With a boom in Asian investment, corporate venturing deals in the first quarter of this year saw large amounts of money put to work.
We tracked 566 investments worth $21.4bn in the first quarter, compared to 604 investments worth $14.8bn in the fourth quarter.
Asia is taking an increasing share of this activity, with 138 transactions worth $7.3bn, which means in the last two quarters the continent has made up a third of the value of deals corporates invested in. See data on activity by location since the first quarter of 2014. This left the share of activity taken by North American deals at 53% – significantly lower than the continent’s typical two-thirds market share.
The boom in investment dollars being raised is in large part due to bigger amounts being deployed at the late stage (see table). The value of dollars at E rounds surged 144% on the prior quarter, with no other round type rising by triple digit percentages. Stake purchases and D rounds, which are also typically larger deals rose by 62.6% and 41.4% respectively. C rounds were up by 28.3% and A rounds by 19.4%. The gains in value raised by B rounds and seed rounds even declined.
Rising investment was also driven by a surge of activity in the services (+118.6%), consumer (115.3%) and transport (+110.4%) sectors. See graph here.
This article is a preview of our first quarter data, which will be published in our May magazine. Jim Mawson will also be discussing the data in his opening speech at our Global Corporate Venturing Symposium on June 2 and 3.