Kellog Company has announced the formation of a corporate venture capital fund, called eighteen94 capital to "make minority investments minority investments in companies pursuing next-generation innovation, bolstering access to cutting-edge ideas and trends."  The focus will be on "start-up businesses pioneering new ingredients, foods, packaging, and enabling technology."  The fund intends to invest about $100 million.  Kellog joins General Mills and Campbell Soup which have established venture capital efforts.

Here's a link to the Kellog press release:
http://newsroom.kelloggcompany.com/2016-06-20-Kellogg-Company-Establishes-Venture-Capital-Fund-To-Support-Growth

Here'a a link to a Fortune article on the topic:
http://fortune.com/2016/06/20/kellogg-launches-vc-fund/

There's a good article on the current enthusiasm for corporate venture capital in the Economist website today called "If you can't beat them, buy them."  The article discusses the rise of corporate venture capital in the past five years, noting the following:

• The number of corporate venture capital units has doubled to 1,100 over the past 5 years;
• $6.4 billion has been invested by these units so far this year;
• Corporate venture capital has been involved in 18% of the venture capital deals in the US this year;
• The average age of corporate venture capital arms is five years and 120 have lasted over a decade.

The article identifies the reasons for the rise of corporate venture capital:

• The need for faster and cheaper sources of innovation than in-house R&D efforts;
• Corporate venture capital efforts are a way for companies to identify, and participate in disruptive technology, rather then be a victim of it.

The company also notes that skeptics see a bubble, and that after each bust, many of these corporate venture capital units are shut down.

Here's the link:
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21633883-fear-being-displaced-startups-turning-firms-venture-capitalists-if

SAP Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of SAP AG, has today announced that it has raised over $650 million for its new direct investment fund SAP Ventures Fund II.  Earlier this year SAP Ventures closed on a $405 milion fund-of-funds vehicle.  Combined with SAP Ventures Fund I, the firm has over $1.4 billion under management.

Corporate venture capital takes many forms.  Here, SAP Ventures is an independent firm but has a strong affiliation with SAP.  Here's a quote from Nino Marakovic, CEO and Managing Director of SAP Ventures (from the press release):

“We believe that we represent a new breed of venture capital funds. We are in a unique position of being independent and yet having unparalleled access to one of the world’s largest global ecosystems of enterprise customers and partners,” said Nino Marakovic, CEO and managing director, SAP Ventures. “As a result, we help entrepreneurs tap into proven approaches for customer acquisition and international expansion. They get the best of both worlds — an unmatched mix of independent funding and the relationships of an enterprise powerhouse.”  

Here's the link to the SAP Ventures press release:
http://www.sapventures.com/2013/10/02/sap-ventures-raises-us1-billion-in-one-year/

7-Eleven as a corporate venture capital investor?  Yesterday's article on Upstart Business Jornal  "7-Eleven takes a big gulp of venture capital" discusses why 7-Eleven has created 7-Ventures, its venture capital initiative.  7-Eleven looks to learn about new products and services from investing in startups in the retail and food spaces and apply that knowledge to develop new products.  The startups benefit from having 7-Eleven as an investor as 7-Eleven has knowledge of how customers shop, and has a large network of stores that can serve as a testing ground for startups.

Here's the link:  http://upstart.bizjournals.com/money/loot/2013/08/28/7-11-takes-a-big-gulp-of-venture-capital.html

The Wall Street Journal yesterday had a good article on corporate venture capital in Silicon Valley.  "Mining Silicon Valley's Culture" discusses the efforts by a number of corporations to establish offices in Silicon Valley to tap into the new ideas and technologies being developed there.  The article discusses some of the successful efforts, namely BMW and Wal-Mart, and some of the efforts that haven't been as successful.  It's a good article, and worth a read.

Link:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323610704578626123357642626.html?

NY Times DealBook has a good article that was posted yesterday.  In "Multinationals Stake a Claim in Venture Capital" author Evelyn Rusli explores the expansion of corporate venture capital programs by multi-nationals.  This is a trend that has been developing for a long time, and the article does a good job explaining the trend.  Here's the link:   http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/multinationals-stake-a-claim-in-venture-capital/

In the peHUB article "More Evidence Of The Rising Interest in Corporate Venturing and M&A," the author discusses how technology companies are increasing their efforts in this area.  Good article.  Here's the link:  http://www.pehub.com/148844/more-evidence-of-the-rising-interest-in-corporate-venturing-and-ma/