How to?

Fast Track

Context: Starting a collaboration with an external party is often complex, because many things enter into this. Legal, technical and logistic aspects are only a few examples which need to be addressed. Due to the complexity, the formalisation of a collaboration is very time consuming. Time which cannot be spent on creating added value by collaborating with the startup.

Solution: ING has set up a streamlined process, which can be applied if an interesting opportunity to collaborate occurs.The lead time of drawing a contract has been reduced significantly and so all the faster working on the collaboration is possible. It has also resulted in many more partnerships between ING and Fintech startups. The number of collaborations was 65 on October 2016 and since then the number has increased significantly (https://fd.nl/economie-politiek/1172495/ing-werkt-samen-met-65-fin-techbedrijven).

How to: Venture Development Framework DSM

A startup has to pass through several stages from idea to a successful profitable business. Each stage in the life of a venture has its own requirements. Often the ‘age’/ maturity of a startup is overestimated and consequently the expectations are set to high. A common and clear understanding of the real age of startup is therefore crucial to the success of collaboration between a corporate and a startup.

DSM developed a venture development framework based on the Bell Mason Model that is instrumental in determining the real ‘age’ of the venture. This venture development framework also provides direction to a startup as well as the corporate as it describes the different requirements that a venture should address in each phase of its development. DSM is using this framework for both internal ventures as well as for external startups. The framework has created also a common language within the company. People involved in collaboration with startups have not only a good understanding of what can be expected of a startup in each stage but also of what cannot be expected

How to: Stage gate approach

The structure, processes and governance of a corporate is not easy for startups. By introducing a gating process in the light version we are able to accommodate to our internal process review, but still remain agile.

Situation: Initially we worked free format with startups, mainly through investment funds. In this process we were really only consulted at moments where startups considered us as launching customer. Our intention was however to work with startups that could bring solutions to us in our own environment.

Solution: By using our stage gate process, in which we divide the whole process in phases from ideation to market entry.With clearly marked and structured gate reviews we are able to come to consensus on both parties objectives and discover divergences of objectives/expectations in a much earlier stage. The yellow boxes indicate different ideas/cooperations in different phases of the process. An enhancement can be the gate review to be executed by different people going from one phase to the other to avoid unintended continuation decisions on previous preferences.

ICEC: ING's innovation kitchen

Context: External innovation is often faster than internal innovation. However, there is a lot of knowledge and experience inside the organization that can be useful for innovation. 

Solution: For that reason, ING has started an innovation studio (http://www.innovationstudio.ninja/). The innovation studio is a place within ING where internal and external startups can get together to develop new business models. These teams are supported by experts, experienced entrepreneurs and mentors to accelerate their development. More info can be found at: 

https://www.ing.com/newsroom/nieuws/whats-cooking-in-the-innovation-kitchen.htm.

How to: Eneco Smart Energy

Eneco is investing in start-ups and scale-ups with a lot of potential. Start-ups and scale-ups often have a lot of innovation power, talent and fresh ideas. In addition, Eneco Group has a growing number of in-house resources, knowledge, network, capital and a strong customer base. We can strengthen each other and accelerate the energy transition.

Continuously on the lookout for cooperation: We cannot accelerate the transition on our own. Therefore, Eneco is constantly on the lookout for cooperation with start-ups, scale-ups or sustainable partners with groundbreaking energy services with regard to the following themes: smart home, mobility, smart buildings, flex, solar & storage, smart outdoor, one planet heating, communities and technological developments in the field of production and storage of energy and heat.

Venturing: more than just financing: We offer many possibilities to start-ups, scale-ups and partners, and go beyond solely investing. Think, for instance, of support in and advice on the further development and scale-up, customer research, pilots, marketing and PR advice. Our way of working is always customized; and personal contact and engagement play a key role.

If you want to know more about startups we have invested in, go to our website: https://www.eneco.nl/over-ons/innovatie/startupshttps://www.eneco.nl/over-ons/innovatie/startups

PortXL

Context: The size of business opportunities and the challenges in the maritime and logistics sector are so big, that acceleration of innovation is necessary to capture the opportunities. 

Solution: The Port of Rotterdam together with 9 partners has established an accalerator program specifically for this sector. These 10 partners are actively involved in scouting and the creation of pilots. As a result, it is easier for startups to find their way to their first customer in the Rotterdam ecosystem, and to grow internationally. This accelerator is the first and only one of its kind worldwide. 

Philips: Effectieve startup programma's door bundelen van krachten

Context: Innovation is in Philips' DNA. During the past years, Philips has used multiple ways of collaborating with startups or to generate startups. Many of these initiatives were driven by technological developments and internal needs. The absence of a central policy led to the mergence of many intitiaves, scattered around the organization and the world. Startups looking to connect with Philips entered the organization at various points, as a result of which the collaboration and its progress were depending on the accidental meeting with a Philips employee. Philips has always had a good connection with startups, incubators and accelerators, but the unstructured approach often did not result in the desired outcome.

Solution: During the past year, Philips has brought together various initiatives, thereby increasing the effectiveness for both startups as well as Philips. The mandate is now with the Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer, who oversees all initiatives. At the moment, the following initiaves are formally organized within Philips, next tot the already existing relationships with the accelerators:

HealthWorks; OUr acceleratorprogram for both internal and external startup initiatives, offering focused guidance and support. The first cohort has started in Boston and cohorts in Eindhoven, Bangalore and Shanghai will follow shortly.

HealthTech Ventures; our investment vehicle to take a minority stake in startups, focused on the independence of the startup and to accelerate those startups. 

Internal ventures and incubators; Since 2 years, Philips has a separate business unit inwhich we try to develop internal startup initiatives, emerging from Research or existing business units, into a a real business. 

KPN Ventures

At the end of 2015, KPN founded KPN Ventures, a Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) investment fund of €70 mio with a team of 5 people, directly reporting to the CFO.

The objective of KPN Ventures is to achieve strategic return by creating close collaborations with young technology companies, that will delivering added value for KPN and its customers as well as financial return by supporting these portfolio companies in growing their business and by exiting with a sound financial retun in the long term. KPN Ventures has no intention to acquire this companies in the end.

KPN Ventures invest in young technology companies that achieved some first commercial success (>€500k mio sales) and that are active in areas related to the strategic themes of KPN: the Internet of Things, Connected Home, Cyber Security, eHealth, Cloud Services, Data & Analytics solutions and OTT/mobile services, in which KPN also would like to expand its services.

Up till now KPN Ventures invested in 10 startups and 2 investment funds. KPN also have set up collaborations with several of the startups it has invested in, e.g.: 

• Actility: KPN is making use of the LPWAN networking technology of Actility for deploying its national IOT network and collaborate closely on developing new applications;
• EclecticIQ: KPN Security Operations and KPN security Services make use of the software of EclecticIQ to improve its own security and the security of its customers;
• Personal MedSystems (CardioSecur): KPN daughter E-Zorg offers mobile ECG technology of Personal MedSystems to health care institutions and physicians as part of its secure telemonitoring and heart rate diagnostic services.

More information about KPN Ventures, see www.kpnventures.com.

Liaison Manager Startups: Single Spot of Contact for Startups

Context: KPN believes in open innovation. Startups are interesting partners in this, because they offer new techniques, busiess models and talent and can operate faster and cheaper. KPN is actively looking for collaboration with startups to speed up their innovation process and increase customer value. For startups, it is often difficult to find the right connection within a corporate. 

A good positioning within the startup ecosystem (incubators, accelerators, co-working spaces etc.) is desirable, as to 1) for KPN to signal the areas in which KPN is looking to collaborate with startups; 2) for startups to understand which types of collaboration KPN has to offer. All with the aim to find and connect with the right startups. 

Solution: KPN has appointed a Liaison Manager Startups, as part of her New Business Leadership team, reporting directly to the CCO. The Liaison Manager has the following responsibilites: 

• Organizing startup events, independent or with partners, broad or theme specific. Last year, these events have resulted in the adding of more than 500 startups to our CRM system; 
• Assessment of startups with regards to potential and possible fit with KPN;
• Connecting startups to the appropriate business of KPN or within our network;
• Smoothing processes such as contracting, security assessments etc. for startups in collaboration with KPN colleagues; 
• Actively building of a network with the most important actors in the startup ecosystem (creation of win-win situations);
• Stimulating knowledge sharing in collaboration with other corproate innovators;
• Commication through a dedicated innovation website and active presence on social media

For more information: www.kpn.com/innovatie

ING & Kabbage: een fintech samenwerking

Context: Kabbage is a US-based Fintech company that can provide a loan to an SME company within minutes, using realtime data analyses. ING took an equity participation in Kabbage in 2015.

Solution: Besides equity, the participation in Kabbage is a partnership in which the two companies explore how the services provided by Kabbage can be provided through ING. Kabbage and ING have conducted a first test in Spain, where loans up to € 100.000 are provided to SMEs. Along these lines,  ING is continuously looking for win-win situations between ING and Fintech companies.

https://www.ing.com/newsroom/nieuws/ing-invests-in-fintech-company-kabbage.htm

Ridiculously Good

Rabobank Haarlem en Omstreken is one of the founders of Present Your Startup, an accelerator program with a yearly live pitch event, started in 2014. Present Your Startup guides startups and brings investors, incumbent firms, and startups together during this program. The best startups continu after the program in the Rabobank/ HaarlemValley Incubator.

One of the startups, Ridiculously Good, was matched during the Present Your Startup program to Jamin and Multivlaai. On top of that, the bank facilitates financial support. 
Moreover, Rabobank played a mediating role in the furtehr development of this startup by linking the innovative chocolate concept to Rabobank Foundation and a variety of customers. Ridiculously Good has recently moved to the Rabobank premises, as part of the incubation program. 

Collaboration on renewable chemicals from CO2

Accelerating time to market by leveraging joint capabilities: Akzo Nobel and Photanol collaboration to realise production of renewable chemicals from CO2.

Since 2013 AkzoNobel and clean chemicals company Photanol work together focused on jointly developing sustainable technology which mimics the way plants use photosynthesis. The aim of the collaboration is to produce renewable chemical building blocks that will eventually replace raw materials AkzoNobel currently sources from fossil-based production.

Time to market and upscaling risk is significantly reduced combining AkzoNobel's extensive market and processing technology expertise and Photanol's proprietary technology to directly convert CO2 to chemicals. The joint partnership strives to significantly reduce Akzo Nobel’s carbon footprint.

"Our pioneering work with Photanol has the potential to significantly reduce our carbon footprint and we’re delighted with such an exciting collaboration" said Marco Waas,  Director of RD&I and Technology at AkzoNobel.

"This collaboration since 2013 proves that our Planet Possible agenda of doing more with less is making great progress, and we remain committed to working with key partners in order to make our global activities even more sustainable, resulting in benefits both for ourselves and our customers."

"Given the challenges the world is facing in terms of resource scarcity, we are actively looking for bio-based alternatives for our chemicals and Photanol’s existing technology is a potential game-changer," explained Peter Nieuwenhuizen, AkzoNobel’s Corporate RD&I Director.

Innovation Hub Rotterdam: Navigate. Connect. Innovate. Make it happen.

Context: Rotterdam witnessed an enormous growth in innovation initiatives: both organizers and innovators lost oversight of all developments. Given the dynamic environment, the transition goals we had, the role of innovators in these transitions, and the Rotterdam mentaility of 'getting things done', it was not difficult to get together to develop an ecosystem condicve to innovation. 

Solution: Together with the Rotterdam municipailty, Rotterdam Partners, and ECE, the Port of Rotterdam visualized all the players in the innovation ecosystem. This interactive ecosystem shows all initiatives – in various stages of development, divided over city and port – that can help innovators. All logos are ‘clickable’, making it easy for innovators to reach the right person in just one clock. 

This visualization did not only lead to improved navigation, the initiators also see this visualization as a first step towards the international profiling of the Port of Rotterdam as unique port-innovation hub. 

Actively connecting the different initiatives in different stages, filling whitespace, and linking innovatiors and accelerators is crucial for the performance of the ecosystem. Therefore, all initiatives in the ecosystem will get the opportunity to develop their role in the ecosystem in the upcoming months during the monthly ecosystem sessions at Venture Cafe, where innovators, corporates, and initiators get together. 

Moreover, initiatives from the Innovation Hub will be further promoted through online media channels, sharing the sory behind these startups. For example: 

https://vimeo.com/215978944/215975577

https://vimeo.com/215978944/a7ffe48884

Innovation Hub Rotterdam: Navigate. Connect. Innovate. Make it happen.

How to: KLM

KLM believes in working with startups to boost innovation. In 2009 we were one of the founding fathers of the Mainport Innovation Fund. A venture fund that supports innovative startups in aviation and logistics industries with equity investments, but also with advice and our network.

Next to that we have a wide practice of engaging with startups. We have a monthly pitch event for startups where we invite a broad KLM audience to listen to startups ideas and proposals and afterwards discuss with them. Of course we also invite startups besides these events in more focused settings. We do on average between 5 to 10 proof of concepts with startups annually.

Finding the right startups

Context: Since 2016, ASML is a shareholder of a Startup Support Alliance aiming at strengthening the fundament of the hightech ecosystem in the Eindhoven region.

The Alliance is therefore looking for startups focusing on the hightech manufacturing industry that can benefit from the support of the Alliance members. A selected group of startups can also be supported through the Hightech XL accelerator program at HTC Eindhoven.

To be able to contribute to the Alliance, ASML is looking for startups that can benefit from the specific competences and knowledge of ASML. Nevertheless, it has not been easy to find startups matching these and other criteria that are put in place by the Alliance. 

Solution: To get in touch with the right startup faster and more effectively, ASML, in collaboration with Hightech XL, has designed a challenge for Get-in-the-Ring (GitR), focused on specific domains that are relevant to ASML. 

The first edition has resulted in already more than one hundred registrations of highly relevant startups. A selection has been invited to participate in the GitR battles, leading to two winners that will participate in the Alliance accelerator program. ASML will help these companies with specific support. 

In addition, one startup has been identified that is working on a technology that is potentially highly relevant for ASML. At the moment of writing, ASML is negotiating a joint development program with this startup, in which the startup will work in close collaboration with ASML in the development of a new application. 

Present your startup

Context: Haarlem did not have a physical location for startups, neither the possibility to share knowledge and experience. Responding to the need to bring startups together, a few local entities have decided to realize a startup location, as well as an accelerator program. 

In addition, there were two more needs among startups in order to grow: access to financing and access to SMEs and corporates. These needs were fulfilled by organizing pitchdays where investors, angels, but also SMEs and corporates were invited. 

Solution: The solution is to collaborate with local and regional stakeholders in order to help startups grow. The objectives of such collaboration effort is to stimulate innovation and the economy, creation of jobs, attracting/retaining talent, and to obtain the #1 position in Europe. 

This is realized on the one hand by providing facilities such as locations, and on the other hand by actively supporting and collaborating with startups. 

The network of Rabobank is made accessible in order to facilitiate the access to capital for startups. Moreover, linking startups to corporates fulfills another need: the startup gets access to the corporate as a source of knowledge and as a launching customer, while the corporate gets access to a source of renewal. 

Rabobank takes a mediating role as it has a customer relationship with both the startup as well as the corporate. The role of the bank therefore changes from providing access to financial solutions to a more strategic role in stimulating the (regional) economy. 

High Tech Systems Park

We believe that an ecosystem with only startups or small SMEs is not a ecosystem at all. Like in nature we need different sized and scoped creatures in the ecosystems.

Context: Most ecosystems we worked with are focusing a lot on single creatures albeit Startups, small SME’s or other organisations similar in size and scope. We are trying to create a multi-organisation eco-system which nurtures companies of different size and scope including university/applied university spin-offs but also including mid- and large size SMEs in our supply chain.

Solution: Our initiative for the High Tech Systems Park in Hengelo is to create such a diverse eco-system by combining larger and smaller companies to cooperate on a single campus.The cooperation can begin ad-hoc or be very well chosen as an avenue for growth for all involved companies. The main contribution we are making as a corporate is setting up the orginal coordination company of which all HTSP-users are members, and providing access to our experts in very diverse areas like Finance, HR, Engineering, Supply Chain, basically all expertise areas we have in our company, Because we also see the benefits for our employees to look into different companies and business models.