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The takeover of corporate venture capital
Corporate Venture Capital (“CVC”) got the nickname “tourist capital”, because of its high cyclicality: it tends to rise in the “high season” when markets are strong and has been historically quick to evaporate when markets get shaken up.
Over the past decade however, there’s been a lot of change in the typical profile — and activities — of corporate investors. Today 77% of Fortune 100 companies (Top 100 US Companies based on Revenue) invest in venture capital, and 52% of Fortune 100 companies have their own investment arms. The large tech companies like Intel (Intel Capital), Google (GV, Capital G, Gradient Ventures), Salesforce (Salesforce Ventures) or Microsoft (M12) are amongst some of the most active investors in tech, and have demonstrated strong financial performance to date.
But Corporates CVC arms go far beyond tech: Financial Services giants (Barclays, Goldman Sachs), Insurance companies (Axa Ventures, Allianz, Av8), Health and Pharma (Pfizer Ventures, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross Blue Shield) and big media companies (Disney, Comcast, Sky Ventures etc). And then of-course, there’s Softbank, which on its own nearly doubled the capital available for VC investments globally with its $100 billion Vision Fund.
