GCV Rising Stars 2025: Full list –

Navigating CVC complexities with boldness and charm

Matthew Raeside has one of the most interesting ways to corporate adventure among this year’s growing stars. He was an officer with Royal Navy in the UK, before joining the main investment team of the Swiss bank UBS. But, he says, there are many similarities in the intensity of work in investments and in a fighting struggle, with a great resource in both working lines.

A nautical theme is also the way Daniel Correa, director at Jll Spark, sees the role. Corporate investors, he says, negotiates between the corporate “Marina” and the “pirates” startup. “There are 60 startups that I consider as innovative pirates in our portfolio and are there changing critical aspects of this industry, and through Spark it collaborates with Marina,” he says.

Bravery was a theme that appeared often in interviews with this year’s growing stars – as it was a desire to be flexible. “Bond and adaptability are what matters,” says Jordy Klaassen, investment manager at Eneco Ventures.

Each investor has its own way to bring this combination to the table. Sara Olson, the chief director of Leps de Bayer, for example, is not afraid to “beat” in the name of bright startups. However, Modus Operandi daily is a mixture of “radical authenticity and kindness with open mind”, which helps to bring people even into harsh negotiations.

If there is only one advice that almost every growing star I spoke was the importance of the network. It is not enough to be a good investor, says Tanvi Lal, an investor at Intuit Ventures. “Much of the job is based on partnerships, and your success as a CVC investor is determined by how well you can build connectivity between startups and business,” she says.

Shobhit Gupta, a senior associate at GM Ventures, says he owes the success of following advice he gave by a senior figure at the beginning of his career: spend at least one day a week on the network. This network must be both inside and outside the company, says Thomas Molleker, senior associate at BMW I Ventures. “It is important to have a network inside the company on the one hand, but also to have a strong network with the starting community and your potential co-investments. It is not one or the other, but a mixture of these worlds,” he says.

Rising Stars 2025 (alphabetical in the order of the first name)

• Payam Abbassian, Path Ahead Ventures
• Lohit Biswal, Mercury Media Capital
• Ida Brun, Maersk Growth
• Juan Francisco of Carranza, Globant Ventures
• Daniel Correa, Jll Spark Global Ventures
• Quentin Demarly, Air Liquide Venture Capital
• Geetha Dholakia, Tdk Ventures
• Qin in Loo, the capital season
• Niels Fehre, Schaeffler
• Tina Gidwani, projects of the first row
• Hamish Gowans, Ki Tua Fund
• Shobhit Gupta, GM Ventures
• Burak Gersel, Simpson Strong-tie
• Benjamin Haskell, Lam Capital
• Tassbieh Hassan, Salesforce Ventures
• Austin Hwang, Honda Xcelerator Ventures
• Krishen Jani, Distill Ventures
• Eliot Jones, Trimble Ventures
• Stefanie Kahre, bsh startup kitchen
• Jotthe Kannappan, intuitive check
• Jagmeet Khangura, Black & Vatch
• Jarek Khilian, woven capital
• Jordy Klaassen, Eneco Ventures
• Gerrard Lai, Innovation Partners Mafg
• Tanvi Lal, Intuit Ventures
• Matthias Leibetseder, Wave-X
• Hanqing Li, MSD Global Health Innovation Fund
• Mirella Lisboa, Basf
• Parker Malone, Equinor Ventures
• Yuko Masuda, Power Maruubeni
• Deepak Mishra, Hitachi Ventures
• Thomas Moller, BMW in projects
• Nate Morgan, Hubspot Ventures
• Sara Olson, jump by Bayer
• Leopoldo Palazzi Trfelli, Rabo Investments
• Chelsea plant, 3m projects
• Matthew Raeside, UBS
• Krishna Ramachandran, LG Technology Ventures
• Saadia Rashid, TECHNP energies
• Nathan Rich, Bp Ventures
• Netta Shetty, Cisco Investments
• Ankita Singh, Bosch Ventures
• Carli Stein, M12
• Carlo Stern, Porsche Ventures
• Jimmy Teng, Munich Re -Projects
• Anna Trendewicz, Future Energy Ventures
• Keyle Tsai, Wayra Wayra
• Annie Weissbach, Echo Health Ventures
• Lauren Wisiewski, new incubation projects
• Rachel Zabronsky, PayPal Ventures