Denis Opudo
The small scale startup ecosystems usually face different operational challenges. The biggest global problem is lack of enough funding for running their daily tasks. Other challenges include inadequate networking to access suitable market for their products, limited production scale, and market research among others. Large or corporate businesses benefit from economies of scale since they have the strength to establish their products. Besides launching a huge product line, they also have large customers, high partnership opportunities among others.
Despite these advantages, some corporate businesses suffer the challenge of limited innovation since it is difficult to automate all processes. Passion Incubator of Nigeria forms a partnership with the Swedish Embassy located in Nigeria to launch Collaborate.ng startup. The initiative is a technological platform where corporate present their challenges in a manner that enable relevant startups to tackle them.
Collaborate.ng platform works in a two-phase project model. The first phase of the project is to advise the Swedish corporate about their future market strategies. The second phase looks into partnership in order to solve challenges more effectively by use of modern technology. According to a Partner at Passion Incubator, Olufunnbi Falayi, innovative startups develop real-life solutions to corporate challenges. He added that large companies including Flexenclosure, SKF, and Oriflame have so far signed hoping to obtain a solution to their problems. There are more corporate companies coming on board in the near future.
It is conventionally known that corporate and individual startups have diverse cultures. The main challenge of corporate is on how to streamline their operations for integration and collaboration opportunities. In Africa, the mandate of Collaborate.ng is to “make Collaborate the defacto platform for Corporate and startup”
According to the Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria, collaborate.ng has enabled startups to be more creative. The economic recession in 2016 in the country, slow economic growth has given startups enough time to improve their technological skills.
He added that the collaborate.ng has enabled the Swedish companies to serve the Nigerian market in a more effective way. This platform, therefore, provides benefits to both Nigeria and Sweden stakeholders. The platform can be accessed online via Collaborate.ng.
