INNOSPOT - “Team up! - with AI-based Startup Scouting”

Location: Munich - Germany
Founding Date: 2017

In this project, AVL’s CREATORS EXPEDITION worked closely together with INNOSPOT - a Munich-based startup which specializes in AI-based startup scouting. The goal of this cooperation was to help the startup to become one of the big players in the industry of business data research by testing and improving its algorithms and to make the sometimes very resource-intensive process of startup scouting more efficient for AVL by increasing its quality with a structured approach. This was realized by establishing a self-service scouting platform based on the technology of the startup enabling AVL employees to find potential partners for their individual projects in an efficient way. CREATORS EXPEDITION executed 4 different scouting-projects together with business units of AVL to gather data that served as a basis for the central scouting platform.
With a database of over 430.000 startups from all over the world and about 850 automatically identified new startups every week from over 110 countries, INNOSPOT offers a startup scouting service that clearly stands out of the industry. On an innovative platform, it is not only possible to search for relevant firms but also predefine goals or certain industrial areas and create specific use case-profiles to identify the most promising cooperation partners and maximize the outcome of the search. This enables highest efficiency, flexibility and quality.
The project started at the end of spring 2018 and went on until the end of summer. After that, next possible steps have been discussed in a final meeting with the general management of AVL. During the whole project, the startup employees worked remotely from their hometown most of the time. The flexible structure of the CREATORS EXPEDITION saves time and money on both sides and helps to focus more on the project rather than traveling from A to B.
The advisors of CREATORS EXPEDITION frequently attend startup events and exhibitions all over the world to connect to the startup community and search for possible fits between AVL and young, innovative companies. In this case, the team met INNOSPOT’s CEO at an event in Lisbon, Portugal where the basis for a successful cooperation was created. The startup then applied via the short-form on the CREATORS EXPEDITION homepage, AVL got to know the people behind the startup and finally considered, which benefits both firms could get out of the arrangement. The project got its acceptance, the expedition began and finished as a huge success for both sides in September 2018. Upcoming joint-projects are already in the planning.