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Startups have long been a source of fresh talent and technology for corporations, by way of acquisition. But by investing in startups, corporations are sometimes able to generate outsized returns while also investing in the companies that enrich their platforms (think Slack鈥檚 venture fund) or are otherwise aligned with the corporation鈥檚 interests.

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Bigger companies have, to some extent or another, been investing in startups since . Over the years, the pace has picked up considerably. U.S. blue chips are on pace to set a record for venture and PE investing this year.

To this end, we set out to find out which corporations made the most venture investments so far in 2018.

Based on recently pulled investment data from Crunchbase, we totaled corporate venture investments made directly by the corporation as well as its subsidiary venture investment funds. Our findings can be found in the chart below.

In Crunchbase News鈥檚 prior forays into covering prolific corporate investors, we鈥檝e found that big technology companies were typically top-ranked on counts of investments as well as exits, and acquisitions.

In a way, that鈥檚 no different here. Alphabet and its maze of investment-making subsidiaries (including , , , and ) comes out on top so far this year. , historically among the most prolific venture investors, corporate or not, comes in third. , which mostly investments out of its arm, is ranked fourth overall so far.1 And , which so far this year has made out of its alone, comes in to round out the top five.

However, the real surprise here is , which has participated in enough venture deals to land the investment bank firmly in the number two spot so far in 2018. Although Goldman Sachs is not a corporate venture investor in the traditional sense (even when compared to other big banks, many of which run their own venture funds), it鈥檚 nonetheless a corporation investing in startups.

And boy has GS2 ramped up its venture investing pace over time.

So far in 2018, Goldman Sachs has disclosed 52 venture and PE deals鈥攖he most activity on Goldman Sach鈥檚 private market desk since the Dot Com bubble. But it鈥檚 still far from its prior peak of 117 venture and PE deals made in 2000.

In Q3 2018, Goldman Sachs has made more venture and PE deals than any time in the past decade. GS鈥檚 disclosed private-market deal volume is currently higher than it was in Q1 2008, right before the financial crisis came to a head when Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers collapsed.

The investment bank has also cashed out on some prior investments this year.

is a decent example. Goldman led in 2012, which valued the company at $3 billion post-money. 鈥渓ess than half its stake鈥� in the then-private music streaming company for $75 million in August 2017 at a valuation of about $13 billion. Spotify listed its shares publicly this year and is currently valued at approximately , according to Yahoo Finance.

But Goldman Sachs isn鈥檛 the only major Wall Street firm to dive headlong into private-market investing either.

鈥檚 2018 include positions in Dropbox, SurveyMonkey, and Xiaomi. was a co-investor with JP Morgan, and additionally was exposed to and 顿辞尘辞鈥檚 rather ignominious IPO.

Two subsidiaries of Fidelity Investments鈥攈ealth-focused investment fund and growth-stage investor 鈥攁re also investing at near-record pace. F-Prime鈥檚 Q3 2018 鈥�11, at time of writing鈥攊s level with prior highs.

Mentioning these historical high water marks isn鈥檛 to say we鈥檙e in a bubble right now.. But we are in the midst of a historic reorientation in the startup market, and the fact that fuddy-duddy Wall Street firms with deep pockets and connections to public markets are now among the most active investors is testament to that shift.

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