Saab Ventures: Creating value, providing solutions, building companies
Saab Ventures is the group’s corporate venture arm and was set up in 2001 to obtain leverage on Saab’s abundant engineering expertise. With a focus on spinning out Saab ideas and technology into independent companies, Ventures is key to our innovation culture.
Evers since our founding in 1937, Saab has built a strong reputation for being a generator of spin-off technologies. Computers, commercial aircraft, marine electronics and traffic systems are just some of the many examples of Saab ideas and products that have been developed into completely new business areas.
However, in 2001 this process took a further step forward with the creation of Saab Ventures, Saab’s dedicated growth engine for innovation.
Our mission
The goal of Ventures is to create value for Saab, provide solutions for customers, and to build new, independent companies that can be ‘spun out’ from our group.
We do so by using the wealth of cutting-edge technologies that are constantly being created within Saab. Often these technologies have been developed for one particular market but have the potential to be applied to other markets too.
Saab Ventures currently has seven companies and five development projects that are at different levels of maturity.
How we work
With a delegated mandate from the Saab board, Saab Ventures looks for exciting new ideas. Our investment team monitors societal and market trends to identify the requirements of industries or specific customers, before looking within Saab to see where we can provide a solution. Our extensive network with Science Parks and other companies also provides us with ideas for new spin outs.
When looking at an idea, Saab Ventures considers whether there is clear customer value, and whether the technology can be scaled up in a profitable way.
If a project is a success, Saab Ventures seeks funding from external co-investors and recruits external managers and entrepreneurs , usually people with experience of working in the relevant area, to put Saab technology to new applications and markets.
Next steps
Our goal is to exit within four to seven-year horizon and spin-off our holding at a profit. Sometimes progress is much quicker than that; sometimes it takes a bit longer for the inherent value to emerge.
Success stories
Saab Ventures has created several successful companies in recent years. Among the projects that became independent business are:
- C3 Technologies, world leading 3D mapping solutions.
- Minesto, a revolutionary underwater kite technology that generates energy from the ocean.
- WRAP International, experts in Spectrum Management & Monitoring and Radio Network Planning
- A2 Acoustics, cutting-edge expertise in active noise control
Portfolio
- C-Leanship, which provides fast, gentle and environmentally friendly hull cleaning to facilitate fuel-cost savings for large vessels.
- Cind, providers of automated volume measurement for customers working primarily within the forest and logistics industries.
- Hyker Security, specialists in secure document collaboration and transfer.
- ReVibe Energy, their harvesters powers the Industrial IoT by turning normal vibrations into electricity.
- Cold Cut Systems, manufacturers of the ColdCut Cobra cutting extinguisher – a firefighting tool that combines firefighter safety and efficiency with minimal environmental impact.
- Wheelscanning, efficient and fully automated measurement of the tread depth on tires.