GlobalCorporateVenturing

1 week ago | globalventuring.com | Yoana Cholteeva

Wonderstone Ventures will target global investments at seed and early stages. Japanese electronics producer Murata Manufacturing is launching a US-based corporate venture capital arm, Wonderstone Ventures, targeting startup business investments in the US.  It plans to invest $50m over the next five years in next-generation communication, 6G, optics and semiconductors, bioelectronics, environment, robotics and space tech. It will invest globally in seed and early stage startups.

1 week ago | globalventuring.com | Stephen Hurford

Wei Soon Lum has left the VC unit at bank Standard Chartered to join the Singapore office of Malaysian bank CIMB. Wei Soon Lum, photo courtesy of LinkedInWei Soon Lum has left his role on the venture building team of SC Ventures, the CVC unit of the UK multinational bank Standard Chartered. Lum joined the team in Singapore in August 2022. Before that, he was a director of partnership and innovation at OCBC, a Singaporean bank.

1 week ago | globalventuring.com | Yoana Cholteeva

Steindl is joining a new venture capital form focused on European technology scale-ups. Lukas Steindl has left Uniqa Ventures, the CVC arm of Austria’s Uniqa Insurance Group. Steindl spent three years at Uniqa Ventures, where he rose through the ranks from an investment analyst to a manager with a focus on healthtech, insurtech and fintech.

1 week ago | globalventuring.com | Stephen Hurford

Defence contractors face stiff competition from VC-swelled European startups, but their corporate venture investments could help them stay in front. Europe’s large defence contractors must partner with startups or risk losing business to them as funding for the sector surges, says Marc Lange, a defence tech consultant and investor with 2 Ventures. “Do they want to stay [as] big primes? It’s my firm opinion that they won’t be able to beat startups at their game.

1 week ago | globalventuring.com | Yoana Cholteeva

The rebranded investment company welcomed the European Investment Fund as an anchor investor in its Growth Fund I. Axa Venture Partners, the former investment arm of French insurance company Axa, has announced its rebrand as Atlantic Vantage Point (AVP), becoming an independent private investment firm after the completion of its management buyout announced last year. Axa will remain an anchor investor in its €1.5bn ($1.7bn) growth fund, AVP Growth I.