Awards toast an industry in growth mode

The investment and professionalism of all those nominated for the awards are truly impressive, and the winners have always demonstrated that extra special something to wow our advisory board. Many thanks to that group chaired by IBM Venture Capital’s Claudia Fan Munce for their voting on these awards.

Those who won our awards are deserving of great praise, and we are delighted to toast their success.

Unit of the Year:
Merck Global Health Innovation Fund

Merck Global Health Innovation Fund has quickly become one of the biggest corporate venturing players in the digital health segment and is dedicating a sizeable amount of its $500m fund to larger deals with private equity and other strategic partners. This has marked it out as one of the most sophisticated new entrants into corporate venturing in the last five years.

Lifetime Achievement Award:
Arvind Sodhani

The winner of this year’s lifetime achievement award, Arvind Sodhani, has led the unit of the chipmaker since 2005, taking it to more than $11bn of venture capital invested, making it probably the biggest venture investor in the world. It is regularly the most active corporate venturing investor by number of deals in our annual and quarterly rankings. Given Sodhani has now achieved iconic status in the corporate venturing industry, due to the success of Intel Capital, the chair of our advisory board Claudia Fan Munce felt there was no one more deserving of our lifetime achievement award than Sodhani.

New Entrant of the Year and Fundof the Year:
DRX Capital

For the first time, Global Corporate Venturing’s advisory board has voted to give the same award to the same unit. DRX Capital, a $100m digital health convergence fund devised “over lunch” between fellow corporate investors – Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the US-based technology company, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, the Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company, surprised investors both in the health and IT sectors with their radical move towards convergence. 

M&A Exit of the Year:
Beats

Vivendi, the parent company of Universal Music, made a $404m return when it sold its 13% stake in US-based headphones production and music streaming company, Beats, to computing technology company Apple as part of a wider exit. The deal marked a large return from backing a company which has quickly become iconic in its industry, and now will benefit from the marketing heft of being part of the Apple stable.

IPO of the Year:
Alibaba

The IPO of Alibaba illustrated the returns that can be made by large corporate venturing investments in high growth companies. The deal marks gigantic $30bn to $40bn stake crystallisations for corporate venturing backers Yahoo and Softbank.

Large Investment of the Year:
Xiaomi

The claim of creating the world’s largest start-up is always an impressive one. Xiaomi, the China smartphone manufacturer backed by media company IDG and wireless technology producer Qualcomm, raised $1.1bn in series E funding in early 2015, putting its valuation at $45bn, according to the company’s president Bin Lin.

The large investment marks a victory for Lin and founder Lei Jun, and its corporate venturing backers such as Qualcomm Ventures.

Sub-$50m Investment of the Year:
Instacart

American Express Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous financial services company, has tapped into what could be one of the fastest growing consumer IT investment stories in the past year, Instacart. Its move into the convenience grocery delivery segment has helped it achieve the sub-$50m investment award, highlighting new ways that financial services companies, such as American Express, can strategically tap into retail purchase application software tie-ups, such as Instacart.

Legal Firm of the Year:
DLA Piper

DLA Piper has made waves within the corporate venturing community and is generally well-known throughout the industry. Lawyers at the firm interested in corporate venturing include Mark Radcliffe in Palo Alto, Megan Muir in Seattle, and Ed Griffiths in London.

Financial Firm of the Year:
SVB

With a carefully honed offering for corporate venturing units across the globe, Silicon Valley Bank has consistently provenits dedication to the segment. Its foresight into new market trends and invaluable deal analytics and sector-based services makes it this year’s Financial Firm of the Year.

Software Service Provider of the Year:
Salesforce

Salesforce’s success has led to widespread adoption across the corporate venturing world, with many voters on our advisory board picking the technology company as their software service provider of choice. It Is highly common to talk with dealmakers about how they use the platform and multiple corporations have customised the system to get as much as possible out of their participation.

Consultancy Firm of the Year:
PwC

Over the past year PwC has been building its corporate venture capital advisory capabilities alongside its private equity and corporate M&A services, two sectors where the firm has extensive experience. The firm’s far reaching know-how across international markets and transactional services is setting the advisory firm apart in the corporate venturing arena for existing units and those looking to join the segment, making it this year’s Consultancy Firm of the Year.

Talent Award of the Year:
Naspers

The ethos of entrepreneurialism permeates every aspect of the Naspers Group and is the driving force behind the organisation’s incredibly successful talent strategy. Their approach to finding, developing and retaining talent is staggeringly effective – especially considering both the scale of the organisation and the incredible diversity of its markets, geographies and cultures.