E687 | Axel Deniz, CEO Bosch Business Innovations: Venture Building, Spinouts & How Corporates Can Power Europe’s Deep Tech Wave

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