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Then the company has a corporate venture fund , Rabo Frontier Ventures , that is investing in early-stage fintech companies and several venture capital funds , as well as an open-innovation ecosystem that allows it to bring external innovators into the business and give them the chance to start working with Rabobank .
“ We have organised innovation portfolio management ,” Leurs continues . “ We have a funnel where we ’ re constantly looking at how many innovations we have and in which phase of development – whether they ’ re just starting an innovation project or scaling up within the organisation .”
Innovation has its own centralised budget allocated that is ring-fenced , meaning other tech projects within the bank don ’ t eat into innovation . The bank ’ s innovation leads are connected to board members , ensuring that there ’ s corporate buy-in for major innovation projects .
And the bank isn ’ t afraid of letting go where it needs to : take the example of Peaks , a retail investing app where Rabobank was an early-stage backer . Rabobank itself was not able to turn the company into a success and , recognising that there was a better place for Peaks , chose to sell its stake in the company to allow the fledgling fintech to fly .
“ With the challenges that we face in the world today , there ’ s always a need for innovation , so I don ’ t think we ’ ll ever slow down . We will always need innovation to continue making those energy and food transitions a success , so I don ’ t see a world where we will never need to innovate .
“ Of course , that doesn ’ t mean you can ’ t be sensible with what you spend and what you get out of that expenditure . We ’ re super-realistic . If we see that our innovation projects aren ’ t moving fast enough throughout the year or we ’ re not going to
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