Brave New Collab: Coroos x SUNT
As a corporate business, it can be a challenge to keep innovating and stay ahead of the game. As a startup, it can be a challenge to access the market and receive fundings. But magic can happen when one meets the other, and they decide to join forces. This is where we proudly present to you, our Brave New Collabs.
One of our Brave New Collabs is when family-owned business Coroos - a leading European producer in the fruit and vegetable industry – decided to collaborate with startup SUNT. SUNT, a fairly young company, processes otherwise wasted bananas and turns them into new sustainable food products. The corporate and startup were introduced to each other after they joined one of Brave New Foods’ Open Calls – a challenge in which corporates and startups are brought together to access new markets, networks or funding opportunities.
A collab brings benefits to both: sharing knowledge and reducing costs
While Coroos offers years of expertise, SUNT brings future-proof ideas to the table. Director of Innovation & Quality Dies Oostrom was instantly captivated by startup SUNT. “The added value of startups is that they provide us with positive energy, alternative thinking, and ideas that are future-proof,” Dies expresses. “Up until now we shared mainly knowledge, conducted some successful production trials and we validated the business case together.”
Laura Hoogland, founder at SUNT, also saw many benefits in their collaboration. “For us, it’s a great opportunity to take advantage of the knowledge and expertise that the corporate already has,” Hoogland said. Their joint effort also resulted in more efficiency and substantial cost reduction: “SUNT was able to collaborate with Coroos to outsource a part of the production and that made us able to not do a big investment on machinery that was already there within another company.”
Tips and advice if you’re looking for a collaboration
Going forward with a collaboration depends on the angle and interests of both the corporate and the startup/scale-up joining our Open Calls. It therefore truly takes two to tango. “The key factors which we take into account are the competence of the entrepreneur and the synergy with our current processes and business,” Oostrom explained.
According to startup entrepreneur Hoogland, it also all comes down to whether something feels right or not: “I think it’s very important that both the startup and the corporate establish a form of trust and that you are willing to share knowledge and share information. Trust and listening to your gut feeling are the most important things to think about before you start working together with a corporate.”
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