As news emerged today that Arvind Sodhani was stepping down as head of Intel Capital in Autumn, we republish our write-up for the lifetime achievement award he received at our Global Corporate Venturing Symposium last month.
Given Sodhani has now achieved iconic status in the corporate venturing industry, due to the success of Intel Capital, and the chair of our advisory board, Claudia Fan Munce, felt there was no one more deserving of our lifetime achievement award than Sodhani.
Under his leadership the unit has used its reach into multiple sectors to help the US-based semiconductor company spot the latest technology trends. Sodhani has identified sectors such as data analytics, digital health services, internet of things and wearables as some of the many areas in which Intel Capital is investing.
Corporations with aspirations to establish their own venturing units contact Sodhani, and with the current boom in corporate venturing the unit is receiving weekly requests to find out how it created its formula for success.
This award has been years in the making. Sodhani recounted Intel Capital’s origins at the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium last year in London, saying: “We got started in the mid 1980s, and during that time personal computers had just come out. There was not enough software, there were not enough devices attached to the PC and we also had a lot of people leaving Intel to start up their own companies.
“We were coming to the realisation that we could not fund all the research and development needed to grow the PC ecosystem and so I went to Andy Grove, the CEO at that time, and suggested to him that instead of fighting the trend, why don’t we take a minority investment in those companies. Grove, to his credit, agreed to the idea. It was a novel idea – most corporations typically don’t take a minority investment in other corporations.”
Sodhani’s impact on the corporate venturing industry will remain permanent, and Global Corporate Venturing will continue to watch how he steers a unit that has become the gold standard in corporate venturing.
Arvind Sodhani
Lifetime Achievement Award
Decided by Global Corporate Venturing in consultation with the chair of our advisory board, Claudia Fan Munce, head of IBM Venture Capital.
