“If you look at the large Fortune 500 companies 50 years ago, many of them no longer exist,” says Ilya Strebulaev, a professor of finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “The big reason why was their failure to innovate.”

Historically, large corporations kept up with innovation through in-house R&D and mergers and acquisitions. Yet it’s only in the last decade that corporate venture capital (CVC) has gained traction as a way to remain relevant and stay ahead of competitors. In 2020, corporate venture capital arms invested more than $70 billion in startups, accounting for a quarter of all VC deals. READ MORE