Fully committed to urban transformation, Icade has developed an open innovation strategy with start-ups aimed at testing new concepts in a more agile way to later ramp up their implementation on a larger scale. The goal is to combine the agility of a start-up and the firepower of the Icade Group to implement solutions on a large scale in response to the challenges facing cities and the real estate industry.
In order to unearth promising start-ups, Icade has made a habit of forging partnerships with incubators such as Paris&Co, H7, etc. The goal is to create value together in line with Icade’s business activities.
For start-ups interested in working with Icade, the team in charge of innovation is an excellent stepping stone. Its role is to be a sounding board for the value propositions of innovations... and to put the start-ups in contact with the right people at Icade. Attentive to the needs of those on the ground and Icade’s business lines while constantly on the lookout for new solutions, the team is an interface between the world of start-ups, which it knows so well, and the Group.
So much more than a mere facilitator, the team also organises workshops and coaching sessions to together define the key aspects of successful collaboration. In addition, Icade can count on its actively involved legal teams to create winning business partnerships through appropriate processes.
Depending on the start-up’s stage of maturity, collaboration may be fostered in a variety of ways.
For start-ups having sufficiently mature solutions, Icade can swiftly integrate them into its activities by:
In just a few years, many partnerships have been forged, giving rise to more than thirty innovation contracts.
Contact us to discuss the opportunities for co-innovation.
Get in touchFor entrepreneurs who are still in the early stages of their project: Icade created Urban Odyssey, the 1st start-up studio dedicated to shaping the cities of tomorrow and real estate. Co-creating a start-up with Icade from the project’s early phase makes it possible to enhance its value and implementability. As a result, “entrepreneurs in residence” at Urban Odyssey benefit from incubation (in partnership with the HEC Incubator), pre-seed funding and direct access to Icade’s business lines.
After an initial pre-seed phase and validation of the product-market fit, which can last from 6 to 9 months, Icade and the entrepreneur can together decide whether to ramp up the project, which would give rise to a second round of seed funding.
