Beringea's Chief Investment Officer joined CNBC Squawk Box and Ian King Live on Sky News to discuss investment and technology trends

Karen McCormick, Beringea's Chief Investment Officer, recently joined CNBC and Sky News as a guest commentator, examining the trends and technologies currently shaping the venture capital industry.

Karen first joined Geoff Cutmore, host of CNBC's Squawk Box Europe to discuss the state of the European venture capital market. As well as highlighting the vital need for greater diversity in the industry, Karen discussed the potential strengths of technology start-ups and scale-ups in Europe.

"One of the advantages for European start-ups is that - by definition - they have been more capital efficient than their US counterparts…so there are advantages for European venture capital right now," Karen commented.

Karen was later interviewed by Sam Worthington on Ian King Live, the flagship business programme of Sky News. Sam and Karen discussed the current health of global markets as well as the trends shaping the digital economy and the retail sector.

Karen noted: "COVID-19 has accelerated many trends. On the positive side, technologies that take two years to adopt in normal times now take two weeks to be adopted in these times of crisis. However, it has also had a negative impact on the retail sector, accelerating many of the challenges facing shopping malls and large retailers."