Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

Spanish Deep Tech Ecosystem, Startup Partnerships – Selected

In my previous articles we were tackling the topics of the challenges the Spanish Deeptech faces and how we can solve these challenges by strengthening the Spanish Deeptech Ecosystem.

Now what’s next?

Deeptech startups face diverse challenges from funding to market access and technical / business expertise, among others. In order to access the resources they need, these startups rely on several stakeholders to help them address these specific needs.

Such collaborations are especially important for Deeptech startups since they find themselves at the crossroads of fundamental research and industrial application.

Therefore, before jumping into designing a platform for corporates to collaborate with Deeptech startups, let’s take a deeper look at what Deeptech startups look for when establishing corporate partnerships?

The following information is taken from interviews with various Spanish universities (UPC, UPF, IQS, UB, and UAB), some Spanish SMEs, some Deeptech experts and the Boston Consulting Group – Henderson Institute partnership with Hello Tomorrow reports (“The Dawn of the DeepTech ecosystem“;  “From Tech to DeepTech“).

In order to understand what Deeptech startups look for when establishing corporate collaboration, we first need to understand why Deeptech startup look to establish corporate partnerships.

Peculiarities of Deeptech startups

Deeptech innovations benefit from technological advances that often make them slower and more expensive to get off the ground than digital startups:

(a) Strong research base: Deeptech startups highly depend on fundamental research and advanced R&D. The latter combines a steady set of advanced skills, knowledge and infrastructure that lengthens the product time-to-market.

(b) Massive industrialization process: most products in the field are often using advanced materials, resources and technology that require high industrial skills, manufacturing and scale.

(c) Capital-intensive needs: in order to do fundamental research and be able to mass produce, Deeptech startups need substantial investment capacity over a specific period of time.

(d) Commercial application: as products are typically based on R&D, most of these products are in a “yet-to-be-defned” commercial application and therefore, need to open the doors to new markets that have yet to be created.

In that way, the time-to-market for Deeptech startups is usually longer than other startups because their products are based on a new technology that require longer development time, larger investment needs and “yet-to-be-defined” commercial applications.

The technology risk and complexity arise from the fact that Deeptech startups often use technologies at a low technology readiness and, after proving a technology in the lab, they are still facing a long road to turn the product into a demonstrated and tested solution.

In addition, stakeholders don’t properly anticipate the heavy demands on Deeptech startups and therefore the startups underestimate the time required to reach the market.

This often leads Deeptech startups to view corporates as the preferred partner to support the full scope of their needs mainly for market access and technical knowledge. Although corporate funding is not at the top of startups’ expectations, corporates usually offer it. That said, startups can still find themselves with many challenges when building collaboration with corporates.

Obstacles faced when establishing corporate partnerships  

Mid-stage Deeptech startups are often the most interested in building corporate partnerships and roughly half will succeed in establishing at least one partnership.

However, the latter encounter four key obstacles:

(a) Risk of misunderstanding on vision and objectives.

(b) Misalignment of timing and processes.  

(b) Lack of confidence in the technology and/or its maturity.

(c) Fear of lacking agility and reactivity (i.e. bureaucracy).

Therefore, establishing partnerships is easier through indirect recommendation at early stages because that arrangement enables both parties to build trust in the relationship and engage in free discussion without considering any immediate commercial application.

Type of collaboration that Deeptech startups look for with corporates

As Deeptech startups progress from a fundamental research idea to a commercial success, they go through different stages of development.

Based on the market readiness and the technology maturity level of the startup, the latter has its own needs, resources and preferred partners to collaborate with.

Therefore, we can identify four types of Deeptech startups looking to establish corporate partnerships:

(1) Potential wins are Deeptech startups that have a commercial-ready product and a market that is ready to adopt the technology. The immediate challenge is to scale up and initiate large production volumes. Therefore, they need fresh funding, market access and talent. In order to develop this customer base and the distribution network, these startups often turn to corporates although only 25% expect to get funding out of this collaboration. These startups expect to get visibility, credibility, business and technical knowledge.

(2) Demand bets are Deeptech startups with a product that is mature enough to be launched but doesn’t yet have a broad commercial application. Their main challenge is to identify and build a market for their innovation. They often lack a distribution network and face market resistance to change. Although funding is an important aspect, market access and business knowledge are their crucial resource needs for which they look to build synergies with corporates.

(3) Development bets are Deeptech startups that have identified a market opportunity and defined a value proposition. They are developing a technology to deliver but haven’t yet creation a market-ready product. They are looking to access technical expertise and overcome technological uncertainty. In order to cover this challenge they look to establish collaboration with corporates especially as research partnerships to share the costs and de-risk the R&D expenses. In that sense they are able to accelerate the development of the product.

(4) Technology bets are Deeptech startups that have identified a promising technology that lacks a market application yet. Their main goal is to develop a viable product and ensure that it will fit a market need. The crossroad these startups find themselves at are long development time and technological uncertainty. Obtaining corporate knowledge and support is extremely difficult as technological uncertainty makes funding risky. Therefore, these startups look to work on both technology / product development and market identification in order to reach collaboration with corporates.


As a general trend, corporate-startup partnerships are becoming more prevalent however, misalignments, bureaucracy and lack of technological confidence amongst others are still creating challenging obstacles to overcome.

Understanding all interests and needs is essential in order to build a platform that best nurtures collaboration between corporates and startups.

How can we build it?

Stay tuned for Part 4 of “How to build the Spanish Deeptech Ecosystem” 😉

you might also like

blank
Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

blank
New Materials 3 days ago

Lios Group, the Irish startup behind SoundBounce, was a winner of JEC Composites Startup Booster 2018, and has been making significant strides since taking home the award.

blank
New Materials 1 week ago

Tree Composites aims to accelerate the energy transition with innovative composite joints.

Subscribe to
our Newsletter!

Stay at the forefront with our curated guide to the best upcoming Tech events.