CBInsights has published its annual survey on corporate venture capital (CVC). Globally, 2,740 deals were completed raising $52.95 billion. This represented an increase of 32% in number of deals over 2017 and an increase of 47% in total capital raised over the preceding year. The average CVC deal size has reached an all-time high of $26.3 million. CVC investors participated in 23% of all venture backed deals completed in 2018.

The number of new active CVC firms has increased with new entrants in 2018 including Coinbase Ventures, Maersk Growth, and Porsche Venture. Direct investments from corporates also reached an all-time high of 3,820 deals in 2018, which represents a 33% increase in the number of deals compared to the prior year. Of the CVC investors, Google Ventures was the most active with investments in 70 companies in 2018. Salesforce Ventures and Intel Capital followed Google Ventures as second and third most active, respectively.

By sector, CVC investments in Internet startups and healthcare companies increased significantly. While deal activity also increased in Asia, the most noteworthy increase came in the United States with 1,046 deals completed in 2018.

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