The measures of success for corporate venturing are idiosyncratic to each unit and their sponsors but making a profit on investments as well as providing insights into future trends and helping business units perform is a good start for most new groups looking at what metrics to choose.
As a result, this past week’s exit activity shows the continuing strong performance by, among others, Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, which has sold 56.com in China – and made more than double its money – and virtual currency Sometrics to American Express for about five times the amount invested.
The actual profits are relatively meaningless to the world’s biggest media group but as a sign of fiscal discipline and ability to make money when most venture capital firms struggle it is impressive. In fact, by looking to develop a rounded portfolio that will mainly succeed in order to reap strategic returns, corporate venturing has had better success than the traditional venture capital model of looking for the one or two stellar successes that can return a whole fund and make up for the losers.
The strategic benefits from understanding how Chinese people use video sharing sites and which games are attracting most use of virtual currency is potentially invaluable, as well as the personal links to the buyers, which helps build relationships that can bear fruit in other deals and co-investments.
However, for that to count, it is important to retain a team, something that Steamboat’s well-established group has usually also succeeded in, apart from Olivier Glauser’s departure from the China office to a start-up.
But with a decade of investing under its belt under John Ball, Steamboat is sailing in the right direction.