The external corporate venture capital fund—A valuable vehicle for growth

Corporate venture capital is becoming an important tool for business development. In addition to attractive financial returns corporate venture capital provides strategic benefits which result from establishing strategic alliances between small entrepreneurial companies and large mature corporations. There are several approaches to corporate venture capital. Each approach requires a different level of commitment with respect to corporate resources and yields specific strategic benefits. At present there appears to be a trend for establishing focused corporate venture capital programmes in co-operation with an external venture capital organization. The successful introduction and management of such a programme require that a few important guidelines are observed.