In last week’s editorial on Louis Dreyfus Corporation’s move to set up an agriculture-focused corporate venturing unit I said: “CVC easy as 123.”

GCV Analytics’ webinar, with a discussion panel on the life sciences sector in partnership with Faegre Drinker, showed the power of long-term thinking when it comes to corporate venturing.

There is a certain sense of one-upmanship that can be offputting to the rest of the world, but when it comes to tackling climate change and crowding in the trillions of dollars needed from corporations, then the rest of the world can cheer them on.

Daily leader from editor-in-chief James Mawson.

Daily leader from editor-in-chief James Mawson.

There are a lot of straws in the wind currently that indicate change could be accelerating in regard to how capital is allocated and to whom.

The traditional way to think of supporting entrepreneurs has been to look at their five primary needs: access to capital, finding customers, product and service development, hiring people and, eventually, an exit.

Europe can respond to the Covid-19 crisis in two ways: restore the past or bounce forward.

When asked for the Global Corporate Venturing agriculture technology supplement in March, why there is such a boom, Daria Batukhtina, business development manager at Kubota Group, a Japan-based agriculture machinery maker, said: “Business is not as usual.”

Interesting to see Søren Thinggaard Hansen has joined Denmark-based pharmaceutical firm Novo as a senior partner to set up a private equity initiative to complement its existing corporate venturing strategy.