Startups as Partners our whitepaper shows how
The joint whitepaper “Startups as Partners – How SMEs Successfully Leverage External Innovation” by Campus Founders, D11Z., Festo, and NXTGN explains venture partnering through 14 real-world collaboration projects, a five-phase process, and seven practical success factors drawn from experience.
Value
What you can expect from the whitepaper
Navigating Corporate Venturing
Understand the differences between venture building, venture capital, and venture partnering—and why venture partnering is often the most effective entry point for SMEs.
14 Real-World Case Studies with Measurable Results
Explore documented collaborations across industry, retail, and healthcare—from AI-powered quality inspection and automated invoice processing to warehouse picking robotics.
Process & Success Factors
Learn the seven key success factors and a proven five-phase process—from strategic alignment to long-term integration—ready to be applied within your own organization.
Insights
Insights into collaboration projects from the whitepaper
Startups
These startups are featured in the whitepaper
FREE DOWNLOAD
Download the whitepaper
On 38 pages you will find real-world projects, measurable outcomes, and actionable frameworks—directly from SME practice.
Overview of corporate venturing
Push vs. pull approach—choosing the right entry point
The 5-phase process: from alignment to scaling
14 successful real-world collaboration projects
7 success factors for sustainable startup partnerships
Get the whitepaper
Podcast
Venture Partnering Mini-Serie im Podcast „Köpfe der Szene“
In drei Folgen sprechen Köpfe-der-Szene-Host Chris Veit und Annalena Ruoff (NXTGN) mit Alfons Riek (Festo), Tom Villinger (D11Z. Ventures.) und Lisa Raab (Spotium) über Venture Partnering.
Folge 1
Mit Alfons Riek, Vice President Technology and Innovation bei Festo darüber was Venture Partnering ist und warum Mittelstand und Startups besser zusammenarbeiten müssen.
Folge 2
Mit Tom Villinger, CEO von D11Z. Ventures darüber, warum Venture Capital nicht nur Geld sondern u.a. auch Netzwerk bedeutet und wie der Mittelstand von morgen entsteht.
Folge 3
Mit Lisa Raab, Gründerin von Spotium darüber, was Venture Partnering für Startups in der Praxis bedeutet und warum das Thema für Mittelständler kein „Nice to have“ sondern ein entscheidender Hebel ist.
Publishers
The publishers of the whitepaper
Campus Founders
Campus Founders Ventures acts as a strategic investor in early-stage
start-ups in the Heilbronn region. In addition to pre-seed investments, we provide
access to mentoring, workspace, and infrastructure in the co-innovation
space GRAVITY, as well as to our corporate and investor network.
Our goal is to build and expand a start-up-friendly innovation ecosystem.
D11Z.
D11Z. is a family-owned venture capital fund focused on B2B SaaS
and deep tech. We act as a bridge between SMEs and start-ups,
providing our portfolio companies with access to
a strong industrial and partner network—as a lever for scaling, strategic
cooperation, and sustainable market access.
Festo
Festo is a global leader in automation technology. The family-owned company based in Esslingen develops pneumatic and electric drive technology for factory and process automation. As an active partner in the start-up ecosystem, Festo engages in venture partnering projects to combine external innovation with industrial expertise.
NXTGN
As a central innovation platform in Baden-Württemberg, the NXTGN Startup Factory
connects science, industry, and the start-up ecosystem.
As a deep tech incubator and accelerator, NXTGN supports technology-driven
startups from early-stage development through to sustainable growth. As
an innovation and transformation partner, NXTGN connects SMEs
with the start-up ecosystem through outcome-oriented
open innovation services.
CONTACT US
Do you have questions about venture partnering?
Then feel free to contact Annalena Ruoff directly via email!
Annalena Ruoff
Head of Corporate Services
