Pharmaceutical giants and oil and gas majors wrote the most CVC cheques for startups in 2023 – with Ozempic maker Novo Holdings topping the list.
The number of European deals participated in by CVCs fell by 16% year-on-year in 2023, to 559 deals. The total cumulative value of deals participated in is $12.1bn so far in 2023 (53% lower than the record $26.6bn in 2021).
Despite the fall, there have been some large ticket rounds which included corporate participation. The largest was a €850m round for French gigafactory startup Verkor, which included investment from car maker Renault.
Using data from Dealroom, Sifted has tracked Europe’s top ten most active corporate venture funds this year, as of December 11 2023. The investors are all headquartered in Europe but the deal count is global.
Three of the top ten are oil and gas companies and three are pharmaceutical companies. Earlier this year, Sifted analysis showed that only a minority of oil and gas majors’ CVC investments have gone to renewable energy.
1. Novo Holdings — 32 deals
Danish company Novo Nordisk has seen its stock soar by 210% in the last three years, off the back of “miracle” diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. It’s now Europe’s largest company, valued at $430bn.
Novo’s holding company, Novo Holdings, reaps one-quarter of the dividends paid by Novo Nordisk, and a chunk of that cash is put aside for investing in and building healthtech startups.
Novo Holdings participated in 32 deals in 2023, according to data from Dealroom. That includes rounds into European companies like NMD Pharma, a company working on neuromuscular diseases, as well as Bactolife, which is developing antimicrobial resistance solutions.
Sifted sat down with Søren Møller, head of seed investments at Novo, earlier this year.
2. BNP Paribas — 17 deals
French multinational bank BNP Paribas has an active CVC arm, which participated in 17 deals in 2023. BNP invests almost exclusively into French companies.
Its deals include Toopi, a French startup working on turning urine into fertiliser, and Mecaware, a startup working on circular economy supply chains for industry.
3. Shell — 15 deals
The first of three oil and gas giants to make the top ten — Shell Ventures has participated in 15 deals so far this year. A significant number of those are outside of Europe, particularly in the US. European deals this year include a $90m round for Kongsberg Digital, a Norwegian company working on digital solutions for consumer energy companies.
4. M Ventures — 15 deals
M Ventures is the venture arm of Merck, a pharmaceutical company based in Darmstadt, Germany. Like Novo, the majority of M Ventures’ deals are in the health and biotech sector.
European companies it’s backed include Theolytics, an Oxford-based company working on tech to fight cancer, and Astraveus, a Parisian startup working on cell and gene therapies.
5. Wayra — 15 deals
Wayra is a CVC associated with Telefónica, a Spanish multinational telecoms giant and one of the largest mobile and network providers in the world.
Wayra participated in 15 deals this year, including Spanish startup Shakers, which helps companies secure freelance workers, and Uelz, another Spanish company, working on automating business payments.
6. BP Ventures — 14 deals
BP Ventures, the CVC arm of oil and gas giant BP, participated in 14 deals this year, including C-Capture, a British carbon capture startup, and Service4Charger, a German company installing EV charging tech.
A lot of the oil and gas giants are interested in EV charging tech as they start to think about what will replace the fossil fuel-based vehicle charging networks they currently supply.
Sifted sat down to chat with Gareth Burns, the new head of BP Ventures, earlier this year. Like all oil and gas companies, BP is under mounting pressure to channel more of its record profits into renewables.
7. Munich Re Ventures — 14 deals
Munich Re Ventures is the CVC arm of Munich Reinsurance, a German-headquartered multinational insurance company.
The 14 deals participated in this year by Munich Re include Parisian startup Stïok, working on insurtech, and Insify, a Dutch company working on business insurance solutions.
8. Stellantis — 13 deals
Stellantis, headquartered in Amsterdam and the result of a merger between Italian–American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group, participated in 13 deals in 2023.
European companies backed by Stellantis this year include Envisics, a UK startup working on holographic displays for car dashboards, and Geoflex, a French company working on enhanced GPS systems.
9. Equinor — 13 deals
Another oil and gas major — Norway’s Equinor made 13 deals in 2023. European companies include Scout Drone Inspection, a Norwegian company working on drone technology to inspect industrial assets.
10. Leaps by Bayer — 11 deals
Leaps by Bayer is the venture arm of, you guessed it, Bayer — the German pharmaceutical giant. The company says it backs “paradigm-shifting advances in the life sciences.”
Interestingly, all of the 11 companies that Leaps by Bayer backed are American — despite being based in Europe, it did not write cheques for any European companies.
