The Strategic Use of Corporate Venture Financing for Securing Demand

This paper focuses on the strategic role of corporate venture financing carried out by a corporation (a headquarter). When the headquarter finances a venture through its corporate venture-financing arm, it can increase the complementarity between products of the venture and the headquarter. The effect of having an increase in complementarity is a softening of ex post product market competition with rival products. Hence, in deciding whether to finance the venture, the headquarter faces a trade-off between, on the one hand, being more aggressive ex post in the product market, and, on the other hand, using venture financing to soften ex post competition with substitute products.