Latest News

DLA Piper has a specialised international practice dedicated to emerging growth and venture capital, with 200 lawyers in the US and 400 around the world who specifically serve entrepreneurs, technology companies and venture funds by focusing on private equity and venture capital transactions.

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 win the sub-$50m investment award, highlighting new ways that financial services companies can strategically tap into the disruption of the retail sector.

In the last week of September 2014, the financial news wires were white hot as Yahoo and Softbank-backed Alibaba priced its IPO at $68 per share, initially raising $21.8bn, before the China-based e-commerce company reported that it had sold additional shares in the company, making the listing the biggest in history.

The meeting of minds between IT and healthcare is a strategic move that will help accelerate big data convergence in the wider healthcare and life sciences segments. New Entrant of the Year recipient DRX Capital has capitalised on this exciting investment segment with a fellow corporate venturing unit, potentially urging others to co-fund digital health investment opportunities.

As news emerged today that Arvind Sodhani was stepping down as head of Intel Capital in Autumn, we republish our write-up for the lifetime achievement award he received at our Global Corporate Venturing Symposium last month.

Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, the corporate venturing unit owned by pharmaceutical firm Merck, 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. Given the significant impact it has made over a short period of time, there was a significant number of votes from our advisory board to make it unit of the year.

First quarter analysis