A complicated market environment with radical shifts in sentiment towards technology companies during the year, could not subdue a good year for realisations.
This year always looked like it was going to be a bumper year for exits, due to the long-anticipated Facebook initial public offering (IPO). See table
So it has been for corporate-backed start-ups, despite the disappointing after-market performance of the Facebook IPO, which raised $18.4bn.
So far this year, there have been more exits by value and number than the whole of 2011. In the year so far there have been 143 exits worth $32.6bn, compared with 141 exits worth $19bn last year.
In November, there were nine exits worth $1.3bn, was largely made up in terms of value by the $1.2bn exit of Meraki to Cisco. This compares with 21 exits worth $2bn in October and eight exits worth $1.1bn in November last year. See table
US-based wi-fi solutions company Ruckus Wireless also floated during the month, raising $126m at a $1.1bn valuation.
On the investment side, activity has been slightly weaker than last year, reflecting a more complex investment environment, with financial venture firms pulling back in clean technology and life sciences.
Similarly, the euphoria gripping investors interested in consumer-facing investments has deflated somewhat, as Facebook and banner IPOs from 2011, such as daily deals website Groupon and gaming company Zynga, have wilted on the public markets.
So far in 2012 there have been 935 investments worth $16.4bn, compared with 1,051 investments worth $25bn in 2011.
We also tracked 49 investments in November worth $955m, compared with 87 investments worth $2.4bn in November last year and 105 investments worth $1.2bn in October 2012.
It should be noted we have compiled this monthly data slightly earlier than usual, in order to have a bigger focus on the year’s data trends, so the lag in the data is more pronounced than other months.
The year’s largest investment so far has been the $420m invested by auto parts manufacturer China Wanxiang Holdings to take a stake in GreatPoint Energy, which has previously been backed by corporates including US-based chemicals company Dow Chemical, US-based energy companies AES Corporation and Suncor, as well as US bank Citigroup’ s Sustainable Development Investments. See top 10 table
The biggest investment in November was into US-based diabetes company Intarcia, backed by biopharmaceutical services provider Quintiles, which raised $210m, “the largest sum to be raised by a private biotechnology company in at least 25 years” (see big deal, page 32).
In 2012, there were 617 investments in the US, making it by far the most active market, as is typical in corporate venturing. In second place was the UK with 58 investments, followed by Germany and India with 37 deals each. There were 35 deals in China, 20 in Japan, 16 in Israel, 14 in France and 12 in Canada.
The most active sector in 2012 was IT with 191 deals, followed by media with 161 deals, health with 160 deals, and the consumer sector with 156 deals. The consumer and media sectors were up in terms of activity against 2011, when there were 99 deals and 136 investments respectively.
There was a substantial drop in clean-tech deals compared with 2011. The sector boasted 77 deals compared with 150 last year.
The most active rounds in 2012 were A rounds, with 212 deals, up markedly from 132 in 2011. The next most common rounds were B rounds with 149 deals, compared with 179 in 2011.
We also tracked 144 stake purchases by individual companies or groups in 2012.