Venture Building: The Science-to-Startup Pipeline
Recommendation 01 · Market Readiness
One of the most critical challenges for Deep Tech startups lies in bridging the gap between scientific innovation and business execution. Many ventures are founded by brilliant scientists who face a steep learning curve when shifting into entrepreneurial leadership roles.
In Latin America, scientific founders are commonly left to juggle multiple high-stakes roles at once: raising capital, taking products to international markets, and continuing to push technological frontiers. This is further rooted in the academic culture of many universities across the region, where entrepreneurship is still seen as a niche path rather than a viable or encouraged career option for scientific talent. As a result, the entrepreneurial potential of highly skilled scientists remains largely untapped.
Venture Building, also called a venture studio, is a model tailored to fit this gap. It is an institutional co-founder model that originates startups from scratch, not just accelerates existing ones. A venture builder scouts frontier science/IP, forms founding teams by pairing scientists with seasoned operators, structures the company (IP, governance, regulatory), provides shared product/BD resources, and co-invests to reach the first meaningful technical and commercial milestones. Unlike incubators/accelerators, venture builders are hands-on company creators with longer engagement, deeper ownership, and operational responsibility.
A venture builder scouts frontier science/IP, forms founding teams by pairing scientists with seasoned operators, structures the company, provides shared product/BD resources, and co-invests to reach the first meaningful milestones.
# Regional examples
GRIDX, the matchmaking model
GRIDX is a pioneering venture capital firm and company builder reshaping the Deep Tech and biotech landscape. With a science-first thesis, GRIDX has raised US$41.5 million across two funds and built a portfolio of 81 companies, 75% co-founded by women. These ventures span Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Chile and collectively employ 1,000 people, including 700 scientists.
At the heart of the model is its matchmaking process: GRIDX identifies scientists with the drive to become entrepreneurs, recruits business professionals capable of executing in unfamiliar industries, and puts each pair through a three-month trial phase. After mapping hundreds of projects and co-founding six initial ventures, GRIDX raised a US$1 million prototype fund in 2016, a US$10 million Fund I, and, with IDB Lab as a limited partner in 2022, an additional US$30 million Fund II. Its companies have raised over US$100 million from international investors and achieved a first exit.
Vesper, co-founding with scientists
Vesper Ventures is a Brazilian venture builder focused on transforming high-impact scientific research into globally scalable startups. Unlike traditional VCs, Vesper partners with scientists at the earliest stages, often before a company even exists, directly engaging with universities to identify promising talent and breakthrough ideas.
The numbers are eloquent: after evaluating approximately 4,500 scientific projects, Vesper chose to co-found 8 companies. These ventures collectively hold 16 patents, have raised over US$30 million, and bring together a team of more than 50 PhDs.
Odisea, from education to investment
Odisea Labs is a LATAM-based innovation lab focused on advancing AI and Cryptography that integrates education, company building, and capital deployment under one roof. Founded in 2021, Odisea’s thesis starts one step earlier than typical venture builders: through NÚCLEO, its flagship technical academy, Odisea trains talent in applied AI and cryptography, including non-experts and candidates from nontraditional academic paths.
Odisea Labs runs incubation and accelerator programs that give NÚCLEO graduates a fast track into entrepreneurship. To date, Odisea has worked with 100 teams at the AI–cryptography intersection; collectively they have raised over USD 100 million from leading cryptography and AI investors. Odisea is finalizing its first venture fund, creating a continuous "learn–build–invest" flywheel designed to retain talent and compress the time from frontier research to market.
One key element missing is a concrete track record that shows Latin American companies have global reach and impact. Track records are super important for investors. While there are isolated examples, the overall image and history of successful exits in the region remain limited.
Roundtable participant
# Recommendations: Train, Fund, Validate
Stakeholders recommend starting with the basics: normalize entrepreneurship inside universities and top labs. Make it routine, run short, hands-on founder bootcamps and add recurring entrepreneurship modules to graduate programs, with mentors who can pair scientists with operators. Provide universities with the right incentives to engage with company building, circulating economic value back to the institutions.
A parallel demand emerged for increased non-dilutive capital in the initial stages. Stakeholders consistently requested small grants and rapid bridge funding to support proof-of-concepts before Series A, without this early funding, there will be no credible projects for subsequent financing. Finally, connect venture builders with VCs and corporates to secure funding for clinical trials, pilots, and initial market entry. Establishing dedicated corporate pilot lanes (at least one per hub) would enable product validation in real-world environments, and shared diligence and data-room templates would accelerate the most promising projects.