Consumer

A whole country in just half a state

Reasons European venture capital struggles compares to US peers laid bare: the latter caters to the entrepreneur.

In respect of seed and venture capital (VC) funding, Heinz Oyrer posed the statement "The European market is more or less dead but the US is still open" to members of the European Entrepreneurship & Innovation @ Silicon Valley LinkedIn group.

The journey Plastic Logic has taken from a research laboratory in Cambridge, UK, to a new special economic zone just outside Moscow, Russia, via the US, Germany and a swathe of investors from all avenues and geographies says much about how technological innovation is developed and funded in a globalised world.

The below table provides the most influential corporate venturing units for companies in the consumer sector.

The below table summarises March 2011's deal activity with a corporate venturing involvement. For full coverage on each deal every day as well as all other news, visit the rest of www.globalcorporateventuring.com

Steps on the road to being an adept venturer

Two German corporate venturing units, eVenture and T-Venture, which are sponsored by local retailer Otto Group and phone operator Deutsche Telekom respectively, had backed Kaufda, which is sold to Germany-based media group Axel Springer.

Best Buy Capital backs US-based mobile phone sales service Dashwire.

Syngenta licenses crop technology and intellectual property so Agrivida can develop new traits for crops, including corn, sorghum, switchgrass and miscanthus, in return for equity.

In 2008, Coca-Cola, led by its Venturing and Emerging Brands (VEB) unit, purchased a minority stake in Honest Tea, an organic bottled tea company, and it has now bought the rest.