Christoph Ferle, investment director at Bosch Ventures, is one of our top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing for 2026.
Christoph Ferle is an investment director at industrial technology and appliance group Robert Bosch’s corporate venture arm, but his role goes beyond that – he is the company’s venture capital spokesperson. And the one tip he would give to people coming into the industry is not to spend their time in a VC echo chamber.
“Stay very close to the founders and the operators,” he says. “Spend more time with founders than with other VCs, because that really helps you to get an advantage and get an understanding of what the next trend will be.”
Ferle is about to celebrate his fifth year at Bosch Ventures, having risen through the ranks internally. He spent six years as a senior manager at Bosch Digital, helping to provide IT services for more than 400,000 employees, having done consulting and applied research for digital transformation. He was invited to join the company’s CVC unit because it wanted someone who had been ‘in the trenches’.
“Having extensive real-world experience reduces the risk of confusing what looks good on a spreadsheet with what works in reality. It is one of the reasons why I stay close to the founders.”
“Having extensive real-world experience reduces the risk of confusing what looks good on a spreadsheet with what works in reality,” he says. “It is one of the reasons why I stay close to the founders – to have a good understanding of what the actual challenges are and how we can help them best.”
Ferle is excited about seeing AI moving into the real world, but also the potential for cybersecurity technologies to make a difference, as the geopolitical landscape increasingly shapes the markets. Seeing how technology shapes society is what he is passionate about.
“What drives me is creating impact that lasts,” he says. “Building up things that are really changing the ecosystems and markets.
“It is about creating value beyond the next round, seeing a company growing and sometimes even changing society or the ecosystems around it, and then seeing the next generation of companies coming from the success of the former ones. It is very satisfying.”
The Rising Stars are early-career corporate venture professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their teams and the industry.
See the full list of Rising Stars 2026 here.
