"Partnership is the new Leadership" - How Volvo Group Supports Startups - Helene Niklasson, Head of CampX

Volvo Group has been taking an interest in startups, and not just in the form of financial investing. In 2019, it created CampX, a network-based centre that accelerates technology and business innovations through partnerships.

CampX includes an Accelerator, which deals with scaling up more mature companies, as well as an Incubator for 'newborn' startups.

CampX is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, but has expanded to Bangalore, India, and earlier this year to Lyon, France, and Greensboro, United States.

“It really circulates around the notion that our CEO, Martin Lundstedt, usually talks about, and that is that partnership is the new leadership,” Helene Niklasson, Head of CampX, tells Auto Futures.

The CampX Toolbox

In addition to taking advantage of Volvo’s strong industrialisation and commercialisation processes, CampX provides startups with a toolbox to succeed. This toolbox refers to support in the form of contracts, office space, funding, and licensing.

“Startups would never survive the procurement process that we have when we work with our suppliers, so we have put in a framework… We empower the product and business owners to decide what to do and with who,” explains Niklasson.

The key aspect of both the Accelerator and the Incubator is that start-ups get access to Volvo’s internal experts, and vice versa. CampX by Volvo Group recently won the Best Accelerator/Incubator Program in the Nordic startup awards and is now competing in the global awards.

CampX focuses on innovation in automation, connectivity, electromobility, sustainability, and more recently, has expanded to include fintech startups.

A Volvo Group press release explained that focusing on fintech “will accelerate the transition to sustainable transport solutions by finding new ways of working with customers and changing how customers can utilize the Volvo Group’s products and services.”

Proof Of Concept

One of CampX’s most notable successes is Fyrqom AB. The company provides solutions for automatic configuration of tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) during vehicle production and at workshop visits. Without an automated system like Fyrqom’s technology, this monitoring must be done manually.

“During production, every wheel sensor is read and paired with its location on the chassis. This is done in the background of already used manufacturing steps. At workshop, tire related activities are automated and digitalised to enhance operator’s work and wheel handling,” Roman Iustin, CEO at Fyrqom, tells Auto Futures.

Iustin worked at Volvo Technology (GTT) for the last nine years. This experience helped prepare him for this undertaking.

“Understanding how technology works and being part of Volvo, and knowing the need of a commercial vehicle from within, created possibility to identify the missing parts. Volvo’s innovation platform CampX supported the project that eventually turned out into a spin-off, Fyrqom AB,” says Iustin.

CampX supported Fyrqom in its earliest stages, and several PoC/PoV have been conducted to test the technology and document the business case.

“Cross functional stakeholder work organized and conducted by CampX made possible to build the case and eventually present it as a candidate for spin-off.”

This allowed it to develop as an independent entity, explains Iustin.

It was done with speed using the CampX concept with support from many areas within the Volvo Group, like Legal, IP strategy, Finance, Tax, HR and Purchasing.

“Having this venture builder function in the CampX concept is a good way to capture new business ideas and opportunities, both inside and outside the Volvo Group, and accelerate them to the market.” says Johan Lundén, Volvo Group Senior Vice President and CampX chairman, in a press release.

In 2022, the European Commission decided that TPMS would be legally required for larger vehicles like trucks and busses; a vehicle’s tire pressure has a significant effect on its emissions. This legislation would have a two-year phase-in period beginning in July 2022. Fyrqom’s technology is able to make this a smooth transition for heavy-duty vehicle drivers and manufacturers.

“Fyrqom is installing its products at Volvo factories, preparing for legal introduction of TPMS in EU by mid 2024. Integration has been tested at one of the pilot plants with positive feedback,” says Iustin.

A Win-Win Situation

Since 2019, CampX has hosted more than 50 startups while they developed their ideas. Currently, there are 30 ongoing PoV projects with 30 different startups in the Accelerator, and there are six startups in the Incubator.

In the Accelerator, around 70 per cent of the projects have moved forward in one way or another. This could be, "Long-term partnerships, or maybe we integrate them through a license agreement, or we create something together and it becomes a different partnership agreement, or we invest in them,” says Niklasson.

CampX offers a win-win situation because, “Volvo brings in industry knowledge, and startups bring in useful competences that they don’t have,” she concludes.