The Art of Corporate Venture

Investments in driverless cars and virtual reality pointed the way to the future while machine learning folded into AI and the insurtech sector came of age.

Most interest internationally has been sparked by HNA's indirect corporate venturing strategy.

2016 saw some big changes at the top of some of the biggest CVC units; some corporates raised huge funds and others got into the game, though the IPO market slowed to a crawl.

Intel Capital modified its investment structure in 2016 and pledged to cut its portfolio by around 25% in the next five or six years while increasing its investment sizes.

The China-based internet major romped ahead of rivals Alibaba and Baidu this year when it came to corporate venturing, investing in two billion-dollar deals and three more $500m+ rounds.

Alphabet subsidiary GV lost key figures Bill Maris and Rich Miner but Google Capital rebranded as CapitalG and ramped up the size of its investments.

Despite the departure of company president Nikesh Akora in June, SoftBank continued to invest big in Asian consumer internet and is set to close its $100bn Vision Fund soon.

Google-backed Symphony is targeting $200m in a round that will make it the latest company to carve out a place in the instant messaging unicorn club.

A paper by corporate venturing unit Telstra Ventures suggests the most effective ways for corporates to invest, and predicts they will make up 35% of venture capital investment by 2025.

Pursuing Innovation: report from Jerome Engel, Hamid Hamirani, Kathryn Saklatvala