Corporations Tap Innovative Startups for Groundbreaking Solutions
More than 50 percent of the S&P 500 has disappeared in the last 15 years and that the average age of an S&P company today is under 20 years, down from 60 years in the 1950s.
While mergers, acquisitions, and buyouts are responsible for some of the churn, disruptive technologies have had a significant impact.
Forward-thinking corporates are emphatic about building, buying, or investing in disruptive technologies to create groundbreaking products that are the foundation of new lines of business and whole new markets.
As one of the most active venture investors in the Midwest, we embrace corporate innovation as a cornerstone of our portfolio strategy.
1. Corporates partner with startups in joint development, providing industry-expertise, sharing customer experience, and supplying capital to advance market-critical critical solutions. Two examples:
- Simple-Fill teamed with Worthington Industries and Parker Hannifin Corporation to build the next generation compressed natural gas fueling technology.
- Sarepta Therapeutics and Myonexus Therapeutics entered into an exclusive partnership to develop Myonexus’ transformative gene therapies. Sarepta acquired Myonexus in February.
2. Corporates and Innovation Partners spinout new technologies to redefine industries and tackle big problems. Recent spinouts:
- Motivational Medicine, housed within OhioHealth, is developing the MyoGlove™ for deep tissue therapy to treat acute and chronic pain.
- 3Bar Biologics, a biotech spinout of The Ohio State University, provides a proprietary delivery method that grows fresh microbes on-site, to drive up profitability and drive down dependence on synthetic chemicals for the agriculture industry.
3. Corporate venture funds identify transformative technologies and solutions that can reinvent companies and even whole industries.
- Snapsheet, a provider of virtual claims solutions serving more than 75 clients around the world, delivers a SaaS claims platform for all lines of property and casualty. State Auto Labs and Nationwide were among investors in a recent $29MM Series E funding.
- G-Force Innovations, a collaboration between Grange Insurance and its affiliate partner Integrity Insurance and Rev1 Ventures, will identify, develop, and adopt emerging technologies that drive new insurance products and capabilities for Grange’s customers and agents.
Corporations who don’t want to go the way of poodle skirts and blue suede shoes, are engaging innovators and entrepreneurs in new and impactful ways.
