CAVE - Innovating Through People

What CAVE - Innovating Through People does

CAVE - Innovating Through People is a privately held boutique consulting firm founded in 2002 and headquartered in Milan, Italy. With a disclosed team of seven, the firm designs people-centered innovation interventions across three practice areas: Mindset (branding through people, customer centricity, brand and values induction, working-experience mindset), Store (human touchpoint check-up, customer and staff pairing, people service design), and Workplace (working experience design, digital process design). Its go-to-market is sales-led and relationship-based, evidenced by a stated 95% client repurchase rate over more than two decades and a roster of enterprise clients that includes Autogrill, Crédit Agricole, Nespresso, Konica Minolta, BWT, Sanofi, and Polidesign (the design school of Politecnico di Milano).

The firm differentiates through an in-house proprietary delivery stack comprising six tools: video production, training games, a customizable video-microlearning platform with gamification, editorial products (digital and print), real-time visual facilitation, and VR navigation experiences. This stack allows CAVE to execute end-to-end engagement delivery — from diagnostic through design to deployment — without third-party vendor dependency on creative or technical services. The firm extends capacity via a partner ecosystem (Propp for communication design, DINN! for design innovation, M15 Studio for software development, GoodJobbers for relational-quality services).

CAVE's revenue model is professional services: custom project-based consulting engagements, typically structured as multi-year contracts with individually scoped deliverables and pricing. The firm does not publish pricing, does not license its tools as standalone products, and generates revenue solely through bespoke consulting engagements with enterprise clients. Geographic operations are documented only within Italy (Lombardy); no explicit international footprint is disclosed despite the multinational profile of certain clients.

Name

CAVE - Innovating Through People

Legal name

CAVE

Website

https://thecave.it

Company type

Private

Founded year

2002

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CAVE is a Milan-based boutique consultancy founded in 2002 that designs people-centered innovation across Mindset, Store, and Workplace practice areas for enterprise clients using an in-house proprietary stack of video, gamification, microlearning, and VR tools.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Milan

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Consulting & Advisory Services: Professional consulting services across three areas: Mindset (branding, customer centricity, brand induction, working experience), Store (human touchpoints, customer journey, service design), and Workplace (working experience design, digital process design). Services are customized to client objectives.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Core offering

CAVE is a service design and people-centered innovation consulting firm that designs innovation at the intersection of experiences, change, and communication for enterprise clients. It organizes its work across three pillars—Mindset (branding through people, customer centricity, brand and values induction, working experience mindset), Store (human touchpoint check-up, customer and staff pairing, people service design), and Workplace (working experience design, digital process design)—and delivers engagements using a proprietary in-house toolset including video-microlearning, training games, VR experiences, visual facilitation, and editorial products.

Product overview

CAVE operates as a consulting and service design company organized around three core service areas: Mindset, Store, and Workplace. Within these areas, CAVE offers six proprietary internal tools and solutions: Video Production, Training Games, Editorial Products, a Learning Platform with Digital Tools, Visual Facilitation, and Virtual Reality Experiences. The company works with clients to design innovation at the intersection of experiences, change, and communication, activating people to achieve client objectives. CAVE primarily serves enterprise clients across retail, pharmaceutical, financial services, and professional sectors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Mindset Consulting Organizational consulting service covering Branding Through People, Customer Centricity, Brand & Values Induction, and Working Experience Mindset, designed to build approaches coherent with client business strategy.

Quantifiable outcome

• 75% service satisfaction improvement in Crédit Agricole branches, maintained one year after intervention
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• ProppminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunication Design partner providing specialized communication design services as part of CAVE's service offerings to clients.
• DINN! (Design Innovation firm)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDesign Innovation partner collaborating on design innovation projects and methodologies.
• GoodJobbersminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner focused on better relationships and better quality, supporting CAVE's people-centered approach to innovation.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Rightpoint: Customer experience consultancy providing strategy, design, and technology services to enterprise clients. Comparable to CAVE in its integrated customer experience + digital transformation offering and engagement with large enterprise buyers across multiple sectors.
• Experientia: Italy-based user experience and service design consultancy serving international clients in healthcare, finance, and consumer sectors. The closest geographic peer to CAVE, with comparable service offerings, Italian roots, and a multinational client base.
• Livework: Service design and innovation consultancy helping organizations redesign services and customer experiences. Directly comparable to CAVE for its dedicated focus on service design, customer journey work, and human-centered methods applied to enterprise transformation.
• Method (GlobalLogic): Global digital experience and product design firm (now part of GlobalLogic). Comparable to CAVE for combining digital product/experience design with enterprise consulting engagements and a similar emphasis on custom creative tooling.
• IDEO: Pioneering global design and innovation consultancy that helps organizations design products, services, and experiences. Directly comparable to CAVE for its human-centered service design methodology, experience-led enterprise engagements, and integration of research-driven design with strategic consulting.
• Frog Design (Capgemini Invent): Global design and innovation firm, now part of Capgemini Invent, that partners with enterprises to design products, services, and brand experiences. Comparable to CAVE for its integrated design + strategy delivery model, focus on customer experience transformation, and use of proprietary creative tools within projects.

Broad incumbents

• McKinsey & Company: Global management consulting firm advising on strategy, operations, and organization across industries. Comparable to CAVE as a broad incumbent pursuing similar enterprise transformation mandates, with significantly larger scale and breadth.
• Accenture Song: Experience design and marketing transformation practice within Accenture, providing customer experience, design, and digital transformation services. Comparable as a broad incumbent with a dedicated, design-led practice competing for the same enterprise experience mandates as CAVE.
• Capgemini Invent: Digital innovation and transformation consulting arm of Capgemini and parent of Frog Design. Comparable as a broad incumbent offering design-led transformation services, with significantly greater headcount and geographic reach than CAVE.
• Deloitte Digital: Digital transformation practice of Deloitte offering strategy, design, and technology services to enterprise clients. Comparable as a broad incumbent covering service design, customer experience, and digital workplace engagements to multinational buyers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cave---branding-through-people

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CAVE - Innovating Through People