Venture capital investment hit a record last year, largely thanks to a new lineage of corporate investors. Exceeding even the high-water mark of the dot-com era, venture investors sank $131 billion into 8,949 deals.
The most surprising part of Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association’s analysis, though, isn’t the headline number — it’s the size and breadth of corporate venture deals. Last year, private equity groups invested $38.5 billion in almost 800 deals. Over the same time frame, corporations spent nearly twice that, $66.8 billion, across 1,443 investments. The remainder came from individual, nonprofit, and public sources.
