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How Startups Can Maximize Their Partnership With Corporates

The partnership between a startup and a corporation is all about balance. Startups harness their agility to identify new market opportunities but often struggle to scale. On the other hand, corporations have successfully scaled but can miss new market opportunities. This is not to say that either can’t do the other successfully – they can and have – but there’s a benefit to partnering up.

There’s a reason 94 percent of tech executives think innovation partnerships are an essential component of their strategy. Partnerships offer access to new markets and customers. They can lower development costs, provide valuable insights into experimental technologies and the talent required to build them, and, importantly, accelerate innovation. The problem is that these partnerships are anything but a sure thing.

Let’s dive into what corporates look for in a partner and how startups can increase the chances of a successful collaboration.

Corporates offer more than funding

While many corporates ask for equity in startups, entering the partnership with a no-equity stake goes a long way in establishing clear parameters and trust for both parties. Although seemingly counterintuitive, financing is not among the top three reasons startups engage in corporate partnerships.

Startups are primarily interested in access to the corporate’s customers and market. In exchange, startups help solve a broader range of customer problems and expand a corporation’s product offerings. More partners also mean a more extensive ecosystem and the chance to offer customers a curated selection of startup solutions.

Understand what makes you unique

Startups should acknowledge that there is often a chasm in work cultures and styles. Corporates plan, budget, and approach risk differently. They also have different types of customers.

Mark Osborn, GVP Business Development & Strategy, SAP Consumer Industries, advises startups approaching corporate customers should find others with a similar mindset. “It helps when you can identify the innovators in those organizations – people who are willing to take some risk on new products in exchange for innovation,” says Osborn. “Startups need to understand that the value they bring to a corporate customer is the opportunity to innovate and get ahead of the competition, even if it means taking a risk.”

Not all partnerships work out

The stakes will always be higher for startups than for corporations. Most startups don’t succeed, and more than two-thirds of them never deliver a positive return to investors. So having access to a corporate partner’s market and customers while sending a positive signal to investors can help. Despite the benefits, not all partnerships work out. For example, an integration won’t strengthen anyone’s value proposition if the startup’s ideal customer doesn’t use the corporation’s products.

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Did you catch all our latest SAP.iO Venture Studio highlights?

SAP.iO sign

July – September 2022 | Achievements & News from SAP.iO Venture Studio 

SAP.iO Venture Studio drives a new era of organic growth at SAP. It empowers entrepreneurial teams inside SAP to turn innovative ideas into profitable businesses and invests in these new employee-led ventures who are focused on solving some of the biggest problems in enterprise business processes. SAP.iO Venture Studio helps start and scale new ventures by providing design, development and sales support. Find out more on sap.io/studio. 

Encore by SAP 

As a secondary marketplace, the Encore by SAP solution is enabling regenerative business processes and empowering network members to close the loops and make circular economy a reality. The demand-driven enterprise trading platform provides a simplified way to offer and discover secondary materials and components with integration into back-end procurement or asset management solutions. The platform enables trading of aftermarket components, such as alternators or batteries, and is looking to expand into further areas, such as secondary materials — from aluminium to polyurethane — or production waste and scrap.  

  • Earlier this year, SAP.iO Venture Studio welcomed two new ventures: Encore by SAP received investment to work on enabling the circular economy. Read more about the venture here and watch this intro video with Co-Founder and General Manager Edward Kosec here.  
  • As a matter of fact, Encore is already working with the consortium Catena-X. They kicked off testing Encore’s marketplace to help the German automotive industry become more sustainable. Get more information and impressions of the launch on LinkedIn here 

Discover more on this venture on https://encorebysap.io/ 

Feather by SAP  

Feather by SAP is an end-to-end recommerce solution that support brands and retailers that want to accelerate the shift from linear to circular business by taking ownership over their recommerce activities. Facilitate the in-house business processes, capture data, engage with the shopper, and own the end-to-end product life cycle. 

  • Feather recently collaborated with students from the Hasso-Plattner-Institute in Potsdam on machine learning applications for resale. Check out some impressions via Feather’s social media presence 

Discover more on this venture on https://www.getfeather.io/  

GreenToken by SAP 

GreenToken by SAP is a supply chain solution that offers companies new levels of transparency through reliable, blockchain-based information. Gain visibility into where raw materials came from and produce products with knowledge about where and how the materials were produced, even in complex, non-batch supply chains. 

  • GreenToken received funding in 2019 and quickly became a major growth opportunity, enabling customers to trace raw material supply chains for informed purchasing decisions. Let alone in the last quarter they managed to 
    • Announce a pilot with Japanese chemicals company DIC Corporation 
    • Collaborate with automotive consortium Catena-X on creating transparency of emission information from business partners across the entire automotive value chain 
    • Won in the category “Technology, Media & Telecommunication” for the the Australian Financial Review’s Sustainability Leaders for 2022 awards 
    • Featured in Canada’s second biggest daily newspaper, The Globe and Mail, sharing their journey and business idea 
  • Having gained traction among customers and proving their business value, this employee-led venture now graduated from the SAP.iO Venture Studio portfolio and joined SAP’s Sustainability growth area on September 1. With the early support of our inhouse venture program, they have become the latest example of having turned an innovative business idea by SAP employees into a profitable business and product. They will now further scale within the bigger organization. 

Discover more on this venture on https://www.green-token.io/  

Paid Promptly by SAP  

Paid Promptly by SAP drives cash into your business faster by automating receivable processes. Deliver a seamless, personalized, customer experience through Paid Promptly’s automated communication solution, beginning when an invoice is first released until payment is received. 

  • This venture is making invoice communication more convenient. Their solution is now available for all SAP customers on the SAP Store  
  • You can meet Paid Promptly at SAP Spend Connect Live from October 24 to 26 in Dallas, Texas. Register for the event here 

Discover more on this venture on https://www.paidpromptly.io/  

Source Agent by SAP  

Great sourcing shouldn’t be a secret. Source Agent by SAP gives you the insights and strategies to address spend intelligently and wow your stakeholders. Identify sourcing opportunities by aligning your spend to current market intelligence. Receive a targeted sourcing strategy and supplier recommendations based on your data and requirements for each spend category. Quickly convert strategies and plans into eSourcing event prep and execution. 

  • As the team is preparing for giving customers direct access to their tool, they are offering strategic sourcing for free! Their rapid test program is a quick and free way to help businesses see spend classified and aligned to their scoping framework. Read more about this opportunity here. 
  • You can meet Source Agent at SAP Spend Connect Live from October 24 to 26 in Dallas, Texas. Keep yourself updated by following the venture’s social media presence and register for the event here 

Discover more on this venture on https://www.sourceagent.io/  

Tax Eye by SAP  

Tax Eye by SAP is a virtual digital assistant technology that improves and powers tax business processes. Tax Eye allows tax professionals to focus on higher value add activities using human centered artificial intelligence and reduce corporate tax burden. 

  • Earlier this year, SAP.iO Venture Studio welcomed two new ventures: Tax Eye by SAP simplifies access to tax intelligence. Find out more in this announcement. 

Discover more on this venture on https://taxeyebysap.io/ 

Did you catch all our latest SAP.iO Venture Studio highlights?

SAP.iO sign

April – June 2022 | Achievements & News from SAP.iO Venture Studio 

SAP.iO Venture Studio drives a new era of organic growth at SAP. It empowers entrepreneurial teams inside SAP to turn innovative ideas into profitable businesses and invests in these new employee-led ventures who are focused on solving some of the biggest problems in enterprise business processes. SAP.iO Venture Studio helps start and scale new ventures by providing design, development and sales support. Find out more on sap.io/studio. 

Brilliant Hire by SAP 

Brilliant Hire by SAP intelligently matches candidates with a personalized shortlist of jobs on your careers page based on what really matters to them, using Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

  • With artificial intelligence playing an important role in hiring processes, experts are curious what part AI will play after the great reshuffle. Learn more about how Brilliant Hire by SAP’s uses AI future-oriented in this article. 

Discover more on this venture on https://www.brillianthire.io/ 

Encore by SAP 

As a secondary marketplace, the Encore by SAP solution is enabling regenerative business processes and empowering the network members to close the loops and make circular economy a reality. The demand-driven enterprise trading platform provides a simplified way to offer and discover secondary materials and components with integration into back-end procurement or asset management solutions. The platform enables trading of aftermarket components, such as alternators or batteries, and is looking to expand into further areas, such as secondary materials — from aluminum to polyurethane — or production waste and scrap. 

  • This new venture had their first official outing at Hannover Messe 2022. Find impressions from the event on the co-founders’ social media presence. 
  • Just having joined the active portfolio of employee-led SAP ventures, the venture’s General Manager Edward Kosec was part of an open conversation on corporate entrepreneurship at SAP. Watch the recording on LinkedIn Live here. 
  • Enabling a Circular Economy Through Industry Network Collaboration? Encore by SAP was featured on the SAP News Center highlighting their work with Catena-X 

Website soon to go live. 

Feather by SAP  

Feather by SAP is an end-to-end recommerce solution that support brands and retailers that want to accelerate the shift from linear to circular business by taking ownership over their recommerce activities. Facilitate the in-house business processes, capture data, engage with the shopper, and own the end-to-end product life cycle. 

  • Taking center stage at SAP’s flagship event: Joanna Maryewska, General Manager and Founder of Feather by SAP featured in SAP Sapphire’s virtual keynote about the future of customer experience. Rewatch the whole session here.  
  • The importance of customer satisfaction to businesses is well-known. To connect the environmental impact of the supply chain with eco-friendly choices of customers, SAP Customer Experience announced partnering with Feather by SAP for recommerce capabilities. Read more in this announcement. 
  • #CXUnplugged hosted Joanna Maryewska to talk about reviving retail strategies for brands as theyare seeing unprecedented change that can be daunting. Watch the recording here. 
  • With so many achievements this quarter no wonder this employee-led venture is continuously growing. Join the team as their Senior Full Stack Engineer and find all other open positions here.

Discover more on this venture on https://www.featherbysap.io/  

GreenToken by SAP 

GreenToken by SAP is a supply chain solution that offers companies new levels of transparency through reliable, blockchain-based information. Gain visibility into where raw materials came from and produce products with knowledge about where and how the materials were produced, even in complex, non-batch supply chains. 

  • Time to step into the limelight at SAP’s annual flagship event: The venture’s work was mentioned in SAP Sapphire’s global opening keynote by Christian Klein. Watch the replay here and read more about how GreenToken by SAP’s solution helps Unilever with increasing traceability and transparency in their global palm oil supply chain. 
  • SAP and Mitsubishi Chemical Europe are working on a more sustainable and transparent supply chain with GreenToken by SAP providing the solution. Read more about the cooperation here.  
  • Having the word “green” in their name, people probably wonder how green GreenToken by SAP really is. Check out the article on LinkedIn. 

Discover more on this venture on https://www.green-token.io/  

Paid Promptly by SAP  

Paid Promptly by SAP drives cash into your business faster by automating receivable processes. Deliver a seamless, personalized, customer experience through Paid Promptly’s automated communication solution, beginning when an invoice is first released until payment is received. 

  • The venture successfully converted a PoC to a signed paid contract with an American manufacturer. 
  • Interested parties can also test their first free pilot to automate receivables processes. Find out more here. 

Discover more on this venture on https://www.paidpromptly.io/  

Source Agent by SAP

Great sourcing shouldn’t be a secret. Source Agent by SAP gives you the insights and strategies to address spend intelligently and wow your stakeholders. Identify sourcing opportunities by aligning your spend to current market intelligence. Receive a targeted sourcing strategy and supplier recommendations based on your data and requirements for each spend category. Quickly convert strategies and plans into eSourcing event prep and execution. 

Discover more on this venture on https://www.sourceagent.io/