Aarzoo Sharma has joined the EIC Scaling Club as the new Group President for Batteries and Energy Storage, adding invaluable experience and a fresh outlook to the Club's leadership lineup. With her background in physics, engineering, and venture capital, coupled with her passion for sustainability and impact, Aarzoo brings a unique perspective to the table that promises to be invaluable for deep tech scale-ups navigating the complex world of corporate partnerships and investments.
A global perspective with deep tech expertise
Aarzoo's journey spans continents and disciplines, giving her a broad perspective on innovation and sustainability. Born and raised in India, she moved around frequently as a child, experiencing various cities, geographies, and socioeconomic environments.
Her academic path led her to study physics and engineering, where she developed a strong interest in technology. Simultaneously, she gained practical experience by interning with startups in product marketing and strategy. Recognizing her desire to bridge technology and business, Aarzoo moved to France in 2018 to pursue a Master's in Business.
"Throughout my career, I've been looking at topics within Industry 4.0, supply chain tech, mobility, and decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries."
Her professional journey led her to venture capital investing, where she has been working for the past four years.
Currently, Aarzoo is part of Maersk Growth, which she joined two and a half years ago. In this role, she focuses on finding promising new technologies that can help Maersk reach its ambitious net-zero targets, particularly in areas such as fuels and batteries.
Joining the EIC Scaling Club
Aarzoo's involvement with the EIC Scaling Club stems from her longstanding interest in deep tech innovation. She has been following Hello Tomorrow, a key partner of the EIC Scaling Club, for some time and attended their event earlier this year – “One of the best within deep tech that I've attended, and I think definitely something for both deep tech and climate tech investors to prioritize."
Her connection with the EIC team led to the opportunity to chair the Batteries and Energy Storage group and she jumped on the opportunity, as it aligns closely with her professional interests and direction: “At Maersk, we think that batteries and energy storage are a key part of the solution with respect to decarbonizing our landside footprint."
Bridging the gap between corporates and scale-ups
Aarzoo's experience working with both independent venture capital funds and corporate venture capital puts her in a unique position to help startups navigate the complex world of corporate partnerships and investments.
"I've had the opportunity to see how corporates approach innovation, especially in industries such as logistics, which are not necessarily first movers when it comes to innovation," she says. This insight is particularly valuable as industry titans set aggressive net-zero targets, creating new opportunities for collaboration with innovative scale-ups.
That's why, for startups and scale-ups in the deep tech space, Aarzoo has an important message: "Don't be afraid of corporates and CVCs (Corporate Venture Capital)." While acknowledging the valid reasons for skepticism, especially in the tech space, she emphasizes the crucial role that corporates can play in a startup's journey.
"I think both startups and corporates have to find a way to work together and start to do that early on," Aarzoo advises. She encourages founders to connect with corporates and build relationships well before any formal agreements are needed.
It's a two-way street.
Aarzoo stresses:
"Corporates need startups. I think we're starting to realize that more and more as years go by. And yeah, I think there's a lot of opportunity for CVC to mature and progress and become something that's more helpful to founders and the other way around."
Arzoo outlines several benefits for this type of collaboration, but perhaps one of the most unique and of most interest for Europe's scale-ups is the ability to test their solutions at scale.
Looking ahead
As Group President for Batteries and Energy Storage at the EIC Scaling Club, Aarzoo is excited about the opportunities to learn and connect. She looks forward to engaging with a wider pool of founders and investors, learning about community management, and gaining insights into how governments foster deep tech innovation through initiatives like the EIC Scaling Club.
For those looking to connect with Aarzoo, she encourages reaching out via email – or just approach her when you see her around the community.
About the EIC Scaling Club
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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