Shifting gears in times of crisis

While the world is on pause, venture capital groups continue to relentlessly work with a single-minded focus: supporting their portfolio companies through this crisis. Even though these times are extremely challenging, there are hopeful signs of adaptability, resilience and true grit in every single portfolio.

A CVC that has seen incredible examples of its portfolio companies shifting gears, is Shell Ventures. As the corporate venture capital fund of oil and gas company Shell, the team is based in seven hubs globally. Their global footprint is accompanied by insights that show the breadth of the impact Covid-19 is having on both a national and industry level. Amid the necessary measures companies are putting in place to ensure business continuity, Shell Ventures has also seen remarkable cases of resilience and innovation within their portfolio.

Maintaining a lifeline

One such example is Germany-based company InstaFreight, a digital forwarding company for road freight in Europe. In response to the steep decline of passenger flights since Covid-19’s global spread, and the subsequent major shortage of air freight transport capacity, InstaFreight started using their digital platform to offer customers an overland transport service between China and Europe. With this new service, InstaFreight is providing an alternative to currently very cost-intensive air and rail transport. They are playing their part to uphold a supply chain that could be an essential lifeline to areas heavily affected by Covid-19. Philipp Ortwein, co-founder and managing director of InstaFreight, commented: “As freight forwarder, it is our role in such times to be pragmatic and to find solutions to problems such as the current stagnant flow of goods from China to Europe. For systemically relevant goods, every day counts.”

Solutions for the present and future

Another company that has taken on this crisis as an opportunity is US-based Spiffy. Their on-demand and on-site vehicle care services cater to customers in need of the utmost convenience. With health and safety top of mind among their customer base, they have started offering additional services to clean facilities with similar methods and tools they were already using to fight Covid-19 on vehicle surfaces. The added scope of general sanitisation for facilities not only offers business owners an immediate, reliable solution for known infections, but also allows them to help keep their facilities safe in the future with preventive services. This important new line of business is also allowing Spiffy to rehire employees furloughed due to the pandemic. Scot Wingo, co-founder and chief executive of Spiffy offered a piece of advice to other small businesses: “Talk to your customers. Try to understand what their concerns are, how this pandemic is affecting them and what can you do to help.”

When one door closes

Like InstaFreight and Spiffy, there are countless stories across portfolios that show the resilience and agility of startups. The differentiator between companies, seems to be the ability to look beyond the crisis at hand, and explore what opportunities it might bring.  We thrive when we are challenged, and difficult times require difficult decisions, but companies that do not waste a crisis will come out of it stronger.