Singapore as a Springboard: Using an SGX Listing to Access Broader Asian Capital

For companies looking to scale across Asia, choosing where to list is more than a regulatory checkbox — it’s a strategic gateway to investors, partners and market credibility. The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has long pitched itself as that gateway: a politically stable, internationally oriented capital market with strong infrastructure, cross-border connectivity and investor reach that can help issuers tap broader Asian capital. Below we unpack why firms consider an SGX listing, the practical channels it opens, and the trade-offs companies should weigh.

Why list on SGX? The strategic proposition

SGX presents a compelling mix for international and regional issuers. It operates under internationally recognised listing rules and offers flexibility for foreign issuers that wish to make Singapore their primary or secondary listing venue, which makes it attractive for firms whose growth strategy targets Asia rather than a single domestic market. SGX positions itself explicitly as an “Asian gateway” — a place that connects corporate issuers in search of global capital with investors chasing Asian growth.

Key practical benefits include:

• Regulatory credibility with flexibility. SGX’s rulebook accommodates foreign issuers while requiring governance standards that investors trust. That mix helps issuers claim the regulatory comfort of a mature market without being boxed into an unfamiliar domestic regime.

• Market infrastructure and liquidity tools. SGX provides global market data, offshore connectivity points, and technical links that let institutional investors and trading firms access SGX liquidity from major financial centres — useful when you want Asia-wide visibility rather than a purely local investor base. 

How an SGX listing opens the rest of Asia

Listing in Singapore can act as a springboard in several, complementary ways:

1. Access to regional institutional investors. Singapore is a major asset-management hub in Asia. A local listing increases the chances of coverage by Singapore-based funds and analysts who allocate capital regionally. Even without massive retail volumes, institutional interest can provide depth and introductions into Southeast Asia and beyond. (SGX markets tend to be institutionally heavy relative to many domestic exchanges.)

2. Cross-border credibility for partnerships and capital raises. A Singapore listing signals to banks, strategic partners and larger institutional investors that a company has passed a rigorous disclosure and governance bar. That credibility eases negotiation of follow-on financing, cross-border M&A, and regional off-take or distribution agreements.

3. Technical connectivity and trading access. SGX’s data and connectivity networks — including offshore “liquidity hubs” and links to other global exchanges and market data providers — make it simpler for international trading desks to access and trade your stock, compared with a smaller, less connected bourse. That matters for price discovery and attracting global funds.

4. Pathways for dual or secondary listings. Companies can combine an SGX listing with another market (e.g., their home market or a larger centre) to blend local demand with broader Asian investor reach. SGX’s rules provide routes for foreign primary and secondary listings; these structures let management tailor disclosure and governance to the investors they most want to attract.

Practical considerations and friction points

A springboard works best when the platform itself is healthy and actively used. Here are the trade-offs companies commonly face:

• Liquidity and retail depth. Compared with mega-exchanges like Hong Kong or US markets, SGX has struggled at times with limited retail trading in some sectors. That can depress valuations or lengthen the time it takes for stock to find a broad investor base. Recent coverage has noted that the number of listed companies on SGX fell to multi-decade lows, and Singapore has launched initiatives to revitalise listings and attract growth firms. Companies should realistically model liquidity outcomes and potential valuation impacts.

• Regulatory & disclosure trade-offs. While SGX is regarded as credible and stable, certain governance or attestation requirements can differ from other jurisdictions; conversely, recent policy discussions have explored easing some listing requirements to attract high-growth names — a reminder that the rules may shift as Singapore competes for mobile capital. Issuers should factor in both current rules and a horizon for regulatory change.

• Investor targeting and market fit. Not every firm benefits equally. Resource-heavy mining or tiny consumer plays may find better fits elsewhere; but technology, fintech, regional consumer brands and funds-oriented issuers often gain disproportionate value from Singapore’s investor network and corporate services ecosystem. A realistic investor-mapping exercise should precede the decision.

Tactical best practices for issuers

If you’re evaluating SGX as your springboard into Asia, consider these tactics:

• Map investor audiences first. Identify the regional funds, banks and strategic investors most likely to own your stock and verify their propensity to trade on SGX.

• Consider a two-step listing strategy. Some firms list on SGX as a secondary market after establishing governance in their home market, or launch dual-class structures that preserve founder control while opening institutional capital.

• Leverage Singapore’s professional ecosystem. Use local legal, corporate finance and investor relations teams to position the story for Asia — Singapore’s advisers understand how to frame narratives across Southeast Asia, Greater China and South Asia.

Bottom line

An SGX listing is less about a single transaction and more about positioning: it’s a credibility lever, a connectivity node, and a staged route into institutional Asian capital. For the right issuer — one with a regional growth story, institutional investor appeal, and a plan to navigate liquidity constraints — Singapore can be a powerful springboard. But success depends on matchmaking: pick the investor base first, understand the exchange’s structural strengths and limits, and use Singapore’s professional ecosystem to amplify your reach across Asia. When done well, SGX isn’t just a place to list — it’s a launchpad for the next phase of pan-Asian growth. 

How Corporate Venture Studios in Singapore are Driving Industry Innovation

In the past, large corporations were often seen as too slow to innovate. Bound by legacy systems and risk-averse cultures, many struggled to keep pace with startups disrupting their industries. But in Singapore, a new model is changing that narrative: corporate venture studios.

Unlike traditional corporate innovation labs, which often remained internal and incremental, corporate venture studios build entirely new startups - often outside the parent company’s direct operations - designed to tackle big industry challenges. By combining corporate resources with startup agility, these studios are redefining how industries from finance to healthcare evolve in the face of global disruption.

Why Corporates are Turning to Venture Studios

The business case is clear. Traditional R&D is expensive and slow, while acquisitions can be risky and costly. Corporate venture studios offer a middle path: they allow companies to leverage their industry expertise and networks while tapping into entrepreneurial energy to build solutions that might not survive inside traditional corporate structures.

In Singapore, where industries like finance, logistics, and energy play central roles in the economy, corporates are increasingly turning to this model to stay ahead of competition. The result is an ecosystem where startups are not just independent disruptors but co-creations between entrepreneurs and established industry leaders.

The Scale of Corporate Participation

According to a 2023 report by Bain & Company, more than 60% of corporates in Asia now engage in some form of external innovation program, with venture studios emerging as one of the fastest-growing models. In Singapore specifically, Enterprise Singapore and the Economic Development Board (EDB) have actively encouraged corporations to adopt venture building, offering incentives and co-funding opportunities. This has led to a rise in corporate-backed studios, many of which focus on industry-specific problems such as sustainable supply chains, fintech innovation, and healthcare technologies.

Case Study: Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures

One of the most prominent examples is SC Ventures, Standard Chartered Bank’s innovation arm based in Singapore. Rather than just experimenting internally, SC Ventures has co-created and scaled multiple startups addressing financial inclusion, blockchain, and digital banking.

One of its ventures, Solv, is a B2B marketplace for small businesses in emerging markets. Built within the SC Ventures studio, Solv has expanded rapidly into India and other Asian markets, showcasing how corporate studios can combine startup agility with corporate reach to tackle systemic industry challenges.

Case Study: Wilmar International and Next-Gen Agritech

Another example comes from Wilmar International, one of Asia’s largest agribusinesses headquartered in Singapore. Through venture-building collaborations, Wilmar has explored innovations in agritech, including precision farming and sustainable supply chain technologies. While these ventures are still emerging, they highlight how corporates in resource-heavy industries are using venture studios to address sustainability challenges while opening new growth opportunities.

The Advantage of Corporate Assets

What makes corporate venture studios particularly powerful is their ability to provide startups with unfair advantages. Unlike traditional studios that start with little more than capital and talent, corporate studios can offer.

• Immediate access to customers through established distribution channels.

• Proprietary industry data and expertise.

• Infrastructure, from labs to logistics networks, that would otherwise take years for a startup to access.

In Singapore, where corporates are deeply integrated into regional trade and finance networks, these advantages make corporate-built startups especially well-positioned to scale across Asia.

Challenges to Overcome

Of course, the model is not without risks. Corporate bureaucracy can creep in, slowing decision-making. There is also the cultural clash between startup speed and corporate structure. To succeed, corporate venture studios in Singapore have had to learn to create independence - allowing ventures to operate with entrepreneurial freedom while still drawing on corporate resources.

SC Ventures, for example, explicitly structures its startups as independent entities, with separate governance and the ability to raise external capital. This hybrid model has proven more effective than purely internal innovation programs of the past.

Why Singapore is the Ideal Base

Singapore offers a unique environment for corporate venture studios. Its strategic location at the heart of Southeast Asia provides access to a fast-growing market of over 650 million consumers. Its strong regulatory frameworks give corporates the confidence to experiment with new models in fintech, healthcare, and sustainability.

Moreover, Singapore’s government has actively positioned the city as an innovation hub, offering grants and co-investments that reduce the financial risks corporates face when launching studios. Combined with a highly skilled talent pool and proximity to both Western capital and Asian markets, this makes Singapore a natural home for corporate-driven venture building.

The Next Chapter: Corporates as Builders, Not Just Buyers

As global industries undergo massive shifts - digitization, decarbonization, and demographic change - corporates can no longer afford to rely solely on incremental innovation. Venture studios give them a chance to shape disruption rather than be disrupted. In Singapore, the rise of corporate venture studios signals a new era where corporates are not just buyers of innovation but active builders. Whether it’s a bank rethinking financial inclusion, an agribusiness pioneering sustainable food systems, or a logistics giant testing green supply chains, these ventures have the potential to set industry standards across Asia.

For entrepreneurs, this means access to resources and distribution networks that dramatically increase their odds of success. For corporates, it means the chance to reinvent themselves through startups rather than being outpaced by them. The message is clear: in Singapore, corporate venture studios are more than an experiment - they are becoming a cornerstone of how industries innovate. The companies that embrace this model now are not just building startups; they are building the future of their industries.

Le rôle des Venture Studios dans la création de licornes

L’écosystème mondial de l’innovation est en pleine mutation. Alors que les cycles de financement se resserrent et que les investisseurs deviennent plus sélectifs, une nouvelle approche de la création d’entreprises attire l’attention : les Venture Studios. Ces structures hybrides, à la fois créatrices, investisseurs et partenaires opérationnels, ne se contentent pas de lancer des startups. Leur ambition est plus grande : construire, méthodiquement, les futures licornes.

Le mot « licorne » reste chargé de symboles dans le monde des affaires. Une valorisation d’un milliard de dollars est autant une reconnaissance qu’un passage à une autre dimension. Mais atteindre ce stade est rare : moins de 1 % des startups y parviennent. Alors, pourquoi les Venture Studios semblent-ils mieux armés pour en produire davantage ?

Les chiffres parlent d’eux-mêmes

Ces dernières années, les données commencent à confirmer ce que beaucoup pressentaient. Selon un rapport du Global Startup Studio Network (GSSN), près de 84 % des startups issues de studios parviennent à lever un premier tour de table, contre environ 42 % pour les startups traditionnelles. Plus frappant encore, 72 % de ces jeunes pousses atteignent une série A, un seuil crucial vers l’hypercroissance.

Ces statistiques ne sont pas abstraites. Elles montrent que les Venture Studios offrent un terrain plus fertile pour transformer une idée en entreprise durable, et, par extension, pour maximiser les chances d’atteindre le statut de licorne.

Des licornes construites plutôt que découvertes

Historiquement, la plupart des licornes sont nées de la persévérance d’un ou deux fondateurs visionnaires, souvent isolés au départ. Mais cette trajectoire romantique, presque mythique, n’est pas la seule voie. Les Venture Studios industrialisent le processus entrepreneurial. Ils identifient des tendances de marché, valident des hypothèses rapidement, puis mobilisent des équipes et des financements pour exécuter.

L’exemple le plus éclatant est celui de Flagship Pioneering, le studio basé à Boston qui a donné naissance à Moderna. Lorsque la biotech a révolutionné la vaccination avec son vaccin à ARN messager, ce n’était pas le fruit du hasard. Flagship avait travaillé méthodiquement sur la technologie pendant des années, en lançant plusieurs projets parallèles avant de converger vers ce qui allait devenir une licorne mondiale.

En Europe, Hexa (anciennement eFounders) illustre également ce modèle. Depuis sa création, ce studio parisien a donné naissance à plus de 40 startups dans le SaaS, dont plusieurs dépassent déjà le milliard de dollars en valorisation, comme Front ou Aircall. Leur secret : un processus répétable qui combine créativité, capital et expertise opérationnelle dès le jour zéro.

Un modèle qui réduit les risques

Créer une startup, c’est souvent faire face à des probabilités écrasantes d’échec. On estime que près de 90 % des jeunes entreprises disparaissent dans les cinq premières années. Les Venture Studios changent cette équation en réduisant les incertitudes à chaque étape.

Dès la phase d’idéation, ils testent plusieurs hypothèses en parallèle, ce qui augmente les chances de tomber sur une opportunité massive. Ensuite, ils mobilisent des équipes pluridisciplinaires déjà en place, évitant à la startup de perdre du temps dans la recherche de compétences rares. Enfin, ils apportent un financement initial qui donne aux fondateurs la liberté de se concentrer sur le produit et le marché, plutôt que sur la recherche permanente de capitaux.

Ce processus structuré explique pourquoi les startups issues de studios ont un taux de survie plus élevé et, surtout, une trajectoire de croissance plus rapide. Moins de temps perdu, moins d’erreurs fatales, plus de chances d’atteindre le milliard.

L’avantage de la vitesse

Dans un monde où les marchés évoluent vite, la rapidité est une arme. Les Venture Studios, grâce à leurs ressources partagées et à leur expérience accumulée, permettent de passer de l’idée au produit en quelques mois, là où une startup traditionnelle peut mettre un an ou plus.

Cette vitesse est décisive dans la course aux licornes. Prenons l’exemple de Rocket Internet, un des pionniers européens du Venture Building. Bien que controversé, ce studio allemand a démontré l’importance de l’exécution rapide en répliquant des modèles à succès et en les propulsant sur de nouveaux marchés avant la concurrence. Plusieurs de ses créations, comme Zalando ou Lazada, ont atteint des valorisations de licorne grâce à cette obsession de la vitesse et de l’expansion.

L’effet portefeuille

Un autre facteur qui explique le rôle des Venture Studios dans la création de licornes est leur logique de portefeuille. Là où un fondateur indépendant joue sa carrière entière sur une seule idée, un studio multiplie les paris.

Cette diversification n’est pas seulement financière, elle est aussi méthodologique. Les leçons tirées d’un projet avorté servent immédiatement aux suivants. Chaque échec devient une ressource, chaque succès une preuve que le modèle fonctionne.

En multipliant les lancements, les studios augmentent statistiquement leurs chances de voir émerger des entreprises capables d’atteindre le milliard. Et lorsqu’une de leurs startups décolle, le studio bénéficie directement de cette valorisation grâce à sa part significative au capital.

Les investisseurs ne s’y trompent pas

Les chiffres et les cas d’étude ont convaincu les investisseurs institutionnels de plus en plus frileux. Pour eux, les Venture Studios représentent une forme d’investissement plus disciplinée, où le risque est réduit et le potentiel de rendement amplifié.

Un rapport de McKinsey souligne que les startups issues de studios génèrent en moyenne douze fois plus de revenus après cinq ans que celles issues de parcours traditionnels. Cet écart colossal explique pourquoi de grands fonds de capital-risque commencent à s’associer avec des studios plutôt que de les considérer comme des concurrents.

Vers une nouvelle génération de licornes

Si les licornes d’hier ont souvent été façonnées par des fondateurs visionnaires et charismatiques, celles de demain pourraient bien être construites au sein de Venture Studios. Non pas parce que la créativité individuelle disparaît, mais parce que l’innovation devient trop complexe et trop rapide pour être laissée au hasard.

Les Venture Studios offrent une plateforme où l’intuition des fondateurs rencontre la rigueur des processus, où la passion entrepreneuriale se nourrit de capital, de talents et de méthodologies éprouvées. Dans cet environnement, les idées les plus prometteuses ont plus de chances de se transformer en géants mondiaux.

Le prochain chapitre

Le rôle des Venture Studios dans la création de licornes est déjà tangible, et il ne fera que croître. À mesure que les cycles de financement se contractent et que les marchés deviennent plus exigeants, les investisseurs chercheront des modèles capables de produire des entreprises solides, rapidement et à grande échelle. Les studios, avec leur approche structurée et leur logique industrielle, sont parfaitement positionnés pour répondre à cette demande.

Dans la prochaine décennie, nous verrons sans doute une distinction claire entre deux types de licornes : celles nées du hasard et celles construites par design. Et les Venture Studios, loin d’être de simples laboratoires d’idées, deviendront les architectes d’une nouvelle génération d’entreprises mondiales.

Why Venture Studios Are Attracting More Investors in 2025

Investors used to bet on founders’ ideas. But in 2025, many are shifting strategy: they’re investing in venture studios - organizations that build companies in-house, from problem-identification to founding teams to operational muscle. In a world where uncertainty rules, venture studios offer not just upside, but a clearer path through risk.

Here’s how venture studios are drawing in more investor interest this year, grounded in data and real examples.

Momentum You Can Measure

The interest in venture studios isn’t just hype. According to the Global Startup Studio Network (GSSN), startups born inside studios have about 30% higher success rates than those founded traditionally. From idea to Series A, the timelines are dramatically compressed: studio-born ventures take around 25.2 months to reach Series A, while conventional startups take about 56 months.

Seed funding is far more accessible through studios: approximately 84% of studio-born companies raise a seed round, compared to much lower rates for startups outside that model. And of those, 72% go on to secure Series A funding. By contrast, traditional startup paths hover around 42% for making it to Series A.

Hexa’s Low Failure Rate & Practical Startup Support

Hexa, a Paris-based venture studio, is a live example of why investors are paying attention. Hexa typically launches four to five startups per year. For each project, they invest roughly €800,000 in the early stages - this covers recruiting a co-founder team (CEO + CTO generally), putting together a small team of 10-15 employees, and building the first version of the product.

What’s notable is Hexa’s failure rate: around 6%. That is, only about 6% of its studio projects fail outright. The rest either continue to operate or move toward exit. That is well below the often-cited norm for startup survival (many startups fail at higher rates, often estimated at 10-20% within a few years).

Also, Hexa takes about 30% equity in each of its projects, giving the studio skin in the game. Once a startup spins out of Hexa (usually after ~18 months), it moves toward independent growth and subsequent investor rounds.

What Makes Studios Attractive to Investors

The numbers and case studies point toward several intertwined reasons why studios are drawing interest.

First, studios help de-risk early stages. Because studios run internal validations - market research, prototyping, testing - they reduce the chance of launching a product nobody wants. Investors often cite this validation as a major benefit.

Second, the talent risk is lowered. Studios like Hexa recruit leadership teams (CEO, CTO) early. They build supportive infrastructure (legal, design, accounting). Founders don’t have to bootstrap every role or function themselves. That matters: many startups fail not because the idea is weak, but because execution or team infrastructure is weak.

Third, studios tend to retain larger equity stakes, which means when success comes, returns are amplified. That alignment of incentives - studio, founders, investors - is powerful.

Fourth, studies like those from GSSN show the IRR (internal rate of return) for studio-born companies tends to be far higher - around 53% - than for conventional startups (which may average ~21-22%).

Examples Beyond Hexa

Atomic (San Francisco) is another studio that’s attracted heavy investor attention. Jack Abraham, its founder, once described Atomic’s approach as ideation + prototype + validation + funding - all internal. In 2021, Atomic raised US$260 million for its fund that builds startups. The fact that institutional or large investors are willing to commit this kind of capital to a studio model suggests confidence: they believe studio-built companies are more stable bets.

Other studios - Flagship Pioneering for biotech (Moderna is one of its signature spin-outs), Science Inc., eFounders - also serve as proof points. These studios have repeatedly launched companies that reach very high valuations or perform well in exits, not simply small wins. The common thread: strong domain knowledge, founder support, resource pooling, and long-term alignment.

Funding Realities & What Investors Want to See

Even as venture studios rise, investors are getting more selective about which ones they back. They look for studios that:

• Have a clear thesis and focus (industry, technology, geography).

• Demonstrate rigorous idea validation before spinning out.

• Maintain support beyond just the founding moment (infrastructure, mentoring, follow-on capital).

• Show evidence of past success - low failure rates, exits or scaling companies, good IRR etc.

Investors are also sensitive to the capital cost of running a studio (staff, infrastructure) and how that overhead is balanced by returns from successful spin-outs.

Why 2025 Seems Pivotal

Several market shifts make 2025 a turning point for studios. The venture market is less forgiving of inefficiency. Valuations are more conservative. Founders are more cautious, but also more collaborative. Studios look like a model that absorbs these pressures: faster path to funding, shared overheads, stronger operational support.

LPs (limited partners) are increasingly interested in not just what is being built, but how. If you’re going to place a large bet, you prefer predictability, lower risk, and a model that gives you more influence over the conditions that matter - team strength, product-market fit, execution discipline. Studios deliver on many of those.

Hexa’s recent financing is also a signal. In March 2025, Hexa closed a €29 million financing agreement structured as a revolving credit facility, aimed at ensuring regular liquidity to support its expansion - launching more startups, growing internal team, building long-term capacity. That kind of financial backing from banks shows institutional confidence in the model.

Looking Ahead: The Studio Model’s Growing Role

If the trends hold, studios will move from being exciting alternative models to being core infrastructure in many ecosystems. We may see generalist VCs building studio arms, governments sponsoring studio hubs, more founders choosing to launch inside studios rather than from zero alone.

For investors, this means studio portfolios will feature more predictable outcomes, stronger early metrics, and potentially higher returns per dollar invested. For founders, it means less of the chaos of starting with nothing, and more of building with safety nets - expertise, funding, structure - while remaining creative and ambitious.

The Next Chapter

Venture studios are not just catching eyes - they’re delivering. In 2025, when investors evaluate risk more carefully, the studio model often wins: it compresses timelines, reduces failure risk, aligns incentives, and produces meaningful exits.

For those watching capital flows, this shift matters: the studios that perfect this model - balancing discipline with innovation - will likely be among the defining organizations in the startup ecosystems of the next decade.

Les étapes clés pour construire une startup via le Venture Building

Dans l’imaginaire collectif, créer une startup rime souvent avec solitude, prise de risques extrêmes et nuits blanches à chercher son premier client. Mais depuis quelques années, une nouvelle approche change la donne : le Venture Building. Plutôt que de laisser des fondateurs naviguer seuls dans l’incertitude, le Venture Building met à leur disposition une méthode structurée, des ressources partagées et une équipe expérimentée. Résultat : les chances de succès augmentent, et les erreurs fatales diminuent.

En 2025, cette approche attire autant les entrepreneurs que les investisseurs, et il n’est pas difficile de comprendre pourquoi. Pour construire une startup via le Venture Building, certaines étapes clés sont devenues incontournables.

Comprendre le problème avant de penser à la solution

Beaucoup de startups échouent parce qu’elles partent directement d’une idée séduisante, sans s’assurer que le problème est réel. Dans un modèle Venture Building, la première étape consiste à identifier des problèmes de marché concrets. Cela se fait à travers des recherches approfondies : analyse de tendances, entretiens clients, études sectorielles.

L’objectif est clair : valider que le problème existe, qu’il est suffisamment douloureux pour les utilisateurs, et qu’il touche un marché accessible. Sans cette base solide, même la meilleure idée de produit a peu de chances de survivre.

La validation rapide : tester avant d’investir

L’une des grandes forces du Venture Building est sa capacité à tester les hypothèses très tôt. Plutôt que de dépenser des millions dans un produit complet, les studios construisent des prototypes simples ou des “Minimum Viable Products” (MVP). Ces tests permettent de mesurer l’intérêt du marché, d’obtenir des retours concrets et d’ajuster l’idée.

Selon une étude de McKinsey, les venture builders expérimentés multiplient par 2 les chances de succès de leurs startups comparé aux novices, car ils savent répéter ces cycles de test et d’apprentissage.

Constituer l’équipe fondatrice

Le capital humain reste la clé. Un Venture Builder ne se contente pas d’une bonne idée, il cherche aussi à assembler l’équipe fondatrice idéale. Souvent, le studio recrute un CEO, un CTO et parfois un CPO, afin d’équilibrer vision stratégique, expertise technique et exécution produit.

Prenons l’exemple de Hexa (anciennement eFounders), un Venture Builder parisien qui a contribué au lancement de plus de 40 startups SaaS, dont Aircall ou Front. Leur approche ? Associer très tôt des fondateurs complémentaires et les entourer de designers, développeurs et experts en croissance. Résultat : un taux d’échec extrêmement bas, autour de 6%, bien inférieur à la moyenne du marché.

Les ressources partagées : gagner du temps et réduire les coûts

Créer une startup, c’est aussi gérer mille détails : comptabilité, juridique, recrutement, communication. Le Venture Builder fournit des ressources mutualisées qui permettent aux jeunes équipes de se concentrer sur ce qui compte vraiment : le produit et le marché.

C’est un gain de temps énorme. Au lieu de perdre des mois à structurer l’administratif, la startup démarre avec un cadre professionnel dès le jour un. Cela réduit aussi le risque d’erreurs coûteuses, comme de mauvaises clauses juridiques ou un recrutement mal géré.

Trouver le Product-Market Fit

Après la phase de test et le premier MVP, vient l’étape cruciale : atteindre l’adéquation produit-marché (Product-Market Fit). Le Venture Building insiste sur des itérations rapides : écouter les utilisateurs, ajuster les fonctionnalités, repositionner si nécessaire.

Un rapport du Global Startup Studio Network (GSSN) montre que les startups issues de Venture Studios atteignent le Series A en moyenne en 25 mois, contre 56 mois pour les startups traditionnelles. Ce rythme accéléré s’explique par le travail constant sur l’adéquation produit-marché, mené avec méthode et ressources.

Le financement structuré

Contrairement aux startups classiques, qui doivent convaincre des investisseurs dès le début, les startups issues de Venture Building bénéficient d’un financement interne initial. Le studio investit souvent plusieurs centaines de milliers d’euros pour couvrir les premiers 12 à 18 mois. Cela réduit le stress financier et permet de construire des bases solides avant d’aller chercher du capital externe.

Par exemple, Hexa investit environ 800 000 € par projet dès la phase initiale, ce qui permet aux fondateurs de se consacrer pleinement au développement sans se soucier immédiatement de lever des fonds. 

Le spin-off : voler de ses propres ailes

Une fois que le produit a trouvé son marché, que l’équipe est stable et que la traction est prouvée, vient l’étape du spin-off : la startup sort du Venture Builder pour devenir une entité autonome. Elle garde cependant souvent des liens forts avec le studio, qui reste actionnaire (en moyenne autour de 30% de participation).

Ce modèle crée un alignement d’intérêts : le studio a tout intérêt à maximiser les chances de succès, car son rendement dépend de la réussite de l’entreprise sur le long terme.

L’impact global du Venture Building

Avec cette approche, les risques de faillite diminuent sensiblement. Là où 9 startups sur 10 échouent dans le modèle classique, les données montrent qu’une majorité des projets issus de Venture Builders atteignent au moins le stade du financement externe, et certains deviennent des scale-ups internationales.

C’est aussi une manière de répondre à un contexte où les investisseurs recherchent davantage de sécurité et de discipline. En 2025, dans un environnement économique marqué par la prudence, le Venture Building apparaît comme une réponse adaptée : il combine créativité entrepreneuriale et rigueur méthodologique.

Le prochain chapitre

Construire une startup via le Venture Building n’élimine pas tous les risques, mais cela les transforme. Au lieu de parier sur une idée et un fondateur isolé, on s’appuie sur un cadre reproductible, une équipe solide et un accompagnement pas à pas.

Les étapes clés sont claires: identifier un problème réel, valider rapidement, recruter l’équipe fondatrice, bénéficier de ressources partagées, trouver le Product-Market Fit, sécuriser le financement et enfin, voler de ses propres ailes. En suivant ce chemin, les startups issues du Venture Building ne se contentent pas de survivre : elles posent les bases pour grandir plus vite, plus fort, et avec davantage d’impact.

L’avenir du Venture Building dans le prochain cycle d’innovation

L’histoire de l’innovation n’est jamais linéaire. Elle avance par vagues, par cycles, où des périodes d’exubérance sont suivies par des moments de rationalisation. Après les excès de la décennie passée -  capital abondant, valorisations gonflées, course effrénée à la croissance - 2025 ouvre un nouveau chapitre, plus sélectif, plus exigeant. Dans ce contexte, une question émerge avec force : quel sera le rôle du Venture Building dans le prochain cycle d’innovation ?

Ce modèle, encore méconnu du grand public il y a dix ans, s’impose désormais comme un pilier incontournable des écosystèmes entrepreneuriaux. Les données le confirment : selon le Global Startup Studio Network, une startup issue d’un Venture Studio a près de 30 % de chances supplémentaires de réussir par rapport à une startup traditionnelle. Et au moment de lever des fonds, ces startups passent du pré-seed à la Série A en 25 mois en moyenne, contre 56 mois pour les autres.

Un contexte favorable à l’émergence des Venture Builders

La première raison de croire en l’avenir du Venture Building réside dans le climat économique actuel. Les investisseurs se montrent plus prudents : les levées de fonds globales ont reculé de près de 42 % en 2023 par rapport à l’année record de 2021. Dans ce nouvel environnement, où chaque euro compte, le Venture Building apparaît comme une réponse logique.

Pourquoi ? Parce qu’il réduit le gaspillage. Les idées sont testées rapidement, les ressources mutualisées, les équipes accompagnées pas à pas. Là où un startup classique peut brûler des millions avant de se rendre compte que son produit ne trouve pas son marché, un projet issu d’un Venture Builder ajuste le tir bien plus tôt.

Leçons tirées des pionniers

Des acteurs comme Flagship Pioneering aux États-Unis ont déjà montré la voie. Ce Venture Builder de Boston est à l’origine de plusieurs géants de la biotech, dont Moderna, qui a joué un rôle clé dans la mise au point du vaccin à ARNm contre le Covid-19. Ici, l’exemple est frappant : sans un Venture Builder capable de financer la recherche fondamentale, de recruter les bons scientifiques et de structurer une startup avant même qu’il y ait un marché, une telle réussite aurait été improbable.

En Europe, le studio parisien Hexa (anciennement eFounders) démontre également la puissance du modèle. Avec plus de 40 startups lancées et un taux d’échec limité à 6 %, Hexa prouve que l’innovation peut être industrialisée sans perdre son agilité. Leurs spin-offs, comme Aircall ou Front, sont devenus des scale-ups internationales, générant des milliers d’emplois.

Le Venture Building comme réponse aux grands défis

Le prochain cycle d’innovation sera marqué par des défis mondiaux : le climat, l’intelligence artificielle, la santé, la cybersécurité. Autant de secteurs où le temps presse et où les erreurs coûtent cher. Or, le Venture Building est particulièrement adapté pour s’attaquer à ces problématiques complexes.

Dans le domaine climatique, par exemple, les projets nécessitent des investissements lourds et des validations scientifiques rigoureuses. Les Venture Builders peuvent absorber ce risque en mutualisant les ressources, en travaillant avec des chercheurs et en créant plusieurs projets en parallèle. Cela augmente les chances qu’au moins l’un d’entre eux réussisse à atteindre une échelle significative.

De même, dans l’IA, où l’innovation avance à une vitesse vertigineuse, les studios offrent un cadre permettant de tester rapidement des cas d’usage, de sécuriser l’accès aux talents et de lever des fonds dès que la traction est prouvée.

Une industrialisation de l’entrepreneuriat ?

Certains critiques voient dans le Venture Building une forme de « fabrique à startups » qui risque de standardiser l’entrepreneuriat. Mais l’expérience montre l’inverse. En réalité, le modèle ne bride pas la créativité : il la canalise. Il donne aux idées le cadre nécessaire pour passer du stade de concept à celui d’entreprise viable.

McKinsey souligne que les Venture Builders expérimentés produisent en moyenne des startups générant 12 fois plus de revenus au bout de cinq ans que celles issues de studios novices. Cela prouve que l’expérience accumulée ne tue pas l’innovation, elle la renforce.

Vers une hybridation des modèles

L’avenir du Venture Building ne se limitera pas aux studios indépendants. On observe déjà une hybridation :

• Des entreprises traditionnelles lancent leurs propres Venture Builders pour explorer de nouveaux marchés (par exemple, les grands groupes énergétiques qui développent des spin-offs dans les énergies renouvelables).

• Des fonds de capital-risque commencent à intégrer des équipes de Venture Building pour mieux accompagner leurs participations.

• Des gouvernements soutiennent des programmes de studios nationaux afin de stimuler l’innovation locale et de retenir les talents.

Cette hybridation crée un écosystème plus robuste, où le Venture Building n’est plus une alternative marginale mais un composant central du cycle d’innovation.

Une promesse d’impact à long terme

À mesure que ce modèle gagne en maturité, une chose devient claire : le Venture Building n’est pas seulement un outil pour créer des startups plus vite, c’est une méthode pour créer des entreprises plus solides et plus alignées sur les grands besoins de la société.

En réduisant les risques d’échec, en attirant les meilleurs talents et en canalisant les capitaux vers des projets réellement validés, il contribue à un écosystème entrepreneurial plus durable. Et dans un monde où les crises se succèdent - sanitaires, climatiques, géopolitiques, cette durabilité est plus précieuse que jamais.

Le prochain chapitre

L’avenir du Venture Building dans le prochain cycle d’innovation sera donc marqué par trois dynamiques : une adoption massive par les investisseurs en quête de sécurité, une expansion vers des secteurs critiques comme le climat et la santé, et une hybridation avec les entreprises et les institutions.

Nous entrons dans une période où l’innovation ne peut plus se permettre d’être chaotique ou gaspilleuse. Le Venture Building, avec sa rigueur et sa créativité, apparaît comme le modèle capable d’écrire les prochaines grandes histoires entrepreneuriales.

Dans dix ans, il est probable que nous ne parlerons plus de Venture Building comme d’une nouveauté, mais comme de l’infrastructure invisible de l’innovation mondiale.

The Rise of Thematic Venture Capital Funds: Climate, Deep Tech, and Impact

Venture capital is changing shape. For decades, generalist funds dominated the landscape, chasing outsized returns across consumer, fintech, and SaaS. But as the market adjusts after pandemic highs, a new type of investor is stepping into the spotlight: thematic venture capital funds. These funds concentrate on specific areas like climate, deep tech, and impact. They are not merely chasing a trend - they are reshaping how capital meets purpose, with measurable results that suggest they are here to stay.

A Market Holding Its Ground

The last few years have been turbulent for venture markets globally. Deal volume is down, valuations have corrected, and late-stage funding has become scarcer. Yet within this volatility, thematic funds have shown remarkable resilience.

PwC’s State of Climate Tech 2023 report found that while overall VC and private equity investment fell by nearly half between 2022 and 2023, climate-tech investment dropped by a smaller margin - about 40%. That still amounted to roughly $32 billion globally in 2023, and since 2020, cumulative climate investment has surpassed $140 billion across 4,000 deals. According to Silicon Valley Bank’s Future of Climate Tech report, U.S. clean energy and power companies alone attracted $7.6 billion in VC funding in 2024, a 15% increase year-over-year, with more than three-quarters of deals at seed and Series A stage.

These figures show that while venture capital has cooled broadly, investors continue to channel capital into funds aligned with structural shifts like the energy transition, technological sovereignty, and social resilience.

Climate Funds: From Metrics to Unicorns

Climate tech is the clearest example of this thematic resilience, and its story is increasingly supported by data. World Fund, a European climate VC, analyzed more than 150 climate-tech unicorns created between 2020 and 2024 in Europe and the U.S. Their research revealed that over 60% of these unicorns met their “Climate Performance Potential” criteria, meaning their technologies could deliver significant emissions reductions. By contrast, only a small minority of startups in general deal flow met this threshold. Even more telling, over 80% of climate unicorns that went bankrupt had failed to meet those impact criteria.

The implication is striking: measuring real climate performance is not just an ethical filter, but a predictor of financial resilience. In other words, impact is becoming a risk-management tool.

One case that illustrates this dynamic is Berlin-based Enpal, Europe’s fastest-growing solar company, which became a unicorn in 2021. By combining a subscription model with household solar installation, Enpal has raised more than €1.6 billion in financing. Its climate impact is measurable in the tons of CO₂ avoided each year, and its financial backing is a testament to how climate metrics can underpin durable business models.

Deep Tech and the Long View

eyond climate, deep-tech thematic funds are also gaining ground. These funds focus on frontier innovations - quantum computing, semiconductors, space, and advanced materials - that require longer time horizons and highly specialized knowledge. Historically, such ventures have been considered too capital-intensive for most generalist VCs. But governments and sovereign wealth funds are increasingly backing deep-tech funds, recognizing that technologies of this nature are critical for economic competitiveness and security.

In Europe, for instance, funds like European Innovation Council Fund and Future Ventures have stepped in to bridge the financing gap for deep-tech startups. A case in point is PsiQuantum, a U.S.-U.K. company working on photonic quantum computing, which has raised more than $600 million from backers including BlackRock and Microsoft’s venture arm. For investors, the appeal lies in both the defensibility of the science and the long-term potential to dominate trillion-dollar markets.

Impact as Risk Mitigation

Impact-focused thematic funds are no longer sidelined as philanthropic capital. Instead, they are building track records of resilience by combining rigorous impact metrics with disciplined financial frameworks. Large LPs such as pension funds and endowments are under pressure to align with net-zero goals or the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and this capital demand is flowing into dedicated impact funds.

For example, BlueOrchard, one of the world’s oldest impact investment firms, has mobilized more than $10 billion across 100 countries, targeting both financial inclusion and climate resilience. Similarly, Leapfrog Investments, an emerging-markets impact investor, has consistently delivered market-rate returns while reaching over 400 million people with essential services. The data suggests that aligning with social and environmental goals does not preclude strong returns - if anything, it de-risks them.

Policy and Capital Efficiency

A key driver of thematic funds’ rise is regulatory support. In the U.S., the Inflation Reduction Act has created clear incentives for investment in clean energy and electrification, while the EU’s Green Deal has set ambitious targets for decarbonization. These policy frameworks create predictable demand and lower the risk of market adoption for startups.

At the same time, thematic funds are embracing capital efficiency in ways that generalist investors often overlook. Early-stage climate deals are smaller and more disciplined than the frothy rounds of 2021. Founders are learning to do more with less, and thematic funds, with their sector expertise, can provide not only capital but also strategic partnerships and customer access

Global Case Examples

Thematic investing is no longer confined to Silicon Valley or Berlin. In late 2023, Climactic, a new U.S. seed-stage climate VC, closed a $65 million inaugural fund led by seasoned founders, signaling confidence in early-stage climate investing despite a tougher funding environment.

In Europe, 2023 saw climate-tech investment surge to a record quarter in Q3, with $8.8 billion invested, according to Dealroom. Meanwhile, in MENA, Flat6Labs has emerged as one of the most active climate-tech investors, supporting startups in sustainable agriculture, energy, and water. These regional examples underscore the global nature of the thematic shift.

The Next Chapter

Thematic funds are proving that specialization is not just a marketing angle - it is a structural advantage. By focusing on climate, deep tech, and impact, these investors are aligning with megatrends that will define the next several decades. They are demonstrating that measuring emissions avoided, funding quantum breakthroughs, or scaling essential services in emerging markets can all be pathways to competitive returns.

The rise of thematic venture capital is a reminder that markets evolve with the world’s biggest challenges. For investors, the lesson is clear: purpose and performance are no longer at odds. The funds that marry domain expertise with disciplined execution will not only survive the current venture downturn, they will likely define the next era of growth.

How Venture Builders Reduce Startup Failure Risks

Startups often feel like walking a tightrope in a storm: one wrong step, one misstep in timing, market, or team, and everything falls. It’s no surprise that about 90% of startups fail overall. But in 2025, a different model is proving it can lower those odds: the venture builder. These are organizations that don’t just invest - they build. They nurture ideas, assemble teams, offer infrastructure, and walk alongside founders through early storms.

Here’s how venture builders are reducing failure risks - and what data and case studies show about their effectiveness.

The Stakes: Understanding Startup Risk

The numbers are stark. Many reports show failure rates over time are steep: roughly 10% of new startups fail within their first year, and between years two through five, majority of failures happen. By year ten, few survive. These aren’t just abstract stats, they represent teams who ran out of runway, misread market demand, or couldn’t piece together strong execution. That’s the baseline. Venture builders aim to shift those odds by intervening early on the common failure triggers.

What Venture Builders Do Differently

Venture builders provide what many startups struggle to assemble quickly: clarity of idea, team strength, operational support, and effective validation.

You can think of it this way: instead of solo founders trying to juggle everything - product, user-feedback, hiring, legal, finances - the builder supplies scaffolding. They often supply shared services (legal, HR, strategy), access to domain experts, and a process for iterating ideas before major investment. This means startups born inside builder models often avoid big, early mistakes.

There are multiple pieces to this, but one that researchers call out often is the capacity to test product-market fit before “going big.” Because builders usually demand early user feedback, safe prototyping, proof of concept. That early feedback loop weeds out ideas with weak demand.

Data & Case Studies: Proof in Practice

• Venture Studio Survival & Alive Ratios

A study called Big Venture Studio Research 2024 looked at hundreds of venture studios, hybrid builders, and corporate builders. They found that hybrid venture studios (those that combine venture studio activities with things like corporate building, accelerator, VC fund) have much higher survival rates: for every studio that closes, there are ~10.86 that remain alive. Corporate builders had ~9.3:1. Pure venture studios had lower survivorship: ~4.73:1.(That means builders which diversify or bring in hybrid functions tend to reduce risk further.

• Experienced Builders vs Novice Ones

McKinsey recently published findings in “The Three Building Blocks of a Successful Venture Factory” that more experienced venture builders are about twice as likely to achieve success compared to newcomer studios. Over time, with repeat efforts, their output (in revenue in fifth year) can be 12 times higher than that of novice studios. That suggests that venture builders don’t just reduce risk by the model - they get better at reducing risk as they build more companies.

• Corporate Venture Building vs Traditional Startup Paths

An article by CreativeDock noted that corporations using venture building (internally creating new startups or spin-outs) report success rates around 66% for their ventures, far above the 20-30% or so typical for venture capital backed startups or corporate ventures without structured building. They also say that venture building-born startups achieve better IRRs (~44% higher on average) compared to traditional startups, faster transitions from seed to Series A, and earlier exits (on average under 4 years) compared to 6-7 years typical elsewhere.

Human Stories Behind the Data

Consider a venture builder that continuously launches several projects per year. With the builder model, a given project might start not with a blank page, but with a research phase. Founders test assumptions: Is there demand? Can the technology or product be built affordably? Who is competition? These early experiments expose flaws early - low demand, wrong features - so adjustments are made before major investment.

Another important case is around the “business-building muscle.” McKinsey points out that entities that build many ventures develop repeated systems: standard ways to onboard teams, validate ideas, launch MVPs, spin-outs. Over time, they make fewer rookie mistakes - less duplicated effort, fewer misfires - so each new project starts from a stronger foundation.

What Failures Are Reduced

By virtue of these mechanisms, venture builders tend to reduce risk in several specific ways:

• Team risk: builders often match people with complementary skills rather than solo founders. They bring in domain experts early.

• Market risk: they test demand, refine product-market fit before big spends.

• Execution risk: shared infrastructure and expertise mean better supply chain, legal, hiring, finance practices early.

• Timing & capital risk: because builders tend to pace investment, control burn, and have staged funding, they avoid over-extension before product is solid.

These interventions don’t eliminate risk entirely. But they shift the risk curve substantially.

Broader Trends & What Investors Are Saying

Investors in 2025 say they want a higher floor - some guarantee of minimal failure, clearer paths from concept to growth. They like models where founders aren’t isolated. Where you can see how an idea was validated, how the team was assembled. Where overhead is shared and costs are lean early.

Corporations also find benefit: many large firms are adopting corporate venture building to create new growth engines. In one survey by EY-Parthenon, nearly 45% of executives from surveyed companies reported they have launched ventures in the last five years that now generate $100 million+ in annual revenue. Venture building gives them structure to do that.

Looking Ahead: What Makes a Builder Even More Robust

The data suggests certain traits make some venture builders better at reducing risk:

• Repetition: builders who launch many ventures learn faster.

• Hybrid or diversified models: studios that also do corporate venturing, VC funds, accelerators tend to have higher survival of their ventures.

• Strong validation early: demand testing before full build.

• Deep domain or technical competence: where builders understand industry/technology well, they avoid mis-positioning or under-estimating costs.

The Next Chapter

Startups will always carry risk. That’s part of what gives them upside. But a model growing in legitimacy in 2025 is one that doesn’t treat failure as inevitable, but as something to manage. Venture builders are showing how structured support, domain expertise, shared infrastructure, and repeated experience can tilt the odds in favor of survival.

For founders thinking of starting under a builder, the message is hopeful: you don’t have to brace for failure alone. For investors, it means better early signals, stronger teams, and less wasted cost.

In a world where capital is tighter and demands are higher, venture builders are proving to be more than trend - they might be the most reliable path through the startup storm.

Comment fonctionne le modèle économique d’un Venture Studio ?

À première vue, un Venture Studio peut sembler mystérieux. Ce n’est ni tout à fait un incubateur, ni un accélérateur, ni un fonds d’investissement classique. Pourtant, il combine un peu de chacun de ces rôles, tout en ajoutant quelque chose de plus fondamental : il construit ses propres startups de l’intérieur. Alors, comment fonctionne le modèle économique de ces structures qui attirent de plus en plus d’investisseurs et de fondateurs à travers le monde ?

Pour le comprendre, il faut revenir à l’essence même du Venture Studio : sa mission est de transformer des idées en entreprises viables, en assumant une partie des risques initiaux et en mutualisant les ressources nécessaires au lancement. Mais cette promesse doit reposer sur un modèle économique robuste.

L’investissement initial : le moteur du studio

Contrairement à un fonds de capital-risque traditionnel, qui attend qu’une startup existe avant d’y investir, un Venture Studio prend l’initiative. Il commence par financer la phase zéro : la recherche d’idées, la validation des problèmes de marché, la création des premiers prototypes.

Cet investissement initial provient généralement du studio lui-même, grâce à son propre fonds ou à des partenaires financiers. Par exemple, le Venture Studio parisien Hexa (anciennementeFounders) injecte environ 800 000 € dans chaque projet dès la phase initiale. Ce capital sert à recruter une équipe fondatrice, développer un MVP (produit minimum viable) et valider les premiers retours utilisateurs. En d’autres termes, le studio prend à sa charge une étape que la plupart des startups doivent assumer seules, souvent avec des moyens limités.

Le partage d’équité : un alignement d’intérêts

L’une des spécificités du modèle économique des Venture Studios est le partage d’équité. Puisque le studio assume le risque financier et opérationnel dès le départ, il reçoit une part importante du capital de la startup en échange.

Chez Hexa, par exemple, le studio conserve environ 30 % de l’équité lorsque la startup est « spin-offée », c’est-à-dire qu’elle prend son envol comme entité indépendante. Cette part peut varier selon les studios, certains allant de 20 % à 50 % selon la taille de l’investissement initial et le niveau de ressources mises à disposition.

Ce mécanisme aligne les intérêts : le studio, les fondateurs et les investisseurs ultérieurs ont tous intérêt à ce que l’entreprise grandisse et réussisse.

Des revenus différés mais potentiellement massifs

Le modèle économique d’un Venture Studio n’est pas conçu pour générer des revenus immédiats. Contrairement à une agence de conseil qui facture ses services ou à un incubateur qui demande des frais d’entrée, un studio mise sur le long terme.

Ses revenus viennent principalement de deux sources :

1. Les exits (revente d’actions lors d’acquisitions ou d’introductions en bourse).

2. La valorisation croissante de son portefeuille à mesure que ses startups lèvent des fonds et se développent.

C’est un pari patient, mais qui peut rapporter gros. L’exemple le plus emblématique reste celui de Flagship Pioneering, un Venture Builder basé à Boston, qui a contribué à la création de Moderna. Lorsque la biotech est entrée en bourse en 2018, la valorisation a explosé, générant un retour colossal pour Flagship.

Le coût de fonctionnement : une machine bien huilée

Bien sûr, maintenir un Venture Studio implique des coûts élevés. Ces structures emploient souvent des dizaines de personnes en interne: designers, développeurs, experts en marketing, recruteurs, juristes. Ce sont eux qui fournissent les services mutualisés aux startups en construction.

Ces coûts sont couverts par le fonds du studio, parfois complété par des financements externes. En mars 2025, Hexa a ainsi levé 29 millions d’euros via un financement bancaire structuré en crédit revolving, destiné à soutenir ses activités de création et à garantir une liquidité régulière. Ce type de financement illustre bien que les studios fonctionnent comme de véritables entreprises, avec une gestion de trésorerie et une stratégie financière sophistiquées.

Une logique de portefeuille

Un Venture Studio ne mise pas sur une seule idée, mais sur un portefeuille de startups. Chaque année, il peut en lancer plusieurs, avec l’idée que toutes ne réussiront pas. Mais si une ou deux deviennent des scale-ups internationales, elles compenseront largement les échecs éventuels.

C’est ici que le modèle économique prend tout son sens : il repose sur la diversification et sur un taux de réussite supérieur à la moyenne. Selon le Global Startup Studio Network, environ 84 % des startups issues de studios réussissent à lever un seed round, et 72 % atteignent la Série A, contre environ 42 % pour les startups traditionnelles. Ces chiffres montrent que le rendement d’un portefeuille issu d’un Venture Studio est statistiquement plus élevé et plus stable.

L’intérêt croissant des investisseurs

De plus en plus de fonds traditionnels et d’investisseurs institutionnels s’intéressent aux Venture Studios. Pour eux, le modèle présente un double avantage :

• Une réduction du risque grâce à la validation précoce des projets.

• Une meilleure rentabilité potentielle grâce à la part significative du capital détenue par le studio.

Un rapport de McKinsey souligne d’ailleurs que les startups issues de Venture Builders expérimentés génèrent en moyenne 12 fois plus de revenus au bout de cinq ans que celles lancées dans un cadre classique.

Vers une industrialisation de l’innovation

En observant le modèle économique des Venture Studios, on comprend qu’il ne s’agit pas seulement d’un mode de financement alternatif. C’est une véritable industrialisation de l’entrepreneuriat. Là où les startups classiques reposent sur l’intuition d’un fondateur isolé, le Venture Studio systématise la recherche d’idées, leur validation et leur exécution.

Cette rigueur explique pourquoi tant d’investisseurs voient dans les studios un modèle du futur : ils transforment un pari incertain en une stratégie d’innovation plus prévisible.

Le prochain chapitre

Le modèle économique d’un Venture Studio est donc un pari patient : investir tôt, assumer les coûts de construction, prendre une part du capital et attendre que les pépites émergent. Cela demande des moyens, de la discipline et une vision à long terme.

Mais les chiffres parlent d’eux-mêmes : les studios produisent des startups plus solides, plus rapides à croître, et avec un risque réduit pour les investisseurs. Dans le prochain cycle d’innovation, ce modèle ne sera plus périphérique : il deviendra une infrastructure centrale de la création d’entreprises.

En fin de compte, un Venture Studio, ce n’est pas seulement une usine à startups. C’est un moteur économique où chaque idée devient une opportunité, chaque risque une expérience, et chaque succès une preuve que l’innovation peut être à la fois créative et méthodique.

Funding the Future: The Role of VCs and Sovereign Funds in Singapore’s Venture Studios

The venture studio model has redefined how startups are born. Instead of betting on lone founders, venture studios build companies from the ground up, pairing entrepreneurial talent with capital, infrastructure, and networks. But behind this model lies a critical question: who funds the future?

In Singapore, the answer increasingly comes from two powerful sources - venture capital firms and sovereign wealth funds. Together, they are shaping not just the trajectory of venture studios but the kinds of companies that will define Asia’s innovation landscape over the next decade.

Why Funding Matters in Venture Building

Traditional startups often begin with a small seed round, testing ideas with limited resources. Venture studios flip that dynamic. They require upfront investment to design infrastructure, hire operational teams, and support multiple ventures simultaneously. The model is capital-intensive, but it also increases the odds of producing sustainable startups.

This is why the involvement of venture capital (VCs) and sovereign wealth funds is so significant. They provide not only the capital but also the long-term vision needed to sustain venture studios through the uncertain early stages of building science-driven or industry-specific companies.

The Numbers Speak

In 2022, Singapore attracted more than US$11 billion in startup funding, according to Enterprise Singapore, with a growing share flowing into venture-building initiatives. The global venture studio market itself is projected to reach US$42 billion by 2027, up from around US$20 billion today, as reported by Global Startup Studio Network.

Within Singapore, sovereign wealth funds play a particularly influential role. Temasek Holdings, with assets exceeding US$287 billion, has been steadily increasing its exposure to early-stage innovation through vehicles like Xora Innovation, its venture-building arm. Meanwhile, GIC, with more than US$770 billion in assets under management, has also stepped up its participation in deeptech and sustainability-focused ventures, often co-investing alongside studios and VCs.

Case Study: Temasek and Xora Innovation

Temasek’s launch of Xora Innovation in 2019 was a milestone for Singapore’s venture building ecosystem. Xora focuses on commercializing breakthrough scientific research in fields like climate tech, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing. Unlike traditional VC, Xora doesn’t just invest - it co-builds, bringing together teams of scientists, operators, and entrepreneurs to create companies from scratch.
One example is its investment in Eavor, a geothermal technology startup developing closed-loop systems for renewable energy. By backing such ventures, Temasek shows how sovereign funds can align financial returns with global sustainability goals while anchoring these efforts in Singapore.

The Role of Venture Capital Firms

Venture capital firms, too, are leaning into the venture studio model. Global firms like Sequoia Capital and Vertex Ventures (the latter headquartered in Singapore) have backed startups emerging from studios, drawn by the de-risked nature of ventures that already have structured support and validation.

Antler, one of the world’s most prominent venture builders with a major base in Singapore, has partnered with VCs to scale its portfolio. Since its launch, Antler Singapore has created more than 100 startups, many of which have raised follow-on capital from leading VCs. This collaboration demonstrates a virtuous cycle: studios generate investable companies, while VCs provide the growth capital to scale them globally.

Why Sovereign Funds Matter More in Singapore

Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds bring something that private VCs alone cannot - patient capital. DeepTech, climate, and biotech startups often take years to become commercially viable. Sovereign funds like Temasek and GIC are uniquely positioned to absorb these long timelines while maintaining conviction in long-term returns.

Moreover, their participation signals confidence to the market. When a sovereign fund co-invests in a venture, it often catalyzes additional investment from global VCs, corporates, and even governments. This multiplier effect strengthens the ecosystem and accelerates the scale-up of ventures born in Singapore’s studios.

Singapore as a Regional Magnet for Capital

The presence of sovereign wealth funds also amplifies Singapore’s role as a capital hub for Southeast Asia. With over 650 million people, Southeast Asia represents one of the world’s fastest-growing digital economies, projected by Google and Temasek to reach US$330 billion by 2025. By anchoring venture studios in Singapore and funding them with sovereign-backed capital, the city-state effectively positions itself as the launchpad for ventures targeting this massive market.

The Challenges Ahead

While the alignment of VCs and sovereign funds has fueled the rise of Singapore’s venture studios, challenges remain. Venture building is resource-heavy, and not all studios will survive. There is also the question of focus: should capital prioritize moonshot DeepTech ventures with global ambitions, or scalable consumer-tech plays better suited for regional adoption?

Striking the right balance will be key. Too much emphasis on short-term gains risks diluting the transformative potential of venture building. Too much focus on moonshots without market validation risks creating science projects that never scale.

Looking Ahead: Funding the Next Decade

What’s clear is that the combination of VCs and sovereign wealth funds gives Singapore’s venture studios a uniquely powerful advantage. Venture capital brings agility and global networks, while sovereign funds provide stability and patience. Together, they create an ecosystem capable of nurturing bold ideas through the long road from concept to commercial success.

In the next decade, expect to see more sovereign-VC partnerships in Singapore’s venture building space, particularly in fields like climate tech, AI, and advanced manufacturing. These are areas where global challenges intersect with Singapore’s ambition to lead in innovation.

For founders, the message is clear: in Singapore, you don’t just get access to capital - you get access to aligned capital, designed to see you through the toughest years of building. For investors, the takeaway is equally strong: if you want exposure to the next generation of high-impact ventures in Asia, Singapore’s venture studios are where the story begins.

Singapore’s Role in Shaping the Next Wave of DeepTech through Venture Building

DeepTech refers to technologies rooted in scientific discoveries and engineering breakthroughs and it is increasingly seen as the foundation for solving humanity’s toughest problems. From climate resilience and quantum computing to advanced healthcare and space exploration, the promise of DeepTech extends far beyond incremental innovation. But building DeepTech startups is notoriously hard: they require long development cycles, heavy capital investment, and multidisciplinary expertise.

This is where Singapore is quietly taking center stage. Over the last decade, the city-state has positioned itself as one of Asia’s most compelling hubs for DeepTech innovation, not through chance but through a deliberate embrace of venture building. By pairing research talent with structured startup creation, Singapore is charting a path that could make it a global leader in translating science into scalable businesses.

The DeepTech Imperative

DeepTech is not just hype. According to Boston Consulting Group, DeepTech startups globally attracted more than US$60 billion in funding in 2023, double the levels seen in 2016. Yet the barriers to entry remain high. Unlike software startups, where a minimum viable product can be built in weeks, DeepTech ventures often require years of research before commercial viability.

Singapore has recognized both the challenge and the opportunity. With limited natural resources, the country has long invested in knowledge as its most strategic asset. Today, that strategy is paying off as its universities and research institutions - such as the National University of Singapore (NUS) and A-STAR - are increasingly integrated into venture-building pipelines.

A Government-Backed Ecosystem

The Singapore government has been one of the most active global backers of DeepTech venture building. Through initiatives like the SGInnovate Deep Tech Nexus Strategy, launched in 2017, the country committed more than US$150 million to support the translation of science into companies. SGInnovate itself has directly invested in over 100 DeepTech startups spanning fields like autonomous robotics, medtech, and agritech.

This model is designed not just to fund startups but to systematically derisk them. By offering labs, pilot facilities, and structured venture building programs, Singapore reduces the “valley of death” between academic research and commercial application.

Case Study: A-STAR Spinouts

One of the best examples of Singapore’s DeepTech venture building comes from A-STAR, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. Over the past five years, A-STAR has spun out dozens of startups in biotech, advanced materials, and AI. Companies like Nanoveu, which develops nanotechnology-based films for optics and antiviral protection, have scaled regionally thanks to early support from A-STAR’s venture co-creation efforts.

Another case is RWDC Industries, a biodegradable plastics startup that originated in Singapore and has since raised more than US$135 million in growth funding. RWDC’s success underscores how research-driven ventures can become globally relevant with the right support structure.

Temasek and the Long-Term View

DeepTech requires patient capital, and few institutions embody patience better than Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Temasek. Through its venture-building arm Xora Innovation, Temasek partners with scientists and entrepreneurs at the very earliest stages, often before a commercial application is fully proven.

This long-term approach is critical. Traditional VCs often shy away from DeepTech because of long timelines, but venture studios like Xora de-risk the process by building operational capacity around founders. This allows breakthroughs in quantum computing or synthetic biology to be pursued without the pressure of unrealistic short-term returns.

Singapore as Asia’s Testbed

Another advantage lies in Singapore’s role as a testbed for emerging technologies. With its compact size, advanced infrastructure, and supportive regulators, the city-state often serves as a “living laboratory” for pilots.

For example, autonomous vehicle trials, drone delivery pilots, and next-gen biotech therapies have all been deployed in Singapore earlier than in most regional markets. This testbed status makes the country an attractive base for DeepTech venture builders: startups can validate complex technologies locally before scaling across Asia’s 650 million-strong Southeast Asian market.

Talent at the Core

DeepTech thrives on talent density, and Singapore has invested heavily in building a global research workforce. The country attracts scientists and engineers through initiatives like the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 Plan, which allocated US$25 billion to science and innovation over five years.

What sets Singapore apart is how this talent is integrated into venture building. Instead of leaving researchers isolated in academia, programs connect them with entrepreneurs, operators, and investors who can help translate breakthroughs into market-ready companies. This culture of collaboration is one reason why Singapore consistently ranks among the top 10 in the Global Innovation Index.

Looking Forward: Singapore’s DeepTech Ambition

The next decade will determine whether Singapore’s DeepTech bets pay off. The foundations are strong: government backing, venture studios, sovereign wealth participation, and global research talent. The challenge lies in scaling beyond local pilots into global leaders.

If Singapore’s studios can consistently produce DeepTech unicorns - companies solving real-world problems in energy, healthcare, and materials - it will cement its place not just as Asia’s DeepTech hub but as one of the world’s great innovation ecosystems.

For founders, Singapore offers a rare combination: scientific depth, supportive policy, and venture-building structures that reduce the odds of failure. For investors, it provides a gateway to high-potential DeepTech startups in Asia with the added security of government and sovereign fund alignment.

The message is clear: while Silicon Valley may dominate software, the next generation of world-changing science-driven startups could well be born in Singapore’s venture studios.

Why Singapore is Emerging as Asia’s Hub for Venture Building

Singapore has long been known as a global financial center, but in recent years, its ambitions have expanded beyond banking and trade. Today, it is carving out a reputation as Asia’s leading hub for venture building, the model where ideas are not just funded but systematically transformed into startups through the structured support of venture studios. While Silicon Valley remains the gold standard for startup culture, Singapore is demonstrating that the future of innovation in Asia might follow a different playbook.

The rise of venture building in Singapore is not accidental. It is the result of a deliberate strategy combining government foresight, investor appetite, and the city-state’s unique position as a connector between East and West. For founders and investors alike, Singapore is increasingly where the region’s most ambitious ideas are being tested, scaled, and launched into the world.

The Numbers Behind the Story

Singapore’s startup ecosystem has grown at a remarkable pace. According to Enterprise Singapore, the number of tech startups in the country jumped from around 2,800 in 2003 to more than 4,500 in 2023, employing tens of thousands of people and contributing significantly to GDP. In 2022 alone, venture funding in Singapore reached US$11 billion, accounting for more than 50% of all funding across Southeast Asia, according to DealStreetAsia.

But what’s most striking is not just the raw funding numbers. It is the structural shift toward venture building. More than 30 venture studios now operate in Singapore, ranging from independent builders like Antler, which has a strong base in the city, to corporate-backed and government-supported studios that focus on deeptech, fintech, and sustainability. This density is unmatched anywhere else in Asia, positioning Singapore as the natural hub for the model.

A Supportive Government Framework

One of Singapore’s most powerful advantages is the role of government policy. Agencies such as Enterprise Singapore and EDB (Economic Development Board) have actively fostered venture building by co-investing in studios, providing grants, and streamlining regulatory pathways for new businesses.

For instance, in 2020, the government launched the Startup SG Founder Venture Building Program, a scheme designed specifically to support venture builders in co-developing startups with entrepreneurs. This move signaled not only recognition of the venture building model but also a willingness to bet national resources on it.

The regulatory environment also plays a role. With a reputation for clarity, efficiency, and fairness, Singapore provides a rare sense of stability in a region where startups often grapple with red tape. For deeptech or highly regulated sectors like fintech and biotech, this regulatory clarity can make the difference between stagnation and scale.

Case Studies: Successful Venture Builders

The global venture builder Antler made Singapore its launchpad in Asia, running its residency program for founders and producing startups that have since expanded globally. In just five years, Antler Singapore has backed more than 500 founders and created over 100 startups, several of which have gone on to raise significant Series A and B rounds.

Another standout is Xora Innovation, the venture building arm of Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Unlike traditional venture capital, Xora works directly with scientists and entrepreneurs to transform advanced research into scalable deeptech ventures. This model reflects Singapore’s ambition not just to create more startups but to anchor globally relevant ones in high-tech, defensible fields. These examples show how Singapore is positioning venture building not as a fringe experiment but as a central pillar of its innovation economy.

Location as a Strategic Advantage

Geography has always been part of Singapore’s success story, and venture building is no different. Situated at the crossroads of Southeast Asia, the city-state offers immediate access to a consumer market of over 650 million people, a young, digital-native population hungry for innovation. At the same time, Singapore remains deeply connected to Western capital markets, making it a natural bridge for global investors seeking exposure to Asia.

This dual access - emerging market scale on one side, developed-world capital on the other - is a rare combination. For venture studios looking to create startups that can expand regionally and scale globally, Singapore offers the perfect launchpad.

Why Founders Are Choosing Singapore

It’s not only investors and policymakers driving this momentum. Founders themselves increasingly see Singapore as the best place to build. The city offers one of the most connected startup communities in Asia, access to a deep pool of talent, and a cosmopolitan culture that values experimentation.

Entrepreneurs also appreciate the reduced risk profile that venture building offers. Instead of going it alone, they join studios that provide initial capital, expert support, and access to networks, dramatically improving their odds of success. For many, especially in capital-intensive sectors like biotech or climate tech, this support is the difference between a promising idea and a real company.

Looking Ahead

As venture building matures globally, Singapore is uniquely positioned to lead its adoption in Asia. With strong government support, growing investor participation, and an ecosystem of studios producing measurable results, the city-state has built the foundations of a venture building hub that rivals the best in the world.

The next chapter will depend on whether these studios can consistently produce companies that scale to unicorn status or become regional champions. If they do, Singapore won’t just be a hub for venture building - it will be the place where Asia’s most important startups of the next decade are born.

For founders, the message is clear: if you want to test bold ideas in Asia with a higher chance of survival, Singapore is the place to start. For investors, the message is equally strong: the most interesting stories in venture building are not just being written in Silicon Valley - they are unfolding right here, at the crossroads of the East.

From Talent to Exit: Building Resilient Companies in the Next Innovation Cycle

The entrepreneurial landscape has never been more unforgiving. With 90% of startups failing and 75% of venture-backed companies not making it, the path from talent acquisition to successful exit requires more than just innovative ideas, it demands strategic resilience. As we navigate an era defined by rapid technological change, economic uncertainty, and evolving workforce expectations, building companies that can weather storms while maintaining growth momentum has become the ultimate competitive advantage.

The New Reality of Business Survival

The statistics paint a sobering picture of modern entrepreneurship. 10% of startups fail in the first year, while first-time founders have only an 18% success rate. However, these numbers tell only part of the story. The companies that survive and thrive share common characteristics: they build resilience into their DNA from day one.

Consider the tale of two companies launched in 2020. Company A, a fintech startup, secured $10 million in Series A funding but burned through capital quickly, focusing solely on user acquisition without building sustainable revenue streams. 75% of fintech startups fail despite venture backing, and Company A became part of this statistic within 18 months. Company B, an AI-driven logistics platform, raised similar funding but allocated 40% of resources to talent development and operational resilience. Today, Company B is preparing for its Series C round, having weathered supply chain disruptions and market volatility.

The Talent Foundation: More Than Just Hiring

Building resilient companies starts with reimagining talent strategy. Organizations face a critical shortage of talent and skills, making traditional hiring approaches insufficient. Resilient companies focus on three pillars: acquisition, development, and retention.

• The acquisition phase requires precision targeting. Netflix's approach exemplifies this, they hire for cultural fit and adaptability, not just technical skills. Their famous "keeper test" ensures every hire strengthens organizational resilience. During the 2022 subscriber crisis, Netflix's talent-first approach enabled rapid pivoting to ad-supported tiers and password-sharing monetization.

• Development comes next. Amazon's Career Choice program, investing $700 million in employee upskilling, demonstrates how talent development creates competitive moats. By 2024, companies investing in continuous learning report 23% higher revenue growth and 18% better employee retention rates.

• Retention strategies have evolved beyond traditional benefits. Organizations face a critical decision: redefine retention or risk irrelevance. Modern retention focuses on psychological safety, career mobility, and purpose alignment. Google's Project Aristotle revealed that psychological safety, not talent density, predicts team performance. Companies implementing this insight see 35% lower turnover rates.

Innovation Cycles: Adapting to Accelerating Change

The next innovation cycle differs fundamentally from previous ones. While past cycles lasted 7-10 years, current cycles compress to 3-5 years. This acceleration demands new organizational capabilities.

• Resilient companies embrace "innovation optionality", maintaining multiple strategic bets simultaneously. 3M's famous 15% time policy, allowing employees to pursue passion projects, generated Post-it Notes and countless other innovations. Modern versions include Atlassian's ShipIt days and Shopify's hack days, creating structured chaos that sparks breakthrough innovations.

• The key is balancing exploration with exploitation. McKinsey research shows that companies allocating 70% of innovation resources to core improvements, 20% to adjacent opportunities, and 10% to transformational bets achieve optimal returns. This 70-20-10 rule provides a framework for navigating uncertainty while maintaining growth.

Building Operational Resilience

Operational resilience extends beyond risk management, it's about creating antifragility. Companies that strengthen under stress rather than merely surviving it.

• Supply chain resilience exemplifies this principle. When COVID-19 disrupted global logistics, companies with diversified supplier networks and flexible manufacturing capabilities thrived. Zara's agile supply chain, capable of design-to-shelf cycles in two weeks, enabled rapid adaptation to changing consumer preferences during lockdowns.

• Financial resilience requires different thinking. Traditional metrics focus on efficiency, maximizing returns while minimizing costs. Resilient companies optimize for adaptability, maintaining cash reserves and flexible cost structures. Salesforce's variable expense model, where 60% of costs scale with revenue, provided crucial flexibility during economic downturns.

• Technology resilience involves building systems that improve with stress. Netflix's chaos engineering, deliberately introducing failures to strengthen systems, exemplifies this approach. Their Chaos Monkey randomly terminates production instances, forcing engineers to build fault-tolerant architectures.

The Path to Successful Exit

Successful exits require strategic preparation years in advance. Companies achieving premium valuations share common characteristics: predictable revenue streams, scalable operations, and strong leadership teams.

• Revenue predictability attracts acquirers and investors. SaaS companies with 90%+ gross retention rates command valuation multiples 2-3x higher than those with 80% retention. HubSpot's focus on customer success, not just acquisition, drove their successful IPO and continued growth.

• Scalable operations demonstrate growth potential. When Zoom's daily users jumped from 10 million to 300 million during COVID-19, their scalable architecture handled the load without major outages. This operational resilience contributed to their $100+ billion valuation peak.

• Leadership team strength often determines exit success. When WhatsApp sold to Facebook for $19 billion, investors cited the founding team's product vision and execution capability as key factors. Building leadership bench strength through succession planning and knowledge transfer creates sustainable value.

Data-Driven Resilience Strategies

Modern resilience requires data-driven decision making. Companies leveraging analytics for resilience planning show 15% better crisis performance than those relying on intuition alone.

• Predictive analytics identify potential disruptions before they occur. UPS's ORION system, analyzing millions of delivery routes daily, reduces fuel consumption by 10% while improving delivery reliability. This operational intelligence provides competitive advantages during fuel price volatility.

• Real-time monitoring enables rapid response. Tesla's over-the-air updates demonstrate how continuous monitoring and remote capabilities create resilience. When battery issues emerged in certain Model S vehicles, Tesla pushed software updates preventing thermal runaway, avoiding costly recalls and maintaining brand trust.

The Future of Resilient Companies

As we look toward the next innovation cycle, several trends will shape resilient company building. Artificial intelligence will augment human capabilities, requiring new talent strategies. Remote-first organizations will need different culture-building approaches. Sustainability will become a business imperative, not just a marketing message.

The companies that thrive will be those that embed resilience into their fundamental operating principles. They'll attract talent by offering purpose and growth, not just compensation. They'll innovate continuously while maintaining operational excellence. They'll prepare for exits by building sustainable value, not just chasing valuations.

Final Thoughts 

Building resilient companies isn't just about surviving the next crisis, it's about creating organizations that strengthen through adversity, adapt to change, and deliver exceptional value to all stakeholders. In an era of accelerating change, resilience isn't just a competitive advantage, it's the foundation for sustainable success.

The path from talent to exit has never been more challenging, but the rewards for those who master resilience have never been greater. The question isn't whether disruption will come, it's whether your company will be ready to thrive when it does.

5 Key Mistakes to Avoid When Scaling a Startup Inside a Venture Studio

Venture studios are rapidly becoming a go-to model for startup creation and scaling, offering entrepreneurs a structured environment with shared resources, expert teams, and strategic support. However, despite the advantages, scaling a startup within a venture studio presents unique challenges. Founders who misunderstand the dynamics or misstep in key areas risk slowing their growth, or worse, failing altogether.

In this article, we explore five critical mistakes startups often make when scaling inside a venture studio and how to avoid them.

1. Misaligning Vision Between Founders and the Studio

One of the foundational pillars of success in a venture studio model is alignment. Venture studios typically originate the idea or co-create it alongside entrepreneurs. If the startup’s leadership and the studio’s core team are not aligned on the long-term vision, mission, or go-to-market strategy, internal friction can derail progress.

Solution:
Ensure early and continuous communication about expectations. Discuss roles, equity, timelines, and exit goals upfront. Co-founders should be deeply involved in the decision-making process and feel empowered, not like hired operators. Regular strategy syncs can prevent misalignment and reinforce a shared sense of ownership.

2. Overreliance on Shared Resources

One of the biggest benefits of venture studios is access to shared talent: engineers, designers, marketers, legal advisors, and more. However, startups can become overly reliant on these resources without developing their own internal capabilities. This can lead to a bottleneck as the startup grows, especially when the studio has multiple ventures demanding attention from the same team.

Solution:
Use the shared resources as a launchpad, not a crutch. From the beginning, identify which capabilities need to be internalized as you scale. Start planning for key hires early, especially in product development, sales, and customer success. Think about your independence roadmap.

3. Failing to Establish a Clear Identity

Venture studio startups often struggle with branding and positioning, especially if their identity remains too closely tied to the parent studio. Investors, partners, and even customers might see the startup as a studio project, not a standalone business with its own mission and market.

Solution:
Invest in brand differentiation. Even though you're born inside a studio, the startup should develop a distinct tone, voice, mission, and visual identity. Focus on storytelling from day one: who are your customers, what problem are you solving, and why are you uniquely positioned? Your identity should resonate outside the studio bubble.

4. Ignoring External Market Signals

Being within a venture studio often gives founders a strong internal feedback loop, mentors, fellow founders, and studio advisors. But relying too heavily on internal validation can insulate the startup from real-world signals. Scaling requires deep market traction, customer validation, and constant iteration based on real usage, not assumptions.

Solution:
Get outside early and often. Talk to users. Validate hypotheses. Run lean experiments. Let customers be your compass. Studio guidance is important, but external traction is what validates whether your business is ready to grow. Don’t skip early-stage testing just because you have access to resources.

5. Structuring Equity Poorly for Long-Term Incentives

Cap table structure can be tricky in a venture studio. Since the studio often takes a significant equity stake early on, founders and future hires might feel diluted from the beginning. If this isn’t managed well, it can hurt morale and make future fundraising difficult.

Solution:
Be strategic and transparent about the cap table. Balance studio equity with founder motivation and talent acquisition needs. Keep enough equity reserved for future employees. Be clear with early investors about the studio model and why it creates value. Build flexibility into the structure to evolve as the startup scales.

Final Thought

Scaling a startup inside a venture studio offers unmatched advantages, speed, support, and shared expertise. But it also requires intentionality and awareness of potential pitfalls. By aligning with the studio on vision, avoiding overdependence on shared resources, establishing a distinct identity, listening to the market, and managing the cap table wisely, founders can turn the venture studio environment into fertile ground for sustainable growth. Like any startup path, success lies in the execution, and in the ability to learn from missteps before they become barriers.

The Liquidity Question: Why It Matters Earlier Than You Think

Liquidity is often an afterthought, until it isn’t. Businesses, investors, and even individuals frequently overlook its importance The Liquidity Question: Why It Matters Earlier Than You Think

Liquidity is the financial world's silent guardian, invisible when present, catastrophic when absent. While most businesses and individuals focus on growth, returns, and profitability, they often overlook the fundamental lifeline that determines survival: the ability to convert assets into cash quickly without significant loss. This oversight has toppled Fortune 500 companies, devastated investment portfolios, and left countless individuals financially stranded.

Understanding liquidity isn't just about financial prudence, it's about recognizing that cash flow, not profit margins, determines who survives economic storms. From corporate giants to individual households, those who master liquidity management thrive while others merely survive, if at all.

The Silent Assassin of Profitable Businesses

The business graveyard is littered with companies that were profitable on paper but failed due to liquidity crises. A comprehensive study by the U.S. Bank revealed that 82% of business failures stem from poor cash flow management, not inadequate profitability. This statistic exposes a fundamental misconception: that revenue equals resilience.

Case Study: The Toys "R" Us Tragedy

Toys "R" Us exemplifies this principle perfectly. In 2017, the retail giant, with $11.5 billion in annual revenue and a dominant market position, filed for bankruptcy. The culprit wasn't declining toy sales or e-commerce competition alone, but rather the company's inability to service its $5 billion debt load amid deteriorating liquidity. The company had tied up capital in inventory and real estate while carrying unsustainable debt obligations, leaving no cushion for operational flexibility.

The lesson is stark: profitability without liquidity is a house of cards. Revenue can mask underlying financial vulnerabilities until external pressures, economic downturns, supply chain disruptions, or unexpected expenses, expose the truth.

The Working Capital Trap

Many businesses fall into the working capital trap, where success breeds failure. Rapid growth often requires increased inventory, extended payment terms to customers, and upfront investments in infrastructure. Without careful liquidity management, growing companies can become victims of their own success, unable to fund operations despite impressive sales figures.

Personal Finance: The Emergency Fund Imperative

The liquidity crisis extends beyond corporate boardrooms to kitchen tables across America. Federal Reserve data reveals that 37% of Americans cannot cover a $400 emergency expense with cash, forcing them into high-interest debt cycles that compound financial instability.

The 3-6 Month Rule: Your Financial Lifeline

Financial advisors universally recommend maintaining 3-6 months of living expenses in liquid assets, cash, savings accounts, or short-term bonds. This buffer serves multiple purposes:

• Prevents forced asset liquidation: Avoids selling stocks, property, or other investments during market downturns

• Maintains credit health: Reduces reliance on credit cards or loans during emergencies

• Preserves opportunities: Enables strategic moves like career changes or investment opportunities

The Psychological Dividend

Beyond financial protection, liquidity provides psychological benefits. Research from the University of Pennsylvania shows that individuals with emergency funds report lower stress levels and greater life satisfaction, even when controlling for income levels. Liquidity isn't just about money, it's about peace of mind.

Market Liquidity: The Investor's Ultimate Insurance

Investment liquidity separates seasoned investors from amateurs. While illiquid assets like real estate and private equity can generate substantial returns, they can also trap capital when liquidity is most needed.

The 2008 Financial Crisis: A Masterclass in Liquidity

The 2008 financial crisis provided a brutal education in liquidity's importance. Investors holding "valuable" mortgage-backed securities discovered that paper wealth means nothing if nobody will buy your assets. Meanwhile, those with cash reserves capitalized on the chaos.

The Numbers Tell the Story:

• The S&P 500 plummeted 57% from peak to trough (2007-2009)

• Investors with liquidity who purchased undervalued stocks generated returns exceeding 300% during the recovery

• Real estate investors with cash bought distressed properties at 30-50% discounts

The Liquidity Premium

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway consistently maintains massive cash reserves, often criticized as "inefficient" by analysts. Yet this strategy enabled Berkshire to acquire quality companies at discounted prices during the 2008 crisis and the 2020 pandemic. The "liquidity premium”, the cost of holding cash versus investing, pales in comparison to the opportunities liquidity creates during market dislocations.

Corporate Liquidity Metrics: Reading the Warning Signs

Businesses measure liquidity through several key ratios that reveal financial health:

Current Ratio (Current Assets ÷ Current Liabilities)

• Ideal Range: 1.5-3.0

• Interpretation: Measures ability to cover short-term obligations

• Warning Signs: Ratios below 1.0 indicate potential liquidity stress

Quick Ratio (Quick Assets ÷ Current Liabilities)

• Ideal Range: 1.0 or higher

• Interpretation: Excludes inventory, focusing on most liquid assets

• Critical Insight: More conservative than current ratio, better for cyclical businesses

Apple's Liquidity Mastery

Apple provides a masterclass in liquidity management. Despite a current ratio of 0.94 (seemingly concerning), the company maintains over $166 billion in cash and marketable securities. This strategic liquidity enables Apple to:

• Fund massive R&D investments without external financing

• Acquire companies and technologies opportunistically

• Weather economic downturns without operational disruption

• Return capital to shareholders through dividends and buybacks

 The Liquidity Optimization Framework

For Businesses:

• Cash Reserve Strategy: Maintain 3-6 months of operating expenses in liquid assets. This provides operational flexibility and creditor confidence.

• Credit Line Management: Establish revolving credit facilities before needing them. Banks prefer lending to healthy companies, not distressed ones.

• Receivables Management: Implement aggressive collection policies and consider factoring for immediate cash flow.

• Inventory Optimization: Use just-in-time inventory systems to minimize working capital requirements.

 For Individuals:

• Emergency Fund Construction: Build systematically, start with $1,000, then progress to one month's expenses, eventually reaching 3-6 months.

• Asset Allocation Balance: Avoid overconcentration in illiquid assets. Even real estate investors should maintain liquid reserves.

• Liquid Investment Vehicles: Utilize money market funds, short-term CDs, and high-yield savings accounts for emergency funds.

• Debt Management: Minimize high-interest debt that can quickly erode liquidity during emergencies.

The Liquidity Mindset: Beyond Numbers

Liquidity management requires a fundamental shift in thinking, from maximizing returns to optimizing survival. This doesn't mean being overly conservative, but rather maintaining enough flexibility to navigate uncertainty.

The Opportunity Cost Fallacy

Critics often argue that holding cash is "inefficient" due to opportunity costs. However, this perspective ignores liquidity's option value, the ability to act decisively when opportunities arise. During market crashes, recessions, or personal emergencies, liquidity isn't just protective, it's transformative.

Building Financial Resilience

True financial success isn't measured solely by net worth growth but by the ability to maintain stability across various economic conditions. Liquidity provides the foundation for this resilience, enabling individuals and businesses to not just survive but thrive during challenging periods.

Final Thoughts 

Liquidity isn’t just a financial metric, it’s a survival tool. Whether you’re a business owner, investor, or individual, prioritizing liquidity early prevents desperation later.  

As Warren Buffett famously said:  

"Cash is to a business as oxygen is to an individual: never thought about when it is present, the only thing in mind when it is absent."

Don’t wait until the oxygen runs out. 

How to Structure a Cap Table When Building with a Studio

In the fast-evolving world of startups, Venture Studios are becoming a powerful model for company building. Unlike accelerators or incubators, studios co-create startups from the ground up, offering resources, teams, and capital in exchange for equity. As more founders choose to build with studios, one question consistently emerges: how should the cap table be structured?

A well-balanced cap table (short for capitalization table) is not just about equity allocation, it’s a reflection of trust, clarity, and shared incentives between founders, studios, and future investors. In this article, we break down how to approach cap table structuring when launching a startup within a venture studio model.

Understanding the Studio-Startup Relationship

Venture studios usually initiate the idea, assemble the initial team, and contribute significant capital, operational support, and strategic guidance. As such, their role is much deeper than that of a passive investor. Their equity share often reflects this heavier involvement in the early stages.

Startups built with studios typically go through the following early stages:

1. Ideation & Validation – The studio identifies a market gap and develops a viable solution.

2. Team Formation – A founding team is recruited, often led by the studio.

3. MVP Development – Resources like engineering, legal, and marketing are provided.

4. Spinout & Fundraising – Once validated, the startup spins out and raises external capital.

Each of these stages affects the cap table, especially how equity is allocated between the studio, founders, and early team members.

Common Cap Table Structures in Studio Models

Although there’s no one-size-fits-all formula, most cap tables in studio-born startups follow a similar pattern during the spin-out phase:

1. Studio Equity (20%–60%)

Studios generally take a larger equity stake than a traditional investor due to their active role in the company’s creation. This stake typically ranges between 30% and 50%, depending on how much the studio contributed in terms of capital, resources, and risk.

Some models may go as high as 60% in early concept-phase startups, especially where the studio also provides the CEO or core leadership team. Over time, as the startup raises capital and scales, the studio’s ownership usually dilutes.

2. Founding Team Equity (20%–50%)

Founders joining a studio venture may receive 20% to 40% equity, depending on when they join and what responsibilities they take on. A technical co-founder joining post-MVP might receive less equity than one who joins at the ideation stage.

Founders often receive their equity through a vesting schedule, commonly over four years with a one-year cliff, aligning long-term commitment with ownership.

3. Employee Option Pool (10%–15%)

Like any startup, those born from studios need to attract and retain top talent. An option pool—typically 10% to 15% of the cap table, is reserved for employees, especially during the first fundraising round.

Early hires may receive larger chunks from this pool, particularly if they are taking on key operational or product roles in the earliest stages.

4. Investor Equity (5%–30%)

If the startup raises a pre-seed or seed round soon after spinning out of the studio, the new investors’ equity will also need to be accounted for. Early-stage VCs or angel investors may take 5% to 20% depending on the round size and valuation.

This dilutes all existing shareholders, including the studio and founders. Planning for this early ensures the cap table remains fair and balanced post-investment.

Best Practices for Cap Table Planning

● Model Scenarios Early

Before finalizing equity splits, it’s crucial to model various scenarios: What happens if you raise multiple rounds? What if key founders leave early? Having these projections gives clarity and avoids surprises.

● Align Equity with Value Added

The cap table should reflect the actual value contributed. A studio that provides engineers, designers, and growth experts deserves a larger stake than one offering only desk space and mentorship. Likewise, founders driving product and sales should be fairly compensated.

● Use Vesting and Cliff Periods

To ensure long-term commitment, both studios and founders often use vesting schedules. A typical 4-year vesting with a 1-year cliff protects the company from early departures and ensures equity is earned over time.

● Create Clear Operating Agreements

Equity is only one part of the relationship. Make sure legal documents (like operating agreements, term sheets, and founder agreements) clearly outline roles, responsibilities, and equity terms. Transparency builds trust.

How to Think About Studio Involvement Over Time

One unique aspect of cap tables in studio-led startups is the evolving role of the studio. In early stages, the studio is hands-on. But as the founding team grows, external funding is raised, and operations scale, the studio often steps back.

Some studios gradually reduce involvement or maintain board-level influence. This transition should be planned in advance and reflected in vesting or advisory agreements.

Conclusion

Structuring a cap table with a venture studio requires balancing contributions, expectations, and future growth potential. While studios may take a significant early stake, the cap table must remain attractive for future investors and fair to founders who take on operational leadership. By modeling scenarios, aligning value with equity, and using legal clarity, startups can ensure their cap table empowers, not hinders, their long-term success.

As venture studios continue reshaping how startups are born, a thoughtful approach to equity is essential. A well-structured cap table is not just a spreadsheet, it’s a roadmap for shared ownership, mutual accountability, and startup resilience.

How Regulation Will Shape Fintech Innovation in Europe by 2030

As Europe continues to evolve as a global fintech powerhouse, regulation is poised to play a decisive role in shaping the pace, direction, and nature of innovation across the sector. From PSD3 and open finance frameworks to digital identity rules and crypto asset regulation, the future of European fintech will be inextricably linked to how policymakers approach oversight and enablement. By 2030, the relationship between regulators, startups, and financial incumbents may define which markets thrive and which stagnate.

The European Regulatory Landscape in Motion

The European Union has historically taken a proactive stance toward digital financial services. Initiatives like PSD2 (the Second Payment Services Directive) enabled the rise of open banking, paving the way for an ecosystem where banks must share customer data with licensed third-party providers. The upcoming PSD3 and Open Finance Regulation are expected to expand this even further, standardizing access to broader financial data and services beyond payments.

Regulatory harmonization across EU member states is creating a fertile ground for pan-European fintech models. However, the patchwork nature of national implementations still poses a challenge for startups seeking to scale. By 2030, alignment efforts—such as the Digital Finance Package and cross-border regulatory sandboxes, could dramatically lower barriers to entry and expansion.

Compliance as a Competitive Advantage

Historically, regulation has often been viewed by startups as a constraint. But modern fintech players increasingly see compliance as a strategic differentiator. RegTech solutions (regulatory technology) are helping firms automate KYC/AML, transaction monitoring, and reporting obligations, making it easier for even early-stage ventures to navigate complex compliance requirements.

Venture studios and accelerators are also embedding compliance frameworks into their support models, ensuring that new fintechs are ‘compliant by design.’ In a world where trust and security are paramount, especially with increased scrutiny around data privacy and cybersecurity, building with regulation in mind from day one could unlock greater user adoption and investor confidence.

Key Areas of Regulatory Influence by 2030

1. Open Finance and Data Portability

By 2030, open finance regulations are expected to empower consumers to share data across a wide range of financial services, including mortgages, pensions, insurance, and investments. This could drive the emergence of hyper-personalized fintech platforms, enabling tailored financial advice and products based on a 360-degree view of a user’s financial life.

2. Digital Identity and eIDAS 2.0

The revised eIDAS regulation aims to create a unified framework for digital identity across Europe. A trusted digital ID system would streamline onboarding, payments, and verification processes, making it significantly easier for fintech startups to scale across borders and compete with incumbents.

3. Crypto, Tokenization, and MiCA

The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which provides a legal framework for crypto-assets across the EU, is expected to unlock significant growth in the token economy. From asset-backed tokens to decentralized finance (DeFi), MiCA could reduce risk and increase institutional participation in crypto innovation.

4. Green Finance and ESG Standards

The EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and taxonomy frameworks are already influencing investment and product design. Fintechs offering green lending, carbon tracking, or impact investing services will benefit from more clarity around ESG reporting and alignment.

5. AI and Algorithmic Accountability

As AI becomes more prevalent in underwriting, credit scoring, and financial advice, regulators are proposing oversight mechanisms to ensure transparency and prevent discrimination. By 2030, successful fintechs will need to demonstrate ethical and explainable AI practices as part of their product offering.

The Role of Supervisory Technology (SupTech)

It’s not just fintechs using technology, regulators are embracing it too. SupTech refers to the use of technology by supervisory agencies to improve oversight and efficiency. From real-time transaction monitoring to AI-driven anomaly detection, these tools will make it easier for regulators to keep up with the speed of innovation without stifling it.

For fintech founders, this means greater clarity and faster feedback loops, especially when engaging with innovation hubs or regulatory sandboxes. It could also open the door to more dynamic, data-driven policy making.

Final Thought

By 2030, regulation will not simply be a set of constraints that fintechs must work around, it will be a key enabler of innovation, trust, and cross-border scale. As Europe pursues harmonized frameworks around open finance, crypto, ESG, AI, and digital identity, the fintechs that align themselves early with these regulatory shifts will be better positioned to lead. Investors, founders, and studios alike must view regulation not as a hurdle, but as an essential design layer for building the financial services of the future.

AI Startups in PE/VC: Overhyped or Underestimated?

The question of whether AI startups are overhyped or underestimated reveals the fundamental misunderstanding permeating today's investment landscape. Rather than a monolithic sector deserving uniform skepticism or enthusiasm, artificial intelligence represents a complex ecosystem where speculative excess coexists with profound undervaluation. The answer depends entirely on which corner of this vast landscape you examine, and whether you possess the analytical sophistication to distinguish between genuine innovation and cleverly marketed incrementalism.

The Theater of Hype: Where Valuations Defy Gravity

The most visible AI investments often represent the sector's most theatrical performances, where billion-dollar valuations rest on foundations of promise rather than profit. Foundation model companies have captured public imagination and investor capital in equal measure, creating a feeding frenzy that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to previous technology bubbles. These companies command valuations that would make even the most optimistic dot-com investor blush, justified by narratives of artificial general intelligence and revolutionary transformation that remain tantalizingly out of reach.

The application layer presents an even more concerning spectacle of speculation. Countless startups have discovered that adding "AI-powered" to their pitch decks can multiply valuations overnight, regardless of underlying differentiation or sustainable competitive advantages. This phenomenon, dubbed "AI washing" by skeptics, has created a parallel universe where traditional business fundamentals seem quaint and outdated. Consumer-facing AI applications, in particular, have attracted enormous attention despite demonstrating unit economics that would terrify any rational investor operating under normal market conditions.

The Hidden Gems: Where Value Hides in Plain Sight

While headlines fixate on ChatGPT valuations and artificial general intelligence timelines, the most compelling AI investments often operate in the shadows of public attention. Infrastructure companies building the foundational layers of AI deployment represent a dramatically different investment proposition, one characterized by rational valuations, sustainable business models, and defensive competitive positions. These businesses provide the essential plumbing that enables AI deployment at scale, creating platform effects that become more valuable as adoption accelerates.

The vertical AI revolution represents perhaps the most underestimated opportunity in the entire technology landscape. Healthcare AI companies developing FDA-approved diagnostics, financial services firms solving compliance challenges, and manufacturing solutions delivering measurable productivity improvements demonstrate the transformative power of artificial intelligence applied to specific domain problems. European and Asian markets present particularly compelling arbitrage opportunities, where comparable companies trade at significant discounts to American counterparts despite similar growth trajectories and market positions. 

The Sophistication Gap: Why Traditional Frameworks Fail

The challenge facing AI investors extends far beyond simple valuation metrics to encompass fundamental questions about how technological revolutions should be evaluated and financed. Traditional venture capital frameworks, optimized for software businesses with predictable scaling characteristics, struggle to accommodate AI companies' unique cost structures, competitive dynamics, and value creation mechanisms. The result is systematic mispricing that creates both dangerous bubbles and extraordinary opportunities.

Revenue quality emerges as the critical differentiator in this landscape, where two companies with identical top-line growth can justify vastly different valuations based on underlying business model sustainability. Companies achieving platform effects through network externalities, regulatory moats, or proprietary data advantages deserve premium valuations regardless of sector sentiment. Conversely, businesses relying on commodity APIs or consumer adoption without clear monetization paths face inevitable margin compression as market dynamics normalize.

Sector Dynamics: The Tale of Three Markets

Healthcare AI presents the strongest case for systematic underestimation, where regulatory approval processes create natural monopolies and clear value propositions for end customers. The sector's focus on patient outcomes rather than engagement metrics provides sustainable differentiation that pure software companies cannot replicate. FDA breakthrough device designations create competitive advantages measured in years rather than months, while clinical trial data establishes barriers to entry that algorithmic improvements alone cannot overcome.

Financial services AI benefits from regulatory tailwinds as compliance requirements favor established players with deep domain expertise. These companies operate in environments where switching costs are measured in years and relationship-driven sales cycles create additional defensive characteristics. The sector's high-stakes nature means that marginal improvements in fraud detection, risk management, or compliance efficiency can justify substantial technology investments, creating sustainable demand for proven solutions.

Investment Philosophy: Threading the Needle

The AI investment landscape demands portfolio construction that captures legitimate opportunities while avoiding speculative excess. This requires moving beyond binary thinking about sector-wide overvaluation or undervaluation toward company-specific analysis of competitive positioning, market dynamics, and business model sustainability. The most successful investors will be those who can identify genuine innovation amid the noise of marketing hyperbole and venture capital momentum.

Risk management becomes paramount in an environment characterized by extreme volatility and regulatory uncertainty. Scenario planning must incorporate potential AI winter scenarios where speculative investments face significant corrections, while defensive positions in infrastructure and vertical applications provide portfolio stability. Geographic diversification across America, European, and Asian markets helps capture regional arbitrage opportunities while reducing concentration risk in any single regulatory environment.

The temporal dimension adds another layer of complexity, as AI capabilities continue advancing at unprecedented rates while market valuations gyrate wildly based on sentiment and speculation. Patient capital willing to invest through multiple hype cycles will likely be rewarded, while those seeking quick exits may find themselves trapped in valuation bubbles that burst without warning.

Final Thoughts 

The AI investment landscape defies simple categorization as either overhyped or underestimated because it encompasses multiple distinct markets with fundamentally different characteristics and risk profiles. Consumer applications and foundation models trading at extreme multiples clearly exhibit speculative characteristics, while infrastructure companies and vertical AI solutions demonstrate rational valuations based on sustainable business models. The sector's complexity requires sophisticated analysis that moves beyond aggregate funding metrics toward nuanced evaluation of competitive advantages and market positioning. 

Why Corporates Are Launching Their Own Venture Studios

In today’s fast-paced innovation landscape, large corporations are realizing that traditional R&D methods are no longer sufficient to keep up with disruptive startups. As a result, many are turning to venture studios, a powerful model that combines capital, strategic support, and entrepreneurial talent to build new businesses from scratch. But why exactly are corporates launching their own venture studios, and what outcomes are they expecting?

Let’s explore how this shift is reshaping corporate innovation across Europe and beyond. 

What Is a Corporate Venture Studio?

A corporate venture studio (CVS) is an in-house or partnered entity that helps corporates build and launch startups aligned with their long-term strategic goals. Unlike accelerators or incubators that support external founders, a CVS usually creates startups internally, recruits entrepreneurs, and co-owns the ventures.

By leveraging internal resources (capital, data, customer base, infrastructure) and combining them with startup speed and culture, venture studios give corporates a faster, more agile way to explore new markets, technologies, and business models.

Why the Shift to Venture Studios?

Here are five key reasons why corporates are launching venture studios:

1. Faster Innovation Cycles

Corporates typically suffer from bureaucracy and slow decision-making. Venture studios allow them to test and launch ideas in months, not years. Studios build multiple MVPs (minimum viable products), iterate quickly, and kill bad ideas early, much like startups.

This agile experimentation drastically reduces time-to-market and enables corporates to stay ahead of disruptors.

2. Strategic Diversification

Many industries, from insurance and banking to manufacturing and healthcare, are undergoing digital disruption. Corporates can’t afford to stand still. Launching a studio lets them diversify their business models and experiment with innovations outside of their core business, all while maintaining ownership and oversight.

3. Access to Entrepreneurial Talent

Attracting and retaining top entrepreneurial talent within a corporation is notoriously difficult. But a venture studio structure is appealing to founders who want to build, scale, and exit without starting completely from scratch. Corporates are using studios to recruit founders-in-residence, giving them equity, autonomy, and a clear runway to build new ventures.

4. De-risked Corporate Innovation

Studios are designed to fail fast and cheap. Instead of risking millions on a single product that may not fit the market, corporates can spread risk across multiple experiments. When one venture succeeds, it can produce significant ROI. If others fail, they offer learning at a much lower cost than failed internal projects.

This portfolio approach is much more efficient than traditional R&D or M&A strategies.

5. IP Ownership and Strategic Alignment

Unlike investing in external startups or using accelerators, a corporate venture studio allows the parent company to retain full or partial ownership of IP, build ventures that complement their core operations, and align innovation with long-term strategy. This gives them better control over growth areas and exit options.

Real-World Examples of Corporate Venture Studios

Across Europe and globally, several corporates have launched successful venture studios:

• Allianz X (Germany) – A venture arm of Allianz, focused on building and investing in startups in insurtech and beyond.

• Engie Factory (France) – The venture studio of energy giant Engie, which co-creates cleantech startups.

• BCG Digital Ventures (Global) – Although not a corporate itself, BCGDV partners with corporates to co-found and scale ventures that fit their strategic needs.

• Bosch Startup Harbour (Germany) – Focuses on IoT and connected products that can extend Bosch’s innovation capabilities.

• Telefonica Alpha (Spain) – Launched by telecom firm Telefonica to build moonshot tech companies.

These studios often have dedicated teams of product managers, engineers, marketers, and venture architects who operate semi-independently but are strategically aligned with the parent company’s goals.

How Corporate Venture Studios Work

The typical CVS model includes the following steps:

1. Opportunity Identification: Studios analyze trends, gaps, and strategic goals to define promising venture ideas.

2. Venture Design: Teams prototype business models, develop MVPs, and test market traction.

3. Recruitment of Founders: Studios bring in experienced operators or domain experts to lead the startup.

4. Funding & Incubation: The corporate funds the startup’s early stages and provides access to distribution channels, customers, and infrastructure.

5. Spin-Out or Integration: If successful, the startup can either become a standalone company (with shared equity) or be integrated back into the corporate entity.

Common Challenges

Despite the potential, corporate venture studios face some pitfalls:

• Cultural Clashes: Corporate risk-aversion can conflict with the startup mentality.

• Decision-Making Bottlenecks: Too much red tape can slow progress.

• Talent Drain: Retaining entrepreneurial talent after a spin-out can be tough.

• Unclear Exit Plans: Without a clear commercialization or M&A strategy, studios risk building “zombie” startups that don’t scale.

That’s why successful studios build strong governance, KPIs, and incentives from the beginning.

Final Thought

As markets continue to evolve and competition intensifies, corporates can no longer rely solely on internal R&D or passive venture investments. Launching a venture studio offers a powerful way to own the innovation process, unlock new revenue streams, and drive cultural transformation.

For corporates serious about long-term growth, building a venture studio is no longer a luxury, it’s a strategic necessity.

What Makes a Fintech VC Fund Stand Out in a Saturated Market?

The global fintech boom has led to a surge in venture capital (VC) funds targeting financial technology startups. From digital wallets and neo-banks to embedded finance and crypto infrastructure, the competition among VC firms has never been fiercer. With thousands of funds now chasing the next fintech unicorn, differentiation is no longer a nice-to-have; it's an existential imperative. So, what truly makes a fintech VC fund stand out in today’s saturated market?

Deep Domain Expertise

Generalist VC funds often struggle to keep up with the fast-evolving fintech landscape. The most successful fintech VC firms distinguish themselves through deep domain expertise. They don’t just invest in fintech; they understand its regulatory frameworks, technological underpinnings, and historical cycles. These firms hire partners and advisors with backgrounds in financial services, economics, and emerging technologies. Their teams include former bankers, regulators, and tech entrepreneurs who have built and scaled financial products.

This level of specialization allows fintech-focused VCs to provide strategic value beyond capital. Whether it’s navigating a complex licensing process, introducing a startup to banking partners, or validating go-to-market strategies, deep expertise builds trust with founders and increases the likelihood of portfolio success.

Proprietary Deal Flow

In a crowded environment, access to the best deals is a key differentiator. Top-tier fintech VC funds cultivate proprietary deal flow through long-standing relationships, accelerator partnerships, and founder networks. Some even launch their own venture studios to incubate startups from the ground up.

Proprietary deal flow not only gives these funds early access to promising startups but also allows them to avoid overpriced rounds or me-too investments. It also enables greater influence over initial company formation, terms, and strategic direction. Funds with exclusive access to category-defining founders stand apart from those relying on inbound pitches or demo days.

Value-Added Capital

Gone are the days when writing a check was enough. Fintech founders expect more from their investors: real operational support, product feedback, hiring assistance, and access to potential customers. Leading fintech VCs offer hands-on value that impacts core business outcomes.

Some funds, for instance, have in-house legal teams to help with regulatory filings, or talent partners who assist with hiring top-tier engineers and compliance officers. Others offer custom playbooks for entering new markets or frameworks for B2B fintech sales. These tailored resources build stronger relationships with portfolio companies and increase retention rates in future funding rounds.

Brand and Thought Leadership

Strong brand equity enables fintech VC funds to attract both capital and talent. Funds that consistently publish deep-dive reports, sector analyses, and founder interviews become known for their insights and credibility. Thought leadership can also influence public perception, drive inbound interest from top-tier startups, and strengthen a fund’s negotiating position.

This brand building often extends to event hosting, webinars, podcasts, and active social media engagement. A fund with a strong public presence is often seen as more founder-friendly, more connected, and more influential within the broader ecosystem.

Strategic LP Base

The composition of a VC fund’s limited partners (LPs) can also be a differentiator. Fintech funds that attract strategic LPs,such as banks, insurers, or payment processors, can offer portfolio companies more than just capital. These LPs often become early customers, design partners, or acquirers.

Furthermore, LPs with strong distribution channels can help portfolio companies achieve scale faster. For example, a health-focused fintech backed by an insurance giant may gain early traction by integrating directly into an existing claims or benefits system.

Global and Regulatory Insight

As fintech increasingly becomes a global endeavor, VC firms with international reach gain an advantage. Funds that understand regulatory nuances across different jurisdictions can help startups expand internationally and avoid common pitfalls. Some funds even employ policy experts or maintain relationships with regulators to stay ahead of legislative changes.

Cross-border knowledge also enables fintech VCs to spot arbitrage opportunities, for example, funding a remittance company targeting corridors overlooked by U.S. or EU competitors, or supporting embedded finance models in underbanked markets.

Emphasis on Responsible Innovation

With increased scrutiny from regulators and consumers, fintech VCs that promote responsible innovation have a long-term edge. This includes emphasizing data privacy, ethical lending practices, financial inclusion, and ESG alignment. Funds that guide their portfolio companies toward sustainable practices are better prepared for regulatory changes and reputational risks.

Final Thought

In a saturated market, standing out as a fintech VC fund requires more than just capital and buzzwords. The most differentiated funds are those that combine deep domain expertise, exclusive access to high-quality startups, hands-on support, strategic partnerships, and a forward-looking approach to regulation and ethics. As fintech continues to evolve and mature, funds that offer authentic, strategic value, not just capital, will lead the next generation of innovation and enterprise growth.