- Silicon Valley tech companies are some of the biggest startup investors through corporate venture funds run independently of the core business.
- Some of the biggest names in tech have pursued corporate venture investing, including Google, Salesforce, Intel, Microsoft, and Dell.
- According to a PitchBook report, Intel, Google, and Salesforce have the most active corporate venture funds based on 2018 data.
- Meet the executives running the funds.
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Silicon Valley's tech giants are placing their bets on the next generation of startups.
Instead of relying solely on a traditional mergers and acquisitions strategy, some of the biggest names in tech are sinking their own money into hot startups through corporate venture capital.
Here's how it works: a corporation, public or private, can set up a separate entity to invest the company's own money into private companies the same way any other investor would. The entity needs to be entirely separate, from leadership teams to workflow and information access, to the parent corporation to qualify for special exemptions reserved for venture investors.
Many tech companies invest in what they see as strategic partnerships with smaller companies in similar or related fields so that they have access to innovative technology, but each fund, and each executive running the fund, is different. But according to a recent PitchBook report, Intel, Google, and Salesforce have the most active corporate venture funds based across industries in 2018.
Meet the executives running the corporate funds pumping billions of dollars into the tech startup scene.