Startup partnerships can help corporations unlock deep tech innovation

Business Times

08-07-2025

DEEP tech – including breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), synthetic biology, quantum computing and advanced materials – is shaping the future of industries, economies and everyday life. In 2023, the global deep tech market was valued at US$548 billion, and it is expected to grow to US$2.7 trillion by 2034, according to Future Market Insights.
These technologies are not just creating new products and services; they are driving transformations in key industries such as energy, healthcare, mobility and manufacturing. Governments are responding accordingly: the US Chips Act, Europe's EIC Accelerator, and China's sovereign AI programmes reflect a shared strategic priority – accelerating deep tech commercialisation.
For corporations, the implications are clear. Capturing the value of deep tech is no longer optional. It is crucial to develop long-term competitiveness. Yet despite growing urgency, many firms find that internal research and development (R&D) effort alone is not delivering at the speed or scale desired.
Why corporate R&D alone often falls short
Corporations are not short on resources or talent. Yet, deep tech innovation presents structural challenges that traditional R&D systems struggle to overcome.
Siloed organisation structures often separate research teams from business units, procurement, and compliance functions. Layered decision-making slows down experimentation momentum. Short-term performance focus creates friction with the long development timelines that deep tech requires. And many organisations lack internal capabilities to evaluate unproven technologies at early maturity stages.
Startups, by comparison, operate differently. They plan scientific and commercial milestones around the urgency and constraints of limited capital and time. Their flat teams enable faster iteration and testing cycles, guided by market feedback and commercial traction. According to Startup Genome's 2023 deep tech report, top-performing startups consistently compress time to Technology Readiness Level 7 (real-world prototype validation) through agile development, lean operating models, and fast feedback cycles.
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These dynamics do not suggest that startups are inherently superior. Corporations bring advantages that startups often lack – such as regulatory expertise, global market access, and deep industry relationships. This contrast reveals an opportunity: partnerships that combine the scale and resources of corporations with the speed and adaptability of startups.
What effective partnerships can achieve
When structured correctly, corporate-startup partnerships can accelerate time to market, de-risk emerging technologies and create value for both parties.
For example, Tokio Marine subsidiary ID&E launched a pilot to modernise road maintenance in Japan using deep-tech startup partnerships. Traditionally reliant on manual inspections, the company saw an opportunity to shift from reactive repairs to predictive maintenance. It did this by integrating AI-enabled mobile tools using smartphone video to detect road defects in real time – eliminating bulky sensors and significantly improving speed and accuracy.
This aligned with Japan's market shift from new construction to maintenance of ageing infrastructure, and helped ID&E close capability gaps in data collection and analysis.
Building on the pilot's success across multiple prefectures, ID&E launched a broader initiative in Singapore under the Economic Development Board's Corporate Venture Launchpad programme, aiming to deliver predictive, AI-supported road asset management across South-east Asia's US$13 billion to US$14 billion road maintenance market.
Another example comes from wastewater treatment startup Hydroleap which partnered with IX Technology to reduce the environmental impact of water-intensive data centres in Singapore.
Hydroleap's electrochemical solution removes up to 95 per cent of pollutants and cuts water discharge by 70 per cent, offering a more sustainable approach to cooling tower operations as industrial water demand – and AI data processing – surges. With plans to expand across Malaysia and Vietnam, the partnership reflects how deep-tech solutions can scale rapidly when paired with the right industry platform.
These examples demonstrate that when corporates provide the structure, and startups provide the technical domain expertise, the combination can outperform either approach alone.
A framework for high-impact startup partnerships
Despite the potential, many corporate-startup collaborations fail to scale. Based on observation across sectors, four enablers consistently distinguish successful partnerships:
Protected pilot space
Corporates must create dedicated environments – what we call 'sandboxes with teeth' – where startups can test technologies under real-world conditions without navigating standard corporate procurement and compliance processes. These spaces require their own budgets, legal protocols, and executive sponsorship.
Business-aligned ownership
A pilot that succeeds technically but lacks business unit buy-in rarely moves forward. Tie partnership outcomes to operational KPIs and profit-and-loss goals from the start. This ensures shared accountability and increases the likelihood of scale-up.
Startup translators
Startups and corporates operate on different assumptions. Hiring individuals who understand both environments – start-up 'translators' – can bridge communication, translate startup value into corporate context, and align expectations throughout the collaboration.
Portfolio thinking
Rather than investing in isolated pilots, manage startup collaborations as a portfolio of experiments. Measure learning velocity – how quickly lessons from one engagement are reused across the organisation – and create stage gates to reallocate resources towards the most promising pilots.
The strategic imperative
Startup partnerships are not a shortcut. They are a strategic mechanism to unlock value that internal systems alone cannot deliver. Corporations that rely solely on internal R&D risk falling behind more agile players – both startups and competitors who collaborate with them.
With the right structures in place, corporations can accelerate innovation, reduce risk, and bring transformative technologies to market faster. The question is no longer whether to partner – but how.
Daniel Chow is a principal at Arthur D Little Singapore, with a focus around advising on strategy, M&A and innovation across Asia-Pacific. Joel Koh is an engagement manager at Arthur D Little, where he advises clients across South-east Asia on innovation strategy, digital and business transformation.