Monthly data: July-August 2021

Hopes to leave behind the covid-19 pandemic thanks to vaccines rollout have permeated through the investment world. Despite the fact that the road has been somewhat bumpy with the appearance of new variants, investing has been in full swing. And this continues to be true for the corporate venturing arena. According to GCV Analytics, in the summer months of July and August, the total number of corporate-backed deals from around the world was 840 – 405 registered in July and 435 in August. This is nearly 48% higher than the total of 568 rounds from the same months last year, with 289 in July and 279 in August. Total estimated investment value stood at nearly $57bn for the two months combined – nearly 156% over the $22bn from July and August 2020. Neither July nor August was a record-breaking month for 2021 but the heightened investment interest and activity has been very much sustained during what tends to be a rather slow season in terms of deal making. The US came first in the number of corporate-backed deals, hosting 343 rounds during the two summer months, while Japan was second with 94 and China – third with 73. The leading corporate investors by number of deals were telecoms and internet conglomerate SoftBank, investment and financial services firm Fidelity, digital currency exchange Coinbase and cloud enterprise software provider Salesforce. In terms of involvement in the largest deals, SoftBank was on the top of the list along with Fidelity and financial firm Goldman Sachs. GCV Analytics reported 26 corporate-backed funding initiatives in July and 33 in August, including VC funds, new venturing units, incubators, accelerators and other. These figures are comparable with the ones from the same months last year, which had registered 27 and 28 such initiatives, respectively. The estimated capital stood at $1.97bn in July and $1.56bn in August, considerably lower than the $13.98bn and $4.6bn in the same months last year. However, it must be kept in mind that the world was beginning to shake off the shock of the pandemic and the lockdown at the time. Thus, a comparison must be drawn with a grain of salt. Deals Emerging businesses from the health, IT, fintech and business services sectors led in raising the largest number of rounds in July and August 2021. The most active corporate venturers came from the financial, IT, media and telecoms sectors, as shown on the heatmap. E-commerce group Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and…

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