Startups are relying more and more on big companies to fund them

Startup funding has slowed quite a bit in 2016, with many venture capitalists and late-stage financers taking a much closer look at company fundamentals before plunking millions of dollars into companies at multibillion-dollar valuations. But corporate investment is partly picking up the slack.

Research database CB Insights released its latest Corporate Venture Capital Report on Wednesday, and as the dark blue bars below show, corporations have directly invested $11.5 billion into startups over the last two quarters. That's on the same pace as it's been since early 2015.

The light blue bar shows investment by corporate VC arms - firms like Alphabet's GV (formerly Google Ventures), which usually operate on an arm's length basis and make investments more like a typical VC, looking for growth rather than strategic fit with the parent company. These investments track more closely with the overall up-and-down of VC investment.

CB Insights

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