Combient Foundry is expanding its activities in Central Europe and strengthening its presence in the DACH region. Building on existing partnerships with companies such as KION, TRATON and Wiener Stadtwerke, the next phase brings together some of the earliest operators of the venture client model in Germany under one Venture Alliance framework.
Venture clienting in Europe gained early momentum in Munich with the launch of the BMW Startup Garage in 2015, widely regarded as one of the first structured venture client units. A few years later, the BSH Startup Kitchen followed, further proving that corporates could adopt startup technology as customers rather than investors and accelerate innovation in real operational environments.
Now, the founders and early architects behind these initiatives are joining forces with our Venture Alliance.
Lars Rössler joins Combient Foundry as Vice President Clients and Managing Director Germany. He founded and scaled the BSH Startup Kitchen, which later contributed to the broader Open Bosch network. Ana Carolina Alex and Dr. Matthias Meyer built the BMW Startup Garage and later helped scale venture client capabilities across multiple industrial organisations. Sylvia Paersch adds specialised expertise in venture client communications, having founded a branding agency exclusively focussed on how such units position themselves and scale within complex corporate environments.
Together, this team combines early German venture client experience with the Nordic alliance model developed within Combient since 2019.
From Venture Client Units to Venture Alliance
Venture client units have proven their value inside companies. They enable faster technology evaluation, lower-risk adoption and clearer integration pathways.
The Venture Alliance builds on that foundation. Instead of each company developing capabilities entirely in isolation, the alliance connects industrial players across organisational and national boundaries. Members share operational learnings, evaluation frameworks and supplier insights. The objective is practical: reduce duplication, strengthen execution and increase speed.
“Having built and scaled a venture client unit inside a large industrial organisation, I have seen how powerful the model can be in accelerating technology adoption,” says Rössler. “But I have also seen how much effort companies duplicate when they work alone. Connecting these capabilities through an alliance raises the quality of evaluation, speeds up execution and helps avoid repeating the same mistakes.”
Since 2019, the Alliance has scaled across leading Nordic industrial groups including Kone, Outokumpu, StoraEnso, SKF, Scania and Husqvarna Group. Expanding into Central Europe extends this collaboration layer beyond the Nordics and connects it with one of Europe’s strongest industrial regions.
The expansion into Central Europe strengthens the Venture Alliance as a whole.
For existing alliance members, this means a broader knowledge base, expanded cross-border exchange and deeper industrial diversity. The core principles remain unchanged: operational focus, structured collaboration and shared learning.
For companies in Central Europe, it means access to a collaboration model that has been tested and refined across Nordic industry. According to CEO Lauri Lehtovuori, the move is a natural evolution.
“Our ambition is to strengthen Europe’s industrial competitiveness. The venture client model was born in Germany. By joining forces with its early pioneers, we are building the next chapter of venture clienting and scaling the Venture Alliance at a European level.”
