GCV Powerlist 2016: Nino Marakovic, Sapphire Ventures

There is a small, but powerful Croatian venture diaspora in Silicon Valley that takes an “old-fashioned” approach to business and finance – that it is “hard work building companies with sound fundamentals”.

Applying these practices, Nino Marakovic became CEO and managing director of Sapphire Ventures, which manages the corporate venture investments of Germany-based technology company SAP, a decade ago and has spent the time building one of the valley’s most successful outfits, with $1.4bn under management and 36 portfolio company exits.

Marakovic made his views clear in a blog post at the start of the year – Good riddance to “big venture” and “blitzscaling” – which said: “Welcome back to the hard work of building companies with sound fundamentals the old-fashioned way.” This built on a similar 2015 comment – Do not gamble, build to last instead – that concluded: “Do not gamble that good times will go on forever.”

Sapphire Ventures was previously known as SAP Ventures, and the change in name reflects Marakovic’s view that in the longer-term it might be able to raise outside capital, although SAP seems happy to continue as a limited partner.

At Sapphire Ventures, Marakovic has overseen the growth of the corporate venturing unit with the launch of a dedicated $350m fund in 2013. Sapphire Ventures has funded and helped build 137 companies since 1996 with goals to create financial returns and facilitate interaction among innovative companies, Sapphire and its broader ecosystem.

Sapphire Ventures has also been building a fund of venture funds to look at earlier-stage deals, and in July 2014 hired Elizabeth “Beezer” Clarkson as a managing director and chief operating officer from a similar role at VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, where she managed the DFJ Global Network.

Before Sapphire, Marakovic worked at venture capital firms IVF Ventures and MeVC Capital. He has also worked for US-based investment banks Robertson Stephens, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.