Start with real business problems, not abstract innovation goals. 
Inside BASF’s AgroStart Model for Startup Collaboration with Mirella Lisboa
Corporate innovation initiatives often struggle with a familiar problem: impressive announcements but little real impact. For Mirella Lisboa, Head of Latin America at BASF’s AgroStart open innovation platform, the key to avoiding this trap is simple—innovation must begin with real business problems.
Speaking with Nicolas Sauvage, President of TDK Ventures, on the February episode of Corporate Venturing Insider, Lisboa explained how BASF has designed AgroStart to act as a practical bridge between startups, corporate teams, and venture investors.
“I started my career as a chemical engineer, and that background deeply influences how I think,” Lisboa said. “Engineering trains you to see the world as a system.”
That systems perspective now guides her role leading AgroStart in Latin America. Rather than focusing primarily on generating ideas, Lisboa said her work revolves around helping BASF decide where to experiment with startups, how to structure partnerships, and when innovations should scale—or stop.
“My role is much less about ideation and much more about decision making,” she explained. “I help BASF decide where to experiment, how to collaborate with startups, how to structure risk, and when to scale or stop initiatives.”
A global platform with regional expertise
BASF launched AgroStart roughly a decade ago to address a key challenge: agriculture innovation varies dramatically across regions.
“It's very difficult to discuss priorities globally when agriculture is so dependent on geography, culture and business models,” Lisboa said.
Large farms in Brazil operate very differently from smaller farms in India or Europe. AgroStart therefore operates globally while allowing regional teams autonomy to pursue locally relevant innovations.
“Every year what I need to provide to the global team is data about our main challenges and priorities, and the kind of partners we want to work with,” Lisboa said.
Brazil’s agricultural diversity has also made the region an important testing ground for global startups. But helping international companies enter the market involves more than introducing them to farmers.
“The easy part is connecting startups with customers and providing farm labs,” Lisboa explained. “The hard part is explaining the legal system, the bureaucracy, and the culture of Brazil.”
This local expertise allows AgroStart to serve as a “soft landing partner” for international startups while also helping BASF identify new technologies globally.
“We accelerate technology adoption in the field, but we also help foreign startups gain their first customers,” she said.
Acting as a venture client
Unlike traditional corporate venture capital funds, AgroStart does not directly invest in startups. Instead, it acts primarily as a venture client platform.
“We are not a typical CVC,” Lisboa said. “Our intention is to avoid innovation theater.”
Startups are not invited to pitch abstract concepts. Instead, they engage with concrete challenges that BASF’s business units are already facing.
“Innovation only exists if it is connected to real business problems with clear ownership,” Lisboa explained.
This approach forces clarity on both sides.
“Internally our teams must be clear about their priorities and commit resources,” she said. “Externally startups must demonstrate not only technological value but operational and economic relevance.”
Avoiding “innovation theater”
Lisboa described three common warning signs of ineffective corporate innovation programs.
The first occurs when innovation teams launch challenges without alignment with the core business.
“When innovation units define challenges only under their own brand, without business alignment, that is innovation theater,” she said.
Entrepreneurs have learned to recognize the pattern.
“Many startups tell me they refuse invitations from innovation units because they know nothing will move forward without business demand,” Lisboa added.
The second mistake is failing to define clear metrics.
“If you know what impact you want to achieve, you know what KPIs you must measure,” Lisboa said.
At AgroStart, those KPIs are defined at the beginning of a partnership and shared by both BASF and the startup.
The third trap is relying too heavily on proof-of-concepts.
“Some corporates live off POC results,” she said. “But a startup cannot live only from POCs.”
Sauvage agreed.
“You can actually die by POC,” he noted.
A pipeline to BASF Venture Capital
AgroStart also serves as an important signal generator for BASF Venture Capital (BVC). By testing technologies directly with customers, the platform provides valuable insights into both product viability and market fit.
“We are like an observatory for BASF Venture Capital,” Lisboa said.
Successful collaborations can sometimes lead to investment opportunities. One example was Grão Direto, a Brazilian agri-fintech platform that enables small and medium farmers to sell grain digitally to large buyers.
“We tested the platform with our customers, and it worked very well,” Lisboa explained. “Later BASF Venture Capital decided to invest.”
Building trust with leadership
For Lisboa, maintaining executive support requires clear communication throughout the innovation journey.
“In agriculture, innovation can take three to five years,” she said. “If you only communicate the final result, you may never reach it.”
Instead, AgroStart shares progress at intermediate milestones to maintain alignment with corporate leadership.
“You need to celebrate each part of the process,” Lisboa said. “That transparency builds trust.”
As Sauvage concluded, the AgroStart model offers a powerful blueprint for corporate innovation done right.
“It’s not dying by POC,” he said. “It’s success through POC.”
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