Corporate Venture Building - the what, how and why

Corporate venture building is becoming an increasingly popular option for many established companies that need new and innovative solutions but don’t want to undergo a large project in-house.

If you’re unsure of how venture builders are able to assist in new digital product or services development, this article should help shed some light on the corporate venture builder landscape.

What is involved in working with a Venture Builder

Corporate venture builders and the corporations help share a relationship where they can both provide what the other is looking for. In these cases, a company can invest funds into the builder and the builder in turn can create the innovative solution as an external business where both parties benefit from the synergies of the relationship.

What this means in practice is that if a company is in need of a solution, the project can be outsourced, developed and curated by the venture builder. The company will invest in the project but it will have a team of specialists ensuring that the new digital product development becomes its own company and can still provide value back to the bigger corporation.

Why is a co-creation partnership beneficial

Why this happens is because both parties gain from the relationship. While the corporation might have funding and a vision that is tailored very specifically to its end customer, the venture builder has the time, resources and capability to create a digital product in a lean and efficient manner.

This means that the corporation doesn’t have to worry about creating a specific team for a project in an ecosystem that might not allow the new digital product to excel. It could also end up being a waste of time and resources for a large corporation that has other priorities.

The venture builder will have the time and ability to execute the project compared to the corporation. Start-ups might struggle to establish product market fit or get funding to kickstart the product development but corporates will have more resources and expertise within the market that they want the new digital product to target compared to start-ups. 

By embarking on corporate venture building, companies will also be able to gain feedback from their existing customer base or from their internal stakeholders on the new product and service with ease and this, ultimately ends up being a win-win for both parties.

How does this innovation strategy work

Corporate venture builders can be industry agnostic but using the expertise of the big corporations they work with, they are able to combine a strategic approach to dealing with start-ups and product development with industry experience and an understanding of the market. 

Practically speaking, it’s a match made in heaven but if you’re curious about how corporate venture builders do what they do, it comes down to creating the right team and implementing the right methodologies for the new product development. Doing this helps to create new digital business in a way that’s quicker than alternative options, more efficient when it come to using the companies resources and communicates the needs of both parties to co-create the best possible digital product.

From software development to launching a new product

If you want a solution that will keep your company ahead of the curve, developing in-house may not be feasible or efficient. 

Looking externally for assistance, finding a corporate venture builder is likely the best option to create the best solution possible. With experienced teams in place, a corporate venture builder can deal with each area of the project, from planning, software development to launching the new product as a separate business.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in, our experienced Product Studio teams are skilled at creating design-led, cloud-native solutions and would be happy to discuss your ideas and see how we can help.