IT

Corporate investors have a more complicated role to navigate than financial VCs. But these 5 strategies can help smooth the job.

NCSoft invested $15m in Mysten Labs to take the latter’s series B round to $300m while Porsche backed Xanadu’s $100m series C.

There is no let-up yet in the investor pullback, but a series of big energy fundraises helped keep total deal value from falling further.

The value of VC deals in China tumbled 44% to $62.1bn by the end of October, but energy-related startups are still raising big rounds.

Suzano and Yara participated in Agrolend’s $145m latest round while Xencor contributed to Zenas BioPharma’s $118m series B.

Several new entrants to the corporate venturing sector could keep the number of active units above their pre-pandemic highs.

Xiaomi provided $68.9m in series C funding for Atech Automotive while Intel and Micron were part of Eliyan’s $40m series A round.

Cable One provided $50m for Ziply Fiber while Mercuria co-led a series C round the same size for The Mobility House.

Investors either focus almost exclusively on investments where there was a commercial deal, or avoid any requirement at all.

Paragon Biosciences was part of Emalex Biosciences’ $250m series D while CMA CGM and AP Moller participated in an $80m round for Project44.

Databricks, Dell, HPE and Salesforce were all part of Alation’s $123m series E round while Alphabet took part in AMP Robotics’ $91m series C.