Former Delivery Hero Ventures managing director Brendon Blacker will head investments for the Australian fund, backed by five major retailers.
Retail-focused corporate venture capital fund W23 has appointed former GCV Powerlister Brendon Blacker as its head of investments.
W23 was founded by Australian supermarket chain Woolworths in 2019 to invest in ecommerce startups. It expanded into a global investor in April last year, rebranding as W23 Global and bringing in retailers Ahold Delhaize, Tesco, Empire and Shoprite as partners. It increased its fund to $125m.
Blacker spent four years at Delivery Hero Ventures, setting up the unit for Germany-headquartered food delivery service Delivery Hero as managing director in 2021. He was named in the Powerlist two years later.
The unit has backed more than two dozen startups, but the last investment it disclosed was in May 2024, approximately five months before Blacker departed. He had previously been a VC and growth-stage investor at asset manager Macquarie.
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