Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2017: Pramila Mullan

Successful management consultants have a near-genius ability to take a faintly pejorative term and turn it into something that sounds great.

Pramila Mullan, senior principal at Accenture Ventures, the corporate venture capital unit of the eponymous consultancy, said: “I will gladly admit I am a tech geek, or, as we like to refer to at Accenture, ‘one of the cool kids’.

“In September 2015, I joined the Accenture Ventures team. Accenture Ventures accelerates the adoption of growth-stage enterprise technology innovations. My first year in CVC has provided me the opportunity to embrace and uncover a whole new set of skills. I am building relationships with startups, entrepreneurs, investors, academic R&D, venture capitalists and corporate R&D groups around the world. It is an exciting time to be in CVC, and I just love it.

“We are a small team of two generating significant results. In my first year, we have completed 10 deals in major technology areas, such as blockchain, security, new IT, vertical cloud, etc.

“This required developing a very efficient and streamlined investment process from deal identification through due diligence and closing always with an eye of ensuring a portfolio that had a positive return on investment.

“Having spent most of my career in research and development, this move to CVC required me to climb a learning curve of due diligence quickly. The technology part was easy for me at least. I was feeling armed with the right set of skills to conquer any challenge.

“The financial and legal due diligence required wading through a sea of terms – cap table, valuations, term sheets, pari passu, – a myriad of terminology. Some days I longed to be back in my comfort zone with my robots and research. It was not always easy, but I knew I had to get up to speed quickly.”

Michael Redding, managing director for strategic technology innovation at Accenture, said: “Pramila is new to CVC but she brings a depth of experience in enterprise technology having previously worked at Bell Labs, Orange Labs, Cisco, and Accenture Technology Labs.

“What makes her special is a keen perspective on the enterprise technology landscape so that when we are evaluating a sector, for example, artificial intelligence (AI), development and operations, or a specific startup she can rapidly home in on a candidate with significant potential – both in the market and as a partner to Accenture, a priority for our CVC approach.

“A great example was last spring when we were looking hard at the AI domain. Pramila spotted Nervana Systems and helped launch an in-depth review and technical due diligence with them. Her instincts were spot on as just a few months later, Intel validated her choice by acquiring them for $350m.

“Bottomline, Pramila combines a detail-oriented research mindset with a strong enterprise experience base to enable us to find high quality investment candidates and future partners.”

Before joining Accenture Ventures, Mullan was a senior principal in Accenture Labs from June 2012 focused on research related to internet of things (IoT )and digital health.

She has been a technology executive in research and development at both startups and telecommunications service and equipment providers, such as AT&T Bell Laboratories, Cisco, Motorola, and Orange Labs, through her career before that.

Indeed, she used to work with Jitendra Kavathekar, managing director of open innovation at Accenture, while both were at Motorola in the mid-2000s, when Kavathekar gave her the recommendation. “Pramilla brings an excellent combination of domain expertise, can-do mentality, and ability to connect ‘what if’ to real business objectives.”

While she wants to become a partner at a CVC, Mullan said: “As a woman in technology, and now CVC, I think it is important to give back. I want young women to see the exciting work I am doing and know they can do this too.”