New study: What matters in collaborations between startups and corporates
Collaboration between startups and established companies is generally considered a win-win situation. In fact, 90% of the corporates see startups as important innovation partners, but only 11% of startups currently experience a high level of willingness to cooperate. These are two of the key findings of a new study by the German Startup Association and the consulting firm Accenture.
Choosing a partner as a challenge
For the study “Collaborate to Innovate”, a total of 500 startups and corporates were surveyed in spring 2025 about their experiences with joint projects. According to the study, the challenge begins with the search for a suitable partner. Six out of ten established companies find this difficult. Germany is well positioned in this regard, with around 23,000 young growth companies. However, this does not make it any easier to identify strong teams and relevant use cases and technologies. Three-quarters therefore rely on external intermediaries such as investors, consultants, or universities. The most important form of matching is personal encounters at conferences and other events (80%).
In the current tense economic situation, companies expect very concrete added value from collaborations: 73% of the interviewed scaleups - startups with at least 25 employees - report that fast results are becoming increasingly important. The goals of projects are usually the development of new products or services (57%) and access to new technologies (47%). Other topics such as new work (14%) or access to talent (19%) play a clearly subordinate role.
Only 28% of corporates currently see high returns from their collaborations. They lack experience in working with startups (41%) and feel that the uncertainty is too great (35%). On the other hand, 59% of startups criticise slow processes, while 49% complain about the risk aversion of established companies. It is therefore important to reconcile expectations and reality at an early stage to avoid disappointment on both sides. The study emphasises the importance of successful collaborations to prevent the gap in economic development between Germany and the US from widening even further. While Germany's real per capita GDP has risen by only 4% over the past ten years, the US has seen growth of 17% – largely driven by its strong digital economy. This trend is likely to accelerate, as the US now invests ten times as much in AI as Europe.
