Telecoms

Corporate investors have a new financial incentive to invest in renewables and climate technologies that often proved economically unviable in the past.

Instead of buying Figma for $20bn Adobe might have been better served by expanding its CVC programme. A deal to take out one competitor is standard business practice but doesn’t fix Adobe’s burning platform.

Telefónica Ventures head of investments Pablo Moro tells Global Venturing Web3 and the metaverse are now among its priorities, with play-to-earn, tokenisation, VR and AR among the potential strategic areas.

Job moves in the investment arms of telecoms companies over the past year, many of them involving rotation at SoftBank.

Telecoms companies had 91 exits for their portfolio companies last year, with an estimated total value of $50bn.

As telecoms networks continue to expand their services, what even counts as a strategic investment these days? A selection of industry figures tell Global Venturing it can include Web3, ESG and 5G-related technologies.

Corporate investors shied away from big funding rounds for telecoms startups, with the value of deals down to $2.42bn in 2021 from $5.14bn the year before.

Telecoms investment funds had a boom in 2014-16 which has not been repeated since. But 2021 saw signs of an uptick with telcos in emerging markets creating investment funds.

Invest in a business development function — early. Be creative with funding and careful with how your strategic value is measured.