Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit for chip maker Intel, had 22 exits in 2013, more than any other large technology company or venture capital firm, according to VentureBeat, which cited a report compiled by financial research firm PrivCo.
Exits for Intel Capital during 2013 Virident Systems, which was acquired by Western Digital for $685m in June, and V-Cube, which went public in December.
Sam Hamadeh, chief executive of Privco, stated that Intel’s strong in-house mergers and acquisitions shop had a good deal to do with its success as it reduced the need to buy its own portfolio companies.
“I think that’s why they’ve been No. 1 [on our list] for three years in a row,” Hamadeh said. “Intel Capital has the mandate to get the best exit possible for Intel Corp, not to serve as a feeder for Intel Corp.
“The in-house M&A team shops it around to the highest bidder, which a lot of people find surprising, because it’s not how most corporate VC arms operate.”
SV Angel, Greylock Partners, Ignition Partners and New Enterprise Associates rounded out the top five.
Google Ventures was the only other corporate venturing unit to make the list of Privco’s top 15 most successful investors ranked by exits, tying with VC firms Khosla Ventures and Canaan Partners in 15th position with seven. However, Hamadeh claimed that Google will most likely rise in the upcoming years.
“They have the activity, they have the breadth of investment,” he said. “It’s just a matter of age at this point, because they only just started investing four to five years ago.”