There were 37 European corporate venturing deals in the first quarter worth $434.8m, compared with 29 investments in the fourth quarter of 2012 worth $382.1m and 43 worth $569m in the first quarter of 2012.
There were two European corporate venturing backed exits worth $85m in the first quarter of 2012, compared with one exit in the fourth quarter of 2012 and five exits and two initial public offerings worth $373.5m in the first quarter of 2012.
The exits were the $85m sale of Qualcomm Ventures-backed location-aware software company Arieso to JDSU, a Nasdaq-listed networks company, and the sale of Unilever Ventures-backed BAC, a Netherlands-based company purifying proteins for testing, to Life Technologies, a Nasdaq-listed medical technologies provider.
The largest European investment was the $130m raised from private equity firm Partners Group by Softonic, a software guide to media content incubated by Grupo Intercom, a Spain-based internet-focused conglomerate.
The second-largest deal, was the £75m ($118m) raised by Truphone, a UK-based mobile network founded by James Tagg and backed by media groups, which was raised primarily from Roman Abramovich, owner of Russia- based oil major Sibneft.
The third-largest deal was the €20m ($26.5m) Linio, a Germany–based online retailer active in Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, from private equity firm Summit Partners. The investment followed Germany-based retailer Tengelmann investing $15m to $20m in Linio a month prior, according to news provider the Next Web.
The most active country in the first quarter was Germany, with 13 deals, followed by the UK with 10, Switzerland with four and France with three.
There was a general trend towards stake purchases – 15 deals – a categorisation Global Corporate Venturing uses when corporates or a strategic investor acquire a one-off stake. The next most common were A rounds, with 10 deals.
The most popular sector was consumer, with 10 deals, followed by healthcare and IT with seven. Clean-tech companies secured four deals, despite the slowdown in that sector.