[zemvpferreira]

Often at this level a corporate client is already serving as a backer/incubator for a promising service. It might even be an investor or promising acquirer from day zero. B2B is weird like that, relationships are multi-pathed and could easily be adversarial and cooperative at the same time. Corporate execs investing in the startup is standard practice as a way of lending political support inside the larger org (and hopefully profiting of course).