This was a great year to be working in corporate venturing. The sheer excitement about the potential for large corporations to be working with small innovative companies seemingly could not be higher.
This trend looks set to continue. The exit pipe is opening strongly, particularly in the US, as public markets roar back to life. The signature initial public offering of the year has been that of social network Twitter, but generally there has been a robust pipeline of deals coming to the public markets, as well as cash-rich trade buyers continuing to snap up select companies.
This in turn is fuelling strong valuations, particularly for tech companies as the shift to mobile devices has become extremely pronounced. If this continues, the slew of corporates that entered corporate venturing in the past five years is likely to have timed the market very well. The question is how to maintain the discipline in what a number of respondents to our annual survey fear is a bubble environment – corporates were particularly caught out in the dot.com crash as big paper gains were wiped out in their portfolios. There is a lot of talk about fast-growing photo-sharing business SnapChat at the moment turning down a $3bn offer from Facebook as indicative of this trend.
Yet there is much to be hopeful about.
The excitement about software’s advance stretched far beyond pure technology companies, with respondents from consumer goods, oil and gas, and healthcare businesses all commenting on how digital is the big trend.
There is still some concern about the weakness of the wider venture sector, even though many are enthused by the strength of corporate venturing’s growth over the past year. Let us hope the entire ecosystem is able to thrive next year after many of our readers have had good fortune in 2013.
Take a look at the other great articles in this issue, including a round-up of some of the exciting things Intel Capital’s managing directors are working on, Andrew Gaule interviewing Hyundai Ventures’ John Suh, and updating on a joint dinner he is holding with Global Corporate Venturing during his February 10-14 programme, as well as great pieces on strategic versus financial value by both Robert Bosch Venture Capital’s Cyril Vancura and Mark Muth. There is also much more.
At press time, we had also just launched the website – http://gcvsymposium.com – to market next year’sLondon Symposium, where we are expecting more than 400 business leaders. Register to join us as soon as you can, as it is set to be a great event. Have a great end to your year.
In next month’s issue we will be looking at the outlook for 2013, in particular responses to our survey on the big issues likely to come up next year. Let me know your thoughts on this topic, as they can be added to the round-up.
Thank you for all the help and support for our various websites, e-zines, magazines, webinars and events this past year, too, and enjoy the holiday season over the next few weeks.