This Innovation Talk with the title “CVC als Innovationsmotor” was held by Oliver Holle, Managing Director at Speedinvest, a venture capital fund with more than €600m to invest in pre-Seed, Seed, and early-stage tech startups across Europe.  This talk was held as a panel discussion between Oliver Holle, Dr. Franz Zöchbauer (Director Corporate Innovation & New Business, Verbund & Geschäftsführer Verbund X Ventures), and Prof. Werner H. Hoffmann (Professor für Strategisches Management, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien & Partner Strategy and Transactions, Contrast EY-Parthenon, Österreich).

In his insightful talk, Oliver Holle highlighted that without innovation, there is no way, and internal development teams are hopelessly overburdened; there is a lack of incentives, speed, and talent. Corporates must therefore cooperate with the now globally established innovation economy – i.e. startups and venture capitalists. But the road to success is difficult and paved with costly mistakes. Oliver Holle gives concrete examples of what has not worked in his 15 years as an entrepreneur and 10 years as founder of Speedinvest, but also examples of long-term successful collaborations. This includes different ways corporates interact with startups and VC’s, from acquisitions, minority investments, venture studios to spun-off CVC funds and general best practices with CVC.

After the talk and the panel discussion, there was a final round of general Q&A.