Venture client

A Venture Client is a company that purchases, uses and adopts startup solutions with the purpose of obtaining a strategic benefit.^[1][2][3] Venture clienting enables companies to tap into new technologies, business models and ideas and foster a culture of agility and growth.^[4]

The difference between a “normal” client and a venture client is that the startup solution presents a high risk of failing.^[2][5][6] The venture client company accepts the additional risk because the startup product solves a strategically relevant problem better than alternative solutions.^[6][7][8][9] The problem is strategic when it impacts the competitiveness of the venture client company.^[10] The differentiating factor between traditional Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) and Venture Clienting (VCL) is that, in essence, the latter focuses on the purchase of a startup product to obtain the strategic benefit without an equity stake.^[11] The term venture client was coined originally and popularized by Gregor Gimmy.^[6]

Companies that can benefit strategically from startup partnering chose to establish a dedicated corporate Venture Client Unit. The purpose of such an organisational unit is to enable the entire company to gain competitive advantage from startups on a continuous basis.^[12] Such venture client units operate on a dedicated venture client model, referring to venture client specific processes and resources, and are categorised as a corporate venturing vehicle.^[2][9][13]

Notable Venture Client companies with a dedicated Venture Client Unit are BMW Group (BMW Startup Garage), BSH Hausgeräte (BSH Startup Kitchen), Holcim (Holcim MAQER), Bosch Group (Open Bosch) and LG Electronics (LG Future Home).^{[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}