Join the webinar: How new business building changes in 2025

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Building the business of tomorrow

We are hands-on entrepreneurs, leveraging the power of corporate assets and our entrepreneurial agility.

Trusted by corporate leaders. Proven by results.

We create measurable business innovations that drive real growth.

700M+

investment in projects
we launched

35+

hands-on entrepreneurs

40+

ventures built with
our partners

The state of corporate venture building 2025

The 2025 study shows: A new phase of new business building begins — shaped by uncertainty, driven by strategy and defined by results. Gain practical insights on how to become confident in building new business — even in times of economic uncertainty.


May 21st
10:00 – 11:00 CEST
online

References of what we built with our clients.

We are awarded for excellence and trusted by industry leaders for our honest and hands-on entrepreneurial approach, coming from building over 40 ventures. In the projects we launched, over €500M were invested.

References of what we built with our clients.

We are awarded for excellence and trusted by industry leaders for our honest and hands-on entrepreneurial approach, coming from building over 40 ventures. In the projects we launched, over €500M were invested.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Bringing lasting order to kitchen drawers with innovative solutions

A leading manufacturer of high-quality Austrian furniture fittings set out to create a direct-to-consumer sales channel for its inserts and organization products—aiming to transform kitchen spaces with lasting order and enhance everyday living.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Facilitating overseas shopping for Chinese consumers with DHL

Chiloobal breaks down barriers of cross-border e-commerce for Chinese shoppers, by providing a streamlined, reliable way to buy tax-free goods from abroad and have them delivered directly within China.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Building a boutique outdoor hotel with tiny houses

Das Seehäuser in Salzburg features unique tiny house accommodations designed and built by Wood_Space, offering a sustainable lakeside experience.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Turning existing real estate into innovative burnout prevention concept

Austrian healthcare provider repurposed existing hotel in the Tyrolean mountains into innovative prevention center, developing offer packages focused on well-being and mindful leadership.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Developing revolutionary camping concepts with Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group

The camping concept developed with Falkensteiner Group blends nature immersion with premium comfort, aiming for rapid scalability and implementation.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Designing unique investment fundraising products in tourism

International leader in tourism & hospitality, Falkensteiner, introduced a unique investment offering through their FMTG Invest platform, enabling their international guests and customers to directly participate in the capital raising for their hotels, apartments & camping projects.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Industrial inspection with drones by Smart Inspection

Smart Inspection, a corporate spin-off based in Vienna, leverages drone technology and AI-powered fault detection for efficient and automated inspections across various industrial assets, including power plants and wind turbines.

Industrial Goods & Services
Tagline

Digitalizing the scrap business with Metaloop

Metaloop provides a B2B marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of scrap metal, streamlining transactions and creating transparency in a formerly untransparent market.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Predicting the electricity balancing market with FlexPowerHub

FlexPowerHub fully automates European balancing market processes through precise forecasting models and digital workflows. The platform enables energy providers to automate bidding, marketing, and settlement of flexible assets from data collection to execution, maximizing revenues while minimizing manual interventions through intelligent algorithms and customizable update cycles.

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Enabling a smart parcel box network for cities

A utility company ventured into an adjacent market by providing infrastructure for shipping and logistics companies to deliver directly to well-situated parcel box locations. This bold move led to their position as the largest supplier-independent player on the market.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Driving sustainability through open innovation at OMV Group

With the launch of the OMV Sphere platform, the group initiated an organization-wide program to tackle key sustainability challenges. Across five focus areas — sustainable aviation fuel certificates, smart energy management, sustainable packaging, circular by-products, and B2B retail intelligence — the initiative identified collaboration partners to unlock new business opportunities.

Industrial Goods & Services
Tagline

Co-creating the future of steel at voestalpine

As a strategic partner in the VERBUND X accelerator, voestalpine joined forces with leading corporates and institutions to future-proof steel production. By teaming up with selected startups, the initiative is unlocking new possibilities to increase efficiency, reduce emissions, and drive sustainable impact in industrial manufacturing.

Construction
Tagline

Empowering industrial innovation at RHI Magnesita

RHI Magnesita launched an innovation initiative to bring modern methodologies into the heart of product development. The focus was on exploring new ideas to drive smarter, more resilient solutions in the world of high-performance materials.

Construction
Tagline

Enabling startup collaboration with a world leader in mineral-based specialties for industry

A global leader in industrial minerals, launched a structured innovation program to identify new solutions in calcium carbonate and construction waste recycling. The initiative led to strategic partnerships with startups now implementing cutting-edge approaches to mineral recycling.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Inspiring peak performance with GoPrimal

GoPrimal is a venture that produces supplements rooted in science designed to address the micronutrient deficiencies of modern life. Their goal is to improve the longevity of all athletes, from amateur to professional.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Building the marketplace for spare parts & services in the energy sector

Born out of a corporate venture initiative, a digital marketplace is transforming the energy sector by streamlining access to spare parts and services across the German-speaking region.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Enabling disruptive innovations in the food industry with MAXFIVE

REWE Group's innovation agency MAXFIVE looks for new ways to identify attractive solutions and implement radically new business models for food retail.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Launching an intrapreneurship program to empower employees to build new ventures

TenneT PowerLab is an intrapreneurship program at TenneT, a leading European electricity operator. The program enables employees to accelerate their entrepreneurial projects in a systematic and sustainable way.

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Reducing fuel consumption on truck trailers using PV foil

TRAILAR uses clean energy from the sun to reduce a truck’s total fuel consumption by up to 5%. Special challenges such as the difficult market entry into the logistics sector or the need for rapid prototyping were mastered to make the project an overall, sustainable success.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Revolutionizing the furniture industry with Variand

Variand offers modular furniture that can be adapted to any style or living situation. The team's vision is to offer a furniture system that can accompany customers throughout their lives, instead of being thrown away and replaced after a few years.

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Changing mobility with a new category of bikes

An electric cargo bike venture introduced a new category of mobility, combining tilting technology with multi-use design—scaling across 9 countries and building a strong distributor network within two years.

Construction
Tagline

Founding and scaling a corporate venture for modular wood buildings with Rubner

Wood_Space is a joint venture with Rubner Holzbau, and it creates sustainable modular buildings made of solid wood. The Wood_Space modules are delivered prefabricated, assembled on-site, and ready for occupancy within just a few days. The modules can be configured in multiple ways and are environmentally friendly and cost-effective.

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Launching a platform to instantly book full truck load routes

A digital logistics platform was launched to simplify truck route booking through a high-convenience portal powered by automated pricing—streamlining freight logistics and enhancing user experience.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Creating a sustainable innovation culture and a venture capital arm

A leading regional energy provider is embedding innovation into its core—boosting business outcomes and employer branding through a dedicated corporate venture arm.

Industrial Goods & Services
Tagline

Protecting high-value goods from counterfeiting

PixoAnalytics is a spin-off from DPDHL’s Startup Lab. Its machine vision technology creates unique “fingerprints” of inhomogeneous surfaces such as paper, cardboard, plastics, and more—enabling improvements in supply chain efficiency, customer experience, and counterfeit detection across various industries.

Industrial Goods & Services
Tagline

Building a joint venture for fruit growth optimization

Through machine vision and an intelligent AI algorithm, the agri-tech startup provides fruit producers with the capability to optimize their orchards by leveraging reliable yield monitoring and forecasting data.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Building a venture arm for discovering new business models

The Miele Intrapreneurship Program has its roots in the New Growth Factory business unit which is responsible for identifying and tapping new growth fields outside Miele's core line of business.

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Revolutionizing logistics communication with Heylog

Heylog is a communication service for modern logistics. The SaaS tool simplifies the communication between dispatchers and their drivers. It integrates messaging services like WhatsApp, Meta Messenger, and Viber on one platform and combines them with additional features for dispatching.

Construction industry

Construction
Tagline

Empowering industrial innovation at RHI Magnesita

RHI Magnesita launched an innovation initiative to bring modern methodologies into the heart of product development. The focus was on exploring new ideas to drive smarter, more resilient solutions in the world of high-performance materials.

Construction
Tagline

Enabling startup collaboration with a world leader in mineral-based specialties for industry

A global leader in industrial minerals, launched a structured innovation program to identify new solutions in calcium carbonate and construction waste recycling. The initiative led to strategic partnerships with startups now implementing cutting-edge approaches to mineral recycling.

Construction
Tagline

Founding and scaling a corporate venture for modular wood buildings with Rubner

Wood_Space is a joint venture with Rubner Holzbau, and it creates sustainable modular buildings made of solid wood. The Wood_Space modules are delivered prefabricated, assembled on-site, and ready for occupancy within just a few days. The modules can be configured in multiple ways and are environmentally friendly and cost-effective.

Consumer Goods

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Bringing lasting order to kitchen drawers with innovative solutions

A leading manufacturer of high-quality Austrian furniture fittings set out to create a direct-to-consumer sales channel for its inserts and organization products—aiming to transform kitchen spaces with lasting order and enhance everyday living.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Facilitating overseas shopping for Chinese consumers with DHL

Chiloobal breaks down barriers of cross-border e-commerce for Chinese shoppers, by providing a streamlined, reliable way to buy tax-free goods from abroad and have them delivered directly within China.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Building a boutique outdoor hotel with tiny houses

Das Seehäuser in Salzburg features unique tiny house accommodations designed and built by Wood_Space, offering a sustainable lakeside experience.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Turning existing real estate into innovative burnout prevention concept

Austrian healthcare provider repurposed existing hotel in the Tyrolean mountains into innovative prevention center, developing offer packages focused on well-being and mindful leadership.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Developing revolutionary camping concepts with Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group

The camping concept developed with Falkensteiner Group blends nature immersion with premium comfort, aiming for rapid scalability and implementation.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Designing unique investment fundraising products in tourism

International leader in tourism & hospitality, Falkensteiner, introduced a unique investment offering through their FMTG Invest platform, enabling their international guests and customers to directly participate in the capital raising for their hotels, apartments & camping projects.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Inspiring peak performance with GoPrimal

GoPrimal is a venture that produces supplements rooted in science designed to address the micronutrient deficiencies of modern life. Their goal is to improve the longevity of all athletes, from amateur to professional.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Enabling disruptive innovations in the food industry with MAXFIVE

REWE Group's innovation agency MAXFIVE looks for new ways to identify attractive solutions and implement radically new business models for food retail.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Revolutionizing the furniture industry with Variand

Variand offers modular furniture that can be adapted to any style or living situation. The team's vision is to offer a furniture system that can accompany customers throughout their lives, instead of being thrown away and replaced after a few years.

Consumer Goods
Tagline

Building a venture arm for discovering new business models

The Miele Intrapreneurship Program has its roots in the New Growth Factory business unit which is responsible for identifying and tapping new growth fields outside Miele's core line of business.

Energy & Utilities

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Industrial inspection with drones by Smart Inspection

Smart Inspection, a corporate spin-off based in Vienna, leverages drone technology and AI-powered fault detection for efficient and automated inspections across various industrial assets, including power plants and wind turbines.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Driving sustainability through open innovation at OMV Group

With the launch of the OMV Sphere platform, the group initiated an organization-wide program to tackle key sustainability challenges. Across five focus areas — sustainable aviation fuel certificates, smart energy management, sustainable packaging, circular by-products, and B2B retail intelligence — the initiative identified collaboration partners to unlock new business opportunities.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Building the marketplace for spare parts & services in the energy sector

Born out of a corporate venture initiative, a digital marketplace is transforming the energy sector by streamlining access to spare parts and services across the German-speaking region.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Launching an intrapreneurship program to empower employees to build new ventures

TenneT PowerLab is an intrapreneurship program at TenneT, a leading European electricity operator. The program enables employees to accelerate their entrepreneurial projects in a systematic and sustainable way.

Energy & Utilities
Tagline

Creating a sustainable innovation culture and a venture capital arm

A leading regional energy provider is embedding innovation into its core—boosting business outcomes and employer branding through a dedicated corporate venture arm.

Industrial Goods & Services

Industrial Goods & Services
Tagline

Digitalizing the scrap business with Metaloop

Metaloop provides a B2B marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of scrap metal, streamlining transactions and creating transparency in a formerly untransparent market.

Industrial Goods & Services
Tagline

Co-creating the future of steel at voestalpine

As a strategic partner in the VERBUND X accelerator, voestalpine joined forces with leading corporates and institutions to future-proof steel production. By teaming up with selected startups, the initiative is unlocking new possibilities to increase efficiency, reduce emissions, and drive sustainable impact in industrial manufacturing.

Industrial Goods & Services
Tagline

Driving sustainability through open innovation at OMV Group

With the launch of the OMV Sphere platform, the group initiated an organization-wide program to tackle key sustainability challenges. Across five focus areas — sustainable aviation fuel certificates, smart energy management, sustainable packaging, circular by-products, and B2B retail intelligence — the initiative identified collaboration partners to unlock new business opportunities.

Industrial Goods & Services
Tagline

Protecting high-value goods from counterfeiting

PixoAnalytics is a spin-off from DPDHL’s Startup Lab. Its machine vision technology creates unique “fingerprints” of inhomogeneous surfaces such as paper, cardboard, plastics, and more—enabling improvements in supply chain efficiency, customer experience, and counterfeit detection across various industries.

Industrial Goods & Services
Tagline

Building a joint venture for fruit growth optimization

Through machine vision and an intelligent AI algorithm, the agri-tech startup provides fruit producers with the capability to optimize their orchards by leveraging reliable yield monitoring and forecasting data.

Mobility & Logistics

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Enabling a smart parcel box network for cities

A utility company ventured into an adjacent market by providing infrastructure for shipping and logistics companies to deliver directly to well-situated parcel box locations. This bold move led to their position as the largest supplier-independent player on the market.

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Reducing fuel consumption on truck trailers using PV foil

TRAILAR uses clean energy from the sun to reduce a truck’s total fuel consumption by up to 5%. Special challenges such as the difficult market entry into the logistics sector or the need for rapid prototyping were mastered to make the project an overall, sustainable success.

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Changing mobility with a new category of bikes

An electric cargo bike venture introduced a new category of mobility, combining tilting technology with multi-use design—scaling across 9 countries and building a strong distributor network within two years.

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Launching a platform to instantly book full truck load routes

A digital logistics platform was launched to simplify truck route booking through a high-convenience portal powered by automated pricing—streamlining freight logistics and enhancing user experience.

Mobility & Logistics
Tagline

Revolutionizing logistics communication with Heylog

Heylog is a communication service for modern logistics. The SaaS tool simplifies the communication between dispatchers and their drivers. It integrates messaging services like WhatsApp, Meta Messenger, and Viber on one platform and combines them with additional features for dispatching.

Ready to grow beyond your core business?

Start the conversation that could flip the switch on how you build new business at your organisation.

Karyna Hornostai

Lead Venture Architect
karyna.hornostai@whataventure.com

Start the conversation that could flip the switch on how you build new business at your organisation.

Max Steindl-Ditzel

CEO & Managing Partner
max@whataventure.com

Start the conversation that could flip the switch on how you build new business at your organisation.

Stefan Peintner

CEO & Managing Partner
stefan.peintner@whataventure.com

Start the conversation that could flip the switch on how you build new business at your organisation.

Franziska Abare-Korn

Partner
franziska.abarekorn@whataventure.com

Start the conversation that could flip the switch on how you build new business at your organisation.

Philippe Thiltges

Venture Partner & Co-Founder
philippe.thiltges@whataventure.com

Start the conversation that could flip the switch on how you build new business at your organisation.

Mario Eibl

Lead Venture Architect
mario.eibl@whataventure.com

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