Current research has highlighted multiple facets of established ecosystem formations. We intend to add to the body of ecosystem literature by raising the question of how incumbent firms navigate in emerging de novo ecosystems. Using a grounded theory approach, we analyze incumbent firms in the nascent German electro mobility industry. The electro mobility sector is a particularly relevant field since different incumbents with different capabilities need to collaborate closely and build integrated solutions to realize electronic enabled mobility. Furthermore, several actors, previously operating in separated industries such as automotive, energy and infrastructure, converge in the electro mobility ecosystem and cooperatively pursue new strategies for value creation and capture. Our aim is to understand how the incumbents’ capabilities influence the navigation in the de novo electro mobility ecosystem