Open innovation has become essential for organizations, with 80% of corporations across Europe now considering it “mission-critical.”

According to Sopra Steria Next’s Open Innovation Report 2025, companies are using open innovation to experiment with AI faster, partner with startups, and bring new solutions to market.

Based on a survey of over 1,600 corporates and startups across 12 European countries, the report reveals how AI has pushed open innovation up the strategic agenda, with 70% of corporates relying on startups to advance their AI goals.

Corporates are increasingly seeing AI as a strategic accelerator for their innovation agendas, particularly through collaborations between corporates and startups. These partnerships enable faster go-to-market strategies, lower-risk experimentation, and help established firms stay ahead of emerging technologies.

In a recent Innov8rs Learning Lab session, Tobias Studer-Andersson, Innovation Director and Group Head at Sopra Steria Scale Up, shared key insights from the report, offering a detailed look at Europe’s innovation landscape today and its future direction.

Tobias Studer-Andersson

Innovation Director & Group Head of Sopra Steria Scale up

From Fringe to Frontline

“Open innovation has become mainstream in Europe,” Tobias explains, signaling a significant shift in how corporations approach innovation. According to the report’s findings, 80% of organizations now consider open innovation mission-critical, up from 67% just two years ago. This sharp increase includes both private companies and public institutions, reflecting a growing consensus that traditional R&D is no longer sufficient on its own.

One of the main reasons behind this shift is the need for greater scale and speed. As business challenges become more complex and unpredictable, internal teams often lack the capacity to respond quickly. Open innovation enables companies to collaborate with external partners and leverage technologies and talent they might not have otherwise accessed.

The accelerating pace of technological change is another major factor. Tobias points to developments in AI, blockchain, and quantum computing as forces that are reshaping markets more rapidly than internal innovation teams can respond.

By collaborating with startups, corporates gain what he calls a “binocular into the future,” which is an early view into emerging technologies and business models that can shape future strategy.

AI Takes the Lead in Collaboration Trends

Among all emerging technologies, AI has had the most significant impact on open innovation priorities. According to Tobias, AI has been “the best accelerator to get open innovation up on the strategic agenda.” In fact, AI wasn’t even expected to dominate. Just two years ago, corporate leaders predicted sustainability would be their top innovation focus. But that changed almost overnight.

By the time ChatGPT was launched and interest in generative AI exploded, priorities shifted quickly. In practice, AI now tops the list, ahead of cybersecurity and sustainability. “This clearly shows that corporates didn’t know what the future would bring, but they embraced external partnerships to figure it out fast,” says Tobias.

This pivot wasn’t just theoretical. According to the report:

  • 57% of corporates completed AI-focused open innovation projects in the past two years
  • 70% say AI startups are crucial to realizing their AI strategies
  • 25% consider AI startups as integral to how they develop AI going forward

Even organizations with established internal AI teams are turning outward. This is because external partnerships help put solutions into production faster, unlock real business value, and reduce risk and cost.

“We’re seeing that even those with strong in-house AI capabilities are partnering with startups. They are not doing it to fill gaps, but to put more solutions into production and unlock real business value,” Tobias explains. It’s about accelerating implementation and treating startups as strategic co-creators, not just resource providers.

Larger organizations are leading the charge. Corporates with more than 5,000 employees are significantly more likely to engage in AI collaborations than their smaller peers. Geographic differences are also notable. While 80% of UK corporates believe AI startups are essential to their strategy, only 40% of Norwegian corporates share the same view. Tobias suggests that this could be a reflection of lingering “not invented here” mindsets in parts of Europe.

Different Goals, Shared Friction

Despite growing adoption, open innovation partnerships remain more difficult than they appear.

Tobias points to a persistent and often underestimated source of friction: misaligned motivations. “Corporates are trying to stay competitive, while startups often seek market access,” he explains.

The data in the report supports this. When asked why they pursue startup collaboration, corporates named three primary goals:

  1. Exploring innovative technologies or business models
  2. Fostering a more entrepreneurial culture internally
  3. Optimizing internal processes for efficiency and automation

Startups, in contrast, are motivated by entirely different needs:

  1. Gaining access to markets and clients
  2. Securing financial capital
  3. Attracting talent and human capital

This disconnect has real consequences. Too often, each side enters the relationship with fundamentally different expectations. Startups come eager to co-develop and scale real solutions. Corporates may focus on experimentation, internal learning, or even reputation building. Tobias explains, “Top startups don’t just want a proof of concept; they want a partner who can help them validate, scale, and commercialize.”

The misalignment also affects how each side behaves. Startups frequently feel pressure to “unveil everything,” including sensitive IP and source code, early in the process. Meanwhile, corporates often remain guarded and noncommittal, unsure whether the collaboration will move forward. This creates an imbalance that erodes trust before the project even begins.

These differences are not inherently problematic. However, when they are not acknowledged and addressed from the start, they can lead to stalled projects, vague expectations, and mutual frustration. The most successful open innovation collaborations begin with a clearly defined value exchange and a shared understanding of what success looks like for both parties.

The Good News: Success Rates Are Improving

Despite ongoing challenges, the success rate of corporate-startup collaborations is improving. According to the report, 65% of partnerships now achieve their intended objectives, up from 58% in 2023. While not a dramatic jump, this steady progress reflects growing experience and maturity across the ecosystem.

Tobias attributes the improvement to a shift in mindset and method. More organizations are treating open innovation as a strategic process rather than a series of one-off experiments. They are becoming more intentional in how they set up collaborations and more consistent in their management.

The most successful companies tend to follow three key practices:

  • They define clear, measurable objectives for each initiative
  • They assign ownership to dedicated open innovation teams
  • They adopt phased collaboration models that start with experimentation and evolve toward scaling

These structural improvements help reduce risk, align expectations, and facilitate a smoother transition from pilot to implementation. While the path is still challenging, more companies are developing the infrastructure to support repeatable success.

We see these patterns echoed in some of the most mature corporate innovation programs in Europe.

Persistent Barriers That Still Need Solutions

Even as open innovation matures in Europe, significant barriers remain. On the corporate side, the top three challenges are clear:

  • Legal and regulatory constraints, including complex procurement processes and unclear NDAs
  • Difficulty moving from pilot to full-scale implementation
  • A lack of structured, repeatable processes for managing collaborations

Legal complexity is especially problematic. Many corporations still rely on procurement frameworks that were never designed with startups in mind. Tobias shares that some startups have been sent 40-page contracts with enterprise-level indemnity clauses. These are not just administrative hurdles; they are often deal breakers. Without tailored agreements that reflect the realities of early-stage partnerships, promising projects are delayed or never launched at all.

Another significant issue is what Tobias refers to as the “pilot trap.” Many innovation efforts never make it past the initial proof of concept because the organization has no clear path to scale. Without aligned incentives, designated implementation owners, and committed stakeholders, even the most promising pilots are left behind. This signals a deeper readiness gap within the corporate structure.

Startups face their own unique challenges, and they often attribute these challenges directly to corporate behaviors. According to the report, the top three barriers for startups are:

  • A lack of strategic clarity from corporate leadership
  • Cultural mismatches, especially around speed, hierarchy, and risk tolerance
  • Misaligned goals for the collaboration itself

This cultural disconnect is particularly revealing. Startups often move quickly and operate with flat structures and an experimental mindset. Corporates tend to be more cautious, with multiple layers of governance and longer decision cycles. These differences are magnified when innovation sits outside core business lines and lacks executive visibility or support.

One insight from the report is especially telling. Startups ranked cultural mismatch as the second most significant barrier to collaboration. Corporates, on the other hand, ranked it tenth compared to viewing it as a top-three challenge in 2023.

“Corporates believe they’ve figured out how to work with startups. But the startups are saying: actually, no, you haven’t,” Tobias outlines.

This gap in perception highlights a larger problem: many corporates assume they are “doing open innovation right” because they’ve launched a few partnerships or programs. Startups clearly see it very differently.

Tobias emphasizes the need for ongoing feedback. He urges organizations to ask startup partners not only whether the product fit was right, but also how the partnership itself went. Where did things slow down? Where did trust break down? Who was missing from the conversation? These reflections can reveal internal blind spots that continue to hinder collaboration, despite good intentions.

Lessons From Industry Leaders

What separates the organizations that consistently succeed with open innovation from those that struggle? According to Tobias, it’s not just about partnering with startups. It’s about building a system that allows collaboration to thrive.

The most effective companies treat open innovation as a core capability. They invest in dedicated teams, establish transparent processes, and empower internal champions to drive adoption and implementation. Instead of experimenting on the side, they build the infrastructure to support continuous, scalable engagement with external partners.

Embedding Innovation Across the Business

Transport for London (TfL) offers a compelling example. Rather than housing innovation in a silo, TfL has embedded a 20-person open innovation team across its business units. This team acts as an orchestrator, helping to identify high-value challenges, designing a staged process for engaging startups, and ensuring that each business function is actively involved. “Everyone knows their role and when to step in, much like runners in a relay,” explains Tobias. The result is a structured, accountable model that transforms innovation from a black box into a transparent process.

Internal Credibility Drives Innovation

Pernod Ricard stands out for a different reason. The company’s Head of Open Innovation brings experience and internal credibility. With strong relationships across the organization, this leader can challenge status quo thinking and overcome resistance. “If you want to push innovation forward, you need someone with internal credibility who can ask those difficult questions and drive momentum forward,” notes Tobias. That kind of influence, combined with a step-by-step collaboration model, helps move ideas beyond the pilot stage and into the core business.

Bridging the Gap with Third-Party Partners

Other organizations are turning to third-party intermediaries to bridge the gap between intention and execution. These partners do more than scout startups. They help define problem statements, manage security and compliance, support change management, and guide the transition from pilot to production. This kind of external support is especially valuable for corporates that are experienced in peer partnerships but less familiar with the dynamics of early-stage collaboration.

What these examples have in common is clarity. They are not just experimenting with startups. They are industrializing their collaboration to make partnerships repeatable, scalable, and aligned with strategic priorities.

Why Startups Hold More Power in 2025

As more businesses pursue startup collaboration, the balance of power is shifting.

Tobias believes, “The supply and demand will shift, meaning that the most sought-after startups will have even more power to pick and choose which organizations they would like to collaborate with.”

This is not a future prediction; it’s already happening. High-performing startups are now just as selective as the corporates evaluating them. They are looking for speed, clarity, and follow-through. Before engaging, they want to know: Will this partner help us scale, or will they hinder our progress?

The implications are clear. Corporate reputation, structure, and readiness to collaborate are now under scrutiny. A budget line and an innovation label are no longer enough. Tobias highlights, “If you as a corporate are not clear and don’t have a good track record or a good value proposition, you might risk working with startups that are not top tier.”

Startups are asking sharper questions. What is your procurement process? Who are your internal champions? What is the timeline for implementation? Companies that cannot provide satisfactory answers are increasingly being passed over.

In response, some organizations are raising their game.

For example, one large telecom company recently revamped its procurement protocols to enable a fast-track partnership model. Startups were offered defined milestones, reduced legal overhead, and dedicated technical support—all within 30 days of first contact. Being prepared, decisive, and transparent makes a corporate a much more attractive business partner for startups.

This shift is also reflected in the data. In the next 24 months, 76% of corporates plan to initiate or continue collaborating with startups. Among those that have never done so before, one-third plan to start this year. And of the organizations already active, half intend to increase their level of collaboration.

As the field becomes increasingly crowded, the best startups will have more options. The organizations that make collaboration simple, fast, and meaningful will earn the right to work with them. The rest may find themselves left behind.

Moving Forward: From Opportunistic to Industrialized

To keep up with the pace of change, large corporations can no longer afford to treat startup collaboration as an experiment. Tobias uses the metaphor of a railway to make this point: “If you don’t build this railway now, you’ll end up having sleepless nights as a top senior manager.”

The “railway” refers to the foundational infrastructure required to make open innovation repeatable. This includes the systems, teams, and processes that enable effective collaboration with external innovators—not once, but continuously.

AI may be today’s focus, but it will not be the last. Quantum computing and synthetic biology are already forming the next wave. The organizations that prepare now will be well-positioned to move forward when these new technologies emerge. Those who wait will face even steeper learning curves and slower response times.

So, where should companies start?

  • Assess your organization’s readiness to collaborate externally. Identify structural gaps, governance challenges, and mindset barriers.
  • Define clear criteria for when to build, buy, or partner. This helps streamline decision-making and avoids aimless exploration.
  • Equip internal teams with playbooks, decision rights, and ownership structures to drive innovation forward.
  • Assign senior leaders to sponsor open innovation as a strategic priority. Their support helps secure resources and cut through resistance.

Many of the companies that are seeing success today began with small steps to test, learn, and refine their approach. What sets them apart is that they followed through, moving from experimentation to execution, and from one-off pilots to scalable models.

Tobias’s message is simple: treat open innovation as a business capability, not an initiative. Build the tracks now so you’re well prepared for what comes next.