Services

Introduction

What is 'Ventures-as-a-Service'?

A service that helps organizations to develop, launch and scale new ventures.

We think of ventures as new products or services, entire new business spin-outs or the creation of a new business unit within the organization.

We are industrializing the corporate ventures experience using our repeatable processes, learned from many startups and new products we’ve launched over the years, to professionally manage an organization’s portfolio of innovations.

This service enables organizations to dramatically improve their ability to monetize their innovations.

why is ventures-as-a-service beneficial to financial services organizations?

We galvanize your new venture capabilities, bolster them, accelerate them and make them pay out

Financial services companies have never been more pressured to innovate

With the continuing growth of the fintech sector, neobanks, challenger banks and the advent of open banking, the financial services industry has never felt this much disruption.  As such, traditional business models are at risk, there is a massive influx of agile competitors and legacy revenues are declining.  The need to replace those revenues and learn to compete in the new world is pressuring financial services companies not just to innovate, but to reinvent themselves.

We transform your innovations / ventures capabilities via Ventures-as-a-Service

We help financial services companies through this evolution, by leveraging their competitive advantages and turning their best ideas into new ventures.  We then enable them to innovate faster, test business models more efficiently and launch and grow more new ventures than ever.  And it is new ventures where new revenues come from.  And where new, reinvented business models come from for long-term sustainability.

Ventures-as-a-Service adds a powerful capability to your arsenal to dramatically improve your new ventures success rate and profits

our scope of services

Our Ventures-as-a-Service offering is built to handle your entire portfolio of innovations and ideas

We productionalize the business of idea generation, validation, build and launch of profitable new products and businesses for your enterprise.
Modules of the service are employed at the appropriate time in the lifecycle of the venture buildout. The 'before, during and after' of a new venture:
Depending on how far along your venture, or your ventures program is, we may kick-off our partnership with you at different stages of the venture's maturity.
Our services cover the entire venturing lifecycle

From the idea stage to the launch and growth of new businesses and products

Innovations Sweep

Harvest internal innovations, identify external opportunities, then prioritize them using our Innovations Management System.

Ideation & Storytelling

High-intensity ideation and storytelling process led by a team of entrepreneurs & global domain experts to formulate opportunities for new products and ventures.

Business Validation

Validate that the business problem, solution and value proposition is right for the target customers, then define the early product plan, growth plan and growth experiments.

Propositions & Pricing

A systematic, streamlined approach to deliver against desired customer outcomes & MVP pilot + rigorous pricing strategy development & pricing model.

Business Infrastructure

Set up operational, IT, financial, promotional infrastructure (source vendors, compliance / risk mgmt. etc.) + staff key positions in the new venture.

Go to Market

The definitive, locked down plan for customer targeting, how we intend to communicate with these customers & what the key launch steps and success factors are.

Growth Hacking

Rapidly iterate test & learn on the ideas that improve the customer experience and satisfaction - keep the good ones and discard the bad to find the growth breakout formula in the pilot market.

Scaling to New Markets

Build on the growth breakout by identifying strategic opportunities to expand to international markets or adjacent revenue pools beyond the initial MVP launch.

Raising Capital

Capital structure of the new venture is created, with a view to bringing in external investors + curated investor network + grant writing.

case studies

Some of our Customers' New Ventures

8 NEW CREDIT CARDS

European multi-national bank

New credit card propositions were developed with the goal of increasing interest-bearing balances, while balancing customer loyalty/stickiness. We developed eight targeted propositions, the positioning for each, the USP for each, the features and terms, business cases and the implementation plans for all of them.

NEW CREDIT CARD BUSINESS

Alternative lender (UK)

We helped develop and launch a new credit card business in the UK, focused on the near-prime customer segment. This included the design of the product, the selection and negotiation of the card processing system vendor, the selection of the card payments scheme and many other parts of the business.

MOBILE PAYMENTS PRODUCT

Pan-Nordic payments player

Developed a mobile payments solution which also enabled insurance and financing cross-selling, the easy categorization of transactions once a payment is made, transactions to be switched from debit to credit (instalments) and the delivery of personalized offers to the customer, in real-time, via mobile.

18 NEW PAYMENTS PRODUCTS

Global payments network

The goal was to produce new revenues via new product innovations. New product ideas were generated, proposition concepts developed, optimized business models and strategic pricing analysis conducted. Then 'Size the Prize' granular market sizing and 5-year forecasting was completed to identify $11.5Bn of incremental revenue.

NEW CREDIT BUILDER CARDS

Credit card provider (UK)

Credit card proposition based around a multi-year CX journey for different near-prime customer segments. Value propositions delivered a unique, guided credit-building experience, tailored to specific customer segment needs and a holistic customer comms/treatment strategy across the full marketing mix.

NEW DEBIT CARD PRODUCTS

Baltic retail & business bank

New debit card / checking account products were needed to compete against agile foreign banks entering the market. Four new products were designed for four different customer segments: free checking for entry level, rewards product for high-transactors, unlimited features product for high-net-worth and a tailorable product for niche customers.

4 NEW PAYMENTS PRODUCTS

Global software company

A global software company wanted to expand on its payments processing operations and move into offering full banking services for its customers. We developed four tailored hi-tech, AI driven banking propositions: one for teenage game software customers, one for millennial gamers and two for merchants that sell the software products.

THIN-FILE CARD PRODUCT

Retail bank & credit card issuer (UK)

Young customers are typically not profitable for retail banks and tend to attrite before becoming full, profitable banking customers with mortgages, retirement and investment products. In response, we developed a compelling transitional credit card proposition with an accelerated pathway to profitability for young adults, with a 10 year longitudinal CRM program for credit building and customer retention.

6 NEW VALUE PLAYS

Global payments network

The client wanted to identify new value plays in adjacent markets in the credit origination, payments and lending sectors. We developed a new company vision, strategy and capability roadmap, along with a long list of over 30 new venture ideas, with six making it to the proposition definition, business model and business plan stages. Three have been launched so far.

NEW LENDING MARKETPLACE

Fintech Open Banking startup

Consumers often don’t know how much they can afford to borrow which often results in declined loan applications. We helped develop the world’s first Open Banking lending platform and marketplace enabling consumers to use their bank data to check their eligibility for affordable loans and compare real rates from a panel of digital lenders. This unleashes the power of Open Banking data to enable affordable borrowing.

BUY NOW PAY LATER SERVICE

Global payments network

Buy now pay later platforms embedded into e-commerce websites have taken market share from credit card issuers and lenders. We helped develop a digital loan card and app for a global payment network to enable existing clients to address the growing buy now pay later market category and attract new Fintech lending clients. This service is reinventing the credit card business model and customer experience for large purchases.

NEW FLEET/FUEL PAYMENTS

Large European card issuer

The fuel card sector in Europe comprises €300+ Bn in annual spend. Most cards are closed-loop, old and lacking in modern card features. We conducted sweeping market research, identified target markets and defined new, cutting edge propositions to enable fuel companies to step up their game. The new cards enabled companies issuing fuel cards to benefit from better protections and dramatic improvement in control over their spend.