Corporates and corporate venture capital groups continue to pour dollars into startups of all shapes and sizes, investing in everything from travel tech to digital banking.
CVCs and corporates took 25% of global deals to VC-backed companies in Q4’15 and have consistently accounted for roughly one-fourth of deals for the last five quarters, keeping participation steady even as overall funding to VC-backed companies has risen sharply, and pulled back.
In the KPMG and CB Insights 2015 Venture Capital Report, we dug into CVC and corporate participation across the past 5 quarters, including a global overview as well as breakdowns of regional trends in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Global CVC participation
On a global scale, CVCs and corporates have consistently participated in roughly a quarter of all deals to venture-backed companies, as stated above. Their participation dropped slightly to 23% in Q1’15, but has since rebounded to 25% or more of all deals in the past 3 quarters.
CVC participation by continent
North America
In North America, corporate investor participation reached a five-quarter high of 25% in Q3’15, but dipped slightly to 23% in Q4’15. However, overall momentum has remained strong, with participation topping 20% in all 5 quarters. Meanwhile, new corporate venture arms like Twitter Ventures and Workday Ventures continue to join the fray.
Europe
The Q1’15 pullback in global CVC deal share (shown above) was largely driven by a drop-off in Europe, where corporates and CVCs participated just 17% of all deals to European VC-backed companies in that quarter. However, CVC and corporate participation has hit 22% or higher in each of the 3 quarters since.
Asia
Corporates and CVCs in Asia have been the most enthusiastic backers of venture-backed companies. With the help of active corporates like Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Rakuten and others, corporates reached 35% of all financing deals to Asian VC-backed companies in Q4’15. Corporates have participated in 30%+ of all Asian financings in 4 of the last 5 quarters.
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