Corporate Venture Capital: A Deal with the Devil?

Global CVC activity & average CVC deal sizes accelerates to all-time highs, with the 35% increase in new corporate venture capital investors year over year. 2018 CVC investment activity increased 32% over 2017 in terms of deals completed, and 47% in total capital invested (CB Insights, 2019). Startups and large companies bring each other immense opportunities through collaborations. For startups, the ability to access a large client base, get access to funds and leverage the other resources of established firms (legal, working space) helps them achieve scale and penetrate markets faster. In a lot of ways, this seems like a Win-Win relationship and is becoming a technology agnostic trend across sectors. On the other hand, there is an opposite belief that ‘startups that go to corporates are those that can't get a deal elsewhere’ and that corporates should buy companies and not invest in them and that startups that get corporate VC money are ‘doing business with the devil’. 

During the panel discussion at the infoShare 2019, we would like to discuss both points of views. When done right CVC should provide a win-win-win for the corporate, the start-up and the independent VCs co-investing with the corporates, but for a lot of good reasons the path is not as straightforward as it may seem. How startups shouldn’t work with large companies? How start-ups can adjust to the changing landscape of corporate innovation & take the most of it? 

Panelists will represent CVC, VC, Start-up, and Accelerator/Venture builder that have a track record in cooperation between startups and corporation.