Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2018: Kasper Sage

What is perhaps most striking about Kasper Sage is his versatility.

Ulrich Quay, a managing director at BMW i Ventures who recruited Sage as an investment principal last year, said: “We knew Kasper from his previous function at ProSiebenSat.1, and already liked his personality and how he worked and thought about startups.

“Even though he does not have a technical background, he manages to dive deeply into complex technical topics, and to establish great relationships with startups as well as with fellow investors.”

Having joined BMW i from his previous position at ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Sage rapidly made a name for himself within the California office of the venture team, with a number of deals.

Currently on the board of four BMW i portfolio companies, GaN Systems, Scoop Technologies, Shift Technologies and Rever Moto, Sage has closed two follow-on investments and led two new ones, and is on the way to completing a third one.

For BMW i Ventures itself, last year was been particularly fruitful, with at least 12 participations to funding rounds between January and October alone, both as lead and non-lead investor. The firm had announced the launch of its first €500m ($600m) venture fund in November 2016, simultaneously with the move of its headquarters from New York to Silicon Valley.

“One thing that attracted me to BMW i was how they understood that moving fast and being aligned with the goals of other investors and entrepreneurs is key to generating good returns,” said Sage.

“All the decision-making power is held by the team, and as it is a small one [around 10 investment professionals spread between New York, Munich and California] we are able to move very fast.”

The time taken between initial investigations into a target company and the actual investment can sometimes be as short as two weeks, according to Sage.

“The combination of BMW’s sector expertise and of its venture arm’s abilities as a financial investor, were ultimately the two elements that made me want to join,” he added.

Sage came a long way to end up in Silicon Valley. Having started his career as a marketing intern at giant car manufacturing group Daimler, he quickly progressed into another role at global advertising agency McCann Erickson, before continuing at tech company Aka-aki networks and at telecom company Sabienzia Technologies. All these roles were on the marketing side, and were based in Berlin, where the principal obtained his MA in strategic marketing in 2010.

Sage said: “Being part of the Berlin tech scene and working for local startups made me realise the Silicon Valley ecosystem was far more developed than ours. And, so at some point, I decided it was time to go for the areal thing’.”

To secure his move to the other side of the Atlantic, the principal first landed a job as management consultant within Detecon, Deutsche Telekom’s consulting arm based in San Francisco. “But as a consultant, your main task is to analyse and predict trends and help customers understand them and I was keen to take things to a more tangible level, and to be on the deal-making side rather than on the analysis one.”

Sage’s first contacts with the corporate venture industry then emerged through his next role as business development and partnering manager at Deutsche Telekom, where he was able to work closely with the group’s venture team, named T-Venture at the time. “And that’s what got me really excited,” he said.

His further position as senior investment manager at ProSiebenSat.1, where he assisted in building up the company’s CVC arm in San Francisco, helped him finish off his transition from one end to the other.

At BMW I Ventures, Sage was the first hire for the new fund. “Kasper works hard, but there is always a light side and laughter when you work with him,” Quay added.

In his free time, the principal avidly rides his motorcycle (a BMW model, obviously), and puts his creativity to work through graphic design and photography.