A.T. Kearney partners with technology startup hub in Berlin
A.T. Kearney has entered into a strategic partnership with startup seed funder Berlin Technologie Holding. The deal will see A.T. Kearney leverage its industrial expertise and client base to engage with the wide range of technology based startups being fostered by Berlin Technologie Holding.
Technology and its disruptive potential is causing a buzz across a range of industries and business types. Many companies are seeking to innovate new ways of performing transactions, leveraging information and engaging consumers, that break the traditional mould to create additional value. One breed of innovators are technology startup entrepreneurs, whose ideas can be rapidly developed to create lasting – and disruptive – change to the markets their offering affects. Established companies, seeking to access new technologies, have turned to collaborating and sometimes acquiring startups that mesh well with their own efforts or provide bolt-on potential. In a recent A.T. Kearney survey among executives, 90% said it is necessary to build digital expertise, which may require tapping into external resources to do so.
Berlin Technologie Holding (BTH) was founded in 2013 and operates out of Berlin – the city is according to a study released last year one of the globe’s top 10 startup hubs. The Holding and growth investment firm is focused on supporting technology-based startups focused on B2B business models within the Berlin starup ecosystem. The companies identifies strong candidates leveraging mobile, FinTech (a $19 billion industry), enterprise software and IoT, which tend to be well placed for M&A activities from established players and thus provide exit opportunities. The firms’ investments normally range between €500.000 and €3.000.000 per company.
The Berlin-based startup hub recently announced that it had entered into a strategic partnership with A.T. Kearney, one of the globe’s largest strategy and management consultancies. The deal will create a bridge between corporates and the innovations of startups, setting up a "one-stop-shop” that integrates A.T. Kearney’s industry and implementation expertise with BTH connections within Berlin’s budding startup scene. The connection will be made at the A.T. Kearney Digital Lab in Germany, the firm’s own lab for startup and novel innovation services. Sebastian Schoemann, A.T. Kearney principal in the Digital Transformation Practice, reflects: “We want to facilitate digital ecosystems between corporates and start-ups in the area of connected products and processes as well as digital services.”
“More than ever, traditional companies are facing the challenges of digital transformation to their proven business models,” says Michael Roemer, A.T. Kearney partner; Digital Transformation Practice leader for Europe, Middle East, and Africa; and co-founder of the A.T. Kearney Digital Lab. “With the Berlin technology investor BTH as a new strategic partner, we’ll be able to manage this process even faster and with higher impact.”
The joint offerings of BTH and A.T. Kearney, will according the partners, better position startups to scale-up and ultimately beat the odds in a highly competitive environment. The chances remain slim though – data from Deloitte shows that 50% of new enterprises fail before their fifth year of revenue, with only 1 out of 200 surviving enterprises able to become a scale-up.
