Firms face a choice over the types of assets they own, especially complementary assets with specificity when making corporate venture capital (CVC) investments. As data has become an increasingly important type of asset, this paper explores the role of data in the formulation of CVC investments. Due to constraints arising from the context in which data is collected, and the intended use of the data, we find that data can enhance complementarities between competitors. Using a regulation in China, which prohibits transactions of personal data, as an exogenous shock, we find that, as the cost of obtaining data increases, more CVC investments are made between former competitors. Furthermore, we find this effect to be stronger for companies that are already using data as their core asset, and this effect can be mitigated by the availability of other information acquisition channels, such as common ownership between the company pair.