Sam Morris, investment lead at Btomorrow Ventures, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2026.
During the time that he has been with Btomorrow Ventures (BTV), the corporate VC arm of British American Tobacco (BAT), Sam Morris has played a key role in the development of BTV’s first fund and worked on some of its biggest deals.
He was the lead investor in Hesperos, a biotech startup developing human-organ-on-a-chip technology, and an early investor with Awake Chocolate, a caffeinated chocolates startup considered one of the key strategic investments for BAT. Morris was also involved in BTV’s investment in AI-enabled image recognition startup Parallel Dots.
“I have covered a variety of spaces since the time I first joined the team,” says Morris. “I was involved a lot in the consumer side with fund 1 and continue to manage those portfolio companies. With fund 2, my focus is now more on the technology and R&D sector, where I cover investments in science discovery, open innovation and new categories.”
One of those technologies is precision fermentation – a field that is still quite nascent.
“It is a means of developing high-quality, high-grade ingredients across a variety of spaces in an ethical and, hopefully, more sustainable manner,” he says. “There are one or two players in the space that are doing well, but there is huge scope for growth.”
“Network, network, network. It is key to the role – within the business and across other CVCs, VCs, advisors, founders, just everyone you can think of”
Apart from that, Morris has his eye on anything related to automation that helps with supply chain distribution, as well as using AI to automate or maximise efficiencies across the business.
His advice for people getting into corporate venturing is: “Network, network, network. It is key to the role – within the business and across other CVCs, VCs, advisors, founders, just everyone you can think of.
“It helps the unit gain visibility internally when you are trying to make investments and gives you access to co-investment opportunities, access to deal flow, better insights into trends and what other units are investing or not investing in.”
The Emerging Leaders are mid-career corporate venture professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their teams and the industry.
See the full list of Emerging Leaders here.
