A driver for future growth  – this is Ventures and New Business

28 MAY 2025

��ϲ�� is actively exploring new business areas to stay ahead in a rapidly shifting landscape. The goal: to complement the core business with ventures aligned to sustainability, electrification, and autonomy. 

“Innovation is global and knows no language barriers,” says Markus van Horik, Head of Strategy at Ventures and New Business at ��ϲ��.

You can’t catch a wave if you’re not in the water. That was ��ϲ��’s thinking when the company decided to dive deeper into business innovation – stepping beyond the company’s core and launching initiatives aligned with the key forces reshaping transport and logistics. 

The strategic push to start the unit Ventures and New Business (VNB) was never about experimentation for its own sake. It was always about ensuring speed, relevance, and profitability in the transition to a sustainable transport system – by making forward-looking investments and building new ventures. 

Long-term commitment to venture building 

��ϲ��’s commitment to business innovation is also about endurance, helping the company remain competitive and future-proof – even in uncertain times. 

Markus van Horik, Head of Strategy at Ventures and New Business at ��ϲ��, describes the unit as a focused launchpad for building scalable companies with lasting strategic value. 

“Our job is to find and grow companies that create real customer value, and that can one day become part of ��ϲ��’s core,” he says. 

Exploring, investing, building, and managing 

This mindset shapes the way the organisation operates. The aim for VNB is to explore, invest in, build and manage solutions that complement the core and prepare ��ϲ�� for the next phase of transport.  

New ventures – such as ,, and  – have been built from the ground up. In these companies, VNB’s representatives provide support in a wide range of areas – from leadership, legal, and mergers & acquisitions to communications, marketing, and business development. This setup ensures that each venture can operate with a clear mandate and autonomy, while remaining aligned with ��ϲ��’s broader strategic direction.

“In other cases, we apply our venture capital tool to take minority stakes in startups developing strategically important technologies,” says van Horik.  

“Innovation is global and knows no language barriers,” he adds. “By partnering with visionary founders and technologies that are shaping the future, we gain access to unique capabilities – and critical insights that help keep ��ϲ�� relevant and resilient over the long term.” 

Why ��ϲ�� focuses on three key areas 

The three focus areas of VNB, Energy and infrastructure, Asset management and circularity, and Autonomous and supply chain, reflect the areas with the highest potential to create customer value and build ��ϲ��’s future revenue streams. 

In the Energy and infrastructure focus area, the goal is to identify business opportunities that go beyond the vehicle – particularly where ��ϲ�� can play a bigger role in enabling electrified transport. 

“Through Erinion, we want to support ��ϲ��’s customers with everything connected to depot and destination charging as well as infrastructure in order to ease up and accelerate their transformation to electrification,” says van Horik. 

Developing circular business models 

The second focus area, Asset management and circularity, is about building the capability to manage vehicles, components, and fleets over their entire lifecycle. It includes solutions that reduce environmental impact through better resource use, more circular design – and new business models. 

“One recent example is JUNA, a joint venture partnership where we manage assets for transport companies, giving them access to electric trucks on a pay-per-use basis. This way, we help our customers remove the risks associated with full ownership of a BEV,” says van Horik. 

Autonomous and smarter supply chains increasingly important 

The third focus area, Autonomous and supply chain, looks ahead to a transport system shaped by automation, digital integration, and smarter logistics. VNB’s initiatives and ventures in this area include autonomous transport solutions, remote operations, and technologies that increase safety, efficiency, and precision across freight flows. 

“With the shift to electrification, connectivity, and automation, this sector will play an increasingly important role in steering the industry towards a prosperous, sustainable, and digitally enhanced transport and logistics ecosystem,” says van Horik.

A system designed for speed and efficiency 

Looking ahead, VNB aims to build a portfolio of ventures that not only support ��ϲ��’s transformation but help define the future of transport itself. 

“Our ambition is to establish VNB as a lean, effective system that can quickly build and integrate new capabilities and new revenue streams for ��ϲ�� in a future that will likely look quite different than today,” van Horik says.

Ventures and New Business at ��ϲ��

A ��ϲ�� unit including strategists, venture builders, business analysts, business developers, and other specialists.

Engages in venture capital, making minority investments in startups with strategic relevance to ��ϲ��’s future in sustainable transport.

Also builds wholly owned ventures in three focus areas: Energy and infrastructure, Asset management and circularity, and Autonomous and supply chain. The aim is to scale these companies and, over time, integrate them into ��ϲ��’s core, as their solutions complement and extend the existing business.

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