The hardest problems in finance will not be solved by one venture.
We build the portfolios of ventures that solve them. For each challenge we address, we pair a multi-corporate venture capital (mCVC) vehicle with a dedicated venture studio to orchestrate the systemic innovation that addresses it.
Some challenges faced by the financial industry cannot be solved with traditional approaches.
Their causes and effects span institutions, jurisdictions and layers of technology. This is where conventional corporate innovation and venture building fail, because their performance depends on complementary innovations that do not yet exist.
Venture builders back individual startups.
We engineer venture studios to deliver systemic innovation for the financial industry.
Each studio is an institutional-grade asset. It originates a portfolio of interdependent ventures that together deliver the innovation and the returns none of them could achieve alone.
Venturing, made investable.
Combining entrepreneurial agility and corporate execution with the discipline investors expect, our de-risk early stage innovation and open institutional access to the layer where assets are originated.
A dual return profile
Corporate partners gain access to frontier technology before valuations move. Investors hold a position in an asset that pairs infrastructure returns with venture upside.
Risk-adjusted performance
Innovation is co-designed with the corporate partners, so demand is validated before anything is built. Studio holds co-founder economics in each venture, so the upside accrues to the portfolio.
Mutualised risks
Risks are structured at the level of the portfolio rather than a single venture. If a venture fails, its technology and product live on in the ventures that integrate them.
Evidence-gated deployment
Funds are released against proof, not conviction. Deployment escalates as milestones are met, and keeps pace with the speed at which the market moves.
Independent governance
Venture building and investment decisions are kept separate. Funds are managed by a licensed fund management company, which acts as an independent investment committee and can halt deployment at any point.
Aligned by construction
xcube.co invests alongside its partners, and the ventures are adopted by the institutions that helped shape them.
One studio deployed. One in preparation.
Defy. Defiant for Good®
Two decades of financial inclusion opened accounts and left people without agency. The cause is a fragmented system, rails that do not connect, patchy policy, initiatives that die before scaling. Defy pioneers inclusive finance as an interoperable, safeguarded and scalable financial market, turning what works into standards. From Singapore and Bahrain, since 2023.
Stealth studio
The focus is financial crime in ASEAN, a challenge that crosses institutions, sectors, payment rails and borders while the defences against it remain fragmented within each institution.
Investors, corporates, research partners and professionals each have a role in a studio.
Find yours.
Tell us where you fit