Ahead of next week’s expected publication of Global Corporate Venturing’s February issue it is interesting to look at the GCV Analytics data on corporations making their first deal last month and where they are coming from.
This first-timer analysis by Kaloyan Andonov shows the US (23) and Japan (15) have the most number of corporations making their first deal in January, excluding corporations setting up a specific corporate venture capital fund.
China was third with five corporations making their first reported deal. The rise of Japanese activity is global rather than just local and they were the second-largest demographic at the GCVI Summit last week in California.
DealStreetAsia reported Singapore state-backed Vertex Holdings last month began holding meetings with its Japanese investors, including the government-linked Development Bank of Japan, trading company Marubeni, consultant ABeam Consulting and Risa Partners, an investment bank, to discuss potential areas of collaboration with the roughly 200 startups that it invests in. As part of the tie-up, the Japanese investors chipped in $180m of Vertex’s $730m fund that invests in six major funds across its global network, DealStreetAsia added.
Given the challenges in China last year, with a reported $50bn drop in venture activity, attention is increasingly focused across the sea to Japan, where our next GCV Asia congress will be held in the Autumn.
