iFood is on the podium of companies that have the best relationship with startups, according to a search carried out by the innovation consultancy The Bakery and Abstartups (Brazilian Startups Association), informs NeoFeed.
The company is in second place in this ranking, led by Ambev and which has Natura in third place. Furthermore, iFood was the big winner in Reputation and achieved almost 40% in this regard. This means that startups have a positive view of the company and their interest in relating to this ecosystem.
For researchers, reputational performance is the result of clarity in communicating objectives, speed of implementation and conversion rate of tests that become businesses. And the silver medal is largely due to the culture of open innovation on iFood and actions such as Jet Skis.
“With a methodology that ended up becoming benchmark nationwide, the iFood team is able to connect, co-create, test and implement solutions in partnership with startups in a few months”, points out the award report, referring to the Jet Ski method of disruptive innovation.
The so-called Jet Skis are temporary iFood teams whose mission is to put ideas to the test. “Instead of focusing on executing innovation projects with startups, the iFood open innovation team focused on generating the means so that this innovation can happen on a scale within the company”, completes the document.
The company gained prominence due to iFood Labs, an innovation hub created in 2021 to develop new solutions in partnership with startups. The research points out that this action created the necessary bridges with the ecosystem, enabling partnerships and tools that act as a gateway for startups on iFood.
Speaking of open innovation, the research mentions how partnership between iFood and Synkar, a startup specialized in autonomous delivery, to develop the ADA robot as a new delivery method that applies artificial intelligence to food delivery.
How companies were evaluated
The Bakery researchers selected 50 companies to reach the 20 finalists. And Abstartups carried out a survey of around a thousand startups to identify which companies connect to this ecosystem.
In addition to the three winners, the other companies that appear on this list are BASF, Santander, Vivo, Eurofarma, Lojas Renner, Raia Drogasil, Dasa, Suvenir, Mondelez, BV, Bayer, Cognatica, Andrade Gutierrez, Randon, Banco Carrefour and Vibra Energia.
The research took into account four criteria: strategy, infrastructure, operation and reputation. The companies were evaluated in relation to the structure and budget dedicated to innovation and their initiatives in the area. And the startups named the three companies that best relate to their ecosystem.
“We try to look not just at the number of contracts. There is a competitive advantage for corporations connected in a strong and healthy ecosystem. And the existence of these interaction skills strengthens it, generating a vicious cycle of innovation”, told InfoMoney Marcones Siqueira, partner and co-founder of The Bakery in Brazil.
For Felipe Novaes, also a partner and co-founder of The Bakery, this work seeks to show how innovation generates value. “Our proposal was to delve deeper into what is behind the large numbers published on open innovation, seeking to identify win-win situations in the ecosystem,” he said in interview with Mercado e Consumo.
