Scaling New Heights

With the rise of new digital technologies, many startups are developing innovative products and solutions aimed at levelling the playing field with incumbents, a large number of whom continue to be weighed down by legacy infrastructure, systems, and processes. However, many of these startups have also come to realise that rather than disintermediation and disruption, there can be many benefits to cooperation and collaboration with large corporates. 

Industry incumbents are also increasingly keen to drive growth and corporate innovation through partnering with startups. Driving internal disruption can be challenging, requiring a change in leadership and cultural mindset, innovation, and operating practices, as well as the ability to bypass legacy systems. Partnering with agile startups is seen 

as a way to access new technologies and ideas in a much shorter timeframe. 

A startup’s partnership with corporates can come in many forms – from accessing corporate capital, to growing their reach and increasing their distribution channels, to developing a prototype that may lead to a joint product or solution. 

While many startups are great at identifying technologies and developing new products, most struggle to scale. As such, we see an increasing number of startups leveraging partnerships as a way to expand their distribution channels, access new clients and, ultimately, drive sales. However, it is critical for these partnerships to be appropriately executed if startups are serious about scaling new heights.