Carving a Niche—An Interview with Jordi Ràfols of Innoget

Some people use social media platforms to keep in touch with old friends, some meet new ones and others even find love. Outside the social sphere, online platforms that connect people can also catalyse business growth. Indonesia’s fastest growing start-up, ride-hailing app Gojek did just that – they casted a wide net and uncovered ideas from more than 4,700 participants in an open innovation campaign, resulting in improved employment rates, drivers’ work-life balance and journey times.

To tap into the power of virtual networks, Innoget offers a free online platform for start-ups and large corporations to collaborate on valuable ideas and products. By presenting their problems or showcasing their solutions, corporations and innovators can work together to identify new ideas, opportunities and capabilities. Innoget also creates software that helps to manage open innovation activities, programmes and competitions, as well as promote innovation education.

Jordi Ràfols, CEO at Innoget, shares his experiences working with IPI as they strive to a common goal of driving open innovation and collaboration.

1. What does Innoget do and what are your key capabilities?

Founded in 2006, Innoget is an open innovation service provider that builds and manages a global online community of experts and innovators to enhance technology scouting and technology transfer.

Based in Barcelona and with partners all over the world, our Open Innovation Global Alliance connects partners in Asia, Australia, South Korea, Japan, US, China, India, Russia, South America, Canada and more. We support the most innovative companies and organisations from sectors like mobility, energy, food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and oil and gas.

In addition to organising start-up competitions, open innovation challenges, idea contests and technology road-mapping, we also host an online peer-to-peer open innovation network that comprises members from more than 180 nationalities and a growing community of millions of experts, start-ups, spinoffs, research organisations and technology-based companies.

2. What is unique about Innoget's approach to encourage global open innovation?

The uniqueness of our approach is based on three main pillars. A long term and trustful cooperation with our global partners like IPI allows us to constantly reach out to new communities of experts and innovative companies to scout for R&D, innovation and business opportunities to our members. Similar to social media platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook, Innoget offers free access to a community of experts for all your innovation challenges and programmes.

I am especially proud of our state-of-the-art SaaS open innovation software, the InnogetCloud. Developed in 2009, organisations can use it to digitise their networks and collaboration processes by seamlessly connecting all users in any innovation ecosystem to create and manage their own co-branded open innovation platform.

3. Kindly share some examples of how collaborations with Innoget have benefited companies in Singapore and Asia.

Innoget provides SMEs and large corporations access to business and technical innovation opportunities globally. Our member community in Singapore has been constantly growing since we started our partnership with IPI in 2012.

One example is the JTC Open Innovation Challenge that focuses on sustainable real estate technology in Singapore. Innoget partnered JTC in their Open Innovation Grant Call on Sustainable Solutions in 2016 to help SMEs and corporations find technical solutions to their innovation challenges, while also supporting others to showcase their patents and innovations for promotion.

4. What kinds of companies and collaborators are you and/or your clients looking to work with?

Our corporate clients are looking for anything from very early-stage R&D solutions and know-how, patents and experts to ideas or ready-to-use innovative products and technologies. On the flipside, our technology providers are looking for licensees, corporates and funding opportunities to bring their ideas, technology and innovation to the marketplace.

5. What are some of the new opportunities in the tech transfer space, and how can companies begin working with Innoget on them?

We are happy to engage with organisations that are interested in conducting open innovation strategically and improving their returns on innovation investments while protecting their intellectual property and confidentiality.

Apart from the innovation needs directly listed on our platform in 2020, companies can find unique opportunities in technology transfer by joining our online community. We will be glad to conduct an initial open innovation diagnostic assessment and recommend the most efficient solution to meet each party’s short and long-term goals.

6. What has Innoget’s partnership with IPI been like over the years?

The partnership with IPI has been built on trust and a common goal of bringing value to innovators. Our cooperation has served our communities in promoting cross-border innovation and technology commercialisation, licensing and adoption between regions.

IPI has also been a reference partner for Innoget in Southeast Asia, especially in understanding the technology maturity, innovation culture and helping us access to major stakeholders in Singapore. I look forward to growing our communities together towards a stronger culture of open innovation and technology transfer.

Having attended numerous international innovation events, I would like to provide special mention of the great experience I had at TechInnovation 2019. I will always be very grateful for IPI’s kind invitation to their flagship technology brokerage event, where I had the opportunity to meet a wide range of technology seekers and providers alike.