on deals and not investing in rounds where it did not like the terms. It also focused on entering commercial agreements with companies and being flexible on deal structure.
“We have had a lot of deals where the companies refused to take down rounds. That did not mean we put them aside. We focused more on the commercial side of these engagements. For the number of investments we completed, we used structures such as warrants that helped us get to the valuation or the deal terms that were more aligned with our view.”
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.
