Startups

Monthly Analysis: October 2019

GCV was delighted to head to São Paulo in October to co-host the fifth annual Corporate Venture in Brasil conference, in partnership with ApexBrasil, and to hold our inaugural GCV Academy in the region.

This year’s Global Corporate Venturing Asia Congress from October 1-2 welcomed a delegation of about 50 international corporate venturers.

Third-year update on CVC programs’ potential impact on public stock price performance

It is an irony that as the world moves to cleaner sources of energy it is increasingly reliant on one of the most challenging industries for the commodities.

Academic research towards quantum computing and other quantum technologies is beginning to pay dividends, but continued progress will rely on strong cooperation between academic, industry and government partners.

Sector report: Fintech

Citi and Alphabet-backed real estate portal HomeLight raised $63m in a series C round and an additional $46m in debt financing. The deal is part of the burgeoning real estate tech space, which has seen much corporate attention in recent years.

SoftBank invested $655m in supply chain finance provider Greensill. The deal is part of the burgeoning alternative lending space within fintech.

The big data platform Databricks raised $400m reportedly at $6.2bn valuation, with the backing of Microsoft. The company forms part of the broader big data tech space, in which corporates have been heavily investing over recent years.