A member of the top 25 from the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist
Amy Banse has headed Comcast Ventures, where she is a managing director and head of funds, since mid-2011. This dates back to Comcast’s corporate venturing unit merger with NBC’s Peacock Fund, creating a $750m fund.
It has been an active fund, with Comcast listing 123 portfolio companies on its website, split between advertising, consumer, enterprise and infrastructure sectors. Its blog reported eight deals last year, including controversial benefits company Zenefits and virtual reality startup NextVR.
Banse previously founded Comcast Interactive Media in 2005 and led the company’s online strategy over the next six years, overseeing various acquisitions and in-house projects, including Comcast.net, Xfinity.com, Fancast and Swirl.
Banse joined Comcast in 1991 as an in-house attorney for programming acquisition. She worked on the development of Comcast’s cable network portfolio, including the company’s investments in E! Entertainment Television and the Golf Channel. She has a degree from Harvard University and studied at Temple University’s James E Beasley School of Law after following in her father’s footsteps – he was general counsel for Merck.
Separately, in the past year, Comcast, has committed $4bn over 10 years to a new investment firm being set up by the US cable operator’s current chief financial officer, Michael Angelakis. Angelakis stepped down from his current position but remained a senior adviser to Comcast even as his new group, Atairos began operations this year with group buying company Groupon as its first deal last month with a $250m investment.
Comcast’s investment activity since the beginning of 2015
