Thor Industries entered a strategic partnership with TechNexus Venture Collaborative. The partnership will find and work with entrepreneurs and start-up companies to help Thor power its strategic initiatives.
The collaboration will accelerate the pace of innovation, improve Thor’s end-customer experience, and drive several margin improvement initiatives at Thor, the RV manufacturer said.
TechNexus funds and incubate companies and entrepreneurs, the companies stated, leading to new market potential and revenue growth.
Thor and TechNexus will identify and develop ventures leveraging unique business models, emerging consumer trends, and advanced and new technology applications important to the RV industry. Prioritizing early- and growth-stage companies, Thor and TechNexus will accelerate portfolio companies’ success by contributing industry and technical expertise, access to channel partnerships and the ability to launch and scale innovative solutions through selective co-development opportunities with Thor.
Bob Martin, Thor president and CEO, said the partnership is important to remaining a leader in the RV industry.
“The alignment of our internal innovation strategy with external resources through the venture with TechNexus will enable Thor to continue to move at pace and allow us to remain agile,” Martin said. “This partnership will be an important part of the engine that will drive success in our strategic objectives.”
More than just providing capital for growing ventures, the companies stated the goal of the effort is to make it much easier for companies to do business with Thor and give Thor access to technologies, experiences and features important to its customer base.
Todd Woelfer, Thor’s chief operating officer, said the company’s innovation strategy focuses on next-generation features to improve RV user experience. He said the company would be unveiling electric concept vehicles at the upcoming Tampa SuperShow, Jan. 19-23.
“Quality, functionality, sustainability, and convenience are all key focus points of our strategy,” Woelfer said. “This partnership with TechNexus will further power our innovation and global reach in a way to make it quickly matter to RVers. Combining a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem with our legacy enterprise insight at scale will make our innovation process faster and ultimately more effective. Our innovation efforts will elevate the experience of the entire industry.”
Terry Howerton, TechNexus CEO, said RVs have untapped opportunity to be redefined by Thor.
“We are excited to put the power of the engine that drives TechNexus behind Thor to help drive its innovation strategy at such an incredibly disruptive time in the history of the storied RV industry,” Howerton said. “TechNexus’ operating model has driven incredibly strong results to our partners, including Brunswick Corp., the leading innovator in the marine industry.”
