Capgemini uses innovation as a pathway to sustainable growth and a better way of working and living. As part of their open innovation strategy, Capgemini Ventures co-creates with external partners to deliver genuine business impact.
Today’s market dynamics present a critical opportunity for business leaders to revisit their strategies. Capgemini believes that many of these solutions will come from disruptive startups. This is supported by their joint research with MIT which found that 44% of firms state that startups will be a top-3 innovation source for them by 2025.
In response, Capgemini Ventures launched Startup Catalyst to identify, qualify and create value-adding partnerships with startups at speed. These solutions are subsequently recommended to clients through their go-to-market offerings or deployed internally to enhance Capgemini capabilities.
Lucia Sinapi-Thomas
Darren Campbell
Ana Esteves
The Challenge
Capgemini recognized that startup ecosystems require different ways of working when compared to their larger tech partners.
They also faced the challenge of managing the breadth of external collaboration across the group. Startups are continuously identified and assessed in response to specific industry needs. This happens both at a global level and locally, through a network of Startup Ecosystem leaders.
They therefore needed a solution that would enable a methodological approach to sharing intelligence across the group. It also needed to be extensible enough to evolve with the growing ambitions and scale of their innovation efforts.
Capgemini Ventures has a dual role of Corporate Venture and open innovation arm of the group when it comes to startup ecosystems. Our operating model aimed at building on collective intelligence, involving our experts for startup qualification, and enabling selected partnership requires adequate processes and proper tool enablement.
Lucia Sinapi-Thomas / Managing Director at Capgemini Ventures
The Solution
Capgemini chose Bloomflow as a partner, internally branded as Rocket Station. It serves as a single source of truth for all startup-related activities across the group and is accessible to all Capgemini employees worldwide.
Startups are added onto the platform from the scouting phase and managed via portfolios which are organized by strategic industry and portfolio offering. This makes it easier to match them up with the business challenges and opportunities faced by their clients or internal departments. In 2022 alone, more than 1,000 startups from 36 countries were uploaded and tracked on their Bloomflow platform.
Now I can map startup ecosystems faster. My team and I were looking for an innovative AI startup, and within a few clicks I was able to find qualified technology partners on our Bloomflow platform to supplement my local scouting efforts.
Maria Messina / Italy Startup Ecosystem Leader at Capgemini Ventures
Capgemini’s ecosystem design activities are also enabled by the platform through the portfolio and project features. This allows Capgemini teams to map out emerging ecosystems more quickly and advise clients on the most promising startups they should be aware of.
Having the possibility to manage our innovation and startup screening approaches on a project basis helps to structure activities. With Bloomflow, the results are easier to access and digest.
Daniel Garschagen / Germany Startup Ecosystem Leader at Capgemini Ventures
A recent example of Startup Catalyst’s scouting activities was addressing problem areas within the new space domain alongside Capgemini Engineering. “This has resulted in us identifying 17 European-based startups who are now being onboarded as collaboration partners,” says Darren. “Some of these are already helping us provide new capabilities to our new space clients.”