Welcome back to the EUCVC Summit Talks, where we bring you behind-the-scenes conversations with the founders, corporates, and investors shaping Europe’s venture collaboration landscape.
In this episode, Jeppe Høier sits down with Jesper Bang Olsen, Partner at BEAM, and Kerk Wichmann, VP of Corporate Strategy at Jungheinrich and Managing Partner at Uplift Ventures. Together, they unpack the realities of corporate venture building: why corporates need to separate venture initiatives from the mothership, how to anchor strategically, and what it takes to balance startup agility with industrial scale.
From governance and champions to customer infiltration and fast decision-making, this is a candid look at how leading corporates are building real ventures—not just innovation playgrounds.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered
00:19 Why Uplift Ventures was born—responding to Chinese competition and software-driven disruption.
01:00 Why ventures fail inside the mothership—rules, governance, and slow cycles.
03:00 Jesper’s story: from DVDs wiped out by Spotify to creating BEAM as a venture builder.
04:00 Value triggers at BEAM—finding good niche problems, anchored near but not inside the core.
05:00 Anchoring strategy: why top management commitment is non-negotiable.
06:00 Balancing two worlds—leveraging 6,000 service engineers and 2,000 sales reps while learning startup speed.
07:00 Secret sauce at BEAM—separation from the corporate, but with champions inside who love the speed.
08:00 Customer infiltration—winning over corporate clients directly to create positive friction.
09:00 Venture governance—independent venture board, external members, and strict stage-gate decisions.
You can listen to the full session on Apple Podcasts and Spotify 🎧
✍️ Show Notes
Why Ventures Are Born
Jungheinrich faced rising Chinese competition and software-driven challengers.
Uplift Ventures was created to explore future business models beyond the core.
Lessons From Failure
Trying to innovate inside a 20,000-person corporate doesn’t work—governance and culture block progress.
Separation, autonomy, and new structures are essential.
BEAM’s Venture Building DNA
The CD/DVD material handling division at BEUMER Group wiped out by Spotify/YouTube disruption.
Lesson: build a vehicle to spot the “next Spotify” before it destroys another division.
Value Triggers
Start with good niche problems, not red oceans.
Anchor ventures on the rim of the core business—close enough to leverage assets, far enough to avoid bureaucracy.
Attract outlier founders who’ve done something spectacular before.
Anchoring & Commitment
Strategic anchoring is non-negotiable. If it’s just an innovation playground, it dies in 1–2 years.
Top management and C-level commitment must be clear.
Balancing Two Worlds
Corporates bring huge assets: engineers, sales networks, R&D.
Startups bring speed and execution agility.
Both sides must learn from each other without judgment.
Governance & Speed
BEAM separated entirely from the corporate structure, answering only to the holding.
Ventures pitch stage by stage to an independent venture board with external voices.
Fast decisions, early kills—focus resources on market-ready ideas.
💡 One-liner takeaway: Corporate venture building succeeds when it separates from bureaucracy, anchors strategically, and earns trust both inside the mothership and out in the market.
