The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Megumi Ikeda, Hearst Ventures

Megumi Ikeda, general manager of Europe and managing director of Hearst Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the US-based publisher, covered the start of the first dot.com bubble as a journalist before moving into corporate development and, in the past decade, as a venture investor.

Based in the UK for Hearst Ventures since 2014, her first big deal was Signal Media, the UK-based creator of an artificial intelligence-equipped information platform, which raised £5.8m ($7.4m) in series A funding at the end of 2016 from investors including media groups Hearst and RelX.

Ikeda previously ran the European arm of the Peacock Equity Fund, GE Capital and NBCUniversal’s $250m corporate venture capital fund. Before that, she worked in corporate M&A and distribution deals at NBCUniversal.

When named a Rising Star in 2018, Ikeda said it had been rewarding to be in corporate venturing. She said: “When done properly – and it is a complex endeavour – CVC can be highly effective. I like the idea of harnessing the power and expertise of a large organisation like Hearst to support a startup, while simultaneously gaining insight into trends and new technologies via investments.

“From a startup’s point of view, because we have a single limited partner – Hearst – and do not have to go out and raise funds every few years, we can have a far better alignment of interests with entrepreneurs.”

Ikeda received her undergraduate degree from Columbia College, Columbia University, and earned her MBA at University of California Los Angeles’ Anderson School.

James Mawson

James Mawson is founder and chief executive of Global Venturing.