HackerEarth, a leader in innovation management, on Thursday announced the launch of Startup Connect, a platform which connects early-stage startups with large organisations to bring the two together to co-innovate.
Currently, over 500 startups have already signed up on Startup Connect with many more expected to join the program. HackerEarth aims to have more than 50 companies signed on to the platform by the end of the year.
Under the Startup Connect program, enterprises can host innovation challenges for business problems that they are trying to solve. Startups can participate in these challenges and match their existing product/solution to the given problem statement or modify their solution accordingly. Shortlisted startups will get a chance to work with the enterprise to co-create the solutions and eventually take them to the market or get incubated.
Startup Connect is ideal for startups which are in early-stage with a prototype, startups with a functioning product and growth-stage startups looking for co-innovation and incubation opportunities. A lot of early-stage startups fail to succeed due to poor go-to-market strategy or not being able to get the large anchor customers early on. Startup Connect aims to solve this problem by connecting enterprises to the right startups. Startups can also leverage the network of large enterprises to identify and connect with prospective clients. For those with unique ideas, this platform will also help them connect with companies looking to incubate startups. Working with larger organisations gives startups credibility during their early stages and opens doors for exciting new opportunities.
Having worked with more than 100 enterprises over the last couple of years and helping them solve critical business problems through innovation, HackerEarth realised that working with startups to co-innovate solutions is an important component of the entire enterprise innovation strategy. The key problem that this program aims to tackle is to create a structured process that will allow large enterprises to effectively engage with startups for co-innovation.
Through Startup Connect, large organisations will get a chance to co-innovate and engage with companies who can become a strategic addition to their portfolio. This collaboration with startups strengthens their product value proposition or opens a new market opportunity.
Startup Connect is sector-agnostic, which makes it easy for any company to get in touch with the relevant startup for their technological requirements.
Sachin Gupta, CEO and co-founder, HackerEarth said, “We are thrilled to announce our latest initiative - Startup Connect. Having gone through our startup journey of building an enterprise company we understand how hard it can be to work with large enterprises particularly in the early days. On the other hand, we have realised that it’s equally challenging for enterprises to find the right startups and engage with them. Having helped enterprises for their open innovation efforts through our developer community, it felt like a natural extension to help them identify and work with startups.”
According to the NASSCOM Startup Report 2017, India is currently the third-largest startup hub in the world with a total of 5,200 technology startups. Last year alone, 1,000 new startups were founded in India, creating 80,000 new jobs. This creates an opportunity for enterprises to leverage the pool of talent within these startups.
HackerEarth’s existing flagship products, Sprint and Recruit, have gained exceptional momentum in the past year, making it one of the fastest growing SaaS (software as a service) companies in India. HackerEarth has also ensured that the startups on the platform can join free of cost, making it easier for bootstrapped startups to participate in projects.
For more information on Startup Connect, you can click here.