TGW Logistics Ventures chief Markovic moves to parent company role

Jelena Markovic has left her post as managing director of TGW Logistics Ventures to lead global strategic market intelligence at TGW Logistics Group, the Austrian warehouse automation company that owns the corporate VC arm.

The move ends Markovic's tenure at the helm of a unit she essentially built. She joined the Vienna-based CVC in early 2024, when it launched under the name Neil&Buzz, and led its relaunch later that same year as TGW Logistics Ventures. She was responsible for restructuring the arm and founding it under its new name, according to Global Venturing.

What does the new job involve?

At the parent company, Markovic will run the continuous analysis and monitoring of markets, competitive landscapes and technological developments. The role sits close to corporate strategy. It signals TGW Logistics Group wants a sharper read on where warehouse automation and adjacent technologies are heading.

Markovic framed the switch in personal terms. Announcing the move on LinkedIn, she wrote that she "will transition from investing strategically along the industrial value chain, to working in the heart of a data driven, strategic and commercial industrial engine."

The quote carries her voice. It also describes the mechanics of the shift: from deploying capital into outside startups to working inside the company's own decision-making apparatus, where data on markets and competitors feeds directly into commercial choices.

What did Markovic build at the CVC?

Her remit at TGW Logistics Ventures covered two areas. She led the unit's European VC investments. She also ran its venture clienting activities, a model in which a corporation buys from startups rather than, or alongside, taking equity in them.

The unit she leaves behind has a defined thesis. TGW Logistics Ventures invests in European deep tech startups offering disruptive solutions across industrial tech and enterprise technology. Its target technologies span robotics, manufacturing, computer vision, cybersecurity and quantum computing. The firm writes checks at a specific stage: late seed to Series A rounds.

That staging matters for the portfolio companies. A late-seed or Series A investor is often the first institutional check a startup takes after proving early traction, and a corporate backer can add distribution as well as capital.

Where did Markovic come from?

Before TGW, Markovic spent time at various VC funds. Earlier, she spent three years at BayWa's corporate venture firm, BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures, where she was involved in all aspects of establishing the investment vehicle and its deal process, from sourcing to portfolio management and board seats, according to Global Venturing.

That background maps onto what she did at TGW: launch a vehicle, set the process, run the deals. She has now moved from that build phase into an intelligence role at the group level, where the skills overlap — competitive analysis, technology monitoring, judgment about which industrial technologies matter.

What happens next?

The question the move raises is succession. The source report names no replacement managing director for TGW Logistics Ventures, and the unit's investment pace, thesis and venture clienting program now depend on who takes over, and when. For TGW Logistics Group, the immediate signal runs the other way: the company has pulled the person who ran its venture arm into the core business to sharpen how it reads markets and technology, which suggests competitive intelligence now ranks as a strategic priority for the Austrian automation group.

Separately, Global Venturing used the report to invite nominations for its annual Rising Stars and Emerging Leaders awards, which recognize early and mid-career team members at corporate VC units.