Armin Khalkhali’s Post

🥁 Global Corporate Venturing is coming to Central & Eastern Europe! I'm tremendously excited to announce that I'm joining GCV to support their ambitious development plans in the region. They equip the global corporate, government, and university venturing community, along with its ecosystem partners, with the information, insights, and access necessary to drive impactful and open innovation. Thanks to four key pillars…… 📰 News & Analysis 🌍 Community & Events 🏛️ The GCV Institute 🌐 The GCV Leadership Society …….we are bringing unparalleled resources and networks to continue the impressive growth trajectory of the CEE's #CVC and #VC ecosystem - kudos to all CEE ecosystem builders. I appreciate that this was an 𝘦𝘺𝘦-𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺 expensive hire, James Mawson - look at it like buying 10 BTC in January 2023. Thank you James Gunnell and Charlie H. for our onboarding sessions over the last few weeks - really looking forward to working with you both! I wonder, which lucky city will play host to our inaugural CEE event... City of Vienna | Wroclaw [Wroclove] | City of Warsaw | Katowice City - live, work & invest | Invest in Poznan | Vienna Business Agency | Wroclaw Agglomeration Development Agency (ARAW) | Invest in Pomerania | Polski Fundusz Rozwoju S.A. (PFR) | Invest Lithuania | PFR Ventures | PSIK, the Polish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association | invest.austria | Startup Lithuania | UNIQA Ventures | Elevator Ventures | hubraum | BNP Paribas Bank Polska | CEMEX Ventures | ff Venture Capital | KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. | PKO Bank Polski | PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna | ORLEN VC | EDP Ventures | Latvian Business Angels Network | Żabka Polska | Deutsche Bank | PwC Central and Eastern Europe | Schenker Ventures | Speedinvest | Elevator Lab | 3TS Capital Partners | Wroclaw University of Science and Technology | Warsaw University of Technology | Polish Academy of Sciences #venture #entrepreneurship #startup #openinnovation #corporateinnovation #universityinnovation #corporateventurecapital

Our Co-founder and Co-CEO Felipe Navío recently participated in the 2023 Kibo Ventures Annual Investor Meeting in Madrid. Felipe joined  panelists from leading companies including Apple, Nzyme Fund, Morgan Stanley, BBVA, and Endeavor as part of a packed day of conversation ranging from the state of markets to AI. Together with Oriol Fuertes Cabassa, CEO at Qida (home-care), and Andreu Dotti Boada, CEO at Innovamat, Felipe’s panel focused on talent and culture. Find some of the panel’s key takeaways below: ↕️ Experiencing ups and downs enables companies to strengthen their culture Learnings from both tough and peaceful times bring cultural maturity and help identify what matters most Challenging times can be helpful to identify employees with the best cultural fit, as they show commitment and learn how to navigate through not only good moments, but also difficult ones. 🤝 Cultural fit goes beyond a resume Employees’ willingness to learn and create impact are equally important as their experience and qualifications. Loyalty is fundamental to creating a culture based on trust and transparency. ⌛ Hiring plays a key role in building culture Hiring should be approached strategically to ensure that candidates are aligned with the company culture and vision. Hiring a diverse workforce is crucial to creating a more global mindset and inclusive environment. It’s an honor to be part of such fruitful discussions, as well as to mark our presence in such important events hosted by our investors. #InvestorRelations #CompanyCulture #TechTrends

The Value of Getting it Right the First Time It is often said that "if you do it right the first time you will not have to do it again". This is - and it is not - the case of 0100 Conference Mediterranean. Embracing the challenge of organizing a high-end event dedicated to #privateequity and #venturecapital in Rome and on enhancing Italy comeback, to position it at the forefront of tech & digital #innovation revolution, weren't easy tasks. We did it and so 0100 Conference Mediterranean will happen again in 2024. After all, Maker Faire Rome - the European Edition, happens in Italy, right in Rome, since 11 years. Sometimes, if you do things right the first time you enjoy doing them again.

These past few days I have been representing Leap Global Partners at the Global Corporate Venturing "GCVI Summit". The GCVI Summit stands out as the premier gathering for corporate innovation leaders across the Americas. General Takeaways: 🤓 great for learning about industry trends in the US, and exploring potential partnerships mostly with the most experienced CVCs and consulting companies 👌 With a robust lineup featuring top-tier corporate venture capital entities such as Aramco Ventures, GV (Google Ventures), CMI Ventures, JetBlue Ventures, GM Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Grupo Bimbo, Rakuten, among others. 📈 Some of the major trend topics dominating discussions among CVCs, as well as areas they are eagerly looking to invest in, include: 🌎 climate-tech solutions 🌾 agro-industry advancements, 💳 fintech's rapidly evolving landscape 📲 semiconductor innovations ♻ fuel derivates 🤖 AI-driven efficiency enhancements, 🔐 Cybersecurity 💻 breakthroughs in computing technologies, and the unexplored territories of biotech and deeptech. Most CVCs are demonstrating a strong inclination to allocate substantial resources toward implementing AI technologies. While progress is visible, it's evident that there's still considerable ground to cover before achieving a mature CVC ecosystem in LATAM. This year less than 1% of the CVCs investments come from Latin America and the Caribbean

I am here to tell you that tomorrow is final_final_deadline for CATALYZE - a joint program which ULTRA.VC conducts with EMERGE to help people with impact-driven ideas transform them into an actionable plan and a pitch! 2 weeks of active work | 11 - 22 September experts and personal mentors self-exploratory practices and hardcore business track storytelling and emotional tuning-in all to make your idea an authentic story that resonates with people and makes them want to learn more about your project. and the best part: 🏆Top 2 advance to EMERGE Challenge ½ Final in Istanbul this October to pitch in front of global investors.  🏆Top 5 join ULTRA.VC Accelerator for idea refinement. Check it out if you have something in mind: https://lnkd.in/dSpSPxFH P.S. I have a small handmade piece of inspiration to motivate you to apply. While in Portugal this summer, I came across a bug that reminded me of the benefits of accelerators. You can either struggle for years or seek help and soar towards success. Choose wisely. 🐞

Heading to South Summit next week? Be sure to check out MMV's Ryan Collins on the "Welcome to the World of VCs" panel on June 5. Even experienced entrepreneurs have a hard time grasping the ins & outs of VC interactions. This panel of experts will break it down and provide insights and guidance on the venture capital ecosystem. Learn tips on building investor relationships, understanding the VC process, and managing investor expectations. See you there! #vc #venturecapital #venturecapitalfunding #startup #startups Alix Brunet Sam Stone Yara Alenazi Maximilian Stemper Anvesh Ramineni Carlos Jo Loo Cheryl Teo Weijian Chen Vivian Zhang

This week the European innovation community of corporates met at Siemens Energy’s HQ to discuss the best practices for strategic partnerships with startups and scaleups. 👏 This meet-up is a tradition in our community in Europe where the venture client teams come together to collaborate on processes and learnings to enhance our strategies for success in our transformation journeys. 📌 What is venture clienting? I noticed that the name ‘venture client’ is not super popular outside Europe. Venture clienting is similar to the strategic partnerships approach (this is what we call the engagement model in Maersk Growth, beyond investments in decarbonization and energy transition) where one large company partners with a smaller organization, usually a start-up to collaborate on a specific use case that is relevant for the larger company but not core to its business and thus, there is a strong possibility for the large company to become the client of the start-up. 📌 How do you engage with the venture client model? The most straightforward way to engage is via Proof-of-Concepts (POCs) where the corporate will test a solution relevant to a particular business case with a partner from the start-up ecosystem where the partner has expertise in that field. 📌 What is the POC process? For us, in Maersk Growth we follow a 5-step process from defining the use case for the POC together with our business units to closing the engagement and making a decision with our business colleagues on whether the POC is defined as successful or not. 📌 What is the focus of this approach? Strategic partnerships are a great way to engage with start-ups/scale-ups and understand as a large company how to integrate innovation and the opportunities for growth in a particular segment of the industry. 📌 Who benefits from this approach?  External innovation through strategic partnerships benefits everyone involved: the corporate can move the needle faster on its strategic journey and the start-up wins a large client and partner. What else would you add? ⚡ Thanks to a great community and the cool team at Siemens Energy for hosting us in Berlin! 🙏 Eva Teresa Harasewycz Christian Hüttenhein Trent Greenland #community #partnership #strategy #community #ventureclient #cvc #impact

At BCG X, we recently had the privilege of hosting a vibrant panel discussion on maximizing value in Corporate Venture Funding and Partnerships. We exchanged perspectives with industry experts and had the chance to contribute our own insights to the mix. Here are the top three takeaways that have been buzzing in our minds: 💡 Business Foundations Matter: Thoroughly assessing and validating your market and business concept sets the stage for success. 💡 Break Free from Corporate Norms: Innovation thrives when we break free from corporate muscle memory. It's about embracing fresh, innovative mindsets that challenge the status quo. 💡 Incentive Alignment Matters: Success is a team effort. Aligning incentives among Corporate Venture Capitalists (CVCs), parent companies, and investors is key to ensuring mutual goals are met. A massive shoutout and heartfelt gratitude to Christine Giam from EDBI Pte Ltd, Gavin Teo from Altara Ventures, and K T Wan from Singtel Innov8 for making our discussion richer and much more enlightening! #BCGX #BusinessBuilding #venturesmadepossible #venturebuilding #cvc Melissa Lou Lillian Wee Filipa Ivanova Maha Dhurairaj Fiona Ren

📢📢📢 “Turning closed doors into open windows” was the theme of the panel discussion at ATXSG on: Greenlighting Growth: Building a scalable ESG venture with Mario Aquino CEO FutureLabs Ventures , Vivek Kumar, F.IOD, CEO WWF-SG,  Alina Truhina CEO of The Radical Fund and Ann Lee Carpenter CEO, Braid Theory The quote strongly reflects the role of corporate venture building in the innovation landscape of Singapore. Corporate Ventures have the unique ability to address sustainability challenges by taking the very difficulties and turning them into revenue-generating streams and levers of future growth. At FutureLabs we are dedicated to curating venture-building opportunities that incentivize corporates to address climate and sustainability challenges at speed and scale. This innovation paradigm that FLV is spearheading leverages the execution power of entrepreneurs, the stage-gated approach of venture building, and corporate assets to scale innovation. We are calling on all entrepreneurs and corporates leading innovation in AgriTech and Energy transition to reach us at hello@futurelabs.vc as we generate action in these sectors. #venturingsg #atxsg #BroadcastAsia #CommunicAsia #SatelliteAsia #TechXLR8Asia

Pacific Channel recently had the honour of participating in a momentous signing ceremony between TUS-Holdings, the world's largest science park owner and operator, and NEXT Federation of New Zealand. This moment marks the beginning of an exciting collaboration that brings together the visionary expertise of TUS, founded out of Tsinghua University, China's premier engineering and technology university, and the forward-thinking approach of NEXT Federation.   TUS owns and operates 70 science parks across the world and has built up a global innovation service network of more than 300 incubators. Some of the most esteemed locations include Cambridge University in the UK, where TUS has invested GBP2b, as well as parks in Belgium, Germany and China. Their commitment to driving innovation and supporting groundbreaking ventures aligns perfectly with Pacific Channel’s focus on investing in the future of food, health and the environment, and we look forward to the potential worldwide network of benefits this could bring to our portfolio companies. TUS's extensive experience and resources in managing over RMB200b through more than 90 funds, including seed to pre-IPO investments, through fund of funds, and multiple specialist funds, will undoubtedly amplify our collective impact.   At Pacific Channel, we are committed to supporting deep tech innovation, nurturing talent, and fostering collaborations that make a lasting difference. Working together within a well-functioning ecosystem is key to driving positive change on a global scale, creating solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing our planet.