How ADP builds ventures that stay inside the business

ADP Ventures was launched 10 years ago as a strategic initiative to drive innovation and growth from within ADP, one of the world’s leading providers of human capital management solutions.

Unlike traditional corporate venture capital arms, ADP Ventures was established as a venture builder, with a mission to create, incubate and scale new businesses that leverage ADP’s assets and market position. Two years ago, the company added a capacity to invest in external start-ups, and the programme also remains focused on building its own.

The ventures built by the unit are always destined to be integrated back in the business, says Usman Khan, senior vice president at ADP Ventures. The team has so far built 10 ventures and Khan says most of these incubated ventures are now broadly offered as part of ADP’s business offerings, in part because ADP Ventures is highly selective and methodical in the ideas it will pursue. 
 
“We spend six to seven months on the thesis to de-risk it as much as possible. We spend another 10 months on product market fit and prototype refinement,” says Khan. 
 
At a decade old, ADP Ventures is one of the longest-standing corporate venture builders and has a substantial team of around 65 product developers and engineers. The team will typically be building three or four ventures at a time and will usually take around four years to build a venture. 

While the core incubation process takes around 18 months, ventures built in a corporate setting must also be equipped for scale, which adds complexity compared to typical start up timelines. “We aim to deliver a client experience that feels as polished and reliable as ADP’s mature, flagship products – even for our newest ventures” he says.  
 
One of the biggest success stories to date is ADP Marketplace, an “app store” that enables hundreds of third-party HR solutions to integrate seamlessly with ADP’s system. It allows ADP to offer customers services in areas where it doesn’t itself have a product, helping with customer retention. The ADP Marketplace was an early success for the team, but subsequent ventures have also made positive impact on the P&L. 
 
“The businesses that we’ve graduated into ADP collectively today do nine figures ARR combined. It’s not an experiment,” says Khan. 

This case study is part of GCV’s Corporate Venture Building 2025 report. Register for free to read the full report including more case studies from The American Heart Association, DB Schenker, Old Mutual, Standard Chartered and TechInt Group.