Entrepreneurs welcome Corporate Venturing (CVC) investors – shows research published by Black Pearls´ Venture Partner
As part of the prestigious two-year Venture Capital fellowship, Ewa Treitz investigated the topic of entrepreneurs´ satisfaction with corporate venturing in Western Europe and USA. This is a highly relevant topic as the CVC trend picks up in CEE.
Since 2014 Ewa Treitz has been a member of Kauffman Fellowship – an executive education program for top Venture Capital investors worldwide, based in Palo Alto, California. During her program she investigated the topic of corporate venturing and summarised her research in a report titled “Understanding Corporate Venturing from the entrepreneur’s perspective”. It is available HERE for download. The objective of her study was to provide an understanding of the key motivations for startups to work with corporates and to what extent they align with those of a corporate partner. This information can be used by CVC executives to improve their ways of working with the startups and become more competitive in the hottest deals. Ewa’s project and report should also be highly relevant for founders contemplating an investment from a corporate partner. They can better understand what to expect during the negotiations and after the investment.
Fellowship based on own experience
Topics researched by Ewa within Kaufmann Fellowship framework are deeply rooted in her professional experience. Ewa Treitz, an entrepreneur and investor, served in multiple management roles at Venture Capital and Corporate Venture Capital funds in Germany, Sweden and USA. Between 2012 and 2015 she was responsible for venture investments in innovative European startups for a large US corporate 3M. She represented 3M in multiple Boards of Directors of its portfolio companies. Prior to that she worked as an associate at Sustainable Technologies Fund in Stockholm, a mid-size cleantech expansion-stage fund with a focus on the Scandinavian market. She is based in Munich now and her areas of expertise are energy, materials, electronics, SaaS, and robotics. Ewa is also founder and CEO of an advanced robotics company; the firm builds on years of research in artificial intelligence and robotics at the Technical University in Munich and is currently in stealth mode.
The Way to innovation investing
The Kauffman Fellowship is a highly sought-after two-year program dedicated exclusively to the world of innovation investing. While working at an investment organization (in Ewa’s case – Black Pearls VC), Fellows receive a structured curriculum with an individual development plan, executive coaching, facilitated mentoring, and peer learning and networking – all with a focus on giving back and on one’s responsibility as an emerging leader in the industry. While the Fellows’ final module is known as “graduation,” it is actually just the beginning of their lifelong membership in the worldwide Kauffman Fellows Society. And Ewa Treitz is right on her way to join this prestigious community of world-class investors.
