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For corporates

Run a venture programme with the discipline of a fund and the speed of a startup.

You keep the strategic mandate and the commercial relationship. We operate everything between the thesis and the exit.

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Minh Q. Tran explains why an externally operated corporate venture programme survives a change of general management, where an internal one rarely does.Playing loads the YouTube player, which may set cookies. Nothing is loaded before you click.
The model

How the operating model works

You govern. We operate. The investment committee decides.

Raise capitalExitInvest
S1

Seeking Capital

Raise and steward capital from LPs, corporates and co-investors, then keep them informed well enough that the next vehicle is an easier conversation than the last.

2 outcomes

  • Committed capital with an agreed mandate.
  • A reporting cadence LPs can plan around.

Why corporates need venture, and why it usually fails

  1. Hiring takes 12 to 18 months

    By the time an internal team is assembled and has learned the market, the strategic question that justified it has moved.

  2. The programme depends on one person

    Internal CVC units are rarely closed over a bad investment. They close because the sponsoring executive moves on and nobody left has a stake in defending a portfolio that will not produce a result for four years.

  3. Nothing reaches the business units

    A portfolio company that never gets in front of a business unit is a financial holding with a strategic label. That gap is the most common reason venture stops being funded.

What we operate

The offer, in five modules

Deliverables, timeline, and who owns what. The ownership column is the one worth reading.

The five modules of the mandate, their deliverables and who owns what
ModuleDeliverablesWho holds the penTimeline
Vehicle design and structuringWhat the programme is for, which markets it touches, and what a win looks like, written down before any capital moves. Then the vehicle, the investment committee and the decision rights that carry it.
  • Investment thesis tied to a business objective, not a technology trend
  • Vehicle structuring, including cross-border where the corridor requires it
  • Investment committee composition and decision rights
  • Compliance, conflict-of-interest and reporting framework
Mandalore drafts and operates; the corporate approves and governs. The thesis is the mandate, and everything downstream is measured against it.4 to 8 weeks for the thesis, 6 to 12 for the vehicle
Sourcing engineProprietary deal flow in the target sectors, filtered against the thesis rather than by novelty. The corporate relationship is itself a sourcing channel.
  • Continuous pipeline, scored against the thesis rather than by novelty
  • Screening and scoring grid
  • Market and competitor mapping in the target sectors
Mandalore sources. Nobody at the corporate has to become a full-time investor.Continuous once the thesis is signed
Investment executionDiligence, terms and closing, executed by the team that will operate the stake. Diligence is run by people who have operated in the category.
  • Commercial, technical and legal diligence
  • Investment memos written for the committee that has to decide
  • Terms, closing and the operating relationship that follows
Mandalore recommends. The committee decides. The corporate keeps the strategic veto without staffing an investment team to exercise it.
Portfolio operationsWhat happens after the wire: board work, commercial introductions into the corporate, follow-on structuring, and the pilots that turn an investment into a business relationship.
  • Board or observer seats and a quarterly operating rhythm
  • Commercial pilots with the corporate partner
  • Follow-on strategy and syndicate construction
Mandalore runs the operating rhythm. The corporate supplies the commercial door, which is the asset a founder actually wanted.For the life of the holding
Reporting and exitConsistent measurement of pipeline and portfolio, in a format an investment committee and a CSR report can both use, and the exit path prepared with the shareholders rather than improvised.
  • Quarterly portfolio and pipeline reporting
  • Consistent ROI and impact scoring across vehicles
  • Board-ready materials and LP communication
  • Exit preparation with the shareholders
Mandalore produces it. The corporate presents it internally, which is the moment a venture programme is usually won or lost.Quarterly, from first close

What an operated mandate looks like

Corporate mandate

AXA France / AXA Seed Factory

A corporate venture mandate designed, structured and operated end to end

AXA France launched AXA Seed Factory in June 2013, a seed fund dedicated to insurance and banking technology. It was led by Minh Q. Tran — his own track record, at AXA France, and not that of Mandalore Partners, which did not exist at the time.

  • The full chain covered, from thesis to exit
  • Companies created with the group's own assets
  • Exits to industrial acquirers

Public sources: AXA France press release (June 2013), FinSMEs, Artemis.bm, Atlas Magazine, Maddyness, Rude Baguette, Namirial, Tech.eu, evercontact.com. Compiled 24 August 2026.

See the operated mandates
Corporate mandate

Apicil / Insurtech Capital

A corporate insurance mandate, operated end to end

Apicil entrusted Mandalore Partners with operating its venture exposure to insurance and financial services technology, through the Insurtech Capital vehicle: structuring, sourcing, investment execution and reporting, under the group's governance.

See the operated mandates
FAQ

Questions corporates ask

Request a CVC readiness conversation

Thirty minutes on your objective, your constraints, and whether an operated programme is the right instrument. If it is not, we will say so.

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