Scouting for Growth
There are over 180,000 FinTech ventures out there today.
Still, my team and I monitor 4.5 million of those ventures across markets every week.
Why, because the boundaries of business are becoming highly blurred. FinTech. InsurTech. HealthTech. WealthTech. AITech. This number changes every single month. But here’s the stat that really matters.
Regardless of market or region, only 25% of these ventures have secured funding and meaningful backing.
That means 75% are still on the outside looking in—searching not just for capital, but for access, credibility, and value-creating partnerships with Global Fortune 500 companies. And this is where things get interesting. Because funding isn’t just about money. It’s about how corporates think, how investors decide, and why some ventures scale while others stall.
In this podcast, we pull back the curtain on corporate venturing. Well, to be more precise, we will focus on the Venture-Client Model, or how a growth venture becomes a commercial customer of a corporation. Then it only makes sense for VCs, including corporate VCs, to invest in successful, repeatable partnerships. And what founders must understand if they want to build, grow, and scale—intelligently. You know this already. This isn’t theory. It’s strategy, tactics, tools, and hard-won insights from those who control capital and collaboration. So if you’re a founder, an operator, or a leader navigating this high-velocity digital transformation ecosystem, well, this podcast is for you.
Listen in. Challenge your assumptions. And join the conversation.
Listen on:
Episodes
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Helene Panzarino, author of Reinventing Banking and Finance: A Framework to Navigate Global FinTech Innovation, published on Amazon in November 2020. The pair discusses the book and the key insight Helene offers for reinventing the banking business model.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
We assume banking has always been what it is today. In the early days (1200s Italy) hyper-personalisation was going on for aristocrats and the like, now FinTech is the full circle back to hyper-personalisation but we’re doing it at scale, digitally.
The Industrial Revolution had a significant impact on banking, as it did on every other aspect of society and the economy. There’s now mass servicing, which has taken away some of the personalisation and individuality of banking. This intensified through the IT side of banking in the 1950s, when we were able to use technology to store and process more data, as well as to begin offering more products and services to a wider audience. The more recent digital revolution and the internet allowed us to do our banking online, and the smartphone brought that to its apex, so you have a bank in your pocket.
In five years’ time, we’ll be able to DIY our own bank and choose between different products and services; this is where FinTech will come into its own.
It took banking ages to realise that the threat posed by the insurance industry from outside was greater than the threat from within. Insurance and InsurTechs had a much better collaborative partnership from the get-go, whereas banks and FinTechs were adversaries. FinTechs have now grown up and are aware that they need their parents if they’re going to scale, and they’re working very well collaboratively now, but I applaud the insurance industry for getting there first.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Everyone must now have a global view; no one can stay confined in his/her geographical space.’
‘The pandemic has shown us the inadequacies of some banks’ desktops, platforms, and apps. Consumers are now using those apps, including the non-digital natives who used to visit banking branches in person and weren’t used to digital engagements.’
‘If you’ve created a startup bank, you need to remember that you’re operating In a regulated industry and if you ‘colour outside of the lines’ the regulator is going to come down on you. So, make sure to bring in experienced people to your C-Suite or Board.’
‘Everyone knows how to innovate, but everyone does not know how to execute. You need to be given space and the finances to fail. It needs to be OK and not damaging to your growth path or career prospects if you’re going to fail, too. Acceptance of different growth paths needs to be accepted from the top; if that openness doesn’t permeate from the top down, then nobody’s going to try to grow smartly or differently.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Originally a Commercial Banker, Helene is an experienced FinTech Programme Director, an exited entrepreneur, educator, and author. Her book ‘Reinventing Banking and Finance: Frameworks to navigate global FinTech innovation’ came out in Sept 2020. Previously, the MD of the global Rainmaking Colab FinTech Programme, a world-first, post-accelerator program for Series A+ FinTechs and Tier 1 financial institutions, Helene was also responsible for the Inaugural Programme of Education and Events for Innovate Finance. She is an Associate Director of the LIBF Digital Banking Centre, the Lead Fellow, and creator of a world-first FinTech Pathway in a Master's in Tech Entrepreneurship Degree for UCL, and co-creator and lead delivery partner on the Imperial College FinTech Executive Education Programme. Her specialist subject areas are Digital Banking and Alternative Finance (SMEs). She is also the CEO of the New Financial Laborator,y enabling community banks and building societies to engage with the global FinTech community. A regular judge, speaker, and moderator for the banking and FinTech awards and conferences, Helene was a BSI FinTech representative for the UK in Brussels, named on the Computer Weekly 100 Women in Tech Award 2018-19, and on the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Power List for 2019.
You can discover more about Helene's book here > reinventing banking and finance.
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures
Thursday Jan 13, 2022
Thursday Jan 13, 2022
On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Spiros Margaris, who discusses the pros and cons of working for a young venture, setting up a startup, as well as the best way to succeed in business. He shares insights on the future of FinTech and much more.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
You build trust with founders by telling them what you think, honestly, but not always expecting them to do what you say. Trust is the basis of working together, and with trust, anyone can go far, even in difficult times.
You have to play to your strengths. If somebody asks you questions – and startups will – and you don’t know the answer, you need to say you don’t know. But then call someone in your network who has expertise and can answer.
A startup engagement is like any "relationship": you will have great times, mediocre times, and bad times. It won’t always be this exciting thing people think of. Even if the job you do is extremely boring and repetitive, whichever job that is, that’s what will make you good at that job long term.
The future of FinTech is embedded finance. Even non-financial companies will enter this space with trusted partners or develop their own FinTech solutions, which will complement their existing offerings even better. They don’t need to make money through finance, unlike banks. The finance ‘cake’ will be split into more categories in the future, including financial and non-financial offers.
BEST MOMENTS
‘It’s a privilege to be recognised by your community, but at the end of the day, you’re only as good as your community. We grow together.’
‘Winning is about teamwork: Together we win, like a football team.’
‘Great young people want to work in great companies that give them responsibilities and let their voice be heard. They’re not so bothered about money yet. They want purpose.’
‘The nice thing about my job is that I talk to so many smart people. This means that I keep learning. Think about our world as a fantastic international digital school!’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Spiros Margaris is a venture capitalist, futurist, keynote speaker and senior advisor. He is the first international influencer to achieve ‘The Triple Crown’ FinTech ranking. He was ranked the international № 1 FinTech, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) influencer (05/2018) by Onalytica. Spiros once again was ranked the global № 1 Fintech influencer (02/2020) by Onalytica. He regularly ranks among the top three in established global industry influencer rankings.
He is a keynote speaker at international FinTech and InsurTech conferences. He also gave a TEDxAcademy Talk. He published an AI white paper, “Machine learning in financial services: Changing the rules of the game,” for the enterprise software vendor SAP. First non-IBM Keynote Speaker at the biggest IBM event in Europe, “2019 IBM Systems Technical University”, among others.
Linkedin link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spirosmargaris/ Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/SpirosMargaris Website Link: https://www.margarisventures.com/ Keynote Speaking Agent: www.gspeakers.com
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures
Thursday Jan 06, 2022
Thursday Jan 06, 2022
On this episode, Sabine VdL reviews the four types of investment and who is winning the corporate venturing game as well as looking to the future to evaluate and imagine what is coming our way.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The four types of investment strategies: ‘Driving’ (strategic and tightly linked to operational capabilities), ‘Enabling’ (strategic and loosely liked to operational capabilities), ‘Emerging’ (tightly linked to metrics of financial importance), and ‘Passive’ (loosest connected to corporate capabilities and strategies).
Winners at corporate venturing during the ‘Startup Phase’ have been identified as having 3 core elements: A clear and defined vision that drives a clear charter and operating model; A strong and experienced team that combines both internal operational knowledge and external understanding of the Venture Capitalist’s drivers; Established expectations and milestones to measure and ensure performance.
Winners in corporate venturing during the ‘Expansion Phase’ are seen to have a slightly different set of core components: Agility in refining strategic investments or the portfolio focus; Tailored approaches to recruiting and retaining the Corporate Venturing team over time; Institutionalization of the Corporate Venturing operating platform.
Winners during the “Resiliency Phase” have found ways to industrialize and democratize their learnings. They have been identified as having the following common characteristics: The Corporate Venturing program plays a strategic role and continually influences parent growth; there are purpose-built, well-established, end-to-end investment platforms; and they have intelligent community management and communications capabilities.
BEST MOMENTS
'Consider Driving and Enabling investment paths at the earliest stage of formation, moving to Emergent investment. This means that Passive investment in the latter stages of the CVC model is probably the best option to drive long-term financial returns.’
‘CSAA Insurance Group, for instance, provides insurance products across a range of personal areas to AAA members as they built their own Corporate Venturing arm.’
‘Having an agile platform is crucial.’
‘Innovations are creating seismic scale changes to our business landscape across multiple big industries. These evolutions and changes are made possible through corporate venturing.’
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Sam Evans, a Founding Partner with Eos Venture Partners, who has spent the last four years investing in InsurTech startups. He is an active speaker and a top 50 InsurTech influencer.
Prior to establishing Eos, Sam was a partner at KPMG, where he led the Global Deal Advisory insurance practice. During his career, Sam has worked on over $75bn of insurance-related transactions and has worked in many of the large, mature, and high-growth insurance markets around the globe. Sam lived in great places, including Australia, Hong Kong, and Switzerland. Today, Sam lives in the UK.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There’s so much happening, it’s a super exciting time. One of the key areas for us at Eos is the digital and gig economies. First, it’s difficult to properly serve the gig economy worker with traditional insurance solutions because they’re not usage-based, not connected, and often backwards-looking. Still, the gig economy worker has become a huge and growing market, especially on the back of the pandemic. It’s also underserved. Second, the ability to transition from protection to prevention within life and health, leveraging technology to proactively manage risk and embed medical, health, and fitness technologies to prevent the deterioration of conditions. Third, consider emerging risk classes, such as cybersecurity risk, combined with embedded insurance mechanisms; these new risk classes are increasingly entering the market.
The pandemic has accelerated the industry’s adoption of ‘digital’ by at least 5 years, which is quite staggering. Demand from pretty much all our portfolio companies has increased significantly, so we’re seeing it in real-time. The industry’s maturity has also accelerated; overall fundraising levels are increasing, but they’re increasingly dominated by a smaller number of companies making larger rounds.
The first half of 2021 saw more funding than the whole of 2020, so we’re still on a very significant upwards trajectory in terms of appetite and capital flowing in. We are in an environment with inflated valuations, too. The InsurTech bubble hasn’t burst yet. It’s deflating, though, and this may not necessarily be a bad thing. It’s all part of the maturing journey of a sector.
There’s a significant amount of capital looking to be deployed against excellent business models. We’re always keen to talk to companies that are either on the path to or have reached the series A stage. If you look at the market as a whole, we’re at least 10 years behind FinTech in development, so we’re still at a very early stage of development. This is going to dominate the industry for the next 20-30 years. This is a fundamental change and shift in how insurance operates.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Key to our philosophy is working in partnership with the industry, rather than adopting a pure challenger model, which is where we saw the greatest value could be created.’
‘Connected vehicle insurance enhances safety by improving driving quality and highlighting accident hotspots. Insurers today get better results as they can use the data to enhance risk selection and pricing.’
‘A lot of InsurTech startups are going to struggle and fail. That’s part of the natural evolution of a sector. I think Covid-19 has accelerated that to a certain degree due to the fight for quality, and the lookout for those startups that are likely to do particularly well.’
‘Incumbents shouldn’t see regulation as something that’s going to protect them from new entrants. We’ve seen, even in our small portfolio, companies moving from an MGA into a full-stack model with the blessing of the regulator.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Sam Evans is a founding partner of Eos Venture Partners, a Strategic InsurTech Venture Capital fund with offices in London and Philadelphia.
Eos is an independent specialist InsurTech investment and advisory business.
Eos is today a Series A and Series B investor with a focus on new business models and new technologies that will impact and transform the insurance industry.
Eos provides financing and advisory services to leading entrepreneurs building innovative insurance businesses. In partnership with RAW Capital Partners, Eos offers a unique solution for growth-stage InsurTech companies. Founders are choosing to work with Eos because it is an independent specialist and active InsurTech investor with a strong track record and excellent relationships across the insurance sector.
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Florian Graillot, an investor and co-founder of Astorya.vc or Astorya. Astorya invests in Seed InsurTech startups across Europe. In this conversation, the pair covers topics including who he is, why he started Astorya, and how he sees the world of corporate venturing today and tomorrow.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There is a trend emerging of direct competition between Tier 1 insurance players and reinsurance companies working directly with InsurTech startups, enabling them to bypass specific insurance providers across the value chain. The latter has a massive impact on how the market is being restructured behind the scenes.
Florian founded Astorya with co-founder Jan Kastory because he saw a market gap. As an investor, Florian shares that Astorya’s focus is investing in entrepreneurs first, utilising his team’s financial and entrepreneurial background. Given this context, it makes sense that Astorya attracts top tech entrepreneurs. At Astorya, Florian states, "We understand how to grow businesses as we do just that ourselves every day."
FinTech investors only commit 10% of their time to InsurTech. Astorya only does InsurTech, explains Florian, meaning that 100% of Astorya’s time is dedicated to insurance tech ventures. And this is why Astorya’s limited partners invested in the firm. The Limited Partners know that the Astorya team will spend 100% of its time on the InsurTech topic every single day of the week.
Don’t be afraid of what you read in the newspapers. There are still many opportunities to address in InsurTech; not everything has been done yet. The full insurance value chain needs to be unbundled, re-bundled, and revamped, and InsurTech startups can address this in numbers. We already have a few unicorns within the InsurTech space. Don’t forget that technology is a means to an end; without it, succeeding in any industry becomes tougher and tougher. Today, technology becomes your competitive edge over traditional insurance companies.
BEST MOMENTS
‘InsurTech is way broader than just insurance. It can be connected to almost any industry.’
‘Tech investment is in my DNA, insurance is much more opportunistic.’
‘There’s always somebody who is managing more money than you. It’s not about money, it’s about the industry, focus, understanding, and capacity to accelerate go-to-market strategies, especially around software or B2B technologies.’
‘It may be very easy to raise money at the very beginning of the startup journey, or when you are big enough to attract a huge round from private equity investors, but when you are in the middle, it’s still challenging. I believe that both entrepreneurs and corporates should keep that in mind.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Florian Graillot is a founding partner and VC investor at Astorya.vc where he invests in early-stage tech startups in Europe. His main focus is to identify, evaluate, and invest in growth ventures that utilise next-generation customer-centric technologies to reinvent insurance. His skills include investment, financial modelling, entrepreneurship, business development, and strategy.
http://astorya.vc/
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
In this episode, Sabine VdL is joined by Matthew Jones, Managing Director and venture capital investor in insurance and risk management-related technology for Anthemis in the UK, Europe, and North America.
Through his previous work with Swiss Re, Matthew sponsored Sabine’s first accelerator and was one of her most active mentors, engaged assessor, and investor. They both learned a great deal during the acceleration programme about what a sustainable business model meant.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
At the core of our investment thesis are banks, insurance companies, and FinTech companies. But in addition to those kinds of businesses, we’re also actively researching, exploring, and investing in several adjacent industries where we believe that the technology will intersect with financial services in the future, including energy, agriculture, mobility, health, and property tech.
For me, cultivating change means that we’re prepared to back genuinely different and disruptive ideas that others aren’t. Because our team comes from both inside and outside financial services, we try to blend those perspectives to think creatively about how we back new companies and underrepresented founders.
In the context of venture, there’s a rule of thumb that startups should aim for a 10x better user experience or a 10x better return on investment. That’s a good rule of thumb. And across financial services, there are so many underdeveloped spots where growth ventures can focus on delivering that kind of outcome.
Entrepreneurs who seek funding should seek smart money. They should ask their investors what they believe in and how they put it into practice. They should also evaluate their investment team and partners: Are they a diverse bunch? Do they have values that align with yours, and are they putting them into practice? Would you want to affiliate with a firm that doesn’t share your values?
BEST MOMENTS
‘Without insurance and re-insurance, nothing really happens. Insurance is everywhere, which is great for me as someone who’s a little bit obsessive about insurance.’
‘Financial services are the lifeblood of the world’s economies. But we recognise it’s not perfect and there are opportunities for improvement.’
‘There is no part of the insurance value chain that is immune to the effect of technology.’
‘There’s no excuse, and it’s not acceptable, for big venture capital companies to have all male and all white CEO portfolio companies. We are in the 21st Century!’
ABOUT THE GUEST
I interviewed Matthew when he was the Managing Director at Anthemis, responsible for sourcing, analyzing, and executing investments, as well as providing support to Anthemis’ portfolio companies. Today, he is the head of business development at MS Transverse
He brings in-depth knowledge of the insurance sector and focuses on investments in insurance and risk-related technology.
Matthew’s areas of interest include analytics and data, artificial intelligence and automation, asset management, digital health, mobility, new insurance propositions, and risk management. Prior to joining Anthemis, Matthew was at Swiss Re, with roles across non-life, life, and reinsurance in the USA, London, and Europe.
Matthew previously served on the boards of Flock, Hokodo, and Stable and is the resident venture investor for Carrier Management’s VC Viewpoint series. He holds a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Bath and also studied at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
In this episode, Sabine VdL defines venture scouting, also called technology scouting, and explains why companies and investors see it as so important. She also discusses what skillsets a technology scout needs to succeed as well as what should motivate them and how these strategies are delivered.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
In recent months companies around the globe have seen new types of challenges affecting them all, including: changing customer needs (such as the "I want it now" generation demanding reduced engagement friction); rising competition (This does not only means the fast-moving dominance of BigTech, but also the arrival of new digital market entrants.); and increasing market volatility (Think about bitcoins and other digital currencies that have fluctuated up and down).
Many companies see it as essential to closely monitor developments in core technologies and scan for emerging technologies with disruptive potential. Methods here include technological forecasting, technology foresight, and technology intelligence.
The basis of technology scouting is to enhance insight into emerging and advanced technologies and shorten the time lag between technological advancement and detection, accelerating the potential delivery of unfair competitive advantages for any company.
One of the biggest obstacles to innovation is often the regional limitations and the siloed way of thinking that exist in many corporations today. They know, though, that to remain competitive, they need to acquire valuable information on emerging technologies as early as possible.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Strong technological competence plays a crucial role in maintaining and improving a company's competitive position, regardless of business size.’
‘In an environment impacted by technological complexity and the globalization of R&D activities, the successful identification, and usage of external sources of knowledge is becoming increasingly essential and primordial as part of a business success strategy.’
‘Technology scouts require lateral thinking, knowledge in science and technology, a certain level of credibility, recognition within the company, cross-disciplinary orientation, creativity, and imagination.’
‘Think about venture/technology scouting as an early warning system for companies to make better innovation choices.’
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
In this episode, Sabine VdL describes what corporate venturing is and what it entails, how it can help startups and entrepreneurs, why there is an increased drive towards corporate venturing today and the best strategies to deploy VC programmes.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
With corporate venturing, large companies develop, sponsor or invest in startup companies from the earliest stages of formation to later stages of growth to identify emerging technologies and develop cutting-edge customer-driven solutions that can resist the effects of time.
The central point is that a startup company is evaluated and then funded by the corporate venture capital arm of the established business. This works well to shake off protocol and bureaucracy which can weigh down innovation when a parent company gets involved in partnership and investment decisions.
Venture Capitalists (VCs) are experts at the money side of things where they focus on the financial objectives, whereas the corporate venturing team draws expertise from finance but also from strategy and industry, with their fingers on the pulse of emerging trends, opportunities, and risks.
Young startup businesses can benefit tremendously from accessing the distribution, assets, core capabilities including the global resources and infrastructure of the big guns. If those established companies have well-defined processes in place, they can facilitate the education of internal stakeholders alongside startup founders on how best their solutions could scale within one or multiple geographies while providing effective mentorship. They can also find a paved path to access specific customer markets and growth. In industries such as insurance, dominated by large players, this is especially important.
BEST MOMENTS
‘Corporate venturing has some similarities to what R&D is in many industries.’
‘Corporate venturing also has some similarities to Venture Capital funding.’
‘There will always be some great CVCs and less great CVC units out there.’
‘80% of startups fail.’
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
I just thought I would explain… Why Scouting for Growth?
I have been fortunate to work with Tech ventures over the past six years that are changing the worlds of insurance, finance, health, and wealth, to name but a few.
And to accelerate great companies, one needs to understand a little bit about "business."
I have been fascinated with building growth ecosystems for the past six years. Getting my ventures to collaborate better and faster. At the same time, I have been driven by the potential of enabling my corporate partners to collaborate better with tech ventures while enabling those growth ventures with the greatest potential to engage with the many investors who gave me their trust.
"Scouting For Growth" is the underlying premise for both … Venture Capitalists and Corporate "Venturists!" One side is looking for financial returns mostly from investing in start-up ventures. The other side tries to balance both financial and strategic returns. And often create unnecessary tech bubbles through the process.
Anyway, I want to demystify through this podcast series two important processes that yield strong financial outcomes though 1) partnership, 2) investment, but then leading to 3) growth and 4) scale.
First, Scouting For Growth is about scouting for ventures: or identifying and nurturing startups that are aligned to major market problems. The outcome sought may mostly be partnerships and collaborations but also longer-term investment opportunities for the many.
Second, Scouting For Growth is about building ventures: or creating and designing new customer value propositions supported by disruptive business models able to solve some of the most complex challenges we need to contend with today.
Hopefully, the lessons learnt will ensure that we gather the right tools and techniques to build the growth business of tomorrow.
You will also find that… I am French. I have been in the UK for 30 years. I am fortunate to work every day with some renowned international companies. But despite my great English I still and often drop my “ses” and count in French. I hope you won’t mind. You can take the French gal out of France. But rarely will you change her truly!
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.
And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
Hi, I am Sabine VanderLinden – Many of my friends call me Mrs VdL.
I have been in business for over 25 years. I worked for highly respected, well-known blue-chip companies. And 6 years ago, I decided to take the entrepreneurial and investor route and ran a very well-known acceleration program for early-stage startups in Europe and the United States, while also engaging with investors and corporations in Asia, Africa, and LATAM.
Yes. I know. Five continents in 5 years. 70 startups accelerated during that period. Lots of Airmiles. $100 million invested in accelerated portfolios. And certainly, lots of learning.
Since then, my team and I have scouted over 20,000 ventures to help both corporates and investors identify new sources of growth.
I want to dedicate this podcast to the founders, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, investors, corporate fighters, and change-makers who, over the years, have given me their time, patience, and trust.
We will, together, demystify the world of corporate venturing.
ABOUT THE HOST
Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.
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