The Corporate Venture Capital-as-a-Service Influencer

Billion-Dollar Startup Club - WSJ.com

The Billion-Dollar Startup Club

The Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource are tracking companies that are valued at $1 billion or more by venture-capital firms. The club is becoming less exclusive as venture capitalists funnel large sums of capital in the best startups. Today there are more than 30 such companies in the U.S., Europe and China. Click on the names below for company profiles, or sort by categories such as region, amount raised and valuation. (Published January 2014).

Interactive by Andrew Garcia Phillips/The Wall Street Journal

Amount Raised: The larger difference between capital raised and the valuation generally shows a greater premium investors place on the business.

TOTAL EQUITY
FUNDING

LATEST
VALUATION

LATEST
VALUATION
DATE

YEAR
FOUNDED

ROUNDS
OF
FUNDING

All companies

U.S.

Europe

China

$1.6 billion

$18.2 billion

Uber

June 2014

2009

5

$0.8 billion

$10.0 billion

Airbnb

Apr. 2014

2008

7

$347 million

$10.0 billion

Xiaomi

Aug. 2013

2010

4

via graphics.wsj.com

Startups With Billion-Dollar Valuations - Business Insider

Venture capitalists and investors are continuing to pour money into startups.

Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal released a report of more than 30 startups from the U.S., China, and Europe that are valued at $1 billion or more.

These companies range from familiar firms like Pinterest and Uber, to more-recent billion-dollar startups like messaging app Tango and events platform Eventbrite. 

Note: This slideshow only includes companies that are privately held, have raised money in the last three years and have at least one venture capital firm as an investor. 

via www.businessinsider.com

The Top 15 Corporate Venture Capital Investors By Exit Activity - Who Saw the Highest Share of IPO Exits?

Armed with big balance sheets and a need to stay ahead of emerging tech trends, corporations are increasingly diving into venture investing for both strategic gain and financial returns. Using CB Insights data, we took a look at which corporate venture capital arms have racked up the most exits since 2009 and of these firms, who has seen the highest share of exits via IPOs vs. M&A.

The data below.

Top 15 Corporate VC Investors By M&A/IPO Exits Since 2009

Since the start of 2009, Intel Capital has realized the highest number of M&A or IPO exits of any investor (corporate or pure-play VC), followed by Cisco Investments and Motorola Solutions Venture Capital. Note: Exits by Comcast Interactive Capital that took place over the period were included under Comcast Ventures.

Top 15 Corporate VC Investors By Share of M&A/IPO Exits Since 2009

Of these corporate venture arms, we see that SAP Ventures has notched the highest share of IPO exits including Criteo, Violin Memory and Control4, followed by healthcare corporate VC Novartis Venture Funds. Qualcomm Ventures and Samsung Ventures also saw 1/5 of their exits over their past five years come via public offerings. Google Ventures, the most prolific CVC from a deals perspective over the period, counted RetailMeNot, HomeAway and SilverSpring Networks among the IPOs in its portfolio.

 For more corporate venture capital financing and exit data and interactive rankings, check out the CB Insights Venture Capital Database.

via www.cbinsights.com

Startups With Billion-Dollar Valuations - Business Insider

A $1 billion acquisition is rare, but there are a few startups that could share the same fate as Instagram.

Many of them have raised so much venture capital, their valuations are already in the billion-dollar range.

We've compiled a list of the next likely acquisition targets and which big companies are most likely to buy them.

Visa or American Express should buy mobile card reader Square

Jack Dorsey's mobile payment solution, Square, would help a big payment provider like Visa or American Express stay relevant. Neither has a good mobile solution and Square was made with credit cards in mind. (Visa is an investor in Square, but we're talking outright buy.)

Kleiner Perkins led a $100 million round of financing in Square at the end of June. Now the company has a $1 billion valuation; some wonder if it could be worth as much as $2 billion.

Yelp should acquire Foursquare but it doesn't have enough money. It could be a smart $1 billion acquisition for Groupon, though.

Matt Rosoff

Location-based check in startup Foursquare closed a $50 million round last June. That's in addition to the $20 million it previously raised.

via www.businessinsider.com

VC Deal Sizes in Silicon Valley Dwarf NY

 

Are NY investors more risk-averse than their Silicon Valley peers or are NY companies just better run and require less capital?

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New York tech has seen a proliferation of large financing rounds this year, from Flatiron Health’s notable $130M Series B deal to Betterment, Paperless Post, LearnVest and Squarespace which all announced $25M+ rounds on the same day (April 15th). Given the influx of large New York venture deals, we wondered how the city’s financing deal sizes compare to Silicon Valley.

Using CB Insights data, it’s clear that although NY has come a long way, Silicon Valley companies raise more across all stages.

Overall Trends

As the chart below shows, Silicon Valley technology startups have raised over 55% more money per round on average over the past four quarters. Q1 2014 was the highest with Silicon Valley average funding and median round sizes coming in at $20.7M and $6.8M respectively, across 227 deals.  While in NY, the average stood at $8.7M and median at $3.9M across 74 deals. While average figures are good to look at, large rounds, like Cloudera’s $900M Series F in March, have clearly impacted – and skewed – the most recent average funding figures.  As a result, the median figures are probably the better indicator for each market.

And over the last eight quarters, New York has never topped Silicon Valley in terms of median deal size. Of note, Q1 2014 saw Silicon Valley notch a median round size 74% higher than New York.

Stage-by-Stage Analysis

Early-Stage (Seed/Series A) median round sizes were 25% higher for Silicon Valley vs. NYC at $2.5M and $2M respectively over the past four quarters. Median Round sizes for Mid-Stage (Series B & C) companies were 37% higher at $12.32M and $9M respectively, while Late-Stage (Series D+) companies saw the largest median disparity with financings being 65% higher in SV vs. NYC at $22M and $13.3M respectively over the past four quarters.

At the late-stage, NYC lacks mega-rounds like Silicon Valley.  While only a handful of companies have raised over $100M rounds in NY, the Valley has more than 10 including the likes of Cloudera, TangoMe, and Palantir among others.

Comparing Similar Startups

We next used CB Insights to identify comparable companies to see how the SV versus NYC comparison looked for a set of competitors. Specifically, we examined the financing stats of:

1. Naturebox vs. Birchbox
2. Wealthfront vs. Betterment
3. Spoonrocket vs. Plated
4. One King’s Lane vs. ideeli
5. Quora vs. Stack Exchange
6. IndieGogo vs. Kickstarter

The first table looks at these competing duos and compares their total funding.  In almost all cases, Silicon Valley companies have raised significantly more than their NY peers in aggregate funding (Birchbox being the lone exception).

When we look at these same companies and compare similar financing rounds, we also see that at a similar stage, Silicon Valley companies raise more than their NY peers.  (Again, Birchbox is the NY company that trumps its Valley peer)

While the discrepancy in round size between New York and Silicon Valley is noteworthy, it’s worth remembering that NY was a virtual non-entity in venture as recently as five years ago.  New York has already seen a proliferation of big rounds in Q2 2014 and posted a 50% jump in Tech IPO Pipeline companies in 2014 so the gap may become less severe over time.  But for now, the king of cash remains Silicon Valley.  This probably won’t do much to change the perception by some that Silicon Valley is the only relevant market for venture capital.

 

Source: http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/venture-capital-silicon-valley-ny-deals

FinTech Venture Capital and Private Equity Report

Investment into financial technologies (FinTech) by venture capital, private equity and angels has steadily climbed and since 2008 has eclipsed $9 billion. 2013 is shaping up to be a banner year for FinTech topping the high levels seen in 2012.

 

Below is the FinTech investment picture since 2008.  As shown below, $9.03B has been invested across 1,314 deals over that time period.  And based on 2013′s run rate through June, 2013 looks like it will set a new high watermark for FinTech investment.

FinTech covers a broad array of technologies focused on solving a variety of financial challenges. These span:

 

 

• Capital Markets Technology - Companies that provide tools and platforms to facilitate the buying and selling of financial securities for professional investors.

• Payments - Companies that offer technologies to facilitate the payments process including cutting processing costs, enabling digital currencies to become viable methods of payments and letting customers make payments via their mobile phone.

• Data Analytics – Companies that leverage big data for financial matters such as risk management, fraud detection and credit monitoring.

• Banking & Corporate Finance – Companies that use technologies to complement or disrupt traditional banking and corporate finance practices such as loan origination, mobile banking and corporate accounting.

• Personal Finance Management - Companies that help individuals manage a wide variety of finances including stock portfolios, personal budgets and taxes through technology.

 

The graph below illustrates the significance of payments within the FinTech landscape. But data analytics and personal finance management have also seen strong funding growth since 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

To read about this year’s FinTech Innovation Lab companies, go here. For those interested in the Payments space, in particular, check out Payments Tech Analyst.

Financial Technology: DataFox Industry Snapshot

Shifts in regulation, advancements in technology and customer demand are all driving the current explosion in the financial technology (FinTech) space.

The Financial Services sector has historically been reasonably traditional in many of its practices and largely dominated by large incumbent multinational firms formed through rounds of consolidation. However, following the global financial crisis, the combination of significant changes in financial regulations, customer demand for financial products and services that was left unmet by a crippled and illiquid system, and advancements in technology, have lowered barriers to entry and created unprecedented opportunities for financial technology (FinTech) companies to develop innovative solutions to both complement and compete with the incumbent players.

Moves by governments to reduce the power of large financial institutions has led to the rise of many disruptive solutions in the areas of consumer finance (borrowing and lending), capital markets (trading and capital raising), payments (mobile payments and processing) and beyond.  Investments into, and successful exits from, the FinTech sector have been increasing year on year for the past 3-4 years, demonstrating that this is a lucrative time to be involved in this space.

 

The Current Rise of the FinTech Market

The global financial crisis of 2008-2009 drastically altered the landscape of the financial services industry.  Credit markets dried up around the world resulting in dramatically lower lending levels to consumers and corporations, and risk, security and compliance concerns within financial markets had been underestimated, causing many large traditional financial institutions to fail..  This resulted in significant changes in financial regulations in recent years, which when combined with the advancement of technologies such as mobile and wireless communications, smart sensors and big data analysis, has created opportunities for entrepreneurial financial technology (FinTech) businesses to develop innovative products and services to both complement and compete with industry incumbents.

Given this recent period of volatility, regulatory change and technological advancement, the financial services industry, previously protected by high barriers to entry and economies of scale, is now facing an unprecedented period of disruption.

 

FinTech Industry Definition & Key Players

The FinTech sector covers a wide array of companies which provide an array of products and services within financial services. These can be broadly categorised into the following sub-sectors: [from CBInsights]

Capital Markets Technology – Companies that provide tools and platforms to facilitate the buying and selling of securities, including foreign exchange, for investors and corporations.

Payments – Companies that offer technologies to facilitate the payments process including cutting processing costs, and handling virtual currencies and mobile payments.

Data Analytics – Companies that leverage big data for financial matters including risk management, fraud detection, calculating insurance premiums and credit scoring.

Banking & Corporate Finance – Companies that complement or disrupt traditional banking and corporate finance practices such as loan origination, fundraising and mobile banking.

Personal Finance – Companies that help individuals manage a wide variety of finances including stock portfolios, personal budgets and taxes through technology.

Some of the leading firms in each of these sub-sectors are listed below.  We’ve pinpointed 42 of the leaders in the FinTech space and included them in the accompanying DataFox watchlist (must be logged in to DataFox to view).

Sub-sector	Companies
Capital Markets	SecondMarket, eToro, Xoom, OANDA, CurrencyCloud, TransferWise
Payments	Square, Boku, Stripe, Braintree, Monitise, Klarna
Data Analytics	Markit, DataSift, Lifelock, Wonga, Credit Karma, Opengamma
Banking/Corporate	OnDeck Capital, Lending Club, Prosper, CommonBond, Wonga, Borro, Kabbage, FundingCircle
Personal Finance	Betterment, Wealthfront, Yodlee, Intuit (Mint), Nutmeg, Learnvest

Further, we can clearly see the relative newness of this industry, as the majority of the current leaders in this space are less than a decade old. This comparative trajectory from the FinTech DataFox watchlist, shows the age of the 42 companies in relation to their DataFox Quality Score (an exclusive metric used to pinpoint leaders in any sector):

 

FinTech Market Size

Market size for the FinTech sector in aggregate is difficult to estimate, as it is such a broad and fragmented industry.  One proxy for this is the level of IT spending in the Banking sector.  While this is not a clean measure, as it includes expenditure on more traditional technology such as IT hardware (PCs and servers etc.) and software (database and enterprise management etc.) and excludes other areas such as peer to peer finance, it does provide a useful approximation of the total addressable market and its growth potential.  Banking IT spend by is expected to total $179.2bn in 2013, split roughly equally across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific [from Celent].

However, growth rates are expected to differ hugely across regions, with Asia-Pacific accounting for the lion’s share of the growth while European investment levels remain static due to prolonged political and economic turmoil. 

Within specific subsectors, there are more detailed estimates of market size:

Sub-sector	Market Size
Capital Markets	Foreign Exchange: global FX and remittance market $513bn in 2011, rising +7% by 2015.
Payments	Mobile payments: $17bn in 2013, rising to $110bn by 2017.Virtual currencies: $2.1bn in 2012, rising to $4.8bn by 2016.
Banking/Corporate	P2P lending: $1bn in May 2012 in US, £250m in 2012 in UK, rising to £1bn by 2014.Crowdfunding: $3.2bn globally in 2012.
Personal Finance	Personal wealth management: market globally $3.9tr of retail assets under management.

The FinTech public DataFox watchlist gives insight into the largest investors and fundraisers in this space:

 

FinTech Recent Trends

Fundraising

Since 2008, over $9bn has been invested into the FinTech sector across a total of more than 1300 deals.  During this time, the total level of investment and the total number of deals has been increasing year on year.  Based on data up to June of last year, 2013 is expected to be a further improvement on 2012, with over $2.5bn invested, spread across 450 deals [fromCBInsights].

FinTech Investment by Subsector

Although historically the Payments subsector has been the largest recipient of investment within the FinTech space, more recently there has been growing interest in the Banking and Corporate Finance, Personal Finance and Data Analytics subsectors.

FinTech Investment by Stage of Financing

Between 2008 and 2012, the proportion of deals represented by seed and angel round investments has been increasing.  This is also manifested in a decrease in the median deal size, which has dropped from $6.5m in 2008 to $2.0m in 2013, reflecting reduced start-up costs and lower barriers to entry over the years.

FinTech Exit Opportunities

Exit opportunities for FinTech firms has been healthy through 2012, but is expected to decrease in 2013, which included the notable IPO of Xoom, the online-to-offline money-transfer company.

 

Policy & Infrastructure Improvements

Crowd-funding

The JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act, passed in 2012, now allows private companies in the US to publicly advertise and market their securities online and raise capital via crowd-funding.  Title II of the Act, implemented on September 23rd 2013, allows capital to be raised from accredited investors, i.e. high net worth individuals with an annual income above $200,000 or assets above $1,000,000, to invest in such offerings.  Proposed plans for Title III, which will broaden the scope to include non-accredited investors, have also now been put forward by the SEC, with a view that this will be implemented in the near future.  Other geographies such as the UK have already legalized general solicitation of securities to the public via equity crowd-funding portals.

Virtual Currencies

Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, which has been in circulation since 2008, have recently emerged as an alternative medium of exchange.  Virtual currencies have the advantage of being more portable, more secure and easier to transfer internationally than traditional fiat currencies, and their growing popularity has raised concerns amongst financial regulators eager to control the risks. For now, they remain a legal grey area, but plans to regulate these currencies should help them become a recognised mainstream store of value and help the industry around the storage, processing and provision of virtual currencies continue to grow [from Bloomberg].

Mobile Banking

In developed countries, smartphones are increasingly being used to access bank accounts. For example, a study in Europe showed that almost 30 million people did this in 2012, representing an average usage increase of 85% over a year earlier, with the UK leading France, Spain, Germany and Italy [from comScore Data Mine].

In developing nations, SMS-based mobile banking systems which enable payments and peer-to-peer money transfer have been a key way to extend financial inclusion.  Companies such as M-PESA (part of Safaricom) and Kopo Kopo have successfully pioneered the roll-out of the mobile banking ecosystem in the absence of a traditional physical branch network or fixed telephone line network.  There has been tremendous growth in this area, as GSMA has deployed this capability in 140 countries, with 104 more planned [from GSMA].

 

FinTech: External Sources of Information

Below is a list of useful links to key resources and knowledge within the FinTech sector:

• American Banker: http://www.americanbanker.com/fintech100/
• FinTech 50 watchlist: http://www.fintech50watchlist.com/
• FinTech Innovation Lab: http://www.fintechinnovationlab.com/
• Banking Tech: http://www.bankingtech.com
• UK Crowd-funding Association: http://www.ukcfa.org.uk/
• Finovate: http://finovate.com/

For a complete list of 42 financial technology companies, check out the Watchlist below. Please use the comments section below to share your thoughts and the FinTech services you use.

 

Source: http://www.datafox.co/blog/financial-technology-datafox-industry-snapshot/

 

CORPORATE VENTURING 3.0: NCET2 Announces Showcase and Conference to Boost Global 1000 Corporate and Portfolio Transactions

GLOBAL 1000: MEET | PARTNER | DEAL PORTFOLIO SHOWCASES & CONFERENCE 
A Disruptive Conference Series for Corporate Venture Capital and Portfolio Holders (like VCs, Angels, Universities, and Accelerators)

Corporate venturing has started a new chapter with most of the largest global corporations now having some type of venturing activity. There are reportedly over 900 corporate venture groups with many only recently having started their programs. Global corporate venturing is the fastest growing venturing activity with already about $100 billion in venturing assets and more than $3.5 trillion in corporate revenues. Jack Leeney, US Head of Investing of Telefonica Ventures, states "Corporate venture capital has established itself as a significant source of both money and value. As of Q1 this year, CVC accounted for 1/3 of a record $10 billion invested across the asset class according to CB insights. Growth companies acknowledge the value of a diverse syndicate that can deliver more than just capital." And in Corporate Venturing, an article in the Harvard Business Review, Josh Lerner found that "the data show that well-managed corporate venture funds can hold their own with independent VC firms, and even outperform them."

Tony Stanco, Executive Director of The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) says: "We have been working with the Global 1000 for a few years and they have been requesting a new venue specifically focused on the Global 1000 and their evolving venturing models for doing deals with innovative companies and portfolio-holders. We have documented that the Global 1000 currently use eleven wide-ranging models for venture transactions: early/late stage investing, partnering, joint venturing, co-developing products, incubation, providing favored access to their customers, product sourcing, white labeling, revenue sharing, distributor agreements, and mergers & acquisition."

To address this exciting, new venture area, NCET2 announces the 3rd Global 1000: Meet | Partner | Deal Portfolio Showcases & Conference on September 30 and October 1 in San Mateo, California. The conference brings together some of the world's most active corporate venture companies to do deals with university, angel investor, VC and accelerator portfolio-holders. Thousands of portfolio-holders across the country have invested in tens of thousands of innovative companies that are interesting to the Global 1000; this is the first conference series to help portfolio-holders meet Global 1000 corporates to discuss their portfolio companies and do deals.

Global 1000 corporate speakers at the conference include: Sabic, Evonik, GE Energy Ventures, Novo Nordisk, Air France-KLM, Siemens, Reckitt Benckiser, The Dow Chemical Company, Schlumberger, Volvo Group Venture Capital, BD Technologies, Telefonica Ventures, Solvay Capital, Faurecia, IBM, BASF, Intel, SKTA Innopartners, DSM, Saudi Aramco, EMC, ABB Technology Ventures, Monsanto, Waste Management Inc., Roche Molecular Systems, and EMD Serono.

The conference features exciting panels discussing current trends of corporates working with portfolio-holders, including: 
1. Evolution of Corporate Venture Models 
2. Corporates With Their Own Accelerators 
3. Corporate-to-Corporate Deals and Transactions 
4. VCs Partnering with Corporates 
5. Angels as Deal Sources for Corporates 
6. Accelerators as Deal Sources for Corporates 
7. Universities as Deal Sources for Corporates 
8. State Innovation and Startup Ecosystem

What some Global 1000 executives are saying about the Global 1000 Conference:

Barbara Araneo, Conference Committee Member and Director of Strategy and Sourcing in the Diabetes Research Unit, Novo Nordisk says, "The Global 1000 conferences are unique. These highly interactive networking meetings successfully bring the innovators based in universities and start-up companies to the investors from larger corporations, venture and angel investors. The conferences are well balanced."

Albert Lauritano, Director of Technology Licensing & Collaboration, BD Technologies says, "Global 1000 meetings are a great opportunity to bring technology innovators, investors and entrepreneurs together with potential global corporate partners for productive two-way dialog and deal-making."

Paul Young, US Head External Innovation, EMD Serono says, "Global 1000 conferences provide an exciting opportunity to access cutting-edge innovation taking place within universities and emerging start-up companies, which are important potential partners for an organization such as EMD Serono. These conferences do a nice job of networking Global 1000 companies, corporate VCs, academia, and portfolio holders to lay the groundwork for future deal-making."

Angel Orrantia, SKTA Innopartners, says, "Through our participation at the Global 1000 conference, SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator seeks to reinvigorate the funding ecosystem for core technologies and the Global 1000 Conference provides the right blend of VCs, investors, and entrepreneurs to assist us in progressing this goal."

George Mandarakas, Open Innovation Leads Manager, BASF Corporation, states, "Collaborating with corporate partners can offer significant advantages for accelerating technologies to market, especially if the corporate partners are strategically positioned in the value chain."

Jonas Landstrom, Volvo Group Venture Capital, says, "Bringing innovation to the transportation sector through the corporate Venture Capital model is an important piece in Volvo´s strategy to become the global leader in sustainable transport solutions. We are looking forward to the excellent network opportunity at the Global 1000 conference."

Steve Hahn, The Dow Chemical Company, states, "The entire investment community comes in for the Global 1000 meeting in San Mateo. It has the right combination of investors, inventors, and companies ranging from the largest to the smallest. It's one of the most effective and engaging events we attend."

Who should attend this event? The Global 1000 Conference is mainly for Fortune 1000/Global 1000 companies (from Corporate Venture Capital, Open Innovation, External Partnering, Business Development, M&A, Tech/Startup Scouting, Research, and Licensing groups), VCs, Entrepreneurs, Angels, Universities, National and State governments, and Accelerators and Incubators. The business and innovation media is especially welcome to come and learn about this exciting new trend in innovation and venture investing.

ABOUT NCET2: The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) is an organization of entrepreneurial universities creating and funding university startups. With a network of over 200 research universities, NCET2 promotes best practices in the creation and funding of university startups by supporting entrepreneurship and providing entrepreneurial education. NCET2 produces 2 conferences: Global 1000: Meet | Partner | Deal Conference and The University Startups Conference.

ABOUT THE GLOBAL 1000 CONFERENCES: The Global 1000 MPD Showcase and Conference is a bi-annual event organized and hosted by NCET2. The event brings together a Transaction Network of Global 1000 Corporates and Portfolio Holders from VCs, Angels, Accelerators, government-funding programs in the US and internationally, to find deals and strategic partnerships. More information about the event can be found at http://ncet2.org.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/g1000mpd/2014/prweb11960561.htm

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2008985#ixzz35d200ScS

Lean VC approach to Seed funding

The Future of Corporate Venturing Survey

Captivating the attention of every attendee at the Corporate Venturing and Innovation Partnering conference that recently took place in Newport Beach, Michael Holman PhD shares some profound insights collected through “The Future of Corporate Venturing Survey”. A collaborative effort between IBF* International Business Forum and Lux Research, this comprehensive survey provides a bigger picture for corporate venturing, and the future is promising.

SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS:

The survey collected a total of 53 responses from companies in North America, Europe and Asia. The largest industry types represented were Government Funds, Electronics and Energy & Utilities.

 

SURVEY QUESTIONS:

How are your firm’s CVC investments typically made?

Nearly 50% of corporate VCs survey express a focus on making their own investments, while outside funds prove to play a limited role.

 

On average, how much does your firm invest through corporate venturing annually? And, On average, how much does your firm invest through corporate venturing annually?

The CVC investors surveyed, deploy an average of $37 million across about six investments annually.

 

Which value chain position do you target for investments? And, At which stage/round(s) do you typically invest?

 
 
Most CVC’s surveyed target value chain peers and typically invest during A to B rounds.

 

Compared with the past two years and two years from now, have your corporate venturing investments increased, decreased or remained stable?

CVCs surveyed report stable to significant increases in investments over the past two years, continuing to predict a similar trend over the next two years.

 

Most corporate venturing organizations have both financial goals and strategic goals. How would you rate the relative importance of each for your firm?

Most respondents place a higher emphasis on strategic goals, where corporates report a higher focus on financial goals.

 

Which goals are your organization most successful in meeting? And, How successful do you find corporate venturing is at supporting the following strategic goals in your organization?

Strategic goals are reported by those surveyed as most successful in being met, expanding that the highest rates of success are found in partnerships and current business.

 

What other parts of the organization do you see corporate venturing adding value to?

Those surveyed believe technology scouting and current business units receive the most value from CVC activity.

 

Rate your firm’s level of activity in seeking deals in each of the following areas two years ago, today, and what you expect two years from now

When surveyed on Energy and Environment, respondents report stable to marginal increases in Energy Storage, as well as a continued surge in smart girds and buildings. They also report solar fading over the past two years, with fairly stable activity predicted for the next two years.

 

 

Respondents report increasing trends in Electronics and IT, predicting substantial increases in activity over the next two years with Big Data and Robotics showing predictions for the highest levels of activity.

 

 

Healthcare and Life Sciences demonstrate stable levels of activity, with only slight increases predicted for the next two years. Standing out with marginal interest, Personal Devices and Health Monitors were predicted to climb by 2015.

 

 

Respondents report the highest activity levels stemming from Nanotech and Advanced Materials, predicting this trend to continue. 3D Printing has experienced steep increases in activity levels and respondents predict this trend to continue as well.

 

For each of the following approaches, rate how successful your venturing program has been at using it to identify dealflow / investment candidates?

Referrals from trusted networks remain the main source of dealflow for those surveyed, with contacts made while networking at conferences stands as the second most successful approach to making successful deals.

 

Where does your organization have the most success in finding deals?

According to respondents, California provides the greatest global success in finding deals, followed closely by other areas in the United States. Western Europe and Israel provide the greatest success in finding deals overseas.

 

In Summary

Corporate venturing initiatives continue to soar within companies, with a promising lookout on investment growth and its correlation to meeting strategic goals. Preferring trusted sources of funding, CVCs have shared an overwhelming loyalty to their own direct investments over outside funds, expanding that the most successes are experienced in supporting existing businesses. Paralleling these findings with a number of predictions for the future, CVCs have noticed high potential in Advanced Materials, Nanotech, Energy Storage and 3D Printing, with growing interest in 3D Printing, Robotics and Big Data.

View the full report

CHRISTINA RIBOLDI

Christina Riboldi produces the Corporate Venturing & Innovation Partnering Conference along with the Venture Capital Investing Conference and the Digital Healthcare Innovation Conference. She is President of IBF Conferences, joining the company in 2000 as a Junior Producer eventually leading her through her career as the Executive Producer, Executive Vice President, and finally to her current position as President in 2011. Christina oversees all aspects of program development, organizational growth, and strategizes with each division to cultivate talent.