The 100 Open Startups, one of the largest open innovation movements in the country that has involved more than 4,700 startups and 840 large companies with the aim of fostering the connection between these actors, announced on July 4th the ranking of the large companies most engaged in relationships with startups. The event took place at CUBO in São Paulo and recognized Natura as the 3rd most engaged company in the startup ecosystem.
This result highlights Natura's commitment to open innovation and its connection with technology trends and new interactive models involving these small and agile organizational structures that focus on generating value for the consumer.
Overall, the interaction movement between large companies and startups has intensified drastically in recent years, which is great! Another important initiative pointing in this direction, which had significant participation from Natura, is the Startup – Industry Call from the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), which is part of the Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade.
The Call focuses on business connections between these ecosystem actors and announced in March 2018 the ranking of 100 startups, 10 industries, and 17 institutions supporting business development qualified for the second phase of the National Startup Industry Connection Program. The program will invest over R$ 50 million in the next three years to promote the business environment between startups and industries, focusing on the digital integration of the value chain of industrial products through startups.
Natura was one of the 10 selected industries and is collaborating with Regenera, a startup in the advanced biotechnology field that has received R$ 200,000 from ABDI so far, along with financial and economic contributions from the company to develop the proof of concept and pilot phases.
The expectations for these interactions with startups are quite high and bring learnings between organizations and growth of the business ecosystem in Brazil. Research from ANPEI (National Association for Research and Development of Innovative Companies) in 2014 indicated a significant gap in collaboration between large corporations and startups. This map should be evolving given these actions, in addition to relevant ongoing efforts such as the Startup Brazil Program, which emphasizes massive acceleration of startups, and the entrepreneurship agenda led by SEBRAE, among others.
In 2016, we launched the Natura Startups Program which reinforces the company's role in the innovation ecosystem through another relevant tool to foster entrepreneurship and generate new opportunities and connections. Last year (2017), more than 100 companies registered for the program, of which 19 signed contracts for proof of concept and seven became suppliers for the company. In 2018, in addition to the official entry point that receives proposals from market startups, Natura also opened its first acceleration program in partnership with CESAR.Labs, and launched the Natura Startups Program in Argentina, a country where the company operates. Interested? Connect with us too!
