Alumna Madhuri Mukherjee on Effective Corporate Venture Capital Impact

Madhuri Mukherjee is a Senior Consultant at Dalberg’s Nairobi office. In her present role she has worked with a range of clients and inn sectors - such as developing a universal health coverage strategy for an African country to working with a large Foundation to develop EdTech solutions for low resource environments. Prior to Dalberg, Madhuri was an Assistant Vice President at Credit Suisse where she focused on market and credit risk management. Before that she worked at Goldman Sachs in corporate risk management. Madhuri has a Masters in International Business from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode and a Bachelors in Economics from the University of Delhi.

What is your research about?

My research is about identifying how Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) can be most effectively deployed for impact investing, while remaining aligned with the strategic and business objectives of the parent organization. It is not unexpected that businesses in the future will need to consider convergence of trends in technology, economic growth, society and culture while forming strategies. Given that forecast, CVC funds and their investments can contribute to overall business strategy creation by unraveling long term consumer demands and trends, uncovering proof of concept businesses where the private sector can support provision of public services, reallocation of resource consumption to more sustainable patterns and incorporating social impact in the core of a business' strategy.

What are the implications of your research?

Given the nascent nature of CVC impact investments, the broad purpose of my research is to socialize CVC impact investments within corporates, among social enterprises and with impact investors. The primary aim of my research is to inform executives and members of the C-suite of corporations on the purpose of CVC funds as a viable route for innovation that can improve the value of the firm and help create more sustainable business models. For corporations, CVC impact investments can help to advance business strategy by capturing new markets, new customer segments, developing new products and services, driving innovation and attracting and retaining talent. For impact investors, my research demonstrates that CVC units can provide viable co-investment opportunities as their intent for investing can be different and complementary to traditional investors. For social entrepreneurs, my report suggests that the value-addition of CVC impact investors is much more than just capital - including capacity building and access to relevant markets - to benefit the business of the entrepreneur.

Publication:

2020 Fletcher Capstone: Corporate Impact Investing: A Deep Dive into the Landscape of Corporations Venturing into Impact.