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After spending two and a half years as head of Bosch’s hybrid systems division before his latest role, Ingo Ramesohl, managing director of Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC), the strategic investment unit of Germany-based industrial product and appliance manufacturer Robert Bosch, is used to juggling tasks.
RBVC invests in companies and industry-specific funds across Europe, the US, Israel and China. It invests between €500,000 ($570,000) and €5m a time, with total commitments for each company ranging between €6m and €15m for a stake generally between 10% and 25%. In March RBVC set up its third fund, committing €150m, and increasing the capital managed to about $480m.
At the time of the fund close, Ramesohl, who co-leads the team with Philipp Rose, said: “The new fund will continue focusing on disruptive startups in the areas of automation and electrification, energy efficiency, enabling technologies and healthcare systems. Investments will also be done in services and business models as well as new materials that are relevant to the above-mentioned areas of business.”
His own area of specialism is in electric and hybrid vehicles. Starting as a section manager at Bosch in 1999, he left in 2003 to join Kamco, the Korea Automotive Motor Corporation, before rejoining or two years and then departing to UAES to be general manager of electric vehicle and hybrid technology, finally returning to Bosch for his latest term as a senior vice-president.
RBVC’s 26 portfolio companies include fabless semiconductor producer Movidius, data-stream network PubNub, and CropX, the Israel-based developer of an adaptive irrigation system. RBVC last month sold radio communication chip manufacturer GreenPeak Technologies to Qorvo, having earlier sold Israel-based gesture recognition company Pebbles to Facebook. Its first exit was another gesture recognition company, Ident, to US-based Microchip Technology in 2012.
However, the unit’s value to its parent goes beyond financial returns. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch, at the time of its fund closing, said: “Robert Bosch Venture Capital successfully shapes the innovation leadership of Bosch through valuable connections to the startup ecosystem.”
