November saw nearly $3bn-worth of corporate venturing portfolio companies sales to trade buyers and more than $1bn in flotations.
However, part of the proceeds were recycled into the 76 new deals struck during the month as a host of announcements were made during global entrepreneur week mid-month.
Global Corporate Venturing’s unique analysis of investment (click to see table), fundraising and exit data and trends showed a dozen exits agreed or completed, two-thirds of which were to trade buyers and the remainder as initial public offerings (IPO) on stock exchanges.
The biggest trade purchases were drugs companies Eli Lilly’s acquisition of Avid RadioPharmaceuticals and Merdtronic’s acquisition of Ardian, both for $800m, including performance fees.
Both Lilly and Medtronic had owned minority stakes in their acquisitions.
The biggest IPO was internet holding company Mail.ru on the London Stock Exchange for $912m, giving it a market capitalization of nearly $6bn on the first day of its flotation.
Technology dominated the investment lists for the month: either clean-tech or information technology. The figures were skewed by Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of semiconductor company Intel, giving details of 18 investments made across 11 countries, while US industrial conglomerate General Electric said it had backed 11 companies, and one institution, from its $200m Ecomagination corporate venturing fund launched earlier in the year.
However, the biggest round went to a US-based media company, Gazillion Entertainment, which raised $60m from a consortium including publisher Hearst.
US-based companies were involved in about two-thirds of the investments and exits with the rest spread across the other main continents.