Welcome back to the EUVC Corporate Podcast. This week, Jeppe sits down with Axel Deniz, CEO of Bosch Business Innovations and Head of Venture Building at Bosch.
Axel is building Bosch’s venture-building engine with a clear mandate: get Bosch technology out into the world, through founder-led spinouts, joint ventures, and seed rounds that can stand on their own with external investors. With ~80,000 active patents, 20 new patents per day, and 20,000 researchers globally, Bosch has the assets. Axel’s job is turning them into investible companies.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered:
02:30 Bosch’s unfair advantage: 80k patents, 20 patents/day, 20k researchers
04:10 Horizon 2/3: building for 2030–2035 where incumbents can’t reach
05:30 Hybrid execution: not all in-house, not all studio but a blended model
06:25 Problem definition: Bosch theses + founders bringing problems from outside
08:25 Stage gates: “get to no fast” + external validation early
09:05 Gate #1: attracting “triple-A founders” before anything else
10:35 Founder-led 80/20 vs joint ventures when tech risk is still high
13:10 Venture market fit: choosing where to build is a venture builder superpower
16:20 Founder acquisition: why mediocre pre-seed talent is the biggest risk
23:05 Working with scale-ups: co-create instead of buying or minority investing
24:15 University engine: 5–6 deep partnerships (Carnegie Mellon example)
27:15 Biggest surprises: founder scarcity and portfolio restructuring complexity
29:05 Axel’s advice to founders: don’t start deep tech from scratch
30:30 Axel’s advice to VCs: don’t underestimate corporates’ learning curve
32:00 Axel’s background: founder → Silicon Valley → PWC CVC → Bosch
35:15 Career advice: no cookie-cutter route and trust your gut sometimes
37:10 How founders can engage: programs + direct outreach on LinkedIn
