Collaboration Key to Reaching the Global Goals

The April 21 event focused on solutions linked directly to the UN Sustainable Development Goals which aim to help companies, governments and individuals tackle some of today’s biggest challenges including environmental impact, economic inequality and the sustainability of industry. Ignite Key Partner Manager, Niklas Sikström explains why innovation and collaboration play an important role in meeting these Global Goals. 

“Today, sustainability is part of more companies’ normal operations and business models. By facilitating tailor-made meetings for large companies with startups, we can contribute to achieving a sustainable climate faster and reach the 2030 agenda.”

“This year we also collaborated with Swedish Scaleups, and a number of scaleup companies also participated. This is important as it’s essential for companies to relate to the UN Global Goals if they are going to be able to scale in a sustainable way,” says Niklas.

This is a mindset shared by Camilla Andreasson, Concept Manager at Lindab who met with nine startups throughout the matchday.

“For us sustainability is a way of thinking and of working. It affects how we implement our strategy in all areas. The products and solutions we develop and sell, and the way we work, contribute somewhat more to nine of the goals. In general, we believe in cooperation and open innovation and working with the Global Goals is no different.” 

She adds that she sees great value in collaborating with startups in general. 

“There are so many good initiatives out there, and working together we can hopefully make them fly faster. The quality of our meetings today was great! It was good matchmaking, everyone was well prepared and stuck to the agenda.”

Mats Huss, the CEO and Co-Founder of Footprint Level, a startup that helps organizations visualise their climate footprint, says that engaging with the global goals is imperative regardless the size of a company. He also emphasized the advantage of the meetings’ format.

“It is obvious that the corporates attending have an interest in your startup and these one-on-one meetings give us a lot of insight. They often reveal the reality behind the big words expressed on their websites and the needs expressed in these meetings are very valuable!”

He adds that the Ignite Sales Excellence with Christian Malmsten, Head of Sales Coaching, allowed him to get the most out of his meetings on the day. 

“The meetings gave me a lot and I think part of that is because of the great sales coaching we received from Christian. In my experience I would say that many entrepreneurs avoid the “selling moment”. This training took the stigma away from such meetings. Christian showed the SPIN-methodology and that helped me a great deal in developing the meetings from tough to engaging.”

The matchmaking session was a part of SISP’s Sveriges Innovationsriksdag 2021 and was organized in collaboration with Kista Science City, LEAD, Minc, Sahlgrenska Science Park, Sting, Swedish Scaleups and Uminova Innovation.

The participating corporates were Alfa Laval, E.ON, Herenco, IBM, Lindab Ventilation, Michelin, Stena Metall, Sveriges Allmännytta and Uppsala Municipality.