Dr Ulrich Quay

Partner @ NATO Innovation Fund (NIF)

About

Joined NATO Innovation Fund in August 2025. investment areas: collective security, e.g. energy, materials science, artificial intelligence, data and computing, autonomy, quantum computing, biotechnology, space. Started, built out and ran (until 06/2021) BMW's EUR 500m EU/US Corporate Venture unit BMW i Ventures with offices in San Francisco, Mountain View, New York and Munich. Developed BMW i Ventures into a VC fund with top quartile returns (7 portfolio firms IPO'd, 10 unicorns). Investment areas: e-mobility, artificial intelligence, cyber security, Industry 4.0, shared mobility, customer digital life, sustainability, autonomous driving, digital car and automotive cloud.

Country

Netherlands

City

Amsterdam

Industry

Automotive

Skill

Banking Law, Business Networking, Litigation, Angel Investing, Legal Advice, Team Leadership, CEOs, Finance, Business Analysis, Startups, Investment Strategies, Corporate Venture Capital, Strategic Thinking, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Corporate Governance, Intellectual Property, Joint Ventures, Due Diligence, Corporate Law, Mergers

Experience

Partner

NATO Innovation Fund (NIF)

2025-8 - Present · 1 yr 2 mos

Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

NIF is a standalone venture capital fund backed by 24 NATO allies, deploying €1 billion+ in deep tech. It provides deep tech entrepreneurs in the transatlantic deep tech sector with unprecedented access to 24 allied governments, who have not only invested in NIF, but also work closely with us to provide access to both commercial and government markets

Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Freenow

2024-7 - 2025-8 · 1 yr 2 mos

Hamburg, Germany

FREENOW is the Super Mobility App with the largest vehicle choice for consumers across Europe available in 9 markets and in over 150 cities.

VP Corporate Investment Management + Joint Ventures

BMW Group

2021-7 - 2025-8 · 4 yrs 2 mos

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Focus areas: cooperation management, strategic projects and transactions, development of business models, restructuring, M&A. 2021-2023: Chinese joint ventures, especially BMW Brilliance (23.000 employees, largest producer of premium cars in China) and JV with Great Wall Motors. since 2024: Managing Director of YourNow Holding GmbH + Chairman of the Supervisory Board at FreeNow

Founder + Managing Partner

BMW i Ventures

2011-7 - 2021-6 · 10 yrs

New York, NY, Mountain View, CA, San Francisco, CA

Started and built out BMW i Ventures, BMW's Corporate Venture fund. Off-the balance sheet investments from 2011-2016, invested out of 500m Fund I from 2016-2021 and raised 300m BMW i Ventures Fund II. Investment areas: e-mobility, artificial intelligence, cyber security, Industry 4.0, shared mobility, customer digital life, sustainability, autonomous driving, digital car and automotive cloud. Personal investments: - Autofi: fintech - Carbon: additive manufacturing solution (observer seat) - Chargemaster: EV charging solutions (acquired by BP in June 2018) - Chargepoint: electric vehicle charging network (observer seat) - Embark: mobile application for public transportation (acquired by top Tech company in 2013) - Fair: car-as-a-service - observer seat - Life 360 (IPO in May 2019) - observer seat - Moovit: world's largest repository of transit data (acquired by Intel) - observer seat - Ridecell: Fleet IoT automation solutions - board seat - Shift: used car platform, IPO in 2020 - board seat - Stratim: enterprise logistics platform (acquired by KAR in 2018) - observer seat - Tekion: digital service experience platform for dealers - board seat - Turo: C2C car sharing - Xometry: on-demand custom manufacturing - IPO in 2021 - board seat - Zendrive: AI platform to improve safety for drivers - Zum: transportion for schools - board seat