Swisscom, a Switzerland-based phone operator, is preparing to expand its corporate venturing unit to potentially include third parties.
Swisscom Ventures has an evergreen structure so money returned from portfolio companies after their sale or flotation can be reinvested in new deals but Dominique Mégret, head of the corporate venturing unit since its foundation in 2005, said it was considering setting up three funds open to third parties, in particular other corporates from the telecom, media, energy and home appliances space.
Although the idea is still being discussed, Mégret told the IBF Corporate Venturing and Innovation Partnering conference the funds would potentially cover telecoms, digital media and the digital home.
He said the multi-limited partner funds would look to have $200m in commitments in aggregate with half for the telecoms fund.
He said: "It would be a way to institutionalize the corporate venturing unit and to increase scalability and access to commercial channels"
Swisscome Ventures has backed 22 companies, Mégret said, and its analysis of deal sourcing has found introductions made by its internal business units to entrepreneurs had been the best source of deal flow.
Mégret said out of 50 qualified leads with internal support, Swisscom Ventures had backed 17 companies, with the other five deals coming from 150 venture capital recommendations but none from the 750 unsolicited external ideas.