A member of the top 100 from the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist
Ulrich Quay, managing director of Germany-based car maker BMW’s i Ventures corporate venturing unit, has a busy year planned.
When asked, for the GCV Powerlist 2016, about these plans he said: “Expand the investment mandate, team, geographic focus and improve processes, open an office on the west coast [of the US, as its office is currently in New York City], evaluate the opening of offices in Asia and Israel.”
And do deals. BMW i Ventures has struck 20 investments in 14 companies over the past four or so years. Disclosed last month, BMW led an $11.7m series A round for US-based mobility software developer RideCell through its BMW i Ventures subsidiary. RideCell intended to use the funding to increase the size of a client base that already includes BMW, manufactured product provider 3M and transit agency Santa Clara VTA.
Of the deal, Quay, who has led the unit for five years, said: “The convergence of transportation trends in cities is of key importance to BMW. RideCell’s technology platform provides agile tools to power services that span the entire mobility spectrum, including but not limited to car sharing, making them an ideal partner for BMW.”
He said other highlights from the past year were investments in Zirx, Zendrive, Moovit and two unannounced deals. In addition, portfolio company Chargepoint – at which Quay has been a board observer since 2012 – won the UN Momentum of Change award and the team organised the BMW Hackathon in San Francisco with 250 participants.
These are all efforts to help the company transform itself. Christian Noske, who was a GCV Rising Stars 2016 as investment principal at BMW, said: “BMW is on a great path to become the world largest service provider of premium mobility.
“It is important to note that Ulrich came from 10 years inside BMW, whereas I came from outside. So I spend around 80% of my time dealing with external people, which are mostly startups but also other VCs and corporate VCs. The first couple of meetings are with me. When I have narrowed down the dealflow funnel, I will bring Ulrich into the discussion.”
Before setting up BMW i Ventures, Quay had been senior legal counsel of mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures at BMW, having joined its law department in 2000 after being a top-decile student at University of Freiburg.
