Corporate participation in startup investing stands at record heights. Yet every corporate venture unit faces the same conundrum: it has to be an investor founders want at the table, while answering to a single limited partner – its parent – that expects strategic value in return.
We combined what the 100 most active corporate venture units say they offer beyond capital with what their deal records show. The result: an industry that has mastered access, but rarely builds or owns what it backs. The paper covers five value-creation archetypes, the outcomes units actually quantify, and what this means for boards.
