From the abstract to the concrete.

01Innovating is what we do because evolution takes too long

Every living being is a material system that only holds up within a narrow band of physical conditions. When the environment moves outside that band there are two ways out, and there is no third: change your own body or change the environment. Evolution does the first, takes generations and does not always arrive in time. Science and technology do both, and act in years, not generations. Innovating is exactly that: manufacturing in time the adaptations we cannot wait for. The full foundation.

technology as a tool of evolution

02A solution that does not arrive adapts nothing

Innovation has two phases and needs both: making it exist, which is research and development, and making it arrive, which is production, distribution and market. A prototype that stays in the laboratory has changed nothing. In a market, the organisational form that exists to do those two things at once is called a company: a structure that gathers knowledge, money, hands and relationships.

building and spreading

03The classic problem of innovation

A successful innovation requires the systemic integration of completely different resources: a real problem, a technology, R&D, marketing and communication, administration, funding, corporate and tax structure, and quite a few more. The greater the value in each of those dimensions, the better the startup's chances of success. The problem is that most initiatives have only a small part of those resources: hence the high mortality of startups.

few resources, in unstable balance

04How a venture builder solves it

A venture builder is a type of organisation created to have all those components from the outset, solid and verified, and available as the starting point of every project. It thereby reduces the risk associated with a startup's R&D: that critical phase running from problem to product. And because that base is reused and does not have to be built again each time, every project requires less capital, reaches the product sooner and has a better chance of success.

a solid bridge between a problem and profit

05Volcano's choice, and why

Volcano chooses only verified, high-impact problems, environmentally, socially and economically, with technological solutions that are disruptive wherever possible. Within that criterion it gives priority to the solutions that give back water, food and energy security. The demonstration of that priority, with data and sources, is in the root. That choice pursues two objectives at once. Maximising what is obtained from each resource employed: the same work applied to a bigger problem returns more, and a disruptive solution finds few competitors in front of it, so it sustains high margins for longer. And minimising the risk to private capital, because a problem that matters to society is funded with non-repayable public money.

aiming high, with solidity

06How the cycle works

Volcano receives the problem and builds the solution. That first phase, the R&D, is largely covered by those funds: on average 70%, and in the subsequent industrialisation up to 50%. They come because whoever grants them has their own interest in the social, economic and environmental impact of the result: it is not a favour, it is a shared goal. And since they are neither repaid nor exchanged for shares, they dilute nobody's stake. They reduce how much private capital is needed, and absorb the most uncertain part before it comes in.

The solution then passes to a startup, new or existing. The startup takes charge of the second phase: it industrialises the solution, takes it to market, generates profits and shares them among those who made it possible.

We are the first investor in every project, we come in at the initial phases and we gain only if the startup gains. We do not take control, and each actor is recognised with the stake that corresponds to their effort.

the full flow

The figures: the model · the funding.

07What you have is worth more at Volcano

An unsolved problem, an idea, a technology, some capabilities, a network, capital you want to put to work, a tax burden that today is only an expense: each of those pieces really yields when it meets the others. Bring what you have; we put in the rest.

the right habitat

Open your door · Start.