COLOGNE, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Unilever Foundry, a global platform for startups and innovators to engage and collaborate, predicts corporates and startups will form the ultimate partnership, working side by side in the same physical space by 2025, seeking greater proximity for innovation as they evolve to meet changing consumer needs.
‘The State of Innovation’, a global study and white paper from Unilever Foundry, was launched today at Dmexco by Unilever EVP Global Marketing, Aline Santos. The report looks at how the relationship between corporates and startups will continue to evolve. The white paper identifies three predictions on how the industry will change over the next decade.
Aline Santos, Unilever EVP Global Marketing, said: “Collaboration can no longer be viewed as an optional extra, it’s a strategic imperative. Startups are now widely recognised as invaluable sources of innovation, fueling growth and providing pioneering business solutions.
“The State of Innovation report reveals the appetite for collaboration between corporates and startups and signals a shift in the models adopted for future partnerships. As the Unilever Foundry continues its journey looking for exciting new partnerships, we are continually learning to ensure our future collaborations are effective as possible.”
Key findings from The State of Innovation:
Startups and corporates to work side by side in the same office by 2025
As the pace of change increases, corporations know that to meet evolving consumer needs they need to look for the right partners to innovate and build relationships with.
With 90% of corporates already working with a startup expecting to continue to do so, Unilever Foundry predicts physical shared working spaces will become commonplace to facilitate growth and break down barriers to collaboration. The research reveals the three most important reasons for working together: learning something new (startups 88%/corporates 85%); improving efficiency (startups 81%/corporates 81%); and solving business problems in new ways that can scale (startups 89%/corporates 80%).
The future of corporate and startup innovation: a short-term boom in “tech tourism” but structured programmes emerging as the long-term winner
After an initial rise in “tech tourism” – shorter term activity ranging from trips to tech HQs to less formal partnerships – a longer-term model will win out. While 83% of startups value the publicity from these short-term models, 80% of corporates believe that startups can have a positive impact on large companies’ approaches to innovation. As a result, Unilever Foundry predicts that large businesses will become more willing to invest in structured programmes as companies choose meaningful partnerships over PR-driven quick fixes. One startup described their experience with tech tourism models saying:
“At the low end of the spectrum is tech tourism: a brand shows up in Silicon Valley, rides the Google slide, meets a couple of startups – at best it's inspirational but basically it's a waste of time. […] Startups want meaningful new initiatives and uses of technology.”
Startup and corporate collaboration will evolve from an optional extra to a business–critical investment in the next five years.
In order to keep up with the accelerating rate of innovation in business, Unilever Foundry predicts that startup collaboration will become a necessity for corporates over the next five years, with around four out of five corporates (79%) and startups (78%) anticipating more collaborative work in the future. Startups believe they are up to the task, with almost nine in ten (89%) claiming they’re able to deliver business solutions which can scale.
Visit foundry.unilever.com/SOI-whitepaper for more information and to read “The State of Innovation” white paper.
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Notes to Editors
The in-depth research was conducted with over 200 brand managers and heads of innovation and over 100 startup founders and directors across India, Singapore, United Kingdom and United States.
About Unilever Foundry
Already looking to the future and embracing this transformative way of working, Unilever Foundry has been an entry point for innovative tech companies to connect with Unilever brands for over three years. In this time, the global innovation platform has helped scale up 48% of over 100 pilots including partnerships with Quiqup and Playbrush in the last year. Unilever Foundry has also launched partnerships with two co-working spaces – LEVEL3 in Singapore with Padang & Co and Unilever Foundry Ireland with Dogpatch Labs, bringing startups and Unilever brands under one roof.
Unilever Foundry Case Studies
Hellmann’s and Quiqup
- Global dressings brand, Hellmann’s, partnered with on-demand delivery startup Quiqup to deliver fresh ingredients to consumers at the click of a finger
- Through the Unilever Foundry, Hellmann’s put out a brief looking for tech solutions to help the brand further engage with a digitally savvy millennial audience
- Following the platform’s unique pitch-pilot-partner process, Quiqup was identified as the ideal solution to directly engage with a new audience through a new business model
Next Billion
- Last year, Unilever Foundry joined forces with Singapore-based startup Next Billion to launch Mobile Movies in Bangladesh, in which networks of local agents organise free film screenings for communities in rural areas with the aim of increasing awareness of good hygiene practices.
- To date, 15 female entrepreneurs have been engaged as agents, over 700 presentations have been delivered. Over the 12 week-trial, more than 30,000 locals were engaged, and 15,000 samples of Unilever’s health soap brand Lifebuoy and Pepsodent toothpastes were distributed.
- This partnership is an exemplary example of a disruptive innovation that takes us a step closer toward our ambition of making sustainable living commonplace
Chef Wendy
- Knorr partnered with AI specialists Digital Genius to reach consumers in emerging countries such as India
- The Chef Wendy pilot was a fully automated chef to give recipe suggestions via SMS
- This was two or three years before AI and Chatbots became commonplace
Signal and Playbrush
- Unilever partnered the Signal brand with startup Playbrush, to revolutionise children’s oral health through gamification
- Unilever’s R&D team were able to embrace experimentation and explore an entirely new route. This allowed Unilever to extend its brands outside of just being a product on a supermarket shelf