A venture studio (sometimes called a venture builder or startup studio) partners with startup founders at the earliest stage of ideation, turning business ideas into an MVP and a scalable business model.

Unlike accelerators or incubators, which typically engage with new companies once they already exist, the venture studio model is more hands-on. Studios often act like a co-founder, blending design, product development, and growth execution into a proven playbook that accelerates iteration and makes the path more de-risked.

Global pioneers such as Idealab demonstrated how studios could spin out successful new ventures across industries from fintech and SaaS to sustainability. Today, corporate venture studios also apply this approach in New Zealand and globally, helping to build companies within larger organisations and strengthen the local startup ecosystem.

The amount of equity a venture studio will take depends on their level of involvement. For ventures built within a venture studio, their equity usually ranges from 20–40%, sometimes more. However, for new business ventures born outside of a venture studio prior to any collaboration, the equity stake can be a lot less.

At Edition Ventures, we typically hold 0.5–5% equity in our portfolio companies. This approach aligns incentives with early-stage startups and keeps space for seed funding and later rounds, without over dilution of founders. Beyond early-stage funding rounds, we typically provide ongoing support at subsidised rates to continue fuelling growth.

Startups launched through the venture studio model have around a 30% higher success rate than traditional startups. With embedded mentorship, faster iteration, and in-house product development, 84% secure seed funding and 72% reach Series A which is far above market averages.

The advantage lies in the structure: studios provide hands-on support, repeatable playbooks, and proven entrepreneurship know-how. For startup founders in fintech, SaaS, or sustainability, this approach validates business models early, creating a faster, more de-risked path to traction and high-growth. Anchored in long-term partnerships and the wider startup ecosystem, venture studios give new companies the foundation to scale, and in some cases, progress towards an IPO.

A venture capital fund (VC fund) invests money into new companies that already show traction, with a focus on financial returns. A venture studio, by contrast, helps entrepreneurs build companies from scratch through structured venture building. This involves validating business ideas, shaping the first MVPs, and embedding in-house operations in the early stages.

In many ways, a studio acts like a co-founder, mobilising teams, guiding product development, and forming partnerships that prepare founders for fundraising with venture capitalists. Global examples such as Idealab and modern corporate venture studios have each used this model to successfully spin out startups.

In New Zealand’s ecosystem, studios increasingly provide the executional backbone that traditional investors lack, from entrepreneurship strategy to refining the business model and supporting the journey through to growth or even an IPO.

Some studios contribute capital, but their main value is execution. At Edition, our focus is hands-on delivery, shaping the MVP, refining investor decks, and preparing startup founders for fundraising with venture capitalists and other early backers. We also support visibility on LinkedIn, so new ventures stand out within the local and global startup ecosystem.

Rather than focusing only on cheques, we invest through our services across fintech, SaaS, and deep tech, enabling our portfolio companies to raise seed funding without heavy dilution. Think of us as a strategic co-founder: providing a tested venture building playbook, validating business models, and forging lasting partnerships that help ventures scale, from early-stage ventures right through to later rounds and, in some cases, an eventual IPO.