☕️ Innovation Espresso #30
Gearing up for GCV Symposium 2025, AI to declutter your inbox, Meta’s next bet, and more from the venturing world.
Welcome to Innovation Espresso, a quick yet powerful dose of curated news, articles, videos, reels, newsletters, and podcasts that I’ve found particularly interesting throughout the week. While I focus on Open Innovation and Corporate Venturing, you’ll find this quick yet potent dose covers more ground. Enjoy with your morning coffee!
🚨 Big news! I’ll be attending the GCV Symposium 2025—one of the most important global gatherings for corporate venturing professionals. It’s happening in London, June 17–19, and promises to be packed with top-tier insights, operators, and investors.
If you’re planning to be there too, let’s connect! Drop me a message on LinkedIn or leave a comment. Would love to meet up, share notes, and talk innovation over a real espresso.
Now let’s start with this week’s episode.
💊 Innovation Pills
🚕 Waymo’s robotaxis are racking up 250,000 paid rides a week—and this is just the beginning
🎙️ This guy turned literally everything in his life into an AI podcast
🍏 Apple’s AI team is having a breakup moment—and it’s messier than we thought
📱 Creators are changing marketing (again): here’s what brands need to know
🤖 Amazon just gave its robots a “sense of touch” — and it’s a game changer
🧠 Neuralink’s first patient just made a YouTube video with his brain
✏️ Figma now lets you generate entire sites from text—and it’s shockingly good
🧪 New HBR data shows how people really use GenAI in 2025 (Infographic above)
Ah, in China, a robot was caught on CCTV video "attacking" two men in an unusual incident:
☕️ Your weekly sip of Corporate Venturing News
📉 Startup funding drops again in April—AI still dominates deals
Crunchbase reports global VC funding continues to slow, but AI remains the #1 sector for deals, showing the persistent corporate and investor appetite for generative tech. Source
💸 Bosch Ventures fires up a new €250M fund
Bosch’s CVC arm launched its sixth fund to continue investing in deeptech, AI, and sustainability. The move reinforces Bosch’s long-term strategy of leveraging startups to stay competitive in industrial and mobility innovation. Source
🌏 Singapore is quietly building a CVC playbook
A new guide by Global Venturing showcases Singapore’s approach to supporting local corporations in setting up and running successful venture units. From Temasek to DBS Bank, Asia’s corporate innovation game is maturing fast. Source
🚘 Geely wants Zeekr back—EV strategy meets trade war reality
Chinese automotive giant Geely is planning to take its EV subsidiary Zeekr private, pulling it from US markets as trade tensions escalate. What does this mean for CVCs exposed to cross-border deals? Source
🇮🇹 Intel’s venture arm: in or out of the house?
This piece from EconomyUp dives into the structural dilemmas of corporate venture capital—should CVCs be inside or outside the mothership? Intel’s internal reorganization sparks debate. (Italian—use browser translation) Source
🎶 Yamaha hits Silicon Valley with new Music Innovations Fund
Yamaha’s latest venture fund will invest in startups at the intersection of music, creativity, and tech—think generative AI, smart instruments, and sonic experiences. Source
🤝 Capgemini and ISAI team up for second venture fund
The €50M ISAI Cap Venture II will target French and European B2B startups in AI, cloud, and cybersecurity. A strong signal that consultancy-driven CVC models are going strong. Source
💼 Why founders shouldn’t underestimate CVC money
Corporate venture capital isn’t just “strategic fluff”—it can offer speed, scale, and staying power. Here’s how to evaluate CVCs as partners from an entrepreneurial POV. Source
🧠 OpenAI to acquire Windsurf for $3B
In a major signal about where AI platforms are headed, OpenAI is acquiring startup Windsurf for a reported $3 billion. The deal is aimed at boosting memory and context capabilities across models—a critical infrastructure play. This is one to watch for the future of AI. Source
📹 Something to watch
Benedict Evans is back—this time breaking down the current state of AI in “AI Continues to Eat the World,” a Fortune-hosted session streamed just days ago. He dives into what’s happening under the surface of AI hype, what matters strategically, and what might come next.
🎧 Something to listen
Are we nearing the end of the smartphone era? In this episode of the a16z Podcast, Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth talks about what comes after apps and touchscreens. Think ambient computing, AR glasses, and platforms built on human intent.
🛠️ Something to try
Cora scans your inbox and distills the chaos—turning your incoming emails into clean, readable summaries. You’ll get two digests a day, so you can skip the clutter and focus on what matters.
🤔 Did you know?
Engineers are using origami—yes, paper folding—to design next-gen stents, antennas, and even jet wings. The ancient art form is inspiring modern mechanical structures that can expand, collapse, and flex in ways traditional materials can’t.
🥐 Espresso is not enough?
One tech columnist admits AI was slowly making him… dumber. In this honest (and funny) piece, he unpacks how over-relying on ChatGPT dulled his thinking—and what he’s doing now to reclaim his cognitive edge.
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See you next week,
Davide