By Marcos Gurgel, director of innovation at iFood, and Heloisa Zampieri, open innovation analyst at iFood
iFood is officially in the top 3 of companies that best relate to the startup ecosystem. The ranking, carried out by The Bakery consultancy, in partnership with ABStartups, highlights the podium: Ambev, iFood and Natura are the organizations that give the most match with innovative companies that are just starting their path to success.
The result was announced at CASE 2022, an event that was sponsored by iFood precisely because it was aimed at boosting the innovation ecosystem. Better timing, impossible. 😉
This recognition is no small feat. The research that placed iFood in the top 3 collected quantitative and qualitative data from 20 giants in their sectors, including very traditional ones in the Brazilian market. We are talking about initiatives such as Santander, Suvinil, Andrade Gutierrez, Bayer, Renner, Vivo and Mondelez, just to name a few.
Okay, but what does that mean?
The objective of the survey carried out by The Bakery was to demonstrate that, more than working with corporate venture capital, the company needs to have a good relationship with the startups for which its shares are intended.
In other words: it is not just about helping a new organization financially, but making it feel part of a community, that it is welcomed in this sense of belonging.
This happens through programs focused on innovation to accelerate new businesses. At iFood, this is the purpose of iFood Labs. Before the opening of CASE 2022, we we received a visit from 50 entrepreneurs from all over the country for the tour of the company's headquarters and, of course, for them to see up close what iFood Labs produces in terms of value to the ecosystem.
And the road is long!
iFood was born in 2011 and ended the year with just over twelve thousand active users who placed orders via the classic call to the restaurant. Ten years later, there were already more than 60 million orders through the app — and this number is only growing.
This business of connecting people is, yes, ours core business; but, more than that, it is our essence. So, why would we settle for connecting restaurants, delivery people and customers in an app if we could do that very well, but go even further?
This is the idea of iFood Labs.
At this innovation lab, our focus is connecting new companies to the key elements of their success. We review innovation, entrepreneurship and business practices to facilitate the creation of products, services and verticals that are increasingly useful to the end public.
Therefore, iFood Labs is our innovation hub — and, here, we test, co-develop and invest in new solutions that can fuel the future of the world with us. At the end of the day, we want to connect with startups with validated MVPs that want to create solutions with us that are tested and, potentially, integrated into the iFood ecosystem.
Search, connect, create, grow
This is what we do in the iFood innovation laboratory, this is what we expect from anyone who wants to join the team. We are always looking for startups that focus on their ideas and design strategies for their products and services, that take risks and don't mind getting their hands dirty. After all, done is always better than perfect.
Each new organization that enters the Labs is guided to operate in short cycles, with multidisciplinary teams that can learn, build and measure their results as the solution develops.
It is for these and other reasons that being in the top 3 of organizations that give the most match with startups makes us so happy: this is proof that we are heading in the right direction. In addition to promoting the financing of new products and services, we bring these people who want to change the world to learn, follow methods and, through commitment and focus, achieve the objective: changing the world.
iFood is concrete proof of this possibility. Our company managed to transform a simple idea of food delivery into an entrepreneurial, social and economic movement that is present throughout the country. We participate and encourage discussions about our impacts on all these fronts. We want more: to bring more and more good people, with incredible ideas, to this innovation hub.
