News and events

Synchrony to Present a First-Ever White Paper at the 2012 Corporate Venturing and Innovation Conference, February 7 & 8th in Newport Beach, CA

We are pleased to announce that Synchrony Venture Management will present a White Paper titled:

Redefining the CVC Paradigm: An Empirical Toolkit for Screening, Selecting & Measuring Strategic Investments

For years, corporate venture capital professionals have debated whether CVC programs should focus on generating financial returns, on one hand, or achieving strategic goals on the other. The discussion is based on the assumption that there is an inevitable trade-off between the two. This dichotomy is outdated.

In a first for the IBF Corporate Venturing and Innovation Partnering Conference, Synchrony Venture Management will present a white paper on the topic of establishing a framework for targeting strategic investments and succinctly measuring their contribution to enterprise goals over time.

During this eponymous presentation, Adam Caper, Synchrony’s Managing Director, and Iain Cooper, the head of Schlumberger’s Early Phase Technology Initiative (CVC) group, will describe Synchrony’s methodology – Innovation Capitalsm –publicly for the first time.

Topics Include:

Selecting the highest value gaps and opportunities to address through investments and partnerships with early-stage firms
Normalizing disparate non-financial value-drivers for inclusion in a generalized, empirically-based analytic model
Tracking the performance of partnerships with early-stage investees over time
Succinctly articulating both the financial and “intangible” contributions of individual CVC investments and the overall portfolio to corporate goals

Click here to request a copy of the white paper when it becomes available.

If you register using our discount code SVM400, you’ll enjoy a $400 discount off your general registration.

Hope to see you in Newport Beach!

Synchrony Partners with Schlumberger to Sponsor the 8th Annual Clean-Tech Investor Summit

On February 1 & 2, 2012, the who’s-who of the early stage clean-tech investment community will convene at the 8th Annual Clean-Tech Investor Summit to discuss the most critical issues facing the clean-tech sector. As always, the Summit will feature some of the most interesting, provocative, and compelling speakers at what has clearly become one of the leading clean-tech events of the year.

We hope you'll join Synchrony with our partner Schlumberger at the summit.

When registering, please use our discount code IRA-SVM to enjoy $500 off of your general registration.

Corporate Venture Capital 2.0 at AlwaysOn: See the Video and Download the Presentation
December 29th, 2010

The AlwaysOn Venture Summit Silicon Valley was huge success. Adam wants to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of you who attended the Summit and joined him for the ‘Corporate Venture Capital 2.0’ panel. He also wants to thank his distinguished colleagues Drew Clark (IBM Venture Capital Group), Jai Das (SAP Ventures), Luis Llovera (Robert Bosch Venture Capital) and Marc Theeuwes (Nokia Growth Partners), for making it such a lively and informative discussion.

For those of you who couldn't make it to the Summit, or for those who did and would like to watch it again, AlwaysOn has posted the panel in its entirety. Watch the discussion by clicking here. The slides that were presented before the start of the discussion are also currently available here.

Venture Summit Silicon Valley 2010

Venture Summit Silicon Valley is a two-day gathering that highlights the significant economic, political, and technology trends impacting the global growth investor. The Venture Summit features the most influential institutional investors, venture capitalists, corporate buyers, investment bankers, and research analysts in keynote presentations and panel debates. The Venture Summit will also host 14 Best of Breed CEO Showcases handpicked from the AlwaysOn annual top 100 private company list and 36 other qualified six-minute CEO pitches from companies seeking later-stage capital or potential acquirers.

We hope you'll join Synchrony & AlwaysOn at the summit. If you register from this link, you'll enjoy a $1,000 discount on attendance, our holiday gift to you!

Global Corporate Venturing
Synchrony's Adam Caper now has a monthly column in Global Corporate Venturing's new magazine. You can read "Ask Adam" below or visit them online to register for the full publication.

"Ask Adam" from Global Corporate Venturing, September 2010 (270k PDF)

"Ask Adam" from Global Corporate Venturing, Aug 2010 (410k PDF)

"Ask Adam" from Global Corporate Venturing, July 2010 (450k PDF)

Synchrony Venture News
Synchrony Venture News provides insight and commentary on corporate venture capital and the entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem:

Synchrony Venture News, October 2008 (1237k pdf)

- Adam Caper on the Market Turmoil and Innovation Opportunities
- Rise of Venture Capital Has Changed The Innovation Landscape
- CVC Leaders Embrace Open Innovation at TechConnect
- Innovation Index Fund Outperforms Market by a Wide Margin

Synchrony Venture News, January 2008 (1191k pdf)

- Corporate Venture Capital - A New Era
- The Innovation CapitalSM Experts Grow Their Team
- Corporate Venture Capital Deal Involvement Reaching 22%, CVC Dollars = Smart Money
- SECTOR SPOTLIGHT: Turning Green into Gold, Venture capital investment in clean tech and nanotech continues to grow at record levels

Entrepreneurship Innovation and Growth Symposium, Nov 6-7, 2006
This year, Synchrony Venture Management is helping to sponsor the Entrepreneurship Innovation and Growth Symposium. The EIG series is geared to address the needs of individuals managing New Business Development/ Growth departments, Corporate and Divisional R&D organizations, Internal Ventures/Corporate Venture Capital and Strategic Planning groups. Click here to register with the special Synchrony Venture Management Rate, or click here to read the agenda for the symposium (PDF).

WBUR interview May 23, 2006
Adam Caper, founder and managing director, was interviewed on WBUR on Wednesday, May 23, by Martha Bebinger. The story focused on the area’s economic competitiveness and the advantages of doing business in Boston. Click here to read the transcript.

Startup Cornering Corporate-VC Niche (628k pdf)
Private Equity Insider
April 14, 2006

New firm to help midsize companies flex venture arms
Mass High Tech
April 7, 2006
Christopher Calnan interviews Synchrony founder Adam Caper regarding opportunities in corporate venture capital for Global 2000 companies.

Can corporate venture capital help companies innovate? How to use outside investments as a source of innovation. (106k pdf)
Strategy & Innovation
March-April 2006, Volume 4, Number 2
Innosight, the consulting firm started by Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen, recently profiled Synchrony as a solution to many of the inherent challenges of CVC