Strengthening the Bridge: The Evolution of Business Development at Amex Ventures

Since 2011, Amex Ventures has invested in over 100 early-stage startups across the consumer, fintech, commerce, enterprise technology and software, and frontier technology sectors – with notable investments in companies such as Stripe, Instacart, and Toast. Over that period, our mission has been to deliver more than capital. We aim to unlock strategic value both for startups and American Express.

Nearly two-thirds of our portfolio companies have had commercial partnerships with American Express, whether through enterprise partnerships, product distribution, or joint development efforts. As our platform has matured, so has our approach to enabling those connections.

Over the past three years, Amex Ventures has evolved business development into a structured and scalable capability designed to broaden our investment sourcing efforts, deepen startup engagement, and accelerate strategic priorities across the American Express enterprise.

What We've Learned

1. Focus creates traction

   We concentrated our efforts on the areas where we believe Amex Ventures has a clear advantage: the strength of the American Express brand and our ability to drive meaningful connections between startups and the enterprise. Amex Ventures prioritizes investing in sectors where American Express has clear strategic interests, and where we can create differentiated value for startups. Staying focused on these areas has allowed us to act quickly when the right opportunity arises.

    

2. Relationships drive outcomes

   Trusted, two-way relationships with founders, VCs, and internal colleagues are the foundation of every successful collaboration. Strong partnerships not only contribute to commercial value, but they also make us better investors and innovation partners.

    

3. Integration matters

   We work in close partnership with our investment team and stakeholders across the American Express enterprise. That cross-functional collaboration helps us surface commercial opportunities early and pursue them strategically through various startup experimentation constructs.

    

How We've Evolved

Business development has consistently been core to Amex Ventures, but over the past three years, we have brought greater structure and scale. What began as a series of one-off introductions and exploratory partnerships has grown into a formalized capability focused on connecting the startup ecosystem with the American Express enterprise.

• Strategic matching: We’ve developed a more systematic approach to identifying startups aligned with American Express business needs and guiding them through our global organization.

• Ecosystem building: We teamed up with accelerators like Project W, Visible Hands, and Goodie Nation. We’ve hosted dozens of founder and VC events across New York, San Francisco, and London. Along the way, we shifted toward smaller, topic-driven gatherings like our dinner series, creating spaces for targeted dialogue with American Express leaders.

• VC alignment: We’ve deepened our relationships with early-stage investors whose portfolios align with our priorities, creating a pipeline of high-potential startups positioned for collaboration.

• Support at scale: We continue to support commercial opportunities with American Express for portfolio companies, but we now also do so for other select startups that may offer strategic value to American Express.

This evolution has reinforced the role of Amex Ventures as an investor that brings more than capital to the table, and as a gateway into the American Express enterprise for a new generation of innovators.

Looking Ahead

Today, the business development team works alongside the investment team to identify commercial opportunities, contribute to global deal flow, and grow a trusted community of founders and investors who see the value of working with Amex Ventures. By scaling and refining this capability, Amex Ventures is better equipped to support the startups that we engage with and to help American Express stay at the forefront of innovation.

We are grateful to the many colleagues, founders, and investors who have helped shape this journey. If you are interested in exploring collaboration opportunities, we would love to connect. Reach us at amexventures@aexp.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Published Date August 25, 2025