2020 Corporate Startup Stars

This year, Mind the Bridge and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) consolidated a partnership to expand the Corporate Startup Startup Awards at global level.

The Corporate Startup Stars nominations resulted from the general ranking obtained by merging the quantitative and qualitative analyses of applications.

The special award for Public Sector Innovation is given to recognise the efforts of public entities moving into the open innovation space.

The nominee for the Internal Innovation special Award has been selected based on qualitative benchmarking to herald a new category that will be structured in the 2021 CSS application process.

Corporate Startup Accelerator Awards take into account the following parameters:

  • Number of startups accelerated in the past 3 years;
  • Geographic reach of the accelerator’s portfolio;
  • Impact of the accelerated startups on the corporate business;
  • Estimated financial return of the accelerator;
  • Total package offered by the corporate to accelerated startups.

The nominee for the Venture Builder special award has been selected based on qualitative benchmarking to herald a new category that will be even more structured in the 2021 CSS application process.

The nominations for the Corporate Startup Procurement Award opened taking into account the following parameters:

  • The number of startup collaborations that resulted in a buyer/vendor long-term relationships;
  • The dollar amount of such collaborations;
  • The scale and the impact of such procurement collaborations on the overall corporate business.

The Corporate Startup Investment Award takes into account the following parameters:

  • Number of investments;
  • Dollar amount of the investments;
  • Estimated return on investment;
  • Size and perceived relevance of the invested startups;
  • Process put in place for investments: presence of a dedicated fund/CVC, a ventures team, etc.

The Corporate Startup M&A Award takes into account the following parameters:

  • Number of acquisitions done;
  • Total dollar amount of the acquisitions;
  • Integration and synergies with the acquired startups;
  • Size and perceived relevance of the invested startups.

The MidCap Startup Star Award only considers corporations with revenues below the threshold of $500M in revenues. It recognized 3 companies without providing a ranking.

The nominee for the Intrapreneurship special award has been selected based on qualitative benchmarking factoring the parameters listed below to herald a new category that will be structured in the 2021 CSS application process.

  • Presence of one or more programmes dedicated to stimulating entrepreneurial attitude of employees;
  • Number and size of spin-outs;
  • Innovation stories reported that came from employees
  • Programs dedicated to train employees on the topics of Lean Methodology, Digital Transformation, and Open Innovation.

Following the Corporate Startup Stars and the Open Innovation Challengers, Mind the Bridge then proceeded to reward the best performers across different geographies: Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Companies awarded in the top 3 positions of the ranking have not been considered for the Regional Awards.