Frequently asked

We are a Venture Alliance of global industry leaders. Our approach bridges pioneering technology startups and growth companies with the needs of our industrial member companies, facilitating the launch of mutually beneficial and scalable commercial partnerships with a hands-on and finetuned approach.

As a co-owned venturing entity, Combient Foundry works directly with our member companies both at the strategic and operational levels to define their business development needs and identify opportunities for new technologies. We pinpoint and connect the right startup partners to work on mutual goals by co-creating new solutions or services together with industry experts.

As a powerful alliance of industrial corporations, encompassing over 350k professionals and a combined net revenue of €80 billion, we always offer real, pre-vetted sales opportunities for startups and growth companies, opening doors to new markets and high-impact commercial collaborations.

We streamline the process of connecting you with the right teams in the industrial companies to speed up your sales cycle. Each partnering opportunity comes with a dedicated team, allocated budget, and internal support, ensuring swift and impactful partnership initiations. Along the way, we support you in refining your value prop to the industrial needs.

When meeting with key decision-makers from industrial companies, it’s not just a pitch; it’s a dialogue aimed at forging a mutual value proposition and sketching out scalable collaborations.

Finally, your opportunity with us is not limited to one partnership, you can meet several industrial companies and get multiple deals by becoming a trusted partner of our network.

We are all about solving business needs for our member companies, with no hidden costs or strings attached for the startups and growth companies. We do not charge any fees or take equity from the growth companies, enabling you to fully benefit from the facilitated opportunity and keep full control and ownership of your company. There may only occur some indirect costs, i.e. travel expenses if you are invited to meet the industrial companies in person.

We run three process cycles every year, where one lasts for ~3 months.

Month 1: The process starts with the Foundry team sourcing the market for relevant solution providers. Startups and growth companies that are a preliminary fit for a business need are invited to submit their high-level company and solution information.

Month 2: The Foundry team evaluates the information together with the member companies, shortlisting up to a handful of top solution providers for each opportunity. The shortlisting process typically includes some additional questions to be answered via email, based on any key open questions to further understand the technical or commercial fit.

Month 3: If selected to proceed, the process culminates in a two-day workshop with the decision-makers and experts from member companies to create a joint value proposition, collaboration vision, and a high-level pilot project outline. Decisions on the selected solution providers for pilots are typically communicated in ~2 weeks after the workshops by the Foundry team with either the proposed next steps to kick-off the pilot projects or feedback.

When evaluating startups and growth companies and their submissions, we consider several factors. The crucial one is the solution fit, assessing how applicable your solution is to the Foundry member company’s specific needs and requirements. For each business opportunity, there are technical and scalability requirements to consider that naturally vary. Additionally, we value the team’s experience and potential, as well as the willingness to potentially co-create the solution with the Foundry member company. Furthermore, any references of market validation such as clients, use cases, or funding are also important characteristics that we consider.

To summarize, there are several different factors that we take into consideration in the evaluation process which slightly vary depending on the nature of the business opportunity.

The first part of our process is the submission phase, which takes a maximum of 20 minutes to fill in a web form.

In case your company is selected to proceed forward, approximately 1 hour is required to answer any further open questions via email and to record a short voiceover demo/presentation introducing your team and solution.

If further selected, the last part of the process is the Value Proposition Days (see more below), where you would spend up to 2 work days for physical workshops with the Foundry member companies, one for each day per selected business opportunity.

To summarize, there would be a maximum couple of hours of work during the process before the Value Proposition Days, which would require 1-2 days of additional time invested if invited.

Yes, in case your solution is a fit for several business opportunities, you can discuss and meet with several of our member companies at once. In this case, it’s important to assess your available resources and bandwidth for initiating more than one pilot project at a time. During the Value Proposition Days, in any case, there is an opportunity to meet representatives from several Foundry member companies. This presents an excellent additional opportunity to initiate valuable connections in a relaxed setting.

The information you share with us in the submission is information that helps us present your possible solution or service to the member companies. Therefore, we ask you to fill in general information about your company, contact information, and a short description of your envisioned solution(s) against the business opportunity you are submitting to.

You can see an overview of all questions, including the mandatory and optional ones here.

In addition, please find some useful writing tips for the submission here.

Yes, you can submit up to 3 business opportunities with one application. The reason for the limit is to ensure the fit for each opportunity and increase the likelihood for you to land a deal. If you see a fit and wish to submit to more than 3 opportunities, please be in contact with the Foundry team.

Yes, as we see solution fit as the most important evaluation criterion, we are also open to more established companies or other tech-driven companies joining us. While there are no strict criteria, we favor privately held, non-listed companies controlled by entrepreneurs that have a scalable product or technology based upon proprietary Intellectual Property (IP). This means that we do not typically partner up with more general consultancy or distribution-based companies.

We will be evaluating your initial company and solution information together with the member companies which will take some time. You can expect to hear back from us by ~1 month after the submission deadline at the latest, regarding the proposed next steps in the process or feedback.

If no matching business opportunities are available at a time, you can still apply to join the Foundry startup network and we will be in touch with you about our future business opportunities or our exclusive events.

You can apply here by answering a few questions: https://combientfoundry.com/apply/

The Value Proposition Days (VPD) are the most important event in the Foundry calendar. It’s an exclusive gathering for the top selected solution providers to meet the industrial company teams face-to-face for the first time to base eventual partnership discussions. As a two-day event, most of the VPD consists of 1-on-1 meetings between selected solution provider companies and the Foundry member teams. On the evening of the first day, we organize a networking dinner event with speakers talking about topics such as industrial needs and the scaling of solutions. The event is typically held in Stockholm, Sweden.

The purpose is to work together to identify and formulate the greatest mutual value for collaboration between you and the Foundry member company. The VPD is not a typical sales or pitching event. Instead, it is a joint exploration of a business partnership. Furthermore, the event allows you to connect with like-minded professionals and explore additional partnership opportunities with other industrial companies and their decision-makers.

The desired outcome of the two days is a clear joint value proposition that addresses the business need of the Combient Foundry member company you work with, a high-level pilot project frame to outline how you would start fulfilling the value proposition, and a vision for long-term business collaboration.

FAQs about Value Proposition Days, see here.

The amount of pilot projects is not limited by number. Ultimately, the member company team will decide who they want to work with. Commonly, the number of pilot projects has ranged between 1 and 2. The Foundry team will communicate the final decision typically approximately two weeks after Value Proposition Days. However, the exact timetable is subject to case-specific changes.

In case a pilot project is offered to you, the objective is to validate your solution so that the technology works as planned, the value is delivered, and the solution can be implemented on a larger scale. In addition, the pilot evaluates how the collaboration between you and the member company team goes and whether there is a cultural match to deepen the relationship. Typically, a pilot project lasts a maximum of three months and focuses on testing existing technologies and examining prototypes in a Foundry member company context. The geographical location of the pilot project is to be decided and depends on the nature of the project. However, it is often located close to the member company project team, R&D or production facility, or customer premises.

It is up to you and the member company team to scope the pilot project, including KPIs, deliverables, schedule, roles, responsibilities, and fees. Financially, the previous pilot projects have typically ranged from €10k to €75k. The pilot project should act as a “Minimum Viable Purchase” to test the technological feasibility of the startup’s solution and fundamental hypothesis in a real use case, to justify further development or implementation.