Industrial

California leads financial innovation race

Portfolio companies were backed with equity or long-term loans with a profit share, as SVC is trying to boost jobs in innovation in the country's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SVC said all its SFr100m would be fully invested by the end of 2013.

In last month's Global Corporate Venturing, I covered one of the two macro objectives: the financial effectiveness of corporate venture capital (CVC) programs. Now we'll turn to some principles and implementation guidelines for measuring the strategic effectiveness of the CVC unit.

The first of three articles in BMG's Corporate Venturing "How to" Series - part I by Patty Burke (pictured).

The era of the star dealmaker necessarily running a venture capital firm as an amateur manager is increasingly over and into this era of greater professionalism has come US-listed bank Citigroup.

Construction machinery manufacturer XCMG has launched an investment unit, which will provide corporate venture funding alongside more conventional services.

The Saudi Arabian diversified manufacturing and chemicals company has launched a Europe-based corporate venturing arm, to be known as SABIC Ventures.

The effect of corporate VC investments on productivity turns out to be "negligible", according to the report, Venture capital: Policy lessons from the Vico project - a European Union-funded research of 8,370 European high-tech entrepreneurial firms.

De Beers' corporate venturing unit opens up in Silicon Valley as its portfolio has grown to seven companies in the five years it has been in business.

The portable power company has closed its series C funding with the SBI Jeffries Asia Fund partnership and EDBI joining existing investors including Schlumberger.

A long-term strategy that is paying dividends for the US oil major's corporate venturing unit.