CVC Unplugged

Mawsonia

The CVC Unplugged podcast is a weekly show that brings you fascinating and wide-ranging conversations with leading corporate venture capital investors, subject matter experts, startup founders, journalists and other market participants to keep you informed of the most important trends affecting early-stage investing.

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300 episodes
Updated Jul 10, 2025

Episodes300

Newest first

Dec 9, 2024 · 45 min
We are in another iPhone Cambrian explosion for the chips industry
For every dollar that is invested in semiconductors, around $3 of economic activity is thought to be generated downstream – and in this case, downstream means absolutely anything technology-related. Just about piece of tech equipment you can buy today wil
Dec 2, 2024 · 51 min
Torq hopes to replicate Brazil’s fintech success across LatAm
Latin America has always been fertile ground for fintech innovation and growth. Combining a young, tech-savvy population and a relative under-penetration of financial services you may see in other developed markets, there is plenty of opportunity for star
Nov 25, 2024 · 32 min
Best Nights VC wants people to meet in real life again
Nightlife has changed in recent years. It’s not just the macro-effects of the pandemic – with higher costs of living and young people having less disposable income – but their preferences are also evolving.
Nov 18, 2024 · 27 min
How to get first-of-a-kind cleantech projects off the ground
We’ve got a bit of a different episode again this week – Fernando sits down with GCV’s editor-in-chief Maija Palmer, who asks him some questions about a recent report he wrote for GCV’s Global Energy Council on the topic of getting first-of-a-kind cleante
Nov 11, 2024 · 31 min
M&A and liquidity making a slower comeback in healthcare, but CVCs are stepping up to the plate
At the beginning of the year, I spoke to Bill Taranto, president of the MSD Global Health Innovation Fund about what he expected over the course of the year in the healthcare space. He had predicted that M&As would make a moderate comeback and more li
Nov 4, 2024 · 1 hr
While others are cautious in a slower Brazilian market, L4 wants to be greedy
The past year has not been the most active for the Brazilian CVC market. High interest rates, lack of sufficient liquidity, and decreased dealflow, among other things, have all slowed it down relative to past years. But that is not true across the board.
Oct 28, 2024 · 44 min
How Olympus Innovation Ventures is looking into the human body
To fix things in the human body, you have to see them. This is what Olympus does. The legendary Japanese camera-maker, which in recent years divested its camera business and went full-tilt into medical devices, retains its core strength of optics and doub
Oct 21, 2024 · 31 min
Opening a new CVC office in the US is not easy – here’s how Lotte Ventures is doing it
With Lotte Group’s expansion into biotech, it wanted its CVC, Lotte Ventures, to set up a new office in the world’s largest biotech innovation ecosystem, the US, with a new – 3-person team in the Bay Area. But going into a new market is never a walk in th
Oct 14, 2024 · 40 min
The US healthcare system has a huge resource shortage. Here’s how small and medium-sized investors can help plug the gap.
The group of smaller and medium-sized investors has been growing, and their value has never been clearer to founders and co-investors. They tend not to seek M&As, neutralising a concern that some startups have about having corporates on their cap tabl
Oct 7, 2024 · 47 min
Petcare will be a half-trillion-dollar market in the next decade, and its not just treats and toys
If you have a pet, you will no doubt have come across one of Mars Petcare’s brands – Pedigree, Whiskas, Iams, Royal Canin, and many others – it is the biggest company in a global petcare market which, depending on what figures you look at, stood at around
Sep 30, 2024 · 21 min
Radical change is needed to fix CVC’s gender problem. Here are some ideas.
Today I’m talking to my colleague Angela Logan, news and production editor at GCV. Angela recently had a very interesting interview with Nichola Bates, head of global accelerators and innovation programmes at Boeing (which you can read here) in which Bate
Sep 23, 2024 · 51 min
Investing in the hard assets of cleantech – a conversation with TechEnergy Ventures’ Alejandro Solé
My guest today is Alejandro Solé, chief investment officer of TechEnergy Ventures, the CVC unit for the energy transition division of Tecpetrol, an energy company that is part of Italian-Argentine industrial conglomerate Techint group, which has under its
Sep 16, 2024 · 37 min
Making investing for everyone – a conversation with FISV’s Alokik Advani
Investment is no longer the exclusive domain of investors. Increasingly sophisticated tools are coming on the market that are giving everyone access to investment capabilities that used to be confined to institutions and financial professionals. My guest
Sep 9, 2024 · 45 min
Sabanci wants to invest $200m into renewables technology
My guest today is Murat Arcan, managing director of Sabanci Climate Ventures, the CVC unit of Sabanci Climate Technologies, the international energy arm of one of Turkey’s largest conglomerates.
Sep 2, 2024 · 42 min
Venture clienting as an entry point for more risk-averse corporates
As companies are increasingly looking for faster innovation cycles and increased collaboration with startups, but don’t always want the risk associated with direct investment, venture clienting has grown massively in popularity in recent years.
Aug 26, 2024 · 51 min
Can mining be at the forefront of the energy transition? A conversation with Vale Ventures’ Bruno Arcadier
Paradoxical though it may seem that an industry as extractive in nature as mining would be so important to making the world more sustainable, that’s exactly the case. Partly that’s because of the need to reduce its own impact – bringing down its emissions
Aug 19, 2024 · 52 min
LatAm is hungrier for venture service providers – a conversation with Innova 360’s Laura Chicurel
Historically, Latin American corporates, have been risk averse, wanting control, often family-owned, and that has been a barrier to innovation, but that is changing now, and they are more open to doing things in a new way, if for no other reason that it’s
Aug 5, 2024 · 46 min
Should accelerators chase revenue instead of investment?
The “typical” accelerator model as we know it – a cohort of young startups that go through some sort of curriculum and hopefully convince investors to back them at the end of it – sometimes offers mixed results. Founders may well find that the conversatio
Jul 29, 2024 · 50 min
Innovating in an intractable healthcare system
The US healthcare market is a big, complicated one. It’s fragmented, it’s large, with long sales and feedback cycles, making it difficult to innovate and bring about change at scale, especially that which the venture model would be patient enough for.
Jul 15, 2024 · 59 min
A year of learning at InMotion Ventures – Mike Smeed returns
Last September, I had the pleasure on this show of speaking to Mike Smeed, managing director of InMotion Ventures, the VC unit of Jaguar Land Rover, when he had just recently completed his first year on the job, which was also his first year as a CVC at a