Nearly three-quarters of German mechanical and plant engineering companies plan to collaborate with startups in the next three years, according to a recent member survey conducted by the industry association VDMA. The industry is particularly seeking access to new technologies.
Fifty-five percent of the companies surveyed by the VDMA are already working with startups, and 73 percent plan to do so in the next three years. Two-thirds of the companies surveyed believe startups play an important role in the future of the industry. Nearly 70 percent of respondents are satisfied with their collaborations.
“The potential of living together is immense”
The main motives for collaborating with startups are access to new technologies (93 percent) and the development of new products and business models (90 percent). Companies already planning a collaboration are particularly interested in startups in technology areas such as Industry 4.0/Industrial Internet of Things (93 percent) and data analytics and artificial intelligence (83 percent). Three-quarters of companies collaborate with startups on projects. In contrast, 56 percent rely on a customer-supplier relationship.
"Startups in mechanical and plant engineering are not a new marketing bubble, but a strategic approach that demonstrably generates value. We bring together what belongs together: a unique technology culture, which we, as the most important engineering employer, still stand for today, and young startups that bring a different culture of innovation and new technologies. The potential of this lived collaboration is immense—business models and technologies of the digital vision are becoming industrial reality in our mechanical engineering sector. We are the startup stars of German industry."
says Hartmut Rauen, Deputy General Manager of the VDMA.
University networks are in demand
Forty-two percent of the industrial companies surveyed conduct their own scouting efforts to find suitable startups. Furthermore, the companies surveyed utilize university networks and research institutions (94 percent), and 85 percent rely on recommendations from their own networks to identify suitable startups. Fifty-eight percent turn to industry associations for startup referrals.
