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B Growth Network: How Citi is Bringing a Novel Approach to Discovering, Evaluating and Integrating VC-Backed Technology

October 26, 2022

An Exclusive Interview with Todd Speece, Managing Director - Head of VC Coverage at Citi

Citi spends around $12 billion annually on technology. That technology is deployed across every corner of the business and supports approximately 200,000 employees globally.

Since 2020, Todd Speece has been focused on connecting all the pieces of Citi’s significant technology investment together holistically. As Head of Citi’s VC Coverage Group, he has helped reshape how Citi finds and integrates new technology by partnering directly with venture capital firms like B Capital.

B Growth Network sat down with Todd to learn more about Citi’s VC Coverage Group and their partnership with B Capital:

Q: What problem were you trying to solve when you joined Citi’s VC Coverage Group?

Todd: “Citi has around 40,000 engineers devoted to running our global businesses efficiently with technology solutions. The current process of finding and evaluating new technology solutions on such a massive scale is very inefficient. The VC ecosystem, like B Capital, is best in class at finding and funding the best technology companies in the world. We plan on leveraging that VC ecosystem as one of our sources for discovering technology solutions, greatly reducing our current inefficiencies.”

Q: What Does Citi’s Venture Coverage Group Do?

Todd: “Simply put: we bring the entire Citi ecosystem to venture capital funds and their portfolio companies. To accomplish this, we are creating an internal ecosystem where we bring in the best technology solutions from the VC ecosystem and B Capital. Once inside our ecosystem, we make sure the right engineers are evaluating the technology and we also want our innovation labs and our internal VC investors to evaluate that technology opportunity at the same time. This will allow us to provide the most comprehensive feedback to the technology companies and the VC funds as they navigate their way through Citi. We also want our investment and commercial bankers to be aware of what technology companies are in our ecosystem as we can help them  think about capital raises, cash management and strategic M&A.”

Q: How do you partner with venture firms like B Capital?

Todd: “We rely on B Capital to help us find the most innovative technology with world-class founders. VCs like B Capital are at the peak of the innovation curve, and so we partner with and invest alongside them in technology that will support Citi’s ecosystem. It’s really a win-win-win situation for Citi, B Capital, and B Capital’s portfolio companies.”

This information is provided for reference only and you should not rely upon this information to form the definitive basis for any decision, contract, commitment or action. Much of the relevant information is derived directly from various sources which B Capital believes to be reliable, but without independent verification. Certain statements reflected herein reflect the subjective opinions and views of B Capital personnel. Such statements cannot be independently verified and are subject to change.

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