The Strategic Venture Association has become a Special General Partner in the CIQ platform and Jon Nieman, Vice Chairman of CIQ who is responsible for its alternative investment activities, has joined the advisory board of SVA. Atlanta, GA (PRWeb) January 29, 2007 -- Collective IQ (http://www.collectiveiq.com), founded by William "Billy G" Glynn, ranked one of the world's top innovators by InformationWeek magazine, announced today the company's partnership with the Strategic Venture Association (SVA) [http://www.strategicventureassociation.com. The Strategic Venture Association has become a Special General Partner in the CIQ platform and Jon Nieman, Vice Chairman of CIQ who is responsible for its alternative investment activities, has joined the advisory board of SVA.

"We are pleased to be aligned with such an esteemed group of corporations and leading edge thinkers, Nieman said. "The strategic approach built with our partners and private equity funds focused on the corporate venture space has outperformed traditional venture capital and offers CIQ a landscape of opportunities, deals and alliances," he continued.

Naveed Khan, Executive Director of SVA and former Managing Director of Siemens Ventures will serve as the key driver in the relationship. SVA is a trade association currently representing 103 global corporate venture programs. SVA serves the corporate venture community much the same way the National Venture Capital Association serves venture capitalists.

"CIQ has been a great partner to the Strategic Venture Association," mentioned Khan. "I have personally witnessed the power and caliber of the Rolodex the team utilizes. This leaves little doubt that they have entered the big leagues. We are excited to have the CIQ team as a resource to help build value for the Strategic Venture Association and our membership base."

"The industry is getting back to its roots where the corporate capital invested in deals is very strategic to businesses and where corporate programs are seeking more and more early stage investing and acquisitions," said Collective IQ Advisor Mark Barry, founder of Microsoft's Emerging Business Unit and Venture Partner at OpenView Venture, at the CIQ annual event held at Duke University for the past decade. "Today the volume of technology innovation and deal flow looks strong. Corporations recognize that external innovation will be a value builder and that M&A will remain healthy and corporations are increasingly seeking smaller, strategic acquisitions and are investing earlier in a company's life cycles."

About The Strategic Venture Association (http://www.StrategicVentureAssociation.com)
Established in 2003, SVA provides a platform for learning and networking for corporate venturing professionals. It provides seminars, forums, and panel discussions on a regular basis where its membership discusses and learns new approaches and best practices in corporate venturing. Their purpose is to promote corporate venturing at all levels in the industry and institutionalize corporate venturing as a significant approach in corporate growth and innovation. Speakers who have addressed SVA members since 1994 are global corporations including Vinod Khosla, Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins, Les Vadasz, former Head of Intel Capital, Claudia Fan Munce, VP of Corporate Strategy at IBM and Professor Henry Chesbrough, Executive Director of the Center for Technology Strategy & Management at UC Berkeley.

About CollectiveIQ
Collective IQ (http://www.collectiveiq.com) is a Corporate Merchant Bank focused on a family of elite private equity funds (niche equity, buy out, leasing, sub debt, and mezzanine) and a portfolio of companies. Headquartered in Atlanta, with offices worldwide, CIQ serves as the corporate venture and development team for a network of Global 1000 organizations.

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