IncubateHub has announced plans to launch nine thematic demand-led programs for startups and corporates to co-create solutions and go-to-market strategies in partnership with early-stage investor, Venture Catalysts, and accelerator fund 9Unicorns.
The platform has witnessed a 4x growth in the number of corporates, startups, and investors participating on its platform in 2021.
Founded in 2016 by industry veterans and startup evangelists Rajiv Mukherjee, Uday Vipra, and Pradeep, IncubateHub is akin to US-based innovation platform Plug and Play Tech Centre. The Bangalore-based firm provides open innovation and corporate venturing management-as-a-Service for corporate professionals, investors, and ecosystem players.
Rajiv Mukherjee, Co-founder, IncubateHub, said, "Open innovation is the future. As its name suggests, open innovation refers to a process where an organization does not solely rely on its internal knowledge, sources, and resources for innovation of products, services, business models, etc. It promotes innovation outside of the company to achieve new products, new verticals, or to innovate. We are helping the ecosystem stakeholders to work on ideas, test, pivot, and launch products and services that are globally scalable. We want to be the largest such platform in the world."
The corporate innovation market is estimated at a little over $200 million and is expected to reach $750M by 2023, growing at 27 percent CAGR. IncubateHub is well-positioned to capitalize on the immense potential in this sector, Mukherjee said.
Open innovation is getting popular amongst corporates as they find it more profitable for multiple reasons including having access to the right talent, synergies between internal and external innovations, the potential employer branding opportunities, low costs of experimentation besides, increased competitive advantage and creation of new revenue streams, Mukherjee added.
David Jakubovic, Director R&D Open Innovation Asia at P&G, said, "While global P&G teams were already working with IncubateHub on digital innovation, we wanted to conduct a pilot program on sustainable packaging. The quick turnaround time and a highly responsive support team ensured success throughout the engagement."
Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-Founder, Venture Catalysts and Managing Director of 9Unicorns, said, ‘’As a company we have seen a rise of CVCs especially in the Asian market which is a huge boost. IncubateHub will further establish and strengthen the position of start-ups, accelerate product development, expand its footprint with existing customers, and scale its go-to-market organisation’’
IncubateHub launched four solutions for Corporates last year for specific needs of Corporate Innovation Teams to accelerate their Build/co-create, Rent/license, Buy/invest decisions.
