From Tech to Deep Tech

networks.¹ Collaborations are crucial to the
concept of Open Innovation, which—unlike
closed, in-house innovation processes—
requires that companies source and
collaborate with others.²
Open innovation is not a new paradigm.
Already a number of established companies
have created strategic partnerships with
each other to develop new, innovative
solutions.³ On the university side, tech
transfer centers that seek to collaborate with
businesses have almost become the norm.
The most notable rising trend, however,
is the growing role of startups and their
increasingly important collaborations with
corporates. Startups today bet on long-term
and high-risk deep-tech innovation—such as
storage of information in DNA, or antimatter
propulsion—that used to be the prerogative
of public research. Collaborations between
startups and corporates began in ICT and
biopharma but are now spreading through
all industries. BCG’s report, “Corporate
Venturing Shifts Gears” (BCG article, April
2016) noted that among top 30 companies
in seven industries, the percentage of
companies using CVC rose from 27% in 2010
to 40% in 2015. During the same period, the
percentage of companies using accelerators
and incubators surged from 2% to 44%.
(See Exhibit 2.)
Exhibit 2. Use of CVC, incubators, and accelerators by top 30 companies in seven industries
¹ See Victor Mulas, Michael Minges, and Hallie Applebaum, “Boosting Tech Innovation Ecosystems in Cities” (2015), available at
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23029, for a review of innovation ecosystems and innovation districts.
² See Henry Chesbrough, Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology (Harvard Business School Press, 2003).
³ See the review of different industry collaborations in Theresa Turner and Susanna Cros, Co-Business: 50 Examples of Business
Collaboration, 2013.
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