Corporate venturing falls off

Latest figures released by the European Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (EVCA) show a marked fall off in corporate venturing activity during 2001. Direct investment by players located within Europe was EURO554 million in 474 deals. This is in marked contrast to 2000 figures where EURO1 billion was invested in 632 deals.

Also, there was a significant shift in fund sources in 2001, compared with 2000. In 2001 corporate venture capital funds raised over EURO179 million from outside their parent organisations – and 89 per cent drop on 2000 figures when a staggering EURO1.7 billion was raised from outside sources.

Write-offs by corporate venture funds increased significantly in 2001 – see table C.