Yesterday, 12 corporates gathered at Sting to meet startups that offer solutions in various areas related to “data-driven society”. The event was one in the line of many so-called Ignite Sweden events, which aims to facilitate and increase the number of commercial collaborations between startups and established companies.

– An increasing number of corporates have realized that you cannot have all the competence internally, you have to look outside and find innovations and solutions outside your own business in order to grow faster, says Olof Berglund, coach at Sting and project manager for the event.

Agilon, one of the participating startup companies, had seven meetings booked with established companies. Agilon develops a service that automatically maps companies’ business processes and provides quantified improvement suggestions.

– For us as a startup, the meetings with the established companies are very important. We want to continue to test our idea and get it verified by real customers. This direct contact with industrial companies can also provide valuable feedback, and it is also a chance to sign a large and credible customer early, says Peter Selberg, co-founder and CEO of Agilon.

During yesterday’s event, 12 corporates and 36 selected startups met through qualified matchmaking which resulted in a total of 86 meetings.

The participating established companies were:

• E.on
• FLIR
• Folksam
• Gränges
• H & M
• IBM
• Järfälla municipality
• Mycronic
• Pfizer
• SAAB
• Trygg Hansa
• Uppsala Municipality

Ignite Sweden is a national program run by THINGS, Sting, LEAD, MINC, UMINOVA and Swedish Incubators and Science Parks. The project is co-financed by Vinnova.