Did you know that the specialty supplement retailer GNC had a venture investing platform? This is what they call corporate venture capital. It’s essentially a practice where a large corporate entity takes an equity stake in a small but innovative or specialist company with the objective of gaining a specific competitive advantage. As an alternative to traditional acquisitions, companies are making more of these minority investments. In fact, corporate venture capital now accounts for nearly a quarter of all venture capital investing and its deal value have increased more than tenfold over the past decade. When most people familiar with corporate venture capital think about the concept, they tend to beeline towards large tech companies like Google or Facebook, but this type of investing is done by every sector in the economy. That includes retailers, especially those that have the financial wherewithal. These retailer-owned (or affiliated) venture funds and/or incubators formed by retailers is becoming more common as retailers are having to evolve more rapidly to meet the needs of customers.