Raza Ali, vice president for innovation and investments at IAG, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2026.
Raza Ali is the first to admit that his route into corporate venture capital was unplanned. “I do not think I was supposed to be here,” he says, describing a career shaped by timing and accident, rather than a deliberate move into venture.
Trained as a biomedical scientist and later working in IT, as well as commercial and aviation roles, he had long been drawn to innovation from the sidelines, before being asked to temporarily help grow IAG’s innovation activity during the Covid-19 pandemic. He said yes, leaned hard into learning and never looked back.
Starting from a small, loosely structured setup, Ali found himself helping to rebuild innovation from the ground up, spanning venture capital, acceleration and R&D, before stepping in to run venture outright when the role unexpectedly landed on his desk.
“You have to be a jack of all trades in this role. One day you are talking about sustainability and fuels, the next it is AI or quantum, and you have to stay curious about all of it.”
Under his stewardship, the effort scaled into a $200m fund, now the largest airline-focused corporate venture fund globally, and the foundation of what is today IAGi Ventures.
“You have to be a jack of all trades in this role. One day you are talking about sustainability and fuels, the next it is AI or quantum, and you have to stay curious about all of it,” he says.
The job involves constantly looking five years ahead to identify headwinds that could slow the airline business and invest early to turn them into tailwinds.
But it is the human side of venture that he enjoys the most. He invests in founders as people, not just companies, and describes the emotional weight that comes with that closeness as a strength, not a weakness. When founders call or message him outside formal settings, he sees it as a sign of trust earned.
His advice to those entering the industry is refreshingly direct: be vulnerable, learn through experience, rather than isolation, and never forget the human element. Deals, he says, are built on trust and instinct as much as diligence.
Emerging Leaders are mid-career CVC professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their team and the industry.
