There was a mood of risk-aversion for many corporate venturers in January compared with the recent past, as the value and number of corporate venturing investments tracked by Global Corporate Venturing in January 2012 fell against both December 2011 and January 2011. (see full spread of charts and deals table here)
In January there were 76 investments worth $1.1bn, while in December 2011 Global Corporate Venturing tracked 79 deals worth $1.8bn. The decline is even more marked against January 2011, when banner investments such as the $950m round raised by US-based discount vouchers company Groupon and the $1.5bn round raised by US-based social media company Facebook, helped corporate venturing-backed companies raise 87 rounds worth $3.8bn.
However, notable deals were hatched last month. The largest investment was Roche-owned biotechnology company Genentech’s $95m investment in US-based Constellation Pharmaceuticals as part of a collaborative partnership based on Constellation’s epigenetics science. The deal also gave Genentech the option to acquire all outstanding shares in Constellation.
The second-largest was US-based games developer Trion Worlds’ $85m series D round, which included an investment by media group Bertelsmann’s corporate venturing unit.
The third-largest was US-based cloud computing company Joyent’s round, backed by multiple corporates, including Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of the US-based chip maker, Spain-based telecommunications company Telefonica’s digital division and US-based media company Liberty Global.
There were nine exits in the month worth $549.2m – the total value of exits was boosted by Apple’s acquisition of Israel-based storage chip company Anobit, which is backed by Intel Capital, a deal reported to be valued between $400m and $500m. The number and value of deals exited were up against the eight exits worth $488m in December 2011, but down against the 10 exits worth $1.1bn in January 2011.
The greatest activity was in the healthcare sector, which accounted for 24% of deals. The media sector accounted for 20% of transactions, the IT sector 19%, and the consumer sector 12%.
As is typical in corporate venturing, the lion’s share of activity was in the US, with 63.5% of investments in that country. Next most active was the UK, with eight deals, followed by India and Germany with four each and China with three.
Deals off the beaten track included media company News Corporation’s undisclosed investment in Afghanistan-based media company Moby Group and Philippines-based agro-commercial company AgriNurture raising $30.5m in a stake sale to Black River Capital Partners Fund, owned by agricultural company Cargill.
The most common types of transaction were stake purchases – 20% of disclosed deals – with interesting strategic tie-ups besides Genentech’s Constellation deal, including media company British Sky Broadcasting buying a stake in internet television company Zeebox, Germanybased chemicals company BASF investing $50m in battery maker Sion Power, and Spain-based renewables group Gamesa’s corporate venturing unit buying a 20% stake in domestic technology efficiency company N2S. A rounds accounted for 19% of disclosed deals, while C rounds made up 15%.