The Most Underreported Story of CES 2018: Enterprise+Startup Partnerships
CES 2018, as in past years, overwhelmed us with new consumer tech for a range of industries. But this year marked a turning point in the number of enterprise+startup partnerships embedded in flashy product announcements. Several incumbents are using outside innovation to align with consumer trends and ultimately help them transform their business models.
The most prominent examples come from the auto industry, where Toyota lined up partners like Amazon, Pizza Hut and Uber to debut its boxy e-Palette concept vehicle (for autonomous deliveries and ride-sharing) and Ford unveiled its new self-driving “platform,” which involves existing partners and Domino’s, plus new startup partner Postmates.
Beyond these headliners and numerous integrations with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, here are the most noteworthy enterprise+startup partnerships from CES 2018:
- Philips + telehealth operator American Well to deliver virtual care across a range of Philips products.
- Visa + payment tech startup Dynamics to develop an IoT payment card that has extra features like alerts and coupon offers.
- Johnson & Johnson beauty brand Neutrogena + FitSkin to create a device that captures data about skin health and provide product recs.
- Bose, Samsonite and others + Tile to embed the startup’s location-tracking technology directly into their products.
We expect to see more — and major — enterprise+startup partnerships announced in 2018, as an increasing number of Global 2000 corporations invest in outside innovation, from scouting operations in Silicon Valley to accelerator programs to corporate venture funds.
For corporate innovation leaders on the front lines of these efforts, however, efficiently tracking startups and emerging tech (every day and especially at shows like CES) has become nearly impossible without a dedicated software solution like KITE.
If you would like help mapping, monitoring and managing startups, contact us or request a demo.
