Germany-based software company SAP has set up a $350m corporate venturing fund to hold its existing portfolio companies and make new deals.
SAP Ventures Fund I will invest in software and software-enabled service companies globally and builds on the team’s work since 1997.
SAP Ventures, run by Nino Marakovic, has funded and helped build more than 100 companies with goals to create financial returns and facilitate interaction between innovative companies, SAP and its broader ecosystem.
About a third of the $350m is made up from the fair market value of the portfolio companies transferred into the fund, Marakovic said. SAP’s website lists 36 companies in its current portfolio.
This left about two-thirds for follow-on investments and new deals over the 10-year life of the fund, he added. Previously, SAP provided a three-year investment budget to the ventures team.
Werner Brandt, chief financial officer of SAP, said: "The new fund structure reaffirms SAP’s long-term commitment to its corporate venture activities and helps optimize and simplify decision-making and operations.
"Through its investments and contacts in the entrepreneur community, SAP Ventures has always exposed SAP to new and emerging trends like cloud computing, enterprise collaboration and open source technologies. As a natural evolution, this new structure and capital commitment will allow SAP Ventures to be even more nimble and competitive."
The fund launch followed SAP posting total revenue of €4bn ($5.4bn) in the fourth quarter of last year, up 27% from €3.2bn in the final three months of 2009. This record quarter gave SAP full-year turnover of €12.45bn, up 17% from 2009’s €10.7bn.
Marakovic said: "Setting up a fund is a natural evolution for SAP and the industry as a whole. Traditional VC structures are not ideal for everyone but it is a long-term business to make money. Talent is everything and a traditional VC structure aligns and motivates people and the fund should help attract and retain people as I want to grow the organisation at all levels and expand further into emerging markets."
SAP has completed three deals in India (Connectiva Systems, iYogi and Newgen Software Technologies), and has a further one or two expected to close this year, Marakovic said, and it did its first deal, Spring Wireless, in Brazil last year and continues to scout for opportunities in China.
He said the fund formalised a shadow carried interest – or performance fee – scheme that had been relatively hard to implement within the parent company’s yearly bonus system but would also help speed up decision making.
However, Marakovic said the goals remained the same: to add value to portfolio companies and SAP by investing in disruptive companies and business models, even where they had initially been a competitive threat to the main enterprise software business, such as open source.
SAP had been an investor in Red Hat Software and MySQL, as well as business network LinkedIn.
SAP is the sole limited partner in the fund and Marakovic said as with most big companies as sponsors, the corporate venturing unit had a competitive advantage from its brand and having so many experts in its field of investment.
SAP has acquired at least three of its ventures unit’s portfolio, including Virsa, Coghead and FactoryLogic.