Although it is difficult to calculate how many corporations use their internal assets to create new businesses, we know that 67% of large Spanish companies have a Corporate Venture Capital vehicle and that there are more than 50 venture builders in Spain, who work with corporations in different ways to help them accelerate diversification.

In this field, we often use concepts like “new revenue,” “equity,” or “Entrepreneur in Residence” as if they were new things that haven’t been heard of before. Looking back, we can realize that this has been done organically for a long time:

• Bodegas Torres, one of the oldest wineries in Spain, began its journey in 1870, specializing in wine production. However, over the decades, it has created additional business lines in gourmet food production (such as olive oil and vinegar), as well as ventures in organizing tourist experiences around wine (wine tourism).

• Another example could be El Corte Inglés. It started as a tailor shop and has grown organically through business diversification. It now covers everything from fashion to technology, food with its “Club del Gourmet,” as well as its financial and insurance services. While it is not a small company today, its beginnings were modest, and over time, it has greatly diversified its activities, adapting its offerings to the market.

Both cases are examples of how large corporations leverage new trends and market needs to grow their core business.

But what is the difference between the diversification of the past and what we now call CVB?

What changes is not the desire to diversify, but how it is done. Today, companies no longer improvise: they design conscious strategies, use structured methodologies, and launch specialized external teams or partners to build new businesses aligned with their innovation goals. While previously companies diversified more organically, today large corporations use venture building as a tool to accelerate their adaptation to an increasingly changing market. For this, they have specialized teams, or third-party services, and clear objectives regarding their strategic plan and the innovation horizons they wish to pursue.

Typically, there is an effort to create new internal ventures that can scale quickly using models like lean startup, where ideas are quickly validated in small markets before scaling. This also helps to reduce the assumed risk. There is also a push for the creation of internal startups within the company structure, seeking not only to generate new income but also to build a culture of continuous innovation.

Although business diversification has always been done, Corporate Venture Building aims to make sure it is not an improvised process, but a strategy that is integrated into the company’s long-term vision.

In a changing environment, does it make sense to continue improvising innovation, or has the time come to structure it thoughtfully?