Comcast Ventures

Amy Banse served as managing director and head of funds from 2011 through 2020, and was the group's public face across its most active decade. Allison Goldberg was named managing partner in November 2021, after the unit had moved inside Comcast's corporate development organization; partners alongside her as of late 2023 included Marc Silberman and Michelle Chang.

Sam Schwartz, Comcast's chief business development officer for Connectivity and Platforms, has overseen the investing group since the November 2020 reorganization that ended its standalone status. Laurence Toney joined in 2015 as the partner who led the Catalyst Fund's West Coast expansion and its mandate to back Black, Latinx and female-led companies. Investments made under this bench include Slack, FanDuel, Vox Media, Away and Dandelion Energy.

Comcast Ventures traces to 1999, when Comcast formed Comcast Interactive Capital. In early 2011 Comcast merged that unit with the Peacock Fund to create Comcast Ventures under a single brand. The group invested off Comcast's balance sheet rather than raising outside limited partner capital, so it has no Form D fund filings and no vintage years; capital was allocated internally by the parent.

In 2012 it launched the Catalyst Fund with $20 million under management, a sub-fund for companies led by entrepreneurs who typically lack access to venture capital. Catalyst expanded to the West Coast in 2015 with Laurence Toney joining as partner, and backed roughly 70 companies over its first decade. Between 2011 and 2017 Comcast Ventures invested in 105 early-stage companies, and it carried about 120 active positions into its final independent year. In November 2020 Comcast folded the venture arm into its corporate business development division under Sam Schwartz, narrowing the mandate to strategic investments tied to Comcast's operating businesses and ending the unit's run as a standalone financial investor.