- The energy Group was included in the “Top 12 Corporate Startup Stars”, which rewards the most active companies in the open innovation sector
- Enel also won the special “Corporate Startup Procurement” award for its commitment to the creation of solid relationships with new entrepreneurial initiatives
Brussels, November 22nd, 2018 - Enel confirms its leadership in innovation. The Group was included in the “Top 12 Corporate Startup Stars”, the list that recognises the world’s most active companies in the open innovation field. The Group also received the special “Corporate Startup Procurement” award for its ongoing commitment to creating high-value relationships with the most promising innovation companies. The award ceremony was held in Brussels and Ernesto Ciorra, Enel's Chief Innovability® Officer accepted on behalf of the Group.
“Today’s awards underscore Enel’s strong commitment to creating an innovative and sustainable business model we are particularly proud of, a model that we implement with dedication so that it can grow further and take on new challenges. This is the only way for Open Innovability® to bear its fruit,” said Ernesto Ciorra, Enel's Chief Innovability® Officer. “Startups are a key component of this ecosystem, as they allow us to take the lead in several new technologies and business opportunities, while at the same time we help them grow and access capital markets, including venture capital. We are also a strategic partner to 12 of the world’s leading universities, including MIT and Berkeley, as well as Milan and Turin’s polytechnic universities, with which we maintain a constant and multidisciplinary dialogue on energy challenges so as to create a sustainable business model.”
In the last few years, Enel has evaluated around 4,000 high technical-potential startups, and invested time and resources in cooperation with around 180 of those companies. The Enel Group, across its global business, has scaled up its partnership with 50 of these startups. Furthermore, through a community of 400,000 solvers, Enel collected, through its crowdsourcing platform “Openinnovability.com”, more than 1,300 solutions from 70 countries, responding to 40 published challenges. As a result of the team work between Enel’s Innovability® and Procurement areas, and to the new collaboration model with suppliers, Enel is converting all innovation into sustainable development and industrial growth projects.
The Corporate Startup Stars awards, now on its third edition, were founded through the commitment of Mind the Bridge, a global leader in innovation consulting services, and the Nesta foundation, within the framework of the Startup Europe Partnership (SEP) initiative promoted by the European Commission. The companies were selected through a public call held by the event organisers, who asked the most important European startups to express their preferences. The companies selected on the basis of this initial vote were then invited to provide detailed information on their innovation activities and the results achieved. Following a careful evaluation of the presentations received, a jury of sector experts granted the awards to 36 companies, of which 12 were included in the Corporate Startup Stars category and the remaining 24 in the Open Innovation Challengers category.
The Startup Europe Partnership (SEP), established by the European Commission in January 2014 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, is the first pan-European open innovation platform specialising in the transformation of European startups into scaleups. By participating in the SEP programme, leading multinationals have the opportunity to contact the best startups, launching commercial partnerships and corporate investments.