By Chris Stern, Head and Managing Director of Trimble Ventures
”More than just a typical corporate investment vehicle” was our overriding principle when we launched Trimble Ventures in 2021 and it continues to be the North Star that guides our program. We find and nurture innovation, build and connect ecosystems, and extend and scale our platform to deliver untapped value to our customers and the companies we collaborate with.
Whether in glitzy R&D labs at multi-billion-dollar corporate complexes, university campuses or cluttered garages in non-descript suburbs in Anytown, USA, innovation can be found anywhere. Through a commitment to open, connected ecosystems, underpinned by nearly 50 years of industry expertise and market access and exposure, we engage with and empower early entrepreneurs in ways far beyond traditional venture capital (VC).
Since 2021, global venture funding has exceeded $1.7 trillion, including more than $640 billion for early-stage companies. Unsurprisingly, last year AI carried the funding torch with about a third of all global investment targeting AI-related areas. Contrary to prevailing opinions on many VC programs, our primary purpose at Trimble Ventures isn’t solely to find investments that trigger the best returns. Rather, we couple that focus with uncovering the freethinkers whose ideas and technology, when connected with Trimble, will accelerate value and reimagine industries where innovation and connectivity can deliver untold benefits.
The startup landscape is dotted with rocket ships. A few will go to the moon. Some will get into orbit. Many will never truly get off the launch pad. Regardless of where they land, there’s potential for all to add value. As we continue to make intentional bets on what’s around the corner in construction, transportation, geospatial and other core industries, we’re inspired to assist founders and entrepreneurs to increase their exposure, integrate their products with Trimble technology and collaborate on their go-to-market (GTM) strategies. Trimble Ventures puts us in the cockpit alongside these startups as we help them take flight.
Inspired investments, powerful collaborations
People are surprised when I tell them that less than 10% of our time and energy at Trimble Ventures is actually spent on investing. We’re a program supported by a fund, meaning more than 90% of our activity is focused on engagement and deal flow. This includes continuously connecting with startup founders and entrepreneurs, other investors like credible VC firms such as Ironspring Ventures and Space Capital. We also work with corporate innovation teams like customer and partner VCs such as Hilti Venture or Hensel Phelps Diverge.
These engagements are paramount to not only find investment opportunities and stay connected to early innovators, but also fill a critical pipeline of collaborative relationships that align with and enhance the Trimble ecosystem. Of the more than 500 formal engagements we had last year, less than 10% were opportunities we explored for investment. Of those, only three turned into actual investments, but many became potential partners and valuable relationships across the broader organization.
Our engagements and, more importantly, our investments are as precise as they are purposeful. Our evaluation criteria are divided into two buckets: strategic and financial. Strategically, startups must be relevant in our core industries and have an innovative or disruptive solution and technology (i.e., AI, supply chain, autonomy and robotics, augmented and mixed reality, sustainability, reality capture, mapping and positioning) that can extend our platform, integrate with our solutions and bring added value to our customers. Financially, we target investments in early to growth stage companies (i.e., Series A and beyond) with proven market viability (i.e., $500,000-plus in recurring revenue) and great teams that are pursuing large and attractive markets supporting venture-scale growth. We also co-invest alongside credible lead VCs as a friendly, value-added co-investor. When needed, we can introduce companies to potential lead VCs from our network.
Since 2021, we have invested in a dozen companies revolutionizing aspects of our key markets and industries. We are one of the few companies that understands the technology and business process needs and challenges across our industries, and delivers end-to-end solutions that address them. Companies in our portfolio of startups are optimizing often niche and highly impactful parts of these workflows, including:
Xona Space Systems: a navigation services startup building next generation Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) through a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites, the first of which just recently launched; Trimble and Xona are collaborating and pursuing future integration of Trimble correction services to deliver more secure, reliable, high-precision positioning and navigation anywhere in the world
Document Crunch: a construction contract intelligence startup that leverages AI to analyze contracts for compliance and risk management, which integrates with Trimble ProjectSight to simplify contracts, automate critical tasks and enable end-to-end contract compliance
OneRail: a last-mile delivery startup for consumers and businesses, which integrates with Trimble Maps for enhanced routing, visualizations and precision time calculations to deliver superior customer value
Access and exposure through Trimble Ventures
Outside of the acceleration and runway extension we can provide these startups, I’m often asked what the primary benefits of a collaboration with Trimble are. I generally fall back onto two differentiators: access and exposure.
The majority of startups, by definition, simply don’t have the scale or relationships we’ve built over nearly 50 years. We give them immediate access to our knowledge, technology, experience —especially in building, scaling and supporting both software and hardware solutions. We also provide GTM expertise, everything from our global footprint of customers, partners, distributors and dealers to teams of engineers, product developers, marketers and other experts who can help validate their work and mature their business.
What distinguishes us perhaps more than any other company is with 140-plus acquisitions in Trimble’s portfolio, we give startups unfettered access to dozens of former entrepreneurs who have walked in their shoes. I should know—nearly 20 years ago, I sat on the other side of the table from Trimble executives when I sold the mobile mapping and workforce management software company I founded, and began my Trimble journey.
Besides access, we also provide unmatched exposure for startups through opportunities like:
The global Construction Startup Competition: where we partner with Cemex Ventures, the event founder, and other industry leaders to find the most innovative construction startups
Our Trimble 0-60 Challenge: where we identify the brightest architecture, engineering, construction, asset lifecycle management and geospatial startups that integrate with Trimble (including Trimble Connect, SketchUp and more)
Trimble Dimensions: where founders, customers, partners and investors connect through various startup panels, exhibit opportunities and exclusive networking at our annual international user conference
Trimble Partner Network and Trimble Marketplace: where startups can engage directly with Trimble to build and promote their industry solutions to Trimble customers and partners
The Trimble 0-60 Challenge, now entering its sophomore season, brings together more than a dozen innovative startups for a 12-week accelerator where Trimble mentors help frame their story, refine their GTM strategy, and build integrations with Trimble Connect, SketchUp, Tekla and the broader Trimble ecosystem. At Trimble Dimensions, finalists from both the Construction Startup Competition and the Trimble 0-60 Challenge then pitch and demo on the main stage. Last year, we welcomed nine new companies that created original integrations with SketchUp, a few that also became investment opportunities for Trimble Ventures.
More targeted, more intentional
In the four short years since our program launched, the venture investment and startup landscape has dramatically shifted, navigating through the post-Covid era of explosive growth, market corrections and the recent recovery driven largely by AI and the transformative opportunities it presents.
From a startup perspective, accessible AI tools have lowered the barrier to entrepreneurship. The consequences of this are twofold—democratizing ideation and innovation while amplifying and accelerating the creation of fundamentally new solutions to address some of the most pressing challenges in our industries. Against this backdrop, we have established a diverse startup portfolio that delivers new value to our customers and industries and a reputation that continues to attract some of the most innovative founders to Trimble as the first stop on their entrepreneurial journey.
These dynamics impacting VCs and startups have driven Trimble Ventures to remain disciplined and become more targeted and intentional about the areas and investments we build an ecosystem of early innovators around—to find the relationships and collaborations that extend our platform, bring dynamic, disruptive value to our customers and partners, and help us transform the way the world works.
Learn how Trimble Ventures is helping transform passionate innovation into practical solutions across some of the world’s most critical industries.
