Venture Client Cycle Wrap-Up: Fall 2018 – Thank You All!
With 345 prominent startup introductions from 40 countries, KONE and Stora Enso are now in the middle of their second Venture Client Cycle wrap-up. After meeting with 15 of the best-in-class companies last week, Epiroc is continuing discussion with 8 startups next month.
This fall’s Venture Client Cycle for KONE and Stora Enso ended with a bang as Combient Foundry brought 15 startups from the US, Germany, Singapore, France, Belgium and the Nordics to downtown Helsinki.
“As a case-owner from the corporate side, it was great to see strong engagement of each startup participating in the discussions.”
For two days, startup founders sat down with decision-makers from KONE and Stora Enso to explore ways of working together. The two days (and late evenings for some) of hard work culminated in a Friday event where the big and small companies took the stage together, presenting their newly moulded collaboration roadmaps.
“As a startup, it was a positive surprise to witness the enthusiasm and strong commitment in the meetings from the corporate side. The participants were decision-makers with open and flexible attitudes toward building something new together.”
In addition to the startups and cheering colleagues in the crowd, more curious companies from Combient network gathered at the event. With Epiroc being one, the fun continues as they have invited 8 of our hand-picked startups to meet in Stockholm in mid-December.
But first – a recap
In September, Combient Foundry launched 11 opportunities for startup teams to partner up with Stora Enso, Epiroc and KONE.
Stora Enso released two opportunities on Healthy, Safe and Affordable Living: one on how to improve a life cycle of a building and another about creating new services for healthy living. Epiroc launched opportunities on smart and connected sites, with the mission of improving asset health and product identification. KONE mapped out six cases around smart construction, smart buildings, data analytics and smart maintenance aid, looking for new strategic partners to unfold new potential services based on KONE’s Cloud APIs.
Naturally, each opportunity called for different requirements but four factors created the main criteria: the strength of the team, solution maturity, crisp value proposition and the fit for the purpose. The 345 startup introductions were screened with KONE, Stora Enso and Epiroc, most promising companies interviewed and the ones with the best fit invited to meet the companies for two days.
Ultimately, startups that best match the business opportunities are offered pilot projects sharply focused on scale, like 20tree.ai and Sixgill from last spring.
Step into Combient Foundry
Combient Foundry is not a VC or an accelerator. Foundry is all about making it easier for startups to collaborate with Combient’s associated companies, get paying customers, and shorten their time-to-market.
Worth repeating about Combient is that the network includes 30 Nordic companies – meaning 30 times the access and visibility to a wide range of industries for startups joining Combient’s growing ecosystem.
Questions? Feel free to reach us through foundry@combient.com.