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Peter Lenke, head of Atlassian Ventures, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.
Social media is in flux. Here are a list of new platforms that are vying to become the next Instagram or Twitter.
Several CVC units are targeting generative AI, but customer service software provider Zendesk has launched one of the few that can onboard that technology right now.
Artificial intelligence is a game-changer in helping VC investors find investments. But corporate venture capitalists need lots of money, independence and discipline to take advantage of the technology.
Alphabet alumnus Gideon Yu is reportedly raising $500m to back companies spun out of incubator X Development like 280 Earth, Waymo and Google Glass.
2023 was an exciting year for corporate venture, with sectors like AI and electric vehicles making headline news. But what were our most read stories of 2023?
David Garcia, head of National Basketball Association team the Atlanta Hawks' venture fund, is targeting consumer experience ventures rather than sports technology.
Gabriela Toribio tells us why Wayra Brasil and the newly formed Vivo Ventures have an inside track in a market where early-stage funding is plummeting.
Peter Lenke has succeeded Matt Sonefeldt as head of the enterprise software provider's corporate venture unit following more than six years running CVC and M&A activity at Twitter.
But to seize it, corporate investment teams must step up their messaging about the long-term value they create.
Kitty Sullivan, principal at JLL Spark, is one of our 50 emerging leaders in corporate venturing in 2023.
Corporations are playing a bigger role in supporting new entrants to the venture industry.
Remember Twitter's corporate venture fund? No? How about Adidas, Qantas or Disney? We delve into the past to go through some of the units time forgot.
The $32bn crypto exchange declared bankruptcy today leaving SoftBank, Coinbase and Circle among its burned investors. How did this happen and where does it leave the sector?
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.
Several new entrants to the corporate venturing sector could keep the number of active units above their pre-pandemic highs.
The drop in the US financial services group's market capitalisation shows how undervalued venture investments are as the economy slows.
Sumitomo participated in Zebra Labs’ $5m round while investors including FTX Ventures and Aptos provided $3m in pre-seed funding for Martian.
Twitter had been an infrequent corporate venturer with more of a focus on acquisitions. But it had ramped up activity in the past year.
The talent agency, which represents everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to the D'Amelio sisters, is investing in the creator economy together with Investcorp.
M12, a Microsoft Venture Fund, has hired Jason McBride as a partner, after working as the corporation's director of business development for two years
FTX-backed PayUp agreed to merge with IG Acquisition while multiple corporates participated in Line Man Wongnai’s $265m series B round.
From board seats to leading rounds to deciding when to back boom stocks — there are a lot of VC obsessions that corporate investors can skip.
Suraj Patel has left VC firm Bow Capital after six years and will head the data software group’s corporate venturing arm, MongoDB Ventures.
These were some of the key people moves in corporate venturing departments in the IT sector over the past year.
FTX, Coinbase, Huobi and Protocol Labs backed the startup keeping an eye on crypto sentiment, a measure that can be profitable or costly.
Amid a general downturn, spinouts have been faring much better than the startup world at large.
The debt finance deal gives FTX the chance to buy crypto management tool developer BlockFi for up to $240m - less than 10% of its last valuation - and the news should be making equity investors nervous.
Michel Combes is leaving his position as CEO of SoftBank Group International after just five months, the latest in a string of high-level investor departures at the corporate.
The number of corporate-backed deals dropped by 13% year-on-year in May, the first clear sign that the market pullback is having an impact.
Investment firm Anicut has hired Dhruv Kapoor to lead its Anicut Opportunities Fund I vehicle following more than five years at Russia-based Sistema's Asia Capital unit.
Biren Technology helped provide $120m for CPU producer HJ Micro while ArcelorMittal is set to invest $100m a year through its XCarb Innovation Fund and Accelerator Programme.
Corporate-backed media deals topped $1bn last year and this year looks to be on track to outpace 2021.
51 - 150 in alphabetical order of CVC unit: Kaoru Hayashi, representative director, chairman and CEO, DG Ventures
The oil major is pivoting away from investing through its $400m fund to focus on smaller earlier-stage investments amid rocketing valuations for climatetech companies.
Jodi Olson has reportedly left Alphabet’s early-stage investment arm, where she had been a communications and marketing partner for roughly a decade.
The company, which largely remains in stealth mode, has set itself a mission of increasing the human lifespan by a decade.
Industry Q1 2022 editorial by James Mawson, editor in chief, Global Corporate Venturing
2021 was a record year for Coinbase Ventures, with just under 150 deals, averaging a new deal every 2.5 days.
Data analytics platform developer Starburst raised $250m in a Salesforce-backed round valuing it above $3.3bn while SoftBank co-led a $140m round for small molecule drug developer Ventus.
Insights from Global Corporate Venturing 2021 by Emmanuel Benhamou, managing director, EAIGG
Synthetic DNA producer DNA Script and personalised health plan provider Transcarent each closed $200m corporate-backed series C rounds.
Delivery Hero has generated a healthy return having sold part of its stake in delivery app developer Rappi, one of several investments in the Latin American market.
SBI, Ripple, OKWave and Credit Saison have exited the digital currency trading service in an acquisition by Coinbase.
Cox Enterprises led a $58m round for healthcare delivery software provider Enlace Health while Johnson & Johnson snapped up portfolio company OrthoSpin for almost $80m.
Corporate-backed cloud networking software provider Pluribus pushed its total funding to at least $110m while IAG has exited Hyper Anna in an acquisition by Alteryx.
Deep Nishar, formerly an Americas-focused senior managing partner at SoftBank’s Investment Advisers subsidiary, has announced his plans to leave the parent firm at the end of this year.
The venture firm hired new director Asif Giga, who has worked at corporate VC units Ericsson Ventures, Experian Ventures and Singtel Innov8 Ventures.
Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund was among the investors as the social media and short-form video app developer expanded on a $502m round featuring Tencent and Snap.
The Alphabet unit hired two partners for its enterprise and fintech team, three months after bringing Dan Lynch and EIR Mojca Skoberne on board.
Female Founders Fund has secured GV vehicle Plexo Capital and Twitter as limited partners in its latest seed-stage venture capital fund.
Q&A with Ginger Rothrock, senior director, HG Ventures
Twitter and Motley Fool were among the LPs in the venture firm’s latest vehicle, which had a $100m target.
University of Rochester and Grinnell College were among the LPs in the venture firm’s latest vehicle, which had a $100m target.
SoftBank Vision Fund led a $75m round valuing OKR platform developer WorkBoard at $800m while therapist network provider Headway hit a $750m valuation.
European affiliates of Tencent provided nearly half of the $502m secured by the social network operator at a $2.1bn valuation earlier this month.
Snap and existing shareholder Twitter backed a round for the social media platform, which caters to speakers of 15 Indian languages, valuing it at $2.1bn.
March 2021 issue editorial by James Mawson, editor in chief, Global Corporate Venturing
New York Digital Investment Group was among the investors in the Bitcoin payment service’s seed round, which valued it at $71m.
Bonny Simi, pilot and founder of US airline JetBlue’s corporate venturing unit, read the runes correctly in December when she left to join portfolio company Joby Aviation as head of air operations and people.
Top 50 Rising Stars 2021 continued (in alphabetical order by CVC unit): Terri Burns, investing partner, GV
Steve Mitzenmacher spent nine years in corporate development and strategy at NetApp before joining Rackspace earlier this month.
James Fogt has been promoted to lead Harris-Stowe State University's new tech transfer office having been with the historically black public university since 1999.
The ad optimisation platform’s IPO will enable Colopl, Credit Saison, CyberAgent, Dai Nippon Printing, Denstu, Fidelity, GMO, Gree, Mizuho, NTT, SBI and Yahoo Japan to exit.
Terri Burns, formerly a principal at the Alphabet subsidiary, has taken up a partner role having made two Gen Z-focused investments this year.
Twitter has returned to back the social media platform that provides services in 15 Indian languages, which pushed its total funding to about $264m.
Comment from Angela McKane, director of technology intelligence at BP
GV and CAA Ventures have exited online GIF database Giphy in a reported $400m deal, sized at approximately $200m less than its valuation four years ago.
GV led a series B round for Digits that was disclosed as it publicly launched its business expenditure analysis software, four months after its series A.
Comment from Dominic Hofstetter, director of capital and investment, Climate-KIC
Naver, Simon Property and O’Reilly Media-backed Foursquare is joining forces with peer Factual to create the world's biggest location intelligence provider.
Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Intel Capital has joined various returning investors in a $74m round that will help ZeroFox bolster the artificial intelligence capabilities of its brand protection software.
SoundCloud has received $75m from SiriusXM following an advertising partnership agreement with its Pandora subsidiary in 2019.
Oxford Sciences Innovation has bid farewell to chairman Patrick Pichette, just a few months after also losing CEO Charles Conn.
In-Q-Tel managing partner George Hoyem discussed disinformation campaigns carried out through artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in recent years with Graphika CEO John Kelly and UC Berkeley professor Hany Farid.
Venture capital fund Big Idea Ventures has hired former GCV Rising Star and Tyson Ventures CFO Tom Mastrobuoni as a venture partner.
MDI Ventures’ acting chief executive, Setyanto Hantoro, has shifted to managing director of another Telkom Indonesia subsidiary, Telkomsel.
Vinay Trivedi has left SoftBank Investment Advisers, the manager of SoftBank Vision Fund, and joined General Atlantic as a vice-president to oversee growth-stage tech investments.
It is fashionable for pundits to make predictions for the coming year; as a venture investor, I feel pressure to look further out.
After five years focusing on life sciences investments for GV, Vineeta Agarwala has taken a general partner role at Andreessen Horowitz.
GCV Powerlist mainstay Reese Schroeder has joined Allstate Strategic Ventures as an investor after nearly three years at Tyson Ventures and over a decade at Motorola Solutions Venture Capital.
Victor Pascucci, who counts USAA and Munich Re among his corporate venturing stops, has put together an energy-focused VC firm called Energy Capital Ventures.
Prolific company builder Nathalie Gaveau has joined the US-based professional services firm’s corporate innovation and incubation division as a managing director and partner.
The AI-powered esports tournament platform developer raised the cash in an Intel Capital-led round after spinning off from BlueStacks.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) report October 2019
Smoking cessation service Carrot has hired Busy Burr as president and CEO, months after she left Humana after setting up its corporate venturing arm.
University of Oxford held its inaugural artificial intelligence-focused conference last month, bringing together investors and the world’s foremost researchers in the area.
İskender Dirik has taken on a managing director role at Samsung Next following corporate venturing stints at Bauer Media and Microsoft.
Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America has hired Steve Agirman as director of new ventures after four years of corporate venturing at Schneider Electric.
Newly formed corporate venturing unit Marubeni Ventures has hired Hiroki Eda, formerly of DG Incubation, as managing director.
Declan Kelly, formerly a founding partner at venture firm Amaranthine Partners, has joined the Germany-based investment team at accelerator Techstars.
Tiffine Wang has departed from a senior investment manager role at Singtel Innov8 for a partner position at fellow corporate VC unit MS&AD Ventures.
The unit has hired EquityZen co-founder Shriram Bhashyam as its latest entrepreneur in residence in order to coach employees developing financial technology.
Twitter has led a $100m series D round for social media app ShareChat that valued the multilingual social network operator at $650m.
Adiari Vazquez, formerly investment manager at Caixa Geral de Depósitos’ Caixa Capital subsidiary, has joined Siemens-backed Next47 as an associate.
The calendar optimisation software provider raised $11m in funding from investors including Slack Fund, with Accel and Greylock co-leading the round.
Twitter is expected to lead the Xiaomi-backed round with an investment of more than $50m, valuing the social networking platform at up to $650m.
The Naver, Simon and O'Reilly-backed location services provider has collected $150m from Raine Group to fund the purchase of user-location tracking app Placed from Snap.
USI-founded fake news detection technology developer Fabula AI has been scooped up by Twitter, which will employ the spinout's talent to remove spam and abuse from its platform.
Salesforce-backed recruitment software provider SmartRecruiters will use the proceeds from the series D round to expand into the Europe and Asia Pacific markets.
Rohit Dave, previously senior director and head of M&A at WeWork, has ascended to vice-president and will continue heading M&A activities alongside running its Creator Fund.
Digital media company Cheddar has agreed to a purchase by investor Altice USA that will also provide exits for Antenna Group, Dentsu, Liberty Global, Comcast, Amazon, AT&T, NYSE and Broadway Video.
Set up to identify fake news and social media bot accounts, Astroscreen has attracted UCL Technology Fund for its first funding round.
Bloomberg Beta has exited online text highlighting tool developer Highly in an acquisition of undisclosed size by Twitter.
New York Times has promoted its director of M&A and investments, Jacob Smilovitz, to executive director of corporate development and financial planning and analysis.
The Citi Ventures-led round increased the total raised by the freelance business and financial planning service to $60m in the past five years.
MSG Studios contributed to a round that led by Spark Capital that boosted the digital sports media platform's valuation to about $100m.
Cisco Investments took part in the customer relationship platform developer's series C round, which increased its total funding to approximately $74m.
Narbe Alexandrian, previously vice-president of business development at Canopy Rivers, has been promoted to president.
NM Future Ventures alumni Alexa von Tobel and Mark Batsiyan have launched Inspired Capital, a venture capital firm aiming to raise $200m for its debut fund.
The Tencent-backed data analytics software provider is now valued at $850m following an $80m series D round led by Sequoia Capital.
OSI is among the investors in drone developer Animal Dynamics’ latest round, which will help it develop products based on aerodynamics from the animal kingdom.
Data analytics software provider Quid has secured $37.5m in a round led by Relx subsidiary REV Ventures that included Lixil and Salesforce Ventures.
Amazon and existing backer Comcast both invested in a round that boosted lifestyle media platform Tastemade's total funding to $115m.
Simon Ventures and Naver have joined USV to co-lead the $25m first tranche of the location services provider's series F round on the way to a $33m close.
Brian Gallagher, Jr has left SR One after eight years as a partner, setting up a Boston office on the way, to join Abingworth.
Taejoon Park has become the second high-profile departure from Applied Ventures in recent months, moving to LG Technology Ventures.
Nikesh Arora has joined Palo Alto Networks, as his former employer SoftBank begins making its own moves on succession to its founder, Masayoshi Son.
The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Hiroshi Saijou, Yamaha
The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Allison Goldberg, Time Warner
The online video collaboration platform has closed its series A round at $13.9m after securing new funds from investors including You & Mr Jones.
In Churchill’s history of The Second World War he wrote of his emotions upon hearing that Japan had attacked US forces at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 that only “silly people, and there were many,” underestimated American strength. For him, the entry of the US into the war meant that the ultimate outcome—favourable for his countries […]
Intel Capital has revealed investments in 12 US or China-based portfolio companies and a partnership with the NBA.
Fundraising Salesforce to track Canadian startups with $100m fund Canada Trailblazer Fund will invest in Canada-based cloud services startups and has already backed Tier1CRM, Traction Guest, Tulip and OSF Commerce. Corporates swarm to The Hive General Electric, Rockwell, Verizon and Software AG all backed The Hive’s third AI-focused fund, which has closed at $26.5m. Illumina […]
Jessica Verrilli, who originally left Twitter for GV in 2015, has made the same move two and a half years later to take a general partner role.
The database technology developer has secured GV, Capital One, Line, NHN Entertainment and Naver as investors in its series A round.
The business and politics-focused online broadcaster's series D round includes Antenna Group, Dentsu, Liberty Global and existing backers including several other corporates.
Chorus, which had raised seed capital from Chernin Group and UTA Ventures, has elected to shut down its group fitness app shortly after its launch.
Axa's Kamet Ventures incubator has supplied $5.6m in seed capital for life insurance comparison platform Anorak Technologies.
The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order by company): Meredith Finn, Salesforce Ventures
Viacom has acquired online marketing agency WhoSay, allowing investors including Comcast, Tencent and Amazon to exit.
Corporate-backed deals tracked by GCV Analytics in November numbered 215, significantly higher than the 186 funding rounds in the same month last year. Investment value also increased by 84% to $8.05bn – up from $4.37bn in November 2016. The deal count in November was even more drastically higher compared with the 147 recorded in October […]
Lam, a GCV Powerlist 2016 winner, founded the Time Warner Investments group in 2003 and invested more than $325m in 54 companies before leaving earlier this year.
Qualcomm and Harman-backed Navdy has contacted potential creditors as part of a bankruptcy process known as General Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors.
Danone Manifesto Ventures has invested in bottled ocean water brand Kona Deep in its fifth deal since launching in September last year.
Christina Heggie and Ajay Sharma have been promoted to investment principal roles at JetBlue Technology Ventures.
Snap has acquired Metamarkets, an analytics technology developer backed by AOL Ventures, for a sub-$100m amount.
Alphabet's GV, unit has participated in a series A round for Fauna, a US big data platform developer founded by ex-Twitter employees in 2012.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Build sports car Use that money to build an affordable car While doing above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options This was the short version of the master plan that Elon Musk posted on Tesla’s website on August 2 2006. The intention of the master plan was to illustrate how seemingly separate and […]
Just as Netscape’s IPO marked the real kick-off for the internet era, 2017 will be the starting gun for broad involvement of venture, hedge funds, and eventually average consumers in cryptocurrencies and related protocols and assets. The recent run up in cryptocurrency valuations has caused a sudden and profound renewal of interest by entrepreneurs and […]
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Raine Group and Temasek have reportedly acquired a majority stake in beleaguered, Twitter and Chernin Group-backed music streaming platform SoundCloud.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Twitter-backed music streaming service SoundCloud is reportedly in advanced talks to sell a majority stake to the two to alleviate financial struggles.
Yusuf Bashir has resigned as managing director of Infosys Innovation Fund, the $500m corporate venturing fund formed by Infosys, after two years at the helm.
General Electric pitches itself as an innovation hub. Amazon brought us many new ideas about retailing. Google, well, any company that thought about bringing the world the internet through hot air balloons obviously thinks outside the box. Amazon has changed how almost every consumer product is sold. Facebook has reinvented communication. What do these companies […]
Jake Knapp, the GV design partner that developed the Design Sprint process, has left the unit after five years to become a full-time writer.
The social media management platform has created a $5m vehicle dubbed Hootsuite Integration Fund to support developers building apps on its platform.
After an extensive search, the university has appointed Luke Hakes to the role of independent chairman in its technology transfer office.
The media provider, also an investor in Buzzfeed and Vox, extended its online and mobile media access by buying a 2.1% stake in Snap when it went public last week.
Pascale Diaine, lead manager for Orange's accelerator since it launched in 2012, has departed for venture capital firm Storm Ventures where she will take on a principal role.
Goldberg had been managing director and vice-president at Time Warner (TW) Investments, the corporate venturing unit of the US-listed media group, since 2001.
The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Allison Goldberg, managing director and vice-president, Time Warner Investments
The Top 20: #4 Shivon Zilis, partner, Bloomberg Beta
TF1 Group and Mediaset have injected cash into Studio71 in a deal that valued the online media company, a ProsiebenSat.1 spinout, at about $425m.
Life On Air, developer of Meerkat and now group video chat app Houseparty, has raised new funding in a round featuring existing backer Comcast Ventures.
Pursuing Innovation: report from Jerome Engel, Hamid Hamirani, Kathryn Saklatvala
CapitalG also potentially disclosed an investment in communications platform Snap by adding the company's logo to the investment portfolio page on its website.
Bertelsmann and Time Warner have exited Epoxy following the video distribution service's acquisition by Vemba for an undisclosed amount.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Twitter, Live Nation and Aruba-based VenueNext has added $15m to its coffers in a series B round led by Causeway Media Partners in order to expand into new verticals.
"It is hard to see how these investment vehicles are not mutually beneficial"
Stripe, valued at $5bn as of a Visa and Amex-backed round last year, has received an undisclosed amount from Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company as it launches in Japan.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Spotify is in advanced talks to acquire SoundCloud, which was reported to be talking to Twitter about a sale until the social media company withdrew from negotiations in 2014.
Change has come even to the venture industry.
Lifestyle media company Mode, valued at $1bn just three years ago, has shut down after failing to secure financing or a buyer.
Eze Vidra, who helped GV set up its aborted European branch, has taken the chief innovation officer role at clinical trial connection platform TrialReach.
The CAA Ventures-backed excursion booking platform has received $10m from individual investors to take its overall funding to $18m.
Postmates has acqui-hired mobile app developer Hey for an undisclosed sum, giving an exit to GV, the unit formerly known as Google Ventures.
Collab+Line, the startup funding initiative launched by messaging platform Line and VC firm Collaborative Fund, has backed nine startups including YouNow and Zendrive.
The deal provided an exit to Lookup shareholders including DeNA and MKS, and the startup will continue to develop its local retail-focused messaging platform post-acquisition.
Over the month we have tracked 122 deals worth an estimated total of $9.55bn involving corporate venturing investors. More than half of those deals (72) took place in the US. However, some of the top rounds, including a record-setter, occurred in China. The number of deals involving corporate VCs in June exceeded the number of […]
Imperial graduates celebrate an exit as Twitter acquires machine learning systems developer Magic Pony Technology.
Nikesh Arora, who had moved SoftBank's corporate venturing strategy toward larger and fewer investments, has left his position as president and COO.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
The social media data provider will close its service next month due to features introduced by the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter making its service unnecessary.
Music streaming service SoundCloud secured the funding as part of a $100m series E round it is raising at a $700m valuation.
In May, we tracked 103 deals involving corporate venturing investors worldwide. The deals were worth an estimated total of $4.71bn. Geographically, the majority were in North America, mostly the US, and Asia. The leading corporate investors in terms of number of deals were Intel, International Data Group and General Electric (GE). However, in terms of […]
The data security platform, already backed by GV, has attracted Amazon to its shareholders as it boosted its total capital to $122m.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Twitter is investing 'at least $10m' in the latest fund to be raised by Betaworks, an early investor in two companies it has acquired in the past.
A member of the top 25 from the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist
The social media data collector has now raised $180m altogether, after Credit Suisse and Fidelity both made strategic investments in its series D round.
Paul Ark (Polapat Arkkrapridi) has joined SCB Ventures, the fintech investment arm of Siam Commercial Bank, as head of venture capital.
Publishing platform Medium boosted its total funding to more than $130m in a GV-backed round that reportedly valued it at $600m.
Tracy Isacke, managing director at Silicon Valley Bank, looks to the future of startups.
The venture capital (VC) industry is booming, especially in the technology space. Corporations are participating in this trend by establishing their own internal investment organisations. These corporate venture capitalists (CVCs), also known as strategic investors or corporates, are investing in tech startups alongside traditional financial VCs. In fact, according to the Global Corporate Venturing, over […]
Qualcomm is set to exit driverless vehicle technology company Cruise Automation, which had raised $18m in financing, in a $1bn acquisition by General Motors.
The social media curation platform has received additional funding from Inkef Capital to boost its Singapore Press Holdings-backed series A round to $7m.
The quality of an organisation is reflected by the quality of its questions and a number of the most storied venture investors, such as Michael Moritz from Sequoia Capital, started out as journalists. Sarah Milstein also began her journey towards corporate venturing by first climbing her way up through the journalist ranks at O’Reilly Media. […]
The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Allison Goldberg, managing director and vice-president, Time Warner Investments
Less than 18 months after co-founding Google Ventures Europe as a general partner, Eze Vidra is leaving Google Ventures and parent company Alphabet.
US-based social media management platform SocialFlow has secured $7.5m in a series C round that included telecommunicaions and internet firm Softbank, TechCrunch reported yesterday. Investment firm Gefinor Capital led the round, which also included venture capital firms Cayuga Venture Partners, Fairhaven Capital and Rand Capital. SocialFlow helps companies manage their social media profiles through a […]
AOL-owned fund BBG Ventures has contributed to a round for premium recipe delivery service Din, which recently expanded from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Ten pieces of advice for advanced material and physical sciences startups
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Jessica Verrilli has left Google Ventures after less than six months as a partner to rejoin Twitter, where she will be senior director of corporate development and strategy.
Google-backed Amino specialises in launching mobile communities apps focused on a specific topic and has created 41 such apps to date.
Cool Planet Energy Systems, a US-based green fuels producer backed by energy producers Exelon and NRG Energy, industrial conglomerate General Electric, internet company Google and petroleum producers BP, Concord Energy and ConocoPhilips, received an undisclosed sum on Wednesday in a round co-led by Northbridge Venture Partners and Yung’s Enterprise. The company had raised more than […]
Bindi Karia, who joined Silicon Valley Bank from Microsoft in 2013 to head its accelerator activities, has left to seek new entrepreneurial challenges.
There is significant continuity at Google Ventures for the founding team of 2010, as it begins its Alphabet adventure.
Search engine provider Google tends to deal in superlatives. Even its name is derived from a googol, the large number 10100; that is, the digit 1 followed by 100 zeroes. Its corporate venturing units tend to operate with similar supreme ambition and building an impressive track record of investing and selling its portfolio companies – […]
The Comcast and Chernin Group-backed online media aggregator has revealed $50m in new equity capital, increasing its total funding to more than $210m.
Peter Read has left corporate venturing unit Google Ventures a year after helping to launch its $100m European investment arm.
The Walt Disney-backed accelerator, run in co-operation with Techstars, has announced the 10 startups that will make up its second class.
Sony Pictures Television, the TV production division of Sony, has paid a reported $100m for a 51% stake in the Latin America-focused digital advertising network.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
The venue management company has received $9m from investors including Twitter, Live Nation and Aruba Networks.
Maker Media plans to use the O'Reilly Media-backed funding round to help build out its content.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Jessica Verrilli, who was instrumental in Twitter's acquisitions of Vine and Periscope among others, is set to join Google Ventures as a partner.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
The developer of business communications platform Alcatraz has attracted $28m in new funding from investors including Credit Suisse.
Medtech startup Color Genomics secures $15m series A for genetic testing kits.
Cyanogen, the US-based developer of a mobile operating system, revealed yesterday that contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn was among the investors in the $80m series C round it closed in March. The round was led by investment firm Premji Invest and included internet portal Tencent, semiconductor technology producer Qualcomm, microblogging platform Twitter, telecommunications companies Telefónica and […]
Cyanogen, the US-based developer of a mobile operating system, revealed yesterday that contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn was among the investors in the $80m series C round it closed in March. The round was led by investment firm Premji Invest and included internet portal Tencent, semiconductor technology producer Qualcomm, microblogging platform Twitter, telecommunications companies Telefónica and […]
Twitter revealed in its earnings report that it spent a combined $86.6m to acquire William Morris Endeavor-backed Niche and Periscope earlier this year.
The live video streaming app developer reportedly raised the cash from backers including Universal, Comcast, Broadway Video, CAA, UTA and William Morris Endeavor.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
US-based marketing platform Swirl Networks completed an $18m series C round yesterday backed by the respective corporate venturing units of media group Hearst, telecommunications and media company SoftBank and social media network Twitter. Hearst Ventures, SoftBank Capital and Twitter Ventures were joined by venture capital firm Longworth Venture Partners and additional, unnamed strategic investors. Swirl […]
Sprinklr, which reached unicorn status last week, has bought the online community platform in a deal that will give an exit to long-term investor O'Reilly Media.
Comment from Alex Chachava, managing partner of Leta Capital, on Russian venture capital trends.
Toby Lewis discusses the future of Telefonica Ventures
After a white-hot 2014, most leaders predict that the trend will continue in 2015. What is interesting is that while business optimism is high, it is also very measured. Some 75% of executives say they met or exceeded their revenue targets in 2014, (and two of three who did were within 20 percent of the target.) In 2010, by comparison, half of companies fell below their revenue targets.
The Google-backed communication app developer has raised an initial $135m from investors that could rise to $160m before the round is closed, and its potential for further growth appears huge.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Keywee secured the cash, raised as it launches its content marketing platform, in a round featuring publishing company New York Times.
US-based mobile operating platform developer Cyanogen closed an $80m series C round yesterday backed by a host of corporates. Investment firm Premji Invest led the round, which included internet company Tencent, wireless technology maker Qualcomm, Twitter Ventures and Telefónica Ventures, the respective corporate venturing units of microblogging platform Twitter and telecommunications firm Telefónica, telecoms company […]
Online chat service and internet portal Daum Kakao has acquired the venture firm and plans to turn it into its corporate venturing arm.
In our series of articles Corporate Venturing on the Test Bench, Martin Haemmig and Boris Battistini review and analyse the latest trends.
Sandwich has launched a unit that will take equity stakes worth $100,000 in return for its corporate video production services.
The fast-growing neighbourhood-based social network, backed by Comcast and Google, has now raised $210m in total as it prepares to monetise elements of the service.
Event-planning service HoneyBook has now received $32m in venture funding to date, following a $22m series B round.
A look at the history of labs, from Robert Hooke to their current spread beyond the sciences
Can Locke shake off the troll image at Intellectual?
AOL-backed event-based data company Metamarkets has received $15m in a round led by venture capital fund Data Collective, bringing its total funding to almost $44m.
US-based employee engagement platform developer Glint secured $15.5m yesterday in a series A round co-led by Norwest Venture Partners, the venture capital firm that manages funds for financial services firm Wells Fargo. Shasta Ventures co-led the round, and the firms were joined by Ev Williams, the co-founder of longform content platform Medium and former CEO […]
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Facilitating brand partnerships with social media celebrities, Niche raised approximately $3m.
The Hearst-backed social media tools developer has raised $250m to date, but could wait another two years before looking to go public.
Time Warner joined the online media company's existing backers, including Tribune Media, in a series B round that will support the expansion of the company's workforce.
A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Twitter has agreed to buy the Times Internet-backed mobile marketing company for a price reported to be about $40m.
Social network Twitter has reportedly entered talks to acquire the Times Internet-backed mobile marketing startup for up to $40m.
US-based distributed data security platform Ionic Security raised $40.1m yesterday in a series C round featuring Google Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of internet company Google. Meritech Capital Partners led the round, which included investments by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Tech Operators and Jafco Ventures. Ionic has now raised about $78m in total. […]
Mona Locke, a former TV reporter in the Seattle area and the better half of former Seattle governor and the current US ambassador to China Gary Locke, has been named as senior vice president of communications and marketing at Intellectual Ventures. Locke, who will oversee internal and external communications, public relations, and marketing efforts at […]
Turkey’s vision for 2023 is to capitalise on its demographic opportunity to grow rapidly by about 7% per year for the next decade. Funding innovation as a way of boosting the local economy and exports is central to its aim to take its gross domestic product (GDP) to $2 trillion in 2023 from $820bn last year.Hasan Pehlivan, […]
A look at the history of labs, from Robert Hooke to their current spread beyond the sciences
US-based social network app Connect has secured $10.3m in a series A round that included Kinzon Capital, a venture capital firm whose sole limited partner is China-based conglomerate Fosun International. The round also featured Launch Fund, Bull City Venture Partners and angel investors Marc Benioff, who is the CEO of cloud computing platform Salesforce.com, Brad […]
The internet company has finally acquired Vkontakte, bringing an end to a three-year financial, legal and political saga.
Our annual look at the media sector, with interviews with top executives in the sector including Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments's Urs Cete [pictured]
Blue Cross Blue Shield has partnered with the Aksarben Discovery Fund, the venture capital fund which target graduates of the The Lean Launchpad at the Aksarben Innovation Initiative.
This is the first article in our future of advertising series, ahead of our Future of advertising round-table alongside US-based media company American Media in New York on October 1, starting at 1600. Contact tlewis@globalcorporateventuring.com to attend. Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments's Urs Cete is pictured.
The latest $60m raised by AppNexus, in a round that could eventually reach nine digits, is only the latest in what is proving to be a vibrant adtech market.
Serial entrepreneur Kevin Rose is scaling back his time at Google Ventures to launch a new company, North Technologies.
Trending news app SmartNews has now raised $40m in total after receiving $36m in a Gree-backed series B round.
Wildcard has raised $7m in a Softbank-backed series A round to help it provide a new way to browse the web on mobile phones.
Twitter has acquires the internet password security platform, which was backed by investors including Google.
Softbank-backed social analytics company Poptip has been acquired by Palantir, which specialises in data mining for government agencies.
The e-commerce company, which has received almost $80m from investors including American Express and Kering, is set to raise the funding at a $1.2bn valuation.
The microblogging platform's strategic investments will be overseen by its ex-CFO, and it is likely to chiefly target adtech companies.
Google, Cisco and VMWare all invested in a round that lifted the IT automation software developer's overall funding to $86m.
Freeput aims to improve computer accessibility for people with mobility impairments.
The mobile app advertising startup was bought by Twitter for sum reported as "around $50m", giving Google Ventures an exit just over a year after its seed investment.
SIG China is among the investors in the audio streaming service's $11.5m series A round.
The microblogging platform has withdrawn from negotiations concerning the acquisition of SoundCloud, which would have provided an exit for Chernin.
US software group Microsoft is no stranger to backing startups through its international accelerator and local fund partnerships, it was a welcome addition to the corporate venturing community when it coordinated its efforts through a new entity called Microsoft Ventures in June 2013.
Venture capital firm Spark Capital has appointed John Melas-Kyriazi, most recently the CFO of StartX, as one of its investors.
John Melas-Kyriazi will become an associate at Spark, a venture capital firm, at its Boston offices.
The Surrey University start-up received the money from Mercia Fund Management.
The University of California Berkeley released a study last month, based on two decades of records from the University of California system, which supports a viewpoint that’s been reiterated by this magazine for some time now – collaboration between smaller universities will generate the critical mass necessary to enhance bargaining power and conduct effective technology […]
The Spain-based telecom company has invested in a new UK-based company that will sell targeted mobile advertising.
Comcast is among the investors in Closely's $3m series A, which brings its total equity funding to $6.6m.
WPP Digital, the digital investment arm of WPP, has acquired a minority interest in US content marketing startup, Percolate, to support a strategic partnership.
Broadcast TV and advert social analytics company SecondSync, who developed their business in conjunction with SetSquared, has been acquired by Twitter.
Susan Searle, former chief executive of Imperial Innovations, joins the board of UK-listed defence development group Qinetiq.
Google Ventures, the corporate venturing unit owned by search engine company Google, has co-invested with Spark Labs Global Ventures in a $3m funding round for The Orange Chef, which has developed clever connectable kitchen products for home use.
Weibo has become the latest Chinese company to tap the US public markets, targeting $500 million from its initial public offering, and plans to leverage its partnership with minority shareholder Alibaba to maxmise advertising revenue.
American Express (Amex), a US-based credit card company and multinational financial services corporation, has unveiled plans to promote greater financial inclusion in the US, including through closer collaboration with technology startups. Dan Schulman, American Express group president, Enterprise Growth, said, “Technology is rapidly changing the face of financial services, yet tens of millions of Americans […]
Rakuten Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Japanese electronic commerce and Internet company, Rakuten, has led and invested in a $3.5 m series round of funding that will accelerate R&D activities with strategic partner ViSenze, an online visual search technology company.
Japan internet services company and incubator, Digital Garage, has contributed an additional $7.5m in a $10m round to US start-up investor and product launch company, betaworks. The latest funding is part of a larger $20m funding round that was announced in December 2013. Since 2008 the company has raised a reported $47.5m.
Venturing in the services sector was on a roll last year, as
the intermediaries that help the business world function
capitalised on their strong relationships.
Medium, the US-based collaborative publishing start-up, founded by Evan Williams, who is one of the minds behind Twitter and Blogger, has just closed a $25m round of financing, the company confirmed. The company started operating a year ago and has attracted investors such as private equity firm Greylock Partners, Google Ventures, SV Angel’s Ron Conway, […]
Mobile payments startup Square’s origins have been thrown into dispute after a Washington University in St. Louis professor has filed a law suit alleging fraud patent infringement. Professor Robert E. Morley has alleged that Square’s founders, Twitter chairman and co-founder Jack Dorsey and James McKelvey, froze Morley out from the business. The complaint reads: “The […]
The NBCUniversal News Group has taken a minority stake in US social video start-up NowThisNews. Existing backers of the Lerer-start-up include Softbank Capital, Bedrocket, Lerer Ventures and Oak Investment Partners. The two companies will work with each other out of New York. Prior to the NBCUniversal transaction the start-up had raised just under $10m.
Netcall, a software company increasingly interested in how social media data can transform and benefit client business, has invested up to £250,000 in a £1m series A round for UK-based Macranet (trading as Sentiment). Elderstreet VCT also participated in the funding. Sentiment’s cloud-based platform monitors global social media, providing solutions in the area of customer […]
How do you make free education commercially viable, asks TAG Assessment managing director Matt Wingfield.
DataSift, a social data platform which enables companies to aggregate, filter and extract insights from social networks, has raised $42m in series C funding.
Global Corporate Venturing recorded 57 investments during November worth a total of $1.2bn – in October there were 60 investments worth $1.2bn – and six exits worth $2.45bn, although exit prices were largely undisclosed and the initial public offering (IPO) of social network Twitter accounted for $1.82bn of the total – in October there were […]
Thank you for all the help and support for our various websites, e-zines, magazines, webinars and events this past year, and enjoy the holiday season over the next few weeks.
In bioscience or any other field that universities spin out companies into, they are generally dealing with technology that is cutting-edge, utilises modern and innovative thinking, and is based on science and facts. If it works so well for technology, why should our thinking on leadership be any different?
Inaugural and sold-out Global University Venturing Summit and Awards celebrated in London
Social networking service Twitter files IPO registration with a suggested valuation of $12.8bn.
InVent Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Thailand communication services group, Intouch, has invested in Computerlogy and Meditech Solution. The combined deals were valued at $1.08m.
Twitter is acquiring mobile advertising exchange MoPub in an all-stock deal worth around $350m.
Media groups have pursued corporate venturing enthusiastically as the sectors in which they operate have been transformed by technological change. As we demonstrate in our forthcoming special report on the media industry, which is sponsored by US-based law firm Baker Botts and is out later this month, groups are using their investments in start-ups to keep tabs on how the production of content is changing, […]
The finding of a survey by US-based recruitment consultant J Thelander Consulting in partnership with the Corporate Venture and Innovation Initiative that corporate venturing unit leaders earn just under $500,000 should not alarm, even though it is less than comparable venture peers.
Fung Capital USA, a venture capital fund affiliated with Li & Fung Ltd, has led a $10m series A round for a US-based start-up that is racking up tens of millions of dollars in added sales for its clients, which include large brands and e-commerce companies.
Humboldt spin-out Tame tunes up ahead of public launch.
EdgeCast, a US-based content delivery network, has secured $54m in D series funding round, led by private equity firm Performance Equity Management (PEM), with follow-on participation from the company’s existing investors, venture capital firm Menlo Ventures and Steamboat Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of US media company The Walt Disney Company. The D funding comprised […]
Riskive, a US-based cybersecurity software startup, has secured $2.2m in seed funding from Genacast Ventures (a seed fund formed in partnership between serial entrepreneur Gil Beyda and with Comcast Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of entertainment and cable communications company Comcast Corporation, to invest in technology-centric internet start-ups), venture capital firm Core Capital and a […]
Esplorio, an online travel platform, has launched out of the University of Oxford. Developed at the University’s Isis Software Incubator, part of Oxford’s commercialisation unit Isis Innovations, the platform allows users to collate memories of travels with a few clicks of a mouse. Esplorio intergrates with Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social networks to pull […]
Web business CRM start-up raises $6m led by Social+Capital Partnership
Coffee chain Starbucks caught the mood when it invested $25m in US-based mobile payments company Square as part of a strategic tie-up and this year’s winner of the Global Corporate Venturing Award for Large Investment. The deal was a rare step into corporate venturing by Starbucks, but this did not restrain the ambition of the […]
News of the proposed acquisition have boosted shares in Nasdaq-listed AutoNavi by more than 30% since the start of May and stand at about $14.77 per share.
Digg spin-out Wefollow snaps up Aol spin-out about.me.
The deal makes DST the second biggest investor in the incubator after Swedish Investment AB Kinnevik, whose $1.34bn was provided directly and through its Millicom subsidiary, East-West Digital News, our syndicate partners for Russia report.
A look at the largest deals in the quarter, including the $700m round of private equity funding for China-based e-commerce site 360Buy, as eye-catchingly large Asia deals continue to be a staple of our coverage.
In February last year, venture capital firm RezVen Partners led the $4.4m A round in StyleHaul.
In an increasingly global venture capital landscape, corporate venturing has a
unique part to play in turning the great potential offered by these transformations
into value for their corporate parents, write Boris Battistini, research associate, ETH Zurich, and Martin Haemmig, adjunct professor CeTIM at UniBW Munich and Leiden University.
News provider Fortune said DST's Alexander Tamas was setting up a venture capital firm called Vy Capital, named for an aviation term that refers to the best speed of climb.
Last month there were 68 investments worth $1.2bn, compared with 97 investments worth $1.9bn in January last year and 61 worth $996m in December.
In January last year, Time Warner Investments, the corporate venturing fund representing media conglomerate Time Warner, led a $12m series B round for US-based social TV analytics firm Bluefin Labs.
If enough employees accept the tender offer to hit the $80m limit, BlackRock will own just less than 1% of Twitter, according to news provider Financial Times.
US-based Shape Security has raised $20m in Series B funding led by Venrock and with participation from return backers Google Ventures.
Nine of the 10 possible IPOs this year identified by news provider CNN has corporate venturing backing.
The pair of corporate venturing units outlined a 2012 that sees them converging in annual investment pace, although the long-established Intel Capital, which has invested more than $10bn in its history is understandably more active in realisation activity than Google Ventures, which was set up in 2009.
The deal is unusually personalised for a chief executive of a major company, with Schultz himself sitting on the board of Square.
The pull of Charles Searle and South Africa-based media group Naspers is evidenced by how Silicon Valley heayweights are prepared to attend the group’s strategy meetings. Naspers’ corporate venturing unit, Myriad International Holdings (MIH), could be forgiven for being little known in the epicentre of global venture capital but its attraction is perhaps heightened because […]
More specifically, why are there hardly any twenty-year-old wunderkind entrepreneurs in China?
Fab, a US-based consumer products sales site, has extended its series C round by $15m with Russia-based investors joining the syndicate. VTB Capital, the venture investment unit of Russian bank VTB, and Phenomen Ventures, a venture firm founded by Dmitry Falkovich, an early investor in internet services provider Mail.ru, provided the $15m, according to news […]
Switchfly, a US-based SaaS (Software as a Service) online travel service provider has raised $2.8 million in new Series C funding backed by Thayer Ventures.
US-based mobile payments specialist Square has acquired New York design firm 80/20 which specialises in interface design.
Perhaps one should be perusing the marriage updates section of old media dealmaking, instead of harping on about those venerable old things that have died?
The company secures big series D, which had corporate backing from coffee shop Starbucks and US bank Citigroup's corporate venturing unit.
Much as the world’s athletes impressed with their vigour in London’s Olympics this year, corporate venturing executives demonstrated their tenacity this summer with a marked spike in dealmaking in August. Global Corporate Venturing tracked 103 investments in corporate venturing-backed companies in August worth $1.8bn, up significantly against the 81 deals worth $1.3bn in July. It […]
Media in motion as change in the sector encourages a spate of dealmaking and corporate venturing unit launches on the back of a series of large flotations.
There is a saying that by aiming for the stars you might miss but still hit the moon. However, if the people connected to Russia-based internet services group Mail.ru ever thought about this they would regard it as unduly pessimistic. Their own development in creating a business that dominates the Russian-language internet market has also […]
The twitter app developer is backed by cloud-computing company Salesforce and SoftBank Capital.
Fashion retailer Twice raises $4m in a venture round that includes AOL-backed venture firm CrunchFund, SV Angel, IA Ventures, and others.
"Twitter with a voice" company Bubble Motion, which is backed by Singapore Telecommunications's corporate venturing unit, raises $5m series E round from JAFCO.
By email former Vodafone Ventures head Barry said he was also doing some consulting work in Australia.
US-based café chain Starbucks made a big splash in corporate venturing sealing a $25m deal to invest in fast-growing US-based financial payments company Square, founded by Jack Dorsey, also a founder of social network Twitter. Starbucks chief Howard Schultz will be joining Square’s board in a sign of how seriously Starbucks is taking the investment. […]
Mobile payments start-up Square has attracted a $25m Series D investment from US-based coffee retailer Starbucks.
Private equity investor Suhail Rizvi is leading the latest round for the Visa-backed mobile payments company, according to news provider New York Times that cites sources familiar with the deal.
Fab, a US-based consumer products sales site, has raised $105m in its series C round froma consortium including overseas corporations’ corporate venturing units. Russia-based internet company Ru-Net’s ru-Net Technology Partners for US investments and Japan-based phone operator NTT’s DoCoMo Capital corporate venturing unit, were joined by venture capital firms Atomico, which led the C round, […]
Caltech and Pennsylvania back on-line teaching company Coursera, which just won the praise of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
The Bing Fund's general manager is Rahul Sood, who set up VoodooPC, which was sold to Hewlett Packard in 2006.
Drawing on decades of experience in patent litigation, the author outlines intellectual property (IP) as a venture white space by summarising the important trends shaping IP markets and identifying key disruptions on the horizon from new IP businesses.
Shape has also recruited former Google 'click fraud czar,' Shuman Ghosemajumder.
Inaugural Global Corporate Venturing Tech Scout Challenge sees 15 finallists who will meet more than 40 corporate venturing units with at least an aggregate $5bn of venture assets under management.
Below is the list of speakers and challengers for the 2012 Tech Scout day on May 14 in London
The Facebook initial public offering, therefore, will be a testament to Microsoft's ability to see strategic issues and ways to remain relevant to these nascent entrepreneurs in a way few, if any other tech company bar IBM, have been able to emulate.
The exact size of Microsoft's stake is outlined in the social network's latest regulatory filing.
News provider VentureBeat said actor Will Smith's Overbook Entertainment and rapper Jay-Z's Roc Nation, along with singer Shakira, skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, soccer star Gerard Pique, Skull Candy chairman Jeff Kear, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, ShoeDazzle founder Brian Lee and Omniture founder Josh James have all invested or partnered with Viddy.
What is the next big thing in venture capital?" Whenever I see a venture capitalist, I ask this question, but none of them gives me a satisfying answer. I will share my answer here and hope that this will stimulate others to comment with different point of view.
Media company Hearst Corporation takes a 20% stake in the UK-based design intelligence company, and separately one of its corporate venturing unit's portfolio companies raises a $20m round.
Google Ventures entrepreneur-in-residence Craig Walker is separately looking at returning to his VoIP roots when he founded the company which becam Google Voice.
The image interactivity platform has pulled in $10.7m in a Nokia-led round, also backed by Google Ventures, as it unveils an image app store on its website.
The level of corporate participation in the venture industry is welcomed by industry insiders although one market commentator warns the numbers could point to the end approaching in the latest technology cycle.
The social network continues its acquisition spree as it snaps up anti-malware service Dasient, landing an exit for Google Ventures
Morgan Stanley and Crunchfund are among the investors in the $7m series C round for social media marketing firm Socialware.
BSkyB teams up with internet television company Zeebox, co-founded by the man who developed the BBC's iPlayer, in a wide-ranging strategic partnership.
CyberAgent Ventures plans to invest up to US$8M in six to eight Indonesia-based companies in 2012, reported news provider e27.
Investment partnerships are the perfect breeding ground for "groupthink".
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal purchases a $300m stake in the social media company, which follows a bumper fundraising in August this year.
The cloud automation software company has taken its funding to nearly $16m after a series C round, with Google, Cisco and VMware joining as investors.
Online retail company Rakuten has acquired the Indigo-backed eBook company Kobo for $315m.
Mobile app developer Schematic Labs has secured $4.8m in series A financing from investors including Softbank Capital, to add to its Google and AOL-backed seed round.
Nest Labs, which launched its lead home energy management product on Monday, has attracted funding from Google Ventures and several venture capital (VC) firms.
Mobile address application (app) EveryMe has received funding from firms including Tencent and Crunchfund.
As well as business development, the new debt will also allow HootSuite to acquire TwapperKeeper.com.
Created but never destroyed, the media industry is going through seismic change and relying on corporate venturing to see the way through.
The Japan-based social networking company has invested in Kakao, a maker of a social messaging app which has 22 million users.
Competition for financial services-focused technologies organised by SWIFT.
Digital Sky Technologies reportedly takes Twitter to $8bn valuation with large cheque.
The funding round is expected to give Twitter an $8bn valuation.
Google Ventures portfolio company HubSpot reveals why entrepreneurs rate the corporate venturing unit so highly.
In April, Visa provided an undisclosed amount to Square and has been joined by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the round, and was joined by hedge fund Tiger Global Management and peers Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures.
Alongside CompuCredit in backing Prosper were venture capital firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Crosslink Capital, Accel Partners, Omidyar Network, TomorrowVentures, QED Investors and Volition Capital.
Through its UberSocial, Echofon and Twidroyd applications, UberMedia's user base has grown to more than 5,000,000 users in just more than a year, representing 13% of all traffic on the Twitter platform.
Banks maintain historical rates to invest in private comapnies and then advise on their flotations.
This hot-house atmosphere for a few great businesses and others clinging on for high valuations at listing means its harder for patient, longer-term capital to be efficiently invested in businesses for the overall health of the economy. In such conditions, insiders and intermediaries reap the benefits.
BlueRun also participated in 140's first $2m round, which also included angel investors.
The strategic corporate venturing investment in Square came 12 months after Visa linked up with DeviceFidelity to launch its version, In2Pay, of Square's service.
We Own It Summit aims to break down barriers for women in high-growth entrepreneurship taking place on 9 - 10 June at Imperial College, London.
Japan-based internet holding company Softbank led the A round for SocialFlow, and the consortium also included SocialFlow's incubator, Betaworks and AOL Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of US media group AOL.
News providers TechCrunch and Fortune said JP Morgan (JPM) already had a stake in Twitter after committing to Chris Sacca's, an early Twitter angel investor and adviser, $1bn secondaries fund.
David Teten, chief executive of Teten Advisors, with Chris Farmer, venture partner at General Catalyst Partners, make five recommendations to improve the volume and relevance of dealflow.
Intellectual property and a good reputation are the currencies for collaboration to work
Twitpay provides payment software for social media platforms and also added venture capital firm TomorrowVentures to its investor consortium alongside CompuCredit, which spun off its micro-payments units in the UK and US in mid-2009.
News provider New York Times said Goldman had invested $450m in Facebook, and Digital Sky Technologies (DST), a Russia-based investment firm backed by corporate venturing units run by Naspers and Tencent, invested $50m.
Companies increase amounts and role in entrepreneurial investment syndicates and new and existing units prepare for further growth.
Facebook's increasing dominance poses for Google and other internet-focused companies a sort of Facebook versus Rest of Web (RoW) challenge.
Analysis of the importance of lending to venture-backed companies.
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