Laura Daily, director or impact investing at Lilly Ventures, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2026.
Laura Daily originally planned to work in Lilly Research Laboratories, the R&D function of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, when she came across a role in the external innovation team. Despite not knowing what that entailed, she ended up applying for and getting the role.
Now, with more than eight years of experience under her belt, Daily, who oversees Lilly Ventures’ impact investing portfolio, knows that the best way to learn is to just go out, build a network and overcommunicate what you are trying to do to connect with people.
“It has taken me beyond my tendency to want to learn only through research and reading everything I could on my own. CVC is about building relationships that can unlock doors that you never knew existed.”
“It has taken me beyond my tendency to want to learn only through research and reading everything I could on my own. CVC is about building relationships that can unlock doors that you never knew existed”
Lilly Ventures is the corporate VC arm of Eli Lilly and collectively manages more than $2bn in assets under management across three investment portfolios – therapeutics, healthtech and impact. The impact portfolio is a $300m fund-of-funds portfolio, investing in funds that aim to improve the affordability, accessibility and quality of healthcare for underserved patient populations in the US and globally.
“My role is about relationship management, which is a huge highlight in and of itself. I get to do the fun work of building, identifying, maintaining and growing the relationships we have formed with our GPs,” says Daily.
“At the same time, it is important to stay focused on your core mission in the midst of changing trends within the healthcare sector.”
Daily highlights three trends in the world of impact investing that she is excited about – improving diversity in clinical trials, expanding access to diagnostics and preventative care in low-resource settings, and fighting future global health disease threats.
“The longer I have been in this space, the more I notice an increase in investors and companies looking into these specific issues. I hope that will continue to grow.”
Emerging Leaders are mid-career CVC professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their team and the industry.
