About Synchrony Venture Management
We founded Synchrony because we saw an opportunity to dramatically enhance the interaction between large operating companies and entrepreneurial ventures by reducing many of the obstacles which have traditionally plagued corporate venture capital (CVC) programs.
In analyzing the historically high failure rate of CVC programs, it became clear to us that many of the bad outcomes could be traced to trying to meet the challenges inherent to successful venture capital investing from within a larger organization. As with so many good ideas that turn out not to work as well as expected, the problem was one of fundamental architecture.
Clearly, a new solution was needed. Ours is to engage a group of professional venture capitalists – with all that that entails – in investing for the strategic benefit of corporations. We call this approach Innovation Capitalsm.
What is Innovation Capitalsm
Innovation Capitalsm is the practice of using Corporate Venture Capital as a means of attracting, and interacting with, the early-stage companies that drive change. Our approach is based on the belief that a consistent program of coupling hard-dollar investment with meaningful partnering will attract best of breed opportunities, support high-value collaboration, and drive consistently better strategic and financial outcomes.
At Synchrony we combine diligent internal and external strategic analysis with a framework that supports the two-way transfer of value between portfolio company and corporate investor. As a member of the VC community that builds its investment strategy based entirely on our corporate clients’ strategic brief, Synchrony is well-positioned to knit the disparate worlds of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs on the one hand with that of large operating companies on the other. This approach is allows us to match the rhythms, processes and incentives of the venture capital market – critically important in the increasingly competitive world of early-stage investing.
How We Help
Our services are designed to help our clients use strategic investment dollars to gain access to the huge depth and breadth of innovation that is the hallmark of venture-backed firms. We believe that Innovation Capitalsm, properly directed and accompanied by mutually-beneficial strategic partnerships, can create tremendous value for our corporate clients, our portfolio companies and our co-investors. We actively look for deals in which an early-stage company has a product or service that adds value to our clients, in which our clients can help the portfolio company reach critical milestones, and in which the corporate investor’s involvement contributes to healthy returns for all of the portfolio company’s investors. The pursuit of such triple-bottom line gains is in inherent in our investment philosophy.