Critical Dependencies: Strategic Capital and Digital Infrastructure
Session Overview
Critical Dependencies: Strategic Capital and Digital Infrastructure
Industrial resilience requires capital that backs what matters—and systems that don't break. Panel one asks where the money comes from: corporate venture units, industrial deep-tech investors, and venture builders operating with different logic than traditional VCs. Longer timelines, harder problems, competitive advantage measured in decades. Panel two examines digital infrastructure—cloud concentration risk, cybersecurity at operational scale, AI governance, and data continuity. Two sessions, one throughline: building industries that last .
Strategic Capital and Corporate Venture Building
The session combines a short diagnostic panel with a moderated working discussion. Participants will jointly develop a concise Manifesto for Strategic Investment, outlining practical principles and commitments on capital deployment, de-risking mechanisms, and execution models. The goal is to leave Davos with clear next steps and a small number of working groups that may continue beyond WEF.
This is not a sponsor event, not a policy showcase, and not a vision panel.
It is designed for candid exchange and practical outcomes.
The session is convened in partnership with the CVC | Open Innovation Summit platform, which works with senior corporate leaders to redirect more corporate capital toward long-term, system-level change — moving beyond isolated pilots or minority investments to sustained capital deployment that reshapes industries, supply chains, and human systems.
The platform is complemented by Inside CVC, a closed executive dialogue series that functions as an extension of this leadership circle, enabling continuity of board- and C-suite-level conversations on capital, governance, and execution beyond individual convenings.
Corporate and CVC perspectives on long-cycle, capital-intensive investments
Where venture capital logic works — and where it breaks — in energy and infrastructure
Execution and integration risk between financing and delivery
Human systems, workforce, and care as economic infrastructure for industrial resilience
Host / Speakers
Philipp Willigmann — Managing Partner U-Path / CVC & OI Summit
Jeppe Høier — ,Head of Corporate Venture Capital Jungheinrich
Prof. Dr. Katharina Janus — President and CEO ENJOY STRATEGY
Ivo Ronner — Principal VC Swiss Post Ventures
Marta Paiar — Senior Director Partnerships Worley
Critical Materials: Dependencies, Geopolitics, and Supply Chain Security
Critical minerals underpin batteries, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing. Most refining is concentrated in one or two countries, creating vulnerability to geopolitics and trade restrictions. Covers dependencies, refining bottlenecks, recycling opportunities, and how firms manage exposure when access becomes uncertain.
Host / Speakers
Therese Anthony — Executive Director Strategic Council Swiss Re
Puay-Guan Goh — Associate Professor National University of Singapore
Serhat Cicekoglu — Managing Partner Sente Ventures
Arezo Kohistany — Managing Director Electrum Group
James E. Mister, AIGP — Director, Eric M. Warburg San Francisco Chapter American Council on Germany
Mike Butcher — Editor-at-large TechCrunch
Industry Resilience
Infrastructure, supply chains, capital, and policy for industrial resilience.
Industrial systems face three converging forces: geopolitical fragmentation exposing supply chains and trade flows; competing industrial models where China, India, and the US can reorganize capacity faster than Europe; and technological shifts—AI, automation, quantum, biotech, advanced materials—reshaping cost structures and resilience requirements.
This program, convened in partnership with CVC | Open Innovation Summit and Inside CVC, examines how businesses and governments build durable industrial capacity. Four panels cover the domains where resilience has highest systemic impact:
Strategic Capital and Corporate Venture Building – how CVCs and venture builders deploy capital with different logic than traditional VCs: longer timelines, harder problems, competitive advantage measured in decades
Digital Infrastructure and Resilient Businesses – cloud concentration risk, cybersecurity at operational scale, AI governance, data continuity
Critical Minerals and Secure Supply Chains – mineral dependencies, refining bottlenecks, recycling, geopolitical exposure
Europe's Roadmap for Industrial Resilience – cross-sector dialogue on priorities
Each session combines a diagnostic panel with moderated working discussion. Participants will jointly develop a Manifesto for Strategic Investment—practical principles on capital deployment, de-risking mechanisms, and execution models. The goal: leave Davos with clear next steps and working groups that continue beyond WEF.
This is not a sponsor event, policy showcase, or vision panel. It is designed for candid exchange and practical outcomes.