Remus Radvan, investment director at Wayra UK, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2026.
Remus Radvan handles both startup investments for Wayra, the innovation and corporate venture capital arm of Telefónica, and designs corporate venture programmes for other corporations as part of Wayra Capital, the company’s CVC-as-a-service division.
He is a former founder who has built several companies in Romania and the UK, experiences that have given him deep empathy towards the challenges founders face when trying to work with large companies.
“One of the reasons for getting into corporate venturing was that, as a founder, I was intrigued about how to crack the startup-corporate playbook,” says Radvan. Having worked with many large companies as an entrepreneur in Romania, Radvan struggled to get the same type of collaboration for his UK startups.
“I had this pain when I was a founder myself, and now there is this thrill I get from helping other founders get up the corporate ladder,” he says.
“One of the reasons for getting into corporate venturing was that, as a founder, I was intrigued about how to crack the startup-corporate playbook… I get a thrill from helping other founders get up the corporate ladder.”
Radvan initially joined Wayra in 2018 to run the London accelerator programme. After a short break from the company, he rejoined to work on Wayra’s investments as the company shifted away from the traditional accelerator model.
His recent work creating corporate venture programmes for other companies has given Radvan a bigger picture perspective on what makes CVC work well.
“It is very obvious that the success of a CVC programme is linked to the decisions you make at the beginning, from designing incentives, championship or sponsorship to educational programmes for people to understand the processes,” he says.
Wayra is one of the most prolific corporate investors. It has made more than 1,100 investments globally and has an active portfolio of 530 companies. Wayra has a team of 50 and invests in series A to C rounds in Europe, the US and Latin America. Ticket sizes range from $350,000 to $6m.
Emerging Leaders are mid-career CVC professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their team and the industry.
