What limits are there to the innovation capital market and how does liquidity reshape the power players and how entrepreneurs access them given the excitement around SPACs, blockchain and larger round sizes?

GCV tracked 133 CVC deals in total over $100m in size in Q1. Of those 118 between $100m and $500 and 15 over $500m. This helped drive Q1 to about $125bn in overall venture deals, according to Crunchbase.

As we are reportedly on the brink of a new era of innovation, with digital technology as an enabling factor but no longer centre stage. “The future will not be written in the digital language of ones and zeroes, but in that of atoms, molecules, genes and proteins,” according to Greg Satell.

But a year on from covid-19’s global spread and impact, how does the venture world think of strategic risks in its dealmaking and portfolio construction more broadly?

The US National Intelligence Council report identifies five scenarios for 2040: renaissance of democracies, a world adrift, competitive coexistence between the US and China, separate silos, and a global coalition. This is the year when AI scientists, such as Jürgen Schmidhuber, in his Nvidia GTC 2021 talk, expect convergence or the singularity to happen.

How does scenario planning help identify the potential investments but also portfolio concentration and other risks?

GCV was delighted to have Alex McCracken, one of the editorial board for SVB’s State of the Markets quarterly report and managing director, share the latest insights and how the bank sees its clients respond to the opportunities and challenges.