Collaboration between corporates and deep-tech startups led to generating innovative technology solutions. The initiative connected teams via business workshops and meetings between European corporations and startups during the first edition of Scale-up Champions Startup-Corporate Collaboration Program.
Aware of the importance of adapting to change, many large companies are increasingly incorporating open innovation strategies, such as corporate venturing. In this way, through these new ways of corporate entrepreneurship, companies manage to shorten their innovation deadlines, reduce process costs and contribute to the growth of highly innovative micro-businesses.
In this context the pan-European Scale-up Champions Consortium has been developed, offering opportunities for collaboration between corporations and emerging deep tech companies, in which La Salle-URL and La Salle Technova participate together with four other European business support organizations. In the first edition of Startup-Corporate Collaboration, 21 large companies and 71 startups from all over Europe have already participated, leading to more than 100 meetings between them.
Some of the large companies participating in Scale-up Champions Program include Volkswagen, Enel, Schneider, E.ONN, PKO Bank Polski, Krah Pipes, Aalborg Portland and Lemona. Their teams have formed more than 90 challenges concerning Industry 4.0, Smart City, Medtech and other sectors linked to the need of tech solutions.
“Participants of the first edition of Program gave us a lot of feedback on how the joint innovation development is going on and it really inspires us to run the initiative. Companies are pleasantly surprised and excited to continue the collaboration process which leads to the open innovation development”, says the Program’s representative Carmen Adán from La Salle Technova Barcelona.
Among the deep tech startup projects that are part of this innovative pan-European community are Leaneria, a Lithuanian startup that develops analytics on a SaaS platform and provides recommendations based on data; R8 Technologies, an Estonian company that has developed a climate control and diagnostic software solution using artificial intelligence, which reduces energy consumption by up to 20%; and the Spanish startup Madrid Space, which develops 3D-printed parts with fluid channels to help satellite integrators solve thermal problems.
New phase of the Program
Starting in February 2021, Scale-up Champions will begin the next stage of the project, deciding which companies will continue to collaborate to develop new business opportunities. Among the large participating companies, 87.5% of those who have already responded have decided to continue collaborating with at least one of the emerging companies they have interviewed within the framework of the project. The success of participation and agreement of the first edition of the initiative predicts an increase in the number of corporations and startups. Companies which want to participate in the second edition of the program should apply: https://www.scaleupchampions.com/open-call-for-corporations