My job as Head of Volkswagen Group Innovation? “Organizing a central common innovation unit in a group with 10 different global brands and generating synergies. There are common tech challenges across the brands: decarbonization, software, autonomous driving, customer interface. Additionally companies need to be present in the main innovation hotspots, from Asia to Silicon Valley and Israel. We are there as a group.”
So says Nikolai Ardey, Head of Volkswagen Group Innovation, who also reveals the secret of Open Innovation. “Landing innovation with the right level of maturity”, at least if you want to minimize the “not invented here” syndrome".
Nikolai describes the different initiatives run by the group’s brands (Konnect Volkswagen Group Innovation Tel Aviv, Porsche APX Accelerator, Skoda Auto Digital Lab, Seat Start4Big) as well as provide insights about the $300M CVC fund dedicated to startups in the decarbonization space Volkswagen is about to launch. It will be an independent fund open to external LPs.