Rising Stars Q&A – Meryem Aydin, Amadeus Ventures

Meryem Aydin is a senior investment analyst at Amadeus Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Spain-based travel technology provider Amadeus IT Group. Amadeus Ventures head Suzanna Chiu said of Aydin: “Meryem Aydin has been working on the Amadeus Ventures team for [more than three] years and has shown great potential to flourish in the industry.

“She has been focusing on building airport and airline pipeline and has built a network of relationships with close ecosystem partners despite the pandemic. She has played a significant role in a few of our follow-on rounds in the last 12 months. She has also put together a framework that enables the team to keep track of our strategic KPIs and information flow between ourselves and our portfolio companies.”

1. First, just give us a quick overview of who you work for, what you do, and how long you have been doing it.

I work at Amadeus Ventures, the corporate investment arm of Amadeus a travel IT company. We invest in early-stage startups that sit at the crossroads between travel and technology. This is my first experience in CVC and I started working in the team just over [more than three] years ago.

On the team, I support the whole process from dealflow sourcing to investment. I analyse and filter startups in different verticals, my main focus has been on airline and airport-related startups. This last year I began to shift towards startups that focus more on travel intermediaries and tours and activities to further expand my knowledge of travel tech startups. The objective is also to identify and promote new use cases between these companies and the business units. I support the smooth running of processes e.g. portfolio management and tracking and transactions (investments, follow-ons and exits). Last but not least, I also contribute to the communication efforts of the team both internally and externally. I attend and participate in events as well as act as a jury to help expand our ecosystem.

2. What attracted you to CVC?

I have always found myself to be an ambitious person, always eager to learn as much as possible. The window of opportunities VC and CVC have to offer in that particular sense are endless. The vast amount of technologies, business ideas and possible collaboration and co-creation opportunities the world of CVC opens up is what attracted me to it. Ever since I joined the team I have listened to hundreds of pitches and spoken to numerous startups where I have learned more and more every single day. When you work in a corporate environment the strategic fit and synergies are of utmost importance, which is why you work to understand how the fit between the startups and in our case Amadeus works. Having to go through this thinking process and working closely with the business units is eye-opening for someone in the first years of their career.

3. What have been your greatest successes at your unit?

My greatest success has been to set up a process that makes our portfolio tracking as efficient as possible. As our portfolio grows, it becomes even more important to have a process in place to track information rights and other important changes and updates. Together with our legal team, I put a standard in place to make sure we are always up to date with all the relevant information from our portfolio companies in due time.

4. What have been your biggest challenges?

As a young professional, I began working in VC very early in my career, so I have learned a lot within Amadeus Ventures. My biggest challenge has been one of the things that most attracts me to this industry; understanding the needs of startups and corporates and doing my best to help both parties meet those needs. I needed to learn very quickly what all the focus areas and most products at the company work in order to better scout for startups.

5. What is your main professional ambition for the future?

In the future, I would like to continue to keep learning about the needs of the industry together with startups that offer disruptive solutions to address these needs. I believe many industries like travel still have a long way to go in terms of innovation and thus I believe working with startups to foster collaboration will continue to be of utmost importance. I would like to keep improving the way we work with business units to find great startups and keep growing professionally within Amadeus Ventures.

6. What do you think all CVCs could do better to make it a stronger industry?

I ultimately believe CVCs work hard day by day to bridge the gaps between corporates and startups. CVCs have a very important role in bringing an innovation and venture capital culture to corporates. I think CVCs need to continue emphasizing this culture within corporates to benefit startup investments. I also believe CVCs need to work closely with other ecosystem partners to make sure that startups know early on how to work with corporates and look for smart money. I have come to find that in an environment of purely financial VCs, the relevance for early-stage startups in CVC is not always known. That is why all CVCs need to make sure that the message on how CVC investments indeed benefit startups is clear in the industry.

7. And, finally, for colour, what did you do prior to CVC or in your spare time?

Prior to CVC, I was part of an MBA programme from the Trade Agency of Spain (ICEX) where we focused on international management and expansion of companies. Right before CVC as part of the MBA programme, I was an International Trade Advisor at the Trade Commission of Spain in Chicago, where I had the chance to support small and medium-sized companies in their quest to begin commercial relations in the US market. I also added numerous events and conferences where I got to meet many of these companies and understand their day-to-day challenges.

At university, I really enjoyed taking part in Model United Nations, which has strongly helped me in critical and analytical thinking and how to create sound arguments. In my spare time, I have become a top fan of podcasts and I enjoy playing football as I think it is always important to play team sports.