Technology City Developer - Venture Studio
Challenge
A significant Saudi technology city development sought to establish a venture studio to:
• Build startups that solve unique challenges in futuristic city development.
• Attract global entrepreneurs and investors to participate in an ambitious nation-building project.
• Demonstrate the commercial viability of technologies that could scale beyond the development stage.
• Create economic activity and job creation aligned with Vision 2030.
Key constraints:
• Greenfield challenge: No existing city infrastructure to test against, as development was in early construction.
• Moonshot technologies: Solutions needed for problems that don’t exist yet in traditional cities.
• Talent attraction: Convincing entrepreneurs to work at a remote development site.
• Commercial uncertainty: Unclear path to market beyond initial development context.
TURN8’s Approach
Phase 1: Studio Design and Thesis Development
• Analyzed trends in multiple domains to identify more than 20 venture opportunities.
• Prioritized venture themes, including autonomous mobility, sustainable energy, agritech, smart infrastructure, cognitive city platforms, and circular economy.
• Designed a venture studio model.
• Created an entrepreneur recruitment strategy targeting global talent.
Phase 2: Venture Building
• Conducted rapid customer discovery with new venture teams.
• Built MVPs with access to business units for prototyping and testing.
• Structured ventures as independent entities with clear technology IP ownership.
Phase 3: Early Traction
• Ventures reached the pilot stage with the Business Unit.
• Ventures secured external customers beyond initial development, proving commercial viability.
• Initiated fundraising for ventures, targeting $2-5M seed rounds.
• Expanded team hiring across ventures.
Outcomes
Venture Portfolio
• Several ventures were launched.
• Ventures with external customers secured.
• 50% of ventures raised to Series A.
Strategic Impact for Client:
• Proof of innovation ecosystem: Attracted media coverage and investor attention to development.
• Technology acceleration: Solutions being tested would take more than 5 years to develop organically.
• Economic activity: Jobs created and venture activity generating GDP contribution.
• Validation of the commercial model: External customers demonstrated that the technologies have applications beyond a single development.
Key Learnings:
• The venture studio model worked where an accelerator wouldn’t: early-stage, moonshot technologies require hands-on building rather than supporting existing startups.
• The Greenfield context was both a challenge, as there were no customers to test against, and an advantage because it was a clean slate for innovation.
• The most challenging aspect of entrepreneur recruitment was selling the vision and securing a commitment to relocation.
• Path to broader market critical: Ventures are only viable long-term if applications are extended beyond single development.
• Client patience essential: 3–5-year timeline for ventures to mature, rather than the traditional 18-month venture builder expectations.