Partner at BMW i Ventures · Joined 2017
View Live Interactive Profile →Baris Guzel's path into venture capital started on a manufacturing floor: growing up in Turkey obsessed with cars and technology, he interned conducting Kaizen studies at a car plant while studying industrial engineering at Istanbul Technical University. A DAAD scholarship took him into venture capital in Hamburg, Germany, and after a Duke engineering management degree and an MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler - where he led VCIC, the world's largest venture capital competition - he worked in technology investment banking at Deutsche Bank before joining BMW i Ventures in 2017. His first investment for the firm was leading Xometry's Series B, and he stayed closely involved through the manufacturing marketplace's 2021 Nasdaq IPO, ringing the bell alongside its team. He has since led or co-led investments in Tekion, AutoFi, Zūm, and Solid Power, and continues to support ChargePoint and other public portfolio companies as they scale.