The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Kasper Sage, BMW i Ventures
For the second consecutive year, Kasper Sage, a principal at BMW i Ventures, the corporate venture capital unit of the Germany-based car maker, has been named a Rising Star.
Ulrich Quay, a managing director at BMW i Ventures, said Sage had an “outstanding year” and is “on track to become a partner sometime soon” as a result of leading many deals in 2018 and taking on several board seats.
Quay said in his nomination of Sage: “Kasper has consistently been one of the top performers in our team. His biggest talents are his can-do mentality and his ability to dig deeply into automotive technologies. Kasper is great at finding companies with an attractive financial return profile and a high strategic impact for BMW.”
The BMW unit first hired Sage as an external consultant at the end of 2016 and later incorporated him as part of the team in July 2017. With a transport value chain focus, the unit is equipped with a $500m fund investing in series A and B.
At BMW i Ventures, Sage has led two deals, helped close five new investments and executed 10 follow-on investments. Although there has yet to be an exit, he said the fund’s “internal rate of return development has so far been above industry average” and he was “very proud of the companies he and the unit have invested in”. He oversees portfolio companies such as Nauto, May Mobility, GaN Systems and Blackmore.
