Salesforce’s corporate venturing unit invested larger amounts in 2015, building up a stable of enterprise IT unicorns as its strategic VC model began to be widely replicated.
Category: Analysis
2015 round up: Tencent
The internet portal invested heavily in food delivery, ride hailing and ticketing as it seeked to build out the services linked to its extremely popular WeChat messaging app.
2015 round up: SoftBank
SoftBank is winding down corporate venturing vehicle SoftBank Capital in favour of fewer, bigger investments as it looks to replicate its Alibaba investment.
2015 round up: Intel Capital
Intel Capital fell short of the $600m target it set in September but will enter 2016 under new leadership with some promising IPO candidates.
Strategic performance gains importance in CVC comp
There is still concern that those in corporate venturing are not adequately compensated. Three quarters of respondents to the latest J Thelander Consulting said their title and compensation structure failed to appropriately reward them. Jody Thelander is pictured.
2015 round up: Alphabet
Google restructured itself under a holding company called Alphabet, but its corporate venturing units continued to invest heavily in healthcare despite GV pulling the plug on its European fund.
Big Deal: Welltok ticks on
Welltok was one of two patient management platforms to raise more than $40m last week, showing the ongoing expansion of the sector.
Monthly Analysis
Seven trends that transformed 2015
The unicorns Perhaps no greater theme has been on the minds of those in the venture capital sector than the proliferation of unicorns – venture-backed private companies securing valuations of more than $1bn – which now stand at about 140 at the time of writing, nearly double the number in 2014, based on the separate… Continue reading Seven trends that transformed 2015
Big Deal: Jet lands on $350m
The e-commerce startup has raised $570m in less than 18 months but may need to harness the expertise of investors Alphabet and Alibaba to compete effectively against the big boys.
Big Deal: Bertelsmann re-enrols in Udacity
Bertelsmann led coding course provider Udacity’s $105m series D round days after investing $230m in education technology producer HotChalk, possibly heralding a big drive in educational corporate venturing for the firm.
Monthly Analysis
Financial sector embraces disruption
Sector focus: Finance
Big Deal: 23andme raises $115m
The genetics testing company has managed to attract a range of corporate investors, partly through its research activities, and international expansion looks to be on the horizon.