Dr Ulrich Quay

CEO

Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands25 yrs 11 mos experience

Highly Stable

Key Highlights

Led BMW's Corporate Venture fund to top quartile returns.
Established NATO Innovation Fund for deep tech investments.
Expert in managing joint ventures and strategic partnerships.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Venture Capital expert with extensive experience in strategic investments and corporate governance.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Venture CapitalInvestmentsMergers & Acquisitions (m&a)Strategic ThinkingLegal AdviceLitigation

Other Skills

Acquisition IntegrationBanking LawBusiness DevelopmentBusiness NetworkingBusiness PlanningBusiness StrategyCommercial LitigationCompetition LawContract NegotiationCorporate DevelopmentCorporate GovernanceCorporate LawCorporate Venture CapitalDue DiligenceEnergy

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.

Experience

Nato innovation fund (nif)

Partner

Aug 2025 – Present · 7 mos · Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands · Hybrid

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

EntrepreneurshipInvestmentsStart-upsStrategic PartnershipsVenture Capital

Freenow

Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Jul 2024 – Aug 2025 · 1 yr 1 mo · Hamburg, Germany · Remote

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

Bmw group

VP Corporate Investment Management + Joint Ventures

Jul 2021 – Aug 2025 · 4 yrs 1 mo · 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

Strategic ThinkingStrategic PartnershipsJoint VenturesTeam LeadershipFinanceMergers & Acquisitions (M&A)

Bmw i ventures

Founder + Managing Partner

Jul 2011 – Jun 2021 · 9 yrs 11 mos · 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