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It’s difficult to build a startup ecosystem from the ground up. Leverage a continuously evolving one to deliver faster, more competitive innovation. Here’s how.

Shanaka Rupasinghe
Jan 24, 2025

Tap into Capgemini’s agnostic startup ecosystem for collaborative innovation.

A common thread runs through some of our biggest clients: the appetite for building an ecosystem of ambitious, next-generation technology startups.

And they’re not alone. According to Capgemini research, 44% of organisations consider startups as one of their top three sources of innovation in 2025.

Why the drive? Well, the answer is varied. Some business leaders have told us they want to give ambitious startups the unparalleled access to their people and network that will help them accelerate innovation to create technology-led solutions that drive their industry forward.

Some are seeking collaborators with which to deliver research and groundbreaking innovations to internal business units, policymakers, partners, and customers.

Others say partnering with startups demonstrates their ability to put their views into practice, taking advantage of complementary, if not overlapping, ambitions to contribute to shared goals and values.

Most acknowledge that co-innovating with startups helps them create a competitive edge.

Suffice to say, building an ecosystem of startups has become a key strategic bullet point in the quest for competitive innovation.

But you don’t need to start from scratch

The temptation – and often the ask of us as a business and technology transformation partner – is to develop a brand-new startup ecosystem. But in doing so, you risk closing yourself off to cross-industry inspiration from a much larger pool of players.

That’s why, after years of developing and refining an internal methodology to collaborate effectively with startups and scale-ups, Capgemini Ventures brought this capability and experience to clients in its Ecosystem-as-a-Service offering.

So instead of starting at zero, you can tap into our agnostic ecosystem ad-hoc, scale it up, then descale it when you don’t need it anymore.

A unique service in high demand

We’ve already delivered our Ecosystem-as-a-Service solution to a number of clients across many industries.

For example, a UK public sector client focusing on advanced AI safety sought our help to develop their innovation ecosystem of suppliers and undertake rapid innovation work. They wanted insight into the current market of AI specialists and its segmentation, understanding their capabilities and potential impact to support them as they undertook market engagement. Post-identification, the client wanted to assess the suppliers for potential collaboration, before onboarding and engaging them.

Using our Ecosystem-as-a-Service capability, Capgemini Ventures’ Startup Catalyst team created a joint set of processes, with the client, to identify, assess, and onboard chosen AI startups. Enabling co-experimentation between startup, client, and Capgemini.

We delivered the client’s requirements at pace, by leveraging our expertise and networks to find the right team for the problem while onboarding suppliers rapidly.

From the 26 organisations identified, 17 progressed to collaborative discussions and have been assessed, with 14 now experimenting with the client and Capgemini. There are a further 18 in the pipeline for 2025 and beyond.

‘Ecosystem as a service’ can answer any challenge

Whatever your ambition – be it a competitive landscape audit, innovation lab projects, early phases of digital transformation, strategic roadmaps, or a new business launch – we can support you by:

  1. Building a holistic view of your industry, delivered in an industry-specific intelligence report on the startup landscape within your specified strategic area.
  2. Identifying the most relevant players in an ecosystem design – giving you the full picture of the startup landscape in a strategic growth area and identifying which disruptive startups to experiment or partner with, tailored to your context.
  3. Assessing the suitability of a startup and de-risking a potential collaboration – giving you our highly recommended preliminary point-of-view of a startup’s business model and financial stability before any experimentation or partnership.
  4. Thorough evaluation of a startup’s solution, or full solution development and delivery – working with you and your chosen startup(s) on pilots, proof-of-concepts, or point of views.

These deliverables are created by combining insights from market-leading external sources with the collective deep industry expertise and experience of the full Capgemini Group.

Who are Capgemini Ventures?

Capgemini Ventures encompasses both the venture capital arm of Capgemini, and a thriving ecosystem aimed at co-creating and delivering value with startups and emerging partner ecosystems.

We are a unique vehicle to help you bring the startup perspective into client relationships:

  • We are focused on startups and scale-ups. With a firm belief that challenger innovative partners will be the biggest source of disruption, we’ve put a razor-sharp focus on them, enabling us to deep dive and develop our expertise.
  • We source champions of tomorrow from today’s venture capital portfolio. We leverage our venture capital/corporate venture capital network relationships to extract collective intelligence. Venture capital investments play a key selection role in emerging tech and business solutions and access to this qualified information helps us make the best bets.
  • We think like a venture capital firm. We look at startups from a dual perspective of business relevance and venture capital standards. This combined view helps de-risk choices that we recommend to clients.
  • We leverage Capgemini experts. We leverage our industry and technology experts to identify and assess startups. Capgemini Ventures has a unique value proposition that really matters to our clients.

With 5000+ startup businesses spotted, 320+ startups connected to Capgemini clients in joint projects, proposals, or proof-of-concepts, 200+ startup collaborations established across the group, and 14 startups receiving direct investment from Capgemini Ventures since 2020, our ecosystem is diverse, innovative, and ambitious.

Leverage our ecosystem today to deliver your results tomorrow.

Get in touch to start the conversation.

Meet our expert

Shanaka Rupasinghe

UK Startup Catalyst Lead
Shanaka Rupasinghe is the UK Startup Catalyst Lead, part of Capgemini’s Ventures team. He is responsible for identifying and fostering value-adding collaborations with the most promising startup’s and scale-up’s for the UK. By connecting businesses with innovative startups, Shanaka helps clients directly access open ecosystems that drive dynamic innovation strategies at scale. His work supports Capgemini’s efforts to create groundbreaking business collaborations through his deep expertise and strong alignment with industry experts.