Scaling a corporate venture isn’t just about having deep pockets — it’s about execution, autonomy, and leveraging existing strengths. Many corporate ventures start strong but stall when they hit internal resistance, unclear ownership, or misalignment with the core business.

So how do you avoid those and set yourself up to build a venture that can scale effectively?

It all starts with admitting that there are positives and negatives to corporate parentage…

The Scaling Paradox in Corporate Ventures

Corporate-backed ventures often have more resources than traditional startups but struggle to scale because of bureaucratic inertia, slow decision-making, and a tendency to operate like an internal department rather than a separate business.

Successful scaling requires autonomy, a clear ownership model, and leadership that blends corporate expertise with startup agility.

One of the key challenges in scaling a corporate venture is that the standard model for venture building works almost exactly the same as anywhere else – validate, test, learn, adapt and work towards product-market fit. And most corporate ventures can get there as easily as any startup.

But then they fall flat at the scale stage… Why?

The Difference Between Startup Scaling & Corporate Scaling

Because, unlike the venture stage, scaling is a completely different process from what corporates are used to:

• Corporates scale slowly and methodically: A large retail chain expands into new markets by opening more stores, negotiating supplier deals, and leveraging existing distribution networks.

• Ventures pivot, try different business models and need PMF before scaling: A corporate-backed fintech startup scales by validating user adoption, iterating on its pricing model, and optimising customer acquisition before expanding aggressively.

Corporate scaling playbooks rarely work for ventures — and vice versa – because a new venture often needs to do and try things (and at a pace) that no corporate governance arm will ever approve.

Take grocery delivery in SA, for example. Retail corporates like Pick n Pay, Shoprite and Woolworths have been trying for years to successfully build a scale a more robust home delivery method that actually works (waiting days for your perishables to arrive is not a good model).

Despite most of them having dedicated tech departments (ala Checkers X etc.), most fail to get off the ground until an extraordinary set of circumstances forced the corporate parents to let go and let the ventures scale the way they’re meant to be scaled…

Corporate Venture Scaling: The Case of Checkers Sixty60 & Pingo

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, lockdowns threatened most business sectors, and despite retail being a core segment still allowed to operate, the dire reality forced large players to innovate.

Shoprite’s Checkers Sixty60 is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s best-known corporate venture success stories – let alone one of the most financially successful, sparking not one but two successful SA venture stories.

Checkers Sixty60: Grocery Delivery at Scale

Launched in 2019, Checkers Sixty60 leveraged parent Checkers/Shoprite’s existing store network to act as fulfilment centres and funding to today operate across hundreds of locations and process millions of orders annually.

But, much less often mentioned is how Checkers Sixty60 was allowed to maintain a much more startup-style execution, which enabled it to scale effectively:

• Lean, Agile Development: Launched as an MVP in 2019, using startup Zulzi’s tech (a system that still today outperforms even Checkers Sixty60 itself, but on a smaller scale), then iterating rapidly based on customer feedback and building an independent tech stack for flexibility.

• Separate but Connected Operations: Operated with a dedicated, startup-style team within Shoprite, avoiding legacy constraints and using stores as micro-fulfilment centres.

• Autonomy in Decision-Making: Avoided corporate bureaucracy, allowing fast decision-making and direct customer engagement for rapid improvements.

• Data-Driven Growth: Used real-time analytics to optimise stock, pricing, and expansion decisions based on demand rather than rigid corporate plans.

• Scalable Logistics Model: Implemented a hyper-local fulfilment strategy and built an on-demand delivery fleet, reducing costs and improving speed.

Incidentally, it was this self-same on-demand delivery solution that sparked yet another great SA corporate venture story…

Pingo: From Internal Logistics to Independent Venture

In 2022, after initial success, Shoprite created a 50/50 joint venture with another corporate RTT Group (logistics) to create Pingo to serve Checkers Sixty60’s expanding delivery needs.

Importantly, both of these corporates had extensive logistical footprints, yet they didn’t “force” anything onto this new entity, affording the same legroom to grow as a startup would:

• Autonomous Operations: Established as a 50/50 joint venture with RTT Group, allowing fast, decentralised decision-making and avoiding corporate bureaucracy.

• Leveraging Built-In Demand: Scaled quickly by capitalising on Sixty60’s rapid e-commerce growth, ensuring immediate demand and real-world validation.

• Tech-Driven Logistics: Used AI-driven fleet management, real-time route optimization, and data analytics to improve delivery efficiency and scalability.

• Asset-Light Growth Model: Operated with a flexible, contract-based fleet, reducing upfront costs and allowing dynamic scaling based on demand.

• Beyond Sixty60 & Full Acquisition: Expanded into third-party logistics, diversifying revenue streams.

Of course, Pingo was fully acquired by Shoprite in 2024 to further scale operations. But both it and Checkers Sixty60 stand as examples of how corporates can “allow” ventures to grow as ventures need to, rather than interfere or stifle.

And, from these examples, we should be able to derive a somewhat ideal list of requirements for building more scalable ventures…

The Key Ingredients for Building Ventures That Scale

Successful scaling isn’t just about growing fast — it’s about growing smart. The following five elements lay the foundation for a venture that can scale effectively and sustainably:

1. Market timing & Product-Market Fit

Scaling too soon can be a death sentence. Before expanding, ventures must validate demand, refine their value proposition, and prove that customers are willing to pay.

2. Clear ownership model

Without defined autonomy, ventures risk bureaucratic slowdowns and competing priorities. Corporate leadership must provide support without interference, ensuring the venture has the space to grow independently.

3. Commercial validation

Scaling isn’t just about having a great product; it’s about finding the right sales channels, refining pricing strategies, and ensuring repeatable customer acquisition. Ventures must test, analyse, and optimise their go-to-market approach before aggressively expanding.

4. Autonomous operations

Pingo was established as a joint venture, enabling fast, decentralized decision-making without being slowed down by corporate bureaucracy.

5. Securing buy-in from leadership early

Our examples weren’t just experiments — they were built as serious business units. Securing strong executive sponsorship ensured that these ventures had the necessary funding, strategic alignment, and long-term commitment from leadership.

6. Positioning themselves as complementary, not competitive

Sixty60 didn’t replace in-store shopping; it enhanced it. Rather than being seen as a threat to the core business, it positioned itself as an extension of Checkers’ retail strategy, driving more customer engagement and brand loyalty.

7. Expanding beyond their initial scope

Pingo evolved into a logistics company serving multiple brands, rather than just Checkers. While originally built to support Sixty60 deliveries, it identified a much larger market opportunity in last-mile logistics and adapted accordingly.

8. Think beyond the parent company’s ecosystem

If you only serve internal customers, your ceiling is limited. Many corporate-backed ventures fail to scale because they remain too dependent on their parent company’s ecosystem. True scalability requires breaking out of this bubble and reaching external markets, customers, and partners.

9. Build for scale from day one

The wrong technical or structural decisions early on can kill a venture’s long-term potential. Scalability must be embedded in the venture’s foundations, from its technology stack to its operational processes.

The Role of the CTO in Scaling a Venture

Technical leadership is critical to ensuring that early decisions don’t create barriers to scale. That’s why you need a CTO in corporate ventures to help navigate short-term experimentation with long-term scalability, ensuring the venture’s architecture supports rapid growth while remaining cost-effective.

As ventures transition from experimentation to scaling, they need to invest in operational efficiency, ensuring that successful processes are repeatable at scale, rather than constantly reinventing workflows.

A CTO is usually ideally positioned to help the venture do just that. But retaining the venture’s autonomy is just as crucial. That’s why Octoco, as an external provider of tech expertise, is ideally situated to help corporates build and scale new ventures that unlock operational efficiency and new revenue streams.

Want to ensure new venture scalability?

Speak to Octoco’s venture team today.