Quarterly data: Q1 2022

At the end of the first quarter two years ago, most of the world was in shock from the covid-19 pandemic and going into the first nearly global lockdown. Despite the pandemic, we have since seen much upward momentum that both public and private markets have enjoyed as a result of massive monetary intervention on part of central banks. However, with rising inflation and a large-scale commodities crunch, monetary authorities around the globe are changing course, which will expectedly exert an impact over capital markets that we are yet to discern. Despite this and all indications that there may be some “cooling off” in valuations, the first quarter of 2022 seems to be, in the main, part of this still ongoing bullish story.  GCV Analytics tracked 1,506 funding rounds involving corporate venturers during the first quarter of this year, representing a 42% surge above the 1,063 rounds recorded in Q1 2021. This figure appears to be a new all-time high, according to our data. The estimated total investment dollars stood at $69.58bn, up 19% from the $58.29bn recorded during the same period last year. The US hosted the largest number of funding rounds (636), while Japan came in second with 135 deals, and the UK third with 99 deals.   When comparing Q1 2021 with the previous quarter, there was a 7% increase in the deal count, up from the 1,412 in Q4 last year. Estimated total investment, however, went down by 16%, down from $83.16bn.  Emerging enterprises from the IT, fintech and health sectors proved the most attractive for corporate venturers, accounting for more than 219 deals each. The top funding rounds by size, however, were raised by companies from a variety of sectors. The most active corporate investors, in turn, came from the financial, IT, media and services sectors, as shown on the deal heatmap. The leading investors by number of deals were diversified telecoms and internet conglomerate SoftBank, gaming and blockchain technology group Animoca Brands and internet conglomerate Alphabet. The list of corporate venturers involved in the largest deals by size was headed also by SoftBank, financial services firm Fidelity and Alphabet. Our data also suggest that, overall, roughly six out of every 10 corporate investors (63%) that had participated in at least one minority stake round last year have already returned as investors during the first quarter of 2022 so far. In some sectors, notably, the proportion of returning investors is actually higher –telecoms (77%), financial services…

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