- Sopra Steria and Sopra Steria Next reveal the “Open Innovation Report 2025”, a European-wide study dedicated to collaboration between corporates and startups.
- It highlights the growing trend of enterprises and public organisations increasingly collaborating with start-ups, particularly to accelerate the deployment of AI.
- Sopra Steria Next shares key insights about successful open innovation collaborations.
Paris, April 29, 2025 – Sopra Steria, a major player in the European tech sector, today unveils its Open Innovation Report 2025 written in collaboration with Sopra Steria Next, and with academics from INSEAD. It highlights the critical role startups play in building the Artificial Intelligence strategy of Europe’s corporate giants.
A glimpse at the key findings of Sopra Steria’s Open Innovation Report 2025:
- 72% of the surveyed large organisations have collaborated with startups
- 57% have now run AI-focused Open Innovation projects, of which 6/10 are within generative AI
- 7 in 10 corporates view startups as “vital” to their AI strategies
- Once a strategic advantage, partnerships between large companies and startups are now essential for maintaining a competitive edge
Whole report available here
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The year 2024 marks a turning point in the digital revolution, driven by the rapid rise of AI, notably shaped by two major dynamics. First, a stark contrast between corporate enthusiasm and the reality of large-scale adoption, since only 22% of large companies have managed to deploy generative AI at scale . Then, a rising number of AI start-ups entering the scene, with over 200 unicorns now identified . These two dynamics combined raise a crucial question: how can large enterprises and AI startups collaborate more effectively to accelerate innovation create business value?
Fabrice Asvazadourian, CEO of Sopra Steria Next, explained: "2025 marks a pivotal moment for AI-driven transformation. While technological innovation is accelerating, many organisations are still struggling to operationalise it at scale. Open Innovation is no longer a tactical option — it's a strategic imperative. By embracing external collaboration, especially with startups, companies can move beyond experimentation to unlock real impact. Those who embed Open Innovation into the fabric of their strategy will be best positioned to lead the next wave of reinvention.".
AI as a strategic imperative
The Open Innovation Report reveals almost 6 in 10 corporates (57%) have now run AI-focused open innovation projects, and 80% of corporates surveyed now judge Open Innovation as Important or Mission Critical, a figure which has surged by 20% since our last survey in 2023.
AI is no longer a peripheral concern — it is now at the core of corporate strategy. A total of 6 in 10 corporates now rate AI integration as Highly Important to their business, with almost three-quarters (72%) of large corporates having already run collaboration projectswith startups. Scaleups and startups are judged “vital” to corporates’ AI strategies by 70% of large companies, with more than three-quarters of corporates planning to launch Open Innovation projects in the next two years, with 63% planning to prioritise AI projects, particularly Generative AI projects. Interesting, however, only 47% of startups believe corporates genuinely value their contributions. Furthermore, success rates are improving. The percentage of corporates reporting that they achieved their Open Innovation objectives has climbed by 15% in the last 2 years with 2 out of 3 corporates declaring success in 2025.
The research also highlights the specific industries that are more likely to succeed in their open innovation projects, by category of AI. Sopra Steria and Sopra Steria Next found that:
- When AI is used for Machines, for instance in transportation or factories, open innovation projects are more likely to focus on visual intelligence, and in 3 main industries – Energy & utilities, public sector & government, telecoms.
- When AI is used to optimise processes, projects are widely diverse. They concern fraud detection or invoice handling for Financial services & Insurance, logistics plan optimisation for Transport, drug discovery in the health sector, …
- When AI is used to help humans, the interest in open innovation lies in search assistance, content creation, and advisory support for customer-facing, marketing, and technical activities across various sectors (Financial services, Insurance, Legal services, Retail, Aerospace, etc.). There is also a strong interest in agentic AI.
Still a lot of challenges to overcome
Despite growing enthusiasm for Open Innovation, many collaborations between corporates and startups fall short of expectations.
The European study also revealed some local specificities. The UK, Germany, and France stand out in through a high reliance on collaboration with start-ups to achieve their AI strategy and a high success rate in open innovation projects. Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway value start-ups highly but still struggle to consistently translate this into successful outcomes — highlighting a possible execution gap. Meanwhile, countries like Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands cluster in the middle, suggesting moderate maturity across both dimensions.
Tobias Studer Andersson, Innovation Director and Group Head of Sopra Steria Scale up, a business unit dedicated to help corporates harvest business value from collaborating with startups, underlined: "Cultural differences between corporates and startups remain a major challenge. While many large organisations focus on process and control, startups operate with speed, agility, and a high tolerance for risk — and this mismatch often leads to frustration on both sides. Too often, strategic intent is unclear, and promising pilots fail to scale. If we want Open Innovation to deliver its full potential, we need to move from transactional experiments to purpose-driven partnerships rooted in trust, clarity, execution and shared ambition."
According to the report, three structural barriers continue to undermine the success of Open Innovation initiatives. First, cultural misalignment remains the most frequently cited obstacle by startups, who often struggle to navigate the corporate world’s slower pace, rigid processes, and differing priorities. While startups operate with agility and a high tolerance for risk, many corporates underestimate the impact of these divergent mindsets and working styles. Second, a lack of strategic focus is a recurring issue, with startups frequently noting the absence of clearly defined or consistently prioritised objectives from their corporate partners — leading to confusion and missed opportunities. Finally, the transition from pilot to scale continues to be a stumbling block: while many Proofs of Concept (PoCs) show promise, they rarely translate into full-scale deployment, significantly limiting the long-term impact and business value of these collaborations.
Bridging the Gap: Turning Open Innovation into Scalable Impact
To facilitate collaboration between corporates and start-ups, especially with AI start-ups, Sopra Steria and Sopra Steria Next offer a structured and pragmatic approach, combining deep sector knowledge with hands-on innovation expertise. Levering its track-record on building successful collaboration between startups and corporations, SSN highlights 5 guiding principles:
- Successful Open Innovation requires more than occasional startup engagement — it must be treated as a core strategic capability, embedded within the company’s broader innovation model.
- Corporates must articulate a clear value proposition and collaboration framework to attract top startups — including well-defined problem statements, shared incentives, and a build-buy-partner roadmap.
- Dedicated Open Innovation teams significantly increase the likelihood of success (73% vs 51%) by aligning internal stakeholders and accelerating onboarding processes.
- Leveraging third-party intermediaries helps overcome cultural and operational gaps, raising success rates from 60% to 73%.
As organisations gain experience, governance naturally shifts from operational to executive level — signalling maturity and reinforcing Open Innovation as a long-term strategic lever.
"Corporations have made significant progress on the way they manage the upstream steps of Open Innovation, i.e. the scouting of relevant start-ups and the contractualisation (IP sharing, …). Being able to deploy at scale promising Proofs of Concept remains very hard and even harder with AI start-ups with which the challenges of data sharing and security are paramount. Finding the right balance will be essential. At Sopra Steria and Sopra Steria Next, we see Open Innovation not just as a way to experiment, but as a catalyst for reinvention. Our role is to orchestrate that balance — creating the right conditions for startups and corporates to collaborate with purpose, agility, and mutual trust, and to turn promising ideas into concrete, scalable business outcomes,” concludes Fabrice Asvazadourian, CEO of Sopra Steria Next.
Whole report available here