42 | Influential Businesswoman Awards 2026 Most Influential Corporate Venture Capital Businesswoman 2026 (UK): Annie Goman Btomorrow Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of BAT, a leading consumer goods company known for its purpose of creating A Better Tomorrow™ by Building a Smokeless World. As the Managing Director, Annie Goman is responsible for £350m across two funds to support early-stage companies at the forefront of innovation. For more on her role, career, and the impact she has had, we sat down with Annie following her recognition in this year’s Influential Businesswoman Awards. Contact: Annie Goman Company: Btomorrow Ventures Web Address: www.btomorrowv.com Btomorrow Ventures (BTV) exists to accelerate the ambitious transformation agenda of BAT, which is centred around helping build A Better Tomorrow™ and achieving 50% of revenue from smokeless products by 2035. BTV realises this aim by investing in and partnering with the global entrepreneurs innovating in the field of smokeless nicotine products, as well as functional food and beverage, technology, science and sustainability-driven solutions. Alongside capital, BTV, through BAT, can offer its partners a global reach, research and development, operational expertise and a long-term relationship, supporting founders through the likes of pilot programmes, scaling and hands-on guidance. To date, more than 35 investments have been made according to these principles, with three profitable exits. Annie’s role as Managing Director sees her lead a team of bright and talented individuals who share her enthusiasm for investing in the exciting, transformative startups of tomorrow, aligning them with BAT’s transformation agenda. Annie explained that her position sees her balance two main priorities: supporting corporate strategy and applying traditional venture capital discipline. This feeds into the two-way value exchange that the BTV operational model is built on, with BAT gaining insight and innovation and the start-ups receiving expertise and resources they otherwise would not have access to. Whilst Annie has only been in the BTV role since the end of 2024, her experience in this ecosystem runs a lot deeper, as she was BAT’s Global Head of Cannabis for two years prior. Before holding these positions, Annie spent a number of years within global eCommerce and Direct-to-Consumer roles, with her background including roles at AB inBev, Innocent Drinks (which is more than 90% owned by Coca-Cola) and Nestlé. What is noteworthy about her current position heading up a CVC fund is that Annie is not, as she says in her own words, a “traditional candidate”, given that her roots are not in investing. However, as she told us: “I believe a reason for my success is my ability to understand the commercial and business challenges that our start-ups face, since my previous roles were managing P&Ls within emerging, high-growth DTC and eCommerce businesses.” When speaking about being a successful businesswoman, Annie expressed that she has never felt held back or at a loss because of her gender, despite often being the only woman in the room or on a leadership team. “I am lucky in the companies that I have worked for, rarely does this present itself as an issue in terms of my ability to contribute or feel included, although probably some of this is down to the fact that I have never had an issue sharing my opinion or asking questions”, she added. Of course, this is not to say that women are free from unique challenges in the workplace, and having managed several women who have returned from maternity leave (and soon to be off on maternity leave herself), Annie recognises the difficulty of the pull between professional ambition and the demands of parenthood and caregiving responsibilities. Annie believes the balance this takes requires strong support and flexibility from the company and management, particularly at a line manager level, in order to retain woman of all levels, but particularly senior leadership, within the corporate environment. Returning to her own journey thus far, Annie credits the strong sponsors and advocates she has had throughout her career, people who have pushed her into roles she did not know she was ready for herself. On the back of this, Annie shared the importance of finding strong allies and advocates, particularly in the senior talent conversation, and taking the leap when the opportunity is there: “The future of female progression within all businesses depends on women not only being given chances, but grabbing them and making the most of them.” Having experienced such highs as designing BTV’s Fund II strategy, unlocking a further £200m commitment from BAT as it continues its work, Annie is proud to today be supporting ten mentees, eight of which are women. She also heads up the networking pillar of BAT’s internal network of senior woman, a job which sees her organise quarterly events for its more than 140 worldwide members, underpinning her influential status in this space. Finally, turning her attention to the future, Annie is planning to continue to set the example for the teams she leads, achieving a highperformance culture that delivers outstanding business results. A human-centric leader, the opportunity Annie Goman has to shape the future of a company that is already more than 120 years old and committed to the future is incredibly rewarding, and the legacy she is building as an invaluable part of Btomorrow Ventures and BAT makes her more than fitting of this recognition.
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