Venture Office
as a Service
We run an outsourced venture office that converts market change into pilots, partnerships, and investment options tied to your priorities.
The Illusion of Action
Most mid-market companies know they need to innovate. So they move — but often into approaches that create activity without building lasting advantage.
Internal Innovation
Core teams are fully loaded. Roadmaps focus on current customers and short-term KPIs. The organization gets better at executing what it already knows, not at discovering what comes next.
Being an LP in a VC Fund
LP investments provide financial exposure. But they are passive. You get reports and returns, not a tailored pipeline, focused pilots, or the valuable market intelligence managers learn along the way.
In-House Corporate Venture Capital
Building a CVC team looks strategic. In reality it is slow and expensive. It takes years to hire, build credibility, and generate deal flow while investing millions in an unfamiliar business.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Acquiring a company feels decisive, but you're often buying solutions built for the past. The price is high, integrations are slow, and your best people end up fixing old problems instead of exploring new opportunities.
These approaches look like progress from the outside, but real strategic advantage almost never materializes. This is the illusion of action. The real question isn't whether to innovate — it's: who owns the future inside your company?
Venture Office
as a Service
You have a CFO for capital, a CTO for technology, and a CMO for growth. But in most mid-market organizations, no one is accountable for continuously scanning external innovation, filtering signal from noise, and converting the best opportunities into partnerships and strategic positions.
Venture Office as a Service fills that gap.
We operate as your outsourced venture function, helping you consistently turn what is happening outside your company into measurable results inside your company. Instead of relying on ad-hoc innovation projects, passive exposure to venture, or heavyweight internal buildouts, VoaS provides a repeatable system to identify opportunities, deploy solutions, and create strategic and financial upside.
We source, filter, structure, and execute — while you retain full control over every thesis, every partnership, and every investment decision.
From External Innovation
to Internal Results
Venture Office as a Service is built on four pillars.
Intelligence
Systematic scanning of startups, technologies, and business models shaping your industry.
We continuously map what is changing in your market and adjacent markets, then translate it into clear, decision-ready insight. That means fewer "interesting trends" and more prioritized options: what matters, why it matters, and what to do next.
Clienting
Deploying best-in-class external innovative solutions to solve internal challenges and improve performance.
We find proven external solutions and move quickly from internal challenge to pilot to full rollout.
A client in the toy industry wanted to understand fast-changing consumer expectations and was about to launch a traditional survey. Instead, we introduced an AI-agent "customer brain" that continuously captures and synthesizes customer signals — delivering better insight faster, while saving tens of thousands of euros.
Partnerships
Structuring revenue-generating partnerships and new business models with high-potential startups.
Beyond vendors, we build partnerships that create growth: distribution, co-selling, product collaboration, data partnerships, or new offers.
A client in the toy industry planned to build a new innovation-led product in-house. We mapped the market, identified 16+ startups with platforms already far ahead of what they aimed to develop internally, and structured a partnership that saved millions in development costs, accelerated go-to-market by 5×, and opened a new revenue channel.
Investments
Selective equity and structured investments to capture financial upside and long-term optionality.
When strategically and financially attractive, we support selective investments that strengthen your access and learning, and create upside — always tied to your priorities and risk appetite.
A client in commercial real estate is preparing for the rise of autonomous vehicles. We identified a company building autonomous charging and inspection depots — a compelling asymmetric investment that delivers strategic learning today while building long-term optionality for tomorrow.
European Market Leader
in Outdoor Play
A leading European outdoor playground company facing declining birth rates, shrinking outdoor spaces, and digital disruption partnered with Cross Ocean through a VoaS pilot.
We helped a European market leader rethink an innovation initiative that required building unfamiliar hardware, which risked years of delays and costly missteps. We mapped the market, identified high-potential partners, and shifted the strategy to a partnership-led execution plan. The result was not just a faster launch path, but a repeatable partnership blueprint that builds on the assets already created and scales into future growth.
Read the full case study →Venture Access
90-Day Pilot
A fast, structured way to determine fit before a long-term Venture Office. In 90 days, we move from external opportunity scanning to execution-ready decisions.
Most companies can talk about innovation. The pilot tests the only thing that matters: execution and commitment. If the fit is strong, Venture Access becomes the on-ramp to the full Venture Office.
Start the pilotWe systematically scan startups, technologies, and business models shaping your space and translate them into a prioritized shortlist.
A structured, actionable partnership with a high-potential startup, built to drive growth or strategic advantage.
A selective investment opportunity that matches your priorities and risk appetite, prepared so you can make a confident yes or no decision.
Built by investors
and operators
We are operators who have built, scaled, and exited businesses, including a category-defining company acquired by the largest player in its US market. We've sat in the CEO chair and know what it means to deploy capital, manage teams, and make decisions with real consequences. We are not consultants giving advice on things we've never had first-hand experience or pain in — and we have taken our own medicine.
Our team brings hands-on investing experience across early-stage ventures, combined with a cross-continental network of 500+ direct subject matter experts spanning the US and EU. This is real ecosystem access built through decades of operating across borders.
We are also thought leaders on innovation systems and how cross-border operating teams and markets actually work — not in theory, but from running them. Our structured methodology (proprietary scoring model, governed cadence, IC-ready memos) is what separates us from advisory firms that deliver slide decks and leave.
Not ready to talk yet?
Download our Innovation Radar White Paper: learn how the Venture Office model translates external innovation into tangible results, and evaluate your company's readiness to capture that advantage.