Consumer

The value of corporate-backed deals slumped in the third quarter, but sectors like energy and telecoms bucked the trend as did a few geographies like Israel.

Such enormous losses help explain why Bytedance in January said it was dissolving its corporate venturing unit.

An overwhelming majority of respondents in our poll said they took board seats — mainly to influence and help the startups in their portfolio.

Strong branding helped give a canned water producer reach a $700m valuation while the promise of long-term energy storage fueled a $450m mega round.

Q2 Holdings has acquired National Bank of Canada and OpenText-backed Sensibill while ArcelorMittal's XCarb unit was part of Form Energy’s $450m series E round.

The sector is vulnerable to the economic downturn as lenders pull back and higher interest rates crimp borrowing. But pockets of the sector continue to attract financing.

Solid Biosciences is merging with Sarepta-backed AavantiBio in a $215m deal while Amazon has formed a minority founder-focused $150m fund.

Braskem has formed a $150m corporate venturing initiative while Saudi Aramco's Prosperity7 Ventures fund took part in SingleStore’s $146m series F2 round.

General Mills was among the investors in a $120m round for GrubMarket while Polaris and Hero MotoCorp helped Zero Motorcycles raise $107m.

Non-recyclable plastics making asphalt more sustainable and a vaccine to save the honeybee are just two of 10 inventions that caught our eye.

In the run-up to the float, Porche's investment arm had invested in 18 companies, from hypercars to EV batteries and even bikes.