Global Corporate Venturing has named Nationwide’s Erik Ross to its Powerlist 100 for the second straight year. The list honors the top 100 heads of corporate venturing units from around the globe.

Ross joined Nationwide in 2014 and was charged with spearheading the venture capital investment strategy, including the disbursement of Nationwide’s $100 million venture capital investment fund. Under Ross’s leadership, Nationwide’s venture capital team has invested in 20 insurtech, fintech, cyber security and other developing startups to date. Those investments continue to create value for not only those companies, but also for Nationwide and its members.

“I’m humbled to receive this honor on behalf of my team for the second straight year. I am fortunate to be surrounded by an exceptional group of people. Our team has great support from Nationwide’s senior executives, business leaders, board, and our founders that make our work possible,” said Ross. “They are the real stars…I’m fortunate to be the venture capital team’s coach.”

Nationwide’s venture capital team’s investments include:
Deep Sentinel, Planck, Upstream Security, KINETIC, Vesta Healthcare, Socotra, Betterview, Nexar, BlueVine, blooom, Insurify, Next Insurance, Matic, Flo Technologies, Sure and NewRetirement. 

Nationwide’s venture capital investment efforts have resulted in several notable partnerships within the portfolio for Nationwide, including: 

• In August 2020, Nationwide’s Private Client team launched a Smart Home Solution with Flo by Moen which will give their customers more control in protecting their homes.
• In November 2019, Nationwide announced a three-year commercial agreement with Betterview. Betterview is quickly becoming the platform essential to every transaction around buildings and properties, enabling the insurance carrier to utilize Betterview's predictive roof analytics and risk management platform for commercial property renewals. 
• In September 2019, Nationwide launched Spire - a simple, easy-to-understand digital auto insurance platform, built on fair and straightforward principles and designed to be convenient and accessible from your phone. Spire chose portfolio company Socotra as the core system to power its new digital insurance platform. 
• In May 2019, Nationwide partnered with small business lender BlueVine and launched the “Pitch to Win” small business contest, which awarded more than $100,000 to small business owners. 

“As the leader of Nationwide’s venture capital team, Erik has helped position Nationwide as a forward-thinking, innovative company with which entrepreneurs and tech start-ups want to do business,” said Mike Mahaffey, Nationwide’s chief strategy and corporate development officer. “His strategic approach and collaborative spirit continue to support Nationwide’s mission to protect people, businesses and futures with extraordinary care.”

For more information about Nationwide’s venture capital strategy and team, visit https://www.nationwide.com/cps/nw-ventures.html.