Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2017: Brad McManus

Search engine provider Google might be among the most active acquirers of technology companies with at least 190 deals but to manage two portfolio company sales to it in three months is a feather in the cap for Brad McManus, investment director for Motorola Solutions Venture Capital (MSVC), the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous public safety and commercial communications and intelligence service provider.

Reese Schroeder, managing director of Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, said: “Though he is a CVC veteran with 12 years at the helm of Panasonic Ventures, he has been with Motorola Solutions for two years. Since joining, Brad has completed three deals and oversaw two key exits. He has brought some new thinking to our team and has proven to be a valuable asset. I would recommend him for this honor this year.

McManus, who is MSVC’s Silicon Valley-based venture partner, said: “The two managed portfolio companies, API.ai (Speaktoit) and Eyefluence, were both successfully acquired in the by Google fourth quarter of 2016.

“API.ai is a leader in the natural language processing space and prior to exiting, Motorola Solutions engineers collaborated with API.ai to develop our proprietary speech-based interface platform. This platform is an example of a solution that allows our customers to interact with technology while keeping their ‘eyes up and hands free’.

“The other company that was acquired by Google was the eye interaction technology innovator, Eyefluence, which developed one of the most advanced eye tracking technologies for augmented / virtual / mixed reality use cases.

“Motorola Solutions collaborated with Eyefluence to develop a prototype platform that was incorporated into a compelling proof of concept. It imagines a public safety command centre in a virtual reality headset, and the virtual environment is controlled hands-free using eye interaction technology.”

McManus said: “My three new deals were Orion [a $9m round in February last year], Seamless Docs [a $7m B round in May] and a third company not publicly disclosed as of today [mid-December].”

McManus has had a long history of combining financial and strategic goals. While with Panasonic’s ventures team from 2002 to 2013, he said he invested in electric vehicles maker Tesla, “which generated over $300m in VC gains”.

He added: “More importantly we aligned Panasonic’s battery division with Tesla, which resulted in a major lithium ion battery partnership and the creation of the GigaFactory in Nevada, where the governor of the state estimated that the plant would generate $100bn in economic benefit over two decades from the construction of the factory (source: LA Times).”

But success for the corporate venture capital parent has come by keeping an eye on the startups’ needs. McManus said: “My initial exposure to CVC was when I was associated with an early online payments startup that became a portfolio company of the Panasonic Incubator in 1999.

“Experiencing first-hand how a corporation and startup can work together for win-win outcomes made a strong impression on me. Startups at any stage of development and growth can generate significant mutual benefits for both parties.

“For early-stage companies, the credibility, industry and product / market advice can be invaluable, not to mention access to other players in the venture ecosystem. As I transitioned from the startup side of the table to the venture investment side, it was helpful to have an understanding of CVC from a startup’s perspective.

“I hope to continue to learning from entrepreneurs and innovators through the experience of venture capital investing. It is a genuine privilege to interact with some of the brightest people around the world who are starting early-stage companies. All of us in the venture industry have a unique opportunity to be a part of next-generation technologies and business models, which have the potential to disrupt existing industries and change the way the world works.

“To strengthen our industry, CVCs should strive to evolve professionally in our capacities as venture investors and strategic partnering thought leaders. We should all work to maintain the highest levels of credibility and reputation (of not just ourselves but of the entire CVC community) by setting the example in how we interact with startups, our portfolio companies, venture capitalists and all related stakeholders.

Prior to joining the venture group at Panasonic, and subsequently at Motorola Solutions, McManus was an institutional public equity investor for a large trust company, and then at an investment firm that I co-owned in Malibu, California.