From Tech to Deep Tech

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Scouting Deep-Tech Startups When the goal of startup scouting is innovation monitoring, the central need is to transform a large amount of data into valuable information. On the other hand, if the goal is to find new business partners, the crucial task is not to access a large deal flow but to identify the right startup—developing a solution that meets a business’s or client’s needs by combining with a good team, a proven technology, and a level of maturity that is compatible with the corporate’s objectives. Corporates have numerous opportunities to learn about emerging technologies and to scout startups, although few focus on identifying complementary deep-tech options. Own network: Connections with peers, investors, incubators, and startup networks offer an excellent (and natural) way to learn about the most promising projects. Having a central role in the relevant ecosystems boosts this natural deal flow, and communicating your challenges and strategic objectives increases the value of your position. Startup challenges: Corporates can organize competitions of this sort internally or externally. Organizing your own competition may be a useful way to initiate a cultural shift and to target specific topics. But large independent competitions will attract many more startups, since they can connect startups with many stakeholders and can bring additional benefits such as cash and visibility for the winners. Events: These comprise deep-tech summits, research conferences, meetups, and various training and private events. Every opportunity has its own unique mix of features. • Deep-tech summits: These gatherings have the advantage of bringing together a wide range of actors. They facilitate opportunistic encounters for corporates interested in reflecting on the future of their industry, and in widening their perspectives by identifying emerging trends. Given the many people, organizations, and topics at these events, it is important to prepare meetings in advance to ensure meeting the right people. • Smaller and more personal events: Events with fewer than 100 participants tend to be more focused, which makes them more accessible to early-stage 36
companies that are ready to share their ideas with a limited set of people. Online platforms: Startup platforms and professional networks are useful for identifying specific people and organizations. But the information that most platforms provide is automatically crawled on public sources—and that information tends not to be detailed enough to allow corporates to gauge whether to invest time in meeting the startup, especially in the case of earlystage deep-tech startups. Rarely will digital connections alone lead to landing a deal. Scouting services: Some actors that organize competitions or events offer scouting services as well, leveraging their knowledge of their ecosystem to match corporate needs to the most relevant startups. Corporates use in-out sourcing or out-in sourcing to scout for new ideas and for startups to collaborate with. Each method focuses on events and locales adapted to particular sourcing targets. (See Exhibit 18.) Exhibit 18. Events and places that match different sourcing targets Conclusion Often corporates are eager to get a collaboration program rolling as soon as possible. But developing a smooth-functioning collaboration is challenging and requires careful, methodical attention to proper assembly. The best advice is to start conservatively and focus on the core business needs of both the startup and the corporate; this ensures team mobilization from the outset and enables the participants to improve the setup progressively and to explore new territory as the business evolves and matures. On the corporate side, major elements of the process include assessing the startup’s needs (including, crucially, the maturity and market readiness of its product) and designing a platform for collaboration between corporates and startups (including adopting an appropriate mandate, establishing an agile environment to deliver operational support, ensuring business buy-in, and setting up a flexible end-to-end approach to monitor collaborations). Startups, meanwhile, must carefully assess the type of collaboration that is most suitable to their stage of development, and must ensure that their culture and that of their prospective corporate partner are compatible during the immediate process and long term. 37
Page 2 and 3: From Tech to Deep Tech Fostering co
Page 4 and 5: Executive Summary Technological inn
Page 6 and 7: Introduction: Deep Tech Is the New
Page 8 and 9: Facebook is also investing in Artif
Page 10 and 11: The role of startups in the innovat
Page 12 and 13: Exhibit 3. Key challenges faced by
Page 14 and 15: Exhibit 5. Preferred partner for ea
Page 16 and 17: Interviews revealed that establishi
Page 18 and 19: Accelerators and incubators: Busine
Page 20 and 21: Exhibit 10. Examples of high and lo
Page 22 and 23: Development bets These consist of s
Page 24 and 25: should identify key success factors
Page 26 and 27: processes, KPIs, and identified poi
Page 28 and 29: Exhibit 14. Examples of balance bet
Page 30 and 31: Exhibit 15. Most frequently used pa
Page 32 and 33: the startup and its market by estab
Page 34 and 35: • Can CVC be a way to prepare for
Page 38 and 39: About the autors Arnaud de la Tour
Page 40 and 41: consumer lending. BNP Paribas is ro
Page 42 and 43: Airbus, Industry Partner - The “s
Page 44 and 45: competitiveness by putting into per
Page 46 and 47: people worldwide. In 2016, Roche in
Page 48 and 49: Founded in 2015, WDS is a multidisc
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Page 52: Contact arnaud.delatour@hello-tomor

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