Above: Corporate venture arms have the muscle to broker thousands of business development meetings for their portfolio companies. Image Credit: Chip Holley
After almost a decade in corporate venture capital, I’ve concluded that my world is highly misunderstood in the venture and startup ecosystem.
CVC is a large and growing player in the venture industry. According to CB Insights, corporate VC firms invested $18 billion in North America in 2015, which is roughly 25 percent of all venture investments that year. Yet I continue to be surprised by the outdated thinking that drives some very smart entrepreneurs and investors to discount CVCs as a source of capital, relationships, and strategic partnerships.
I hear it occasionally from startup leaders. “Working with the VC arm of a corporation is a necessary evil to get a strategic partnership,” one told me
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