Corporate venture capital (CVC) activity jumped 23% year-over-year (YoY) in the second quarter of 2013, spurred by more CVCs doing deals and by a small group of hyperactive corporate venture investors, according to a report from venture capital database curator CB Insights.
The report observes that Q2 2013 saw corporate VCs participate in 126 deals representing total funding of $1.7bn, a climb of 7% YoY, and that deals in which CVCs participated were typically 60% larger than VC deals. Given that 25% of overall VC funding now includes participation by CVCs, and that traditional VCs are having a tough time raising money from LPs, CB Insights poses the question of whether corporate VCs are stepping in to fill the gap.
The most active CVC investors were found to have been Google Ventures, followed by Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Novartis Venture Funds, Comcast Ventures, Samsung Ventures, SAP Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation and Motorola Solutions Venture Capital. These ten investors have accounted for 40% of CVC deals since 2012.
Although a third of the most active CVC investors were healthcare-focused, the internet sector is still considered “king of CVC funding”, hitting a five-quarter high in Q2 2013.
Finally, the report questions whether California is losing its CVC edge, observing that while the US state remains the top destination for CVC deals, the level of CVC funding in California has stayed range-bound for the last four quarters and has not hit $1bn since Q2 2012, when $1.56bn was invested.
