Spotlight: BMWiVentures featured team member Atanas Mukov

Tell us about yourself.

I have been a venture capital investor since 2014 and have been involved with early stage technology-first businesses in Europe and Israel. Born and raised in Bulgaria, after finishing high school I arrived in Germany, where I obtained a Bachelor of Sciences in Business Administration and Masters of Sciences in Management degrees from the University of Mannheim and WHU respectively.

Having experienced first hand the difficulties of starting from humble beginnings and jumping into a high performance environment in a totally different place than the one you know, led to an immense appreciation of the work of founders when setting up and building businesses from scratch. Thus, I developed a strong passion for working with such exceptional individuals, who dare to take these risks and challenge established industries. This is why I chose to be a venture capital investor.

I have been with BMW i Ventures since 2018 - when I got my MBA from INSEAD - and here I played a role in the firm's investments in Motorway, Upstream Security, AutoBrains, ELISE, Yellowbrick and Graphcore. Previously, I worked for Creathor Ventures - a German early stage fund - where I invested in companies, such as Lengoo and Ingrid Cloud.

What do you focus on at BMW i Ventures?

I am involved with the firm’s investments in Europe and Israel. Some of the industries and problems that interest me and I have been spending time on are manufacturing automation, computer aided engineering, procurement optimization, machine learning explainability and online vehicle marketplaces. There will for sure be many more in the future, as one of the distinctive constants of the VC job is that nothing is constant and innovation can approach from any direction.

What was your pathway into venture capital?

I got fascinated by venture capital and the opportunities it creates for the world while I was still at university and this became my ultimate career goal. Then I faced a dilemma - on the one hand, operational experience is bringing many advantages in better understanding founders' challenges along their way, while on the other hand, to learn how to invest you better start investing as soon as possible. I decided to follow the 10,000 hour rule, chose the latter and worked relentlessly until I got the internships I needed and ultimately an entry level position in VC. Starting so early helped me collect a vast benchmark of situations in boardrooms and founder conversations, which I am now using to support the excellent individuals who are leading the companies in our portfolio.

What do you look for in a potential investment?

Founder grit and a down-to-earth attitude.

What is your most contrarian view on an existing or emerging technology trend?

The recent trend of heavy investment into space travel technology is entirely unsustainable. While it certainly enables innovation in related technologies, such as propulsion systems and life support in adverse conditions, there is currently no realistic economically viable scenario how these activities can lead to higher utility for anyone but a minority of wealthy individuals longing for an exclusive tourism experience. We have much more pressing problems with higher return on invested capital for humanity to solve here on earth - such as avoiding a climate disaster.

What advice would you impart to entrepreneurs?

Hard work and quick failure. There is no replacement for this. This is what I have been employing ever since I arrived in Germany in 2008 with far from awesome language skills and going through hundreds of no's. It is the only proven formula I know for success.

What’s something interesting about yourself that most people may not know?

I am passionate about my motorbike and MotoGP. In many ways high speed motorcycle racing resembles VC backed entrepreneurship - outsized returns are only achieved with outsized dedication, at every corner riders are making risk/return assessments with high standard deviation outcomes - a successful overtake could easily become a fall and thus a total race loss. Even the greatest rider can’t win without a talented and driven engineering and operations team behind him. And in both timing plays a crucial role, as well as luck favors the well prepared.

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