I've written a few times recently about the lack of VC interest in open innovation and how that might be changing. You would think there would already be strong interest by VC's in leveraging the ability to gauge corporate interest in startups as a barometer of investment quality... as well as the built-in exit plans that corporations can provide for successful technology start-ups.
Steve Blanks, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, investor and writer had an interesting post recently about the dire outlook for IPO's and how this will further hurt the already devastated venture capital industry.
I think instead it points to a new model of venture capital and angel investment emerging that is focusing less on IPO's and more on building fundamentally sound start-ups on limited budgets. And I believe more and more venture investors (angels and otherwise) will increasingly wake up to the opportunities that "open innovation" provides as a way to vet investments as well as connect with corporate partners for successful exit via M&A.
Look for more venture capital activity in the open innovation space as this unfolds.
WE have a similar situation in Canada. Angel's and VC's have a limited amount of money, Canada only has less than 50 VC funds, open innovation is just one of the opportunities for VC's.
Posted by: Ron | August 15, 2011 at 06:22 PM
Check out the Lux Research report on venture capital activity in the biofuels space. http://bit.ly/dtmuUw
Posted by: Caitlin Turney | September 13, 2010 at 01:47 PM