Startups and scale-ups are important drivers of innovation and growth in Europe. However, they are also risk-heavy entities that need capital outlays, frequent mentoring, and hands-on support to grow and succeed. On the other hand, large firms are often deficient in the new talent, ideas and agile approaches required to keep up with the fast pace of innovation. In this way, startups and corporates both possess attributes that the other is lacking and would benefit from having access to.

Collaboration between large firms and startups or scale-ups is therefore a win-win solution which can open up new opportunities and bring tangible benefits to both sides.

For this reason Nesta and the Startup Europe Partnership are producing a ranking of Europe’s 25 Corporate Startup Stars - the first to showcase exemplary big businesses working closely with startups. 

Our goal is to promote the mutual benefits of corporate-startup collaboration, and to feature role models that can incentivise behaviour change among big businesses. 

Your help will be essential in selecting the top 25 corporates to be included in the ranking. 

We will be working closely with media partner Startups.co.uk and a panel of expert judges to identify those large firms which are truly world-leading in terms of making themselves ‘startup friendly’. 

The members of the judging panel are: 

• Alberto Onetti, serial entrepreneur and coordinator of the Startup Europe Partnership
• Candace Johnson, entrepreneur behind SES, Loral Teleport Europe and Europe Online
• Sherry Coutu, author of The Scale-up Report and angel investor
• Andy McCartney, former CEO-in-residence at Microsoft and founding partner of Whitespace Ventures
• Bart Clarysse, entrepreneur and chair in entrepreneurship at Imperial College, London
• Dolf Wittkamper, head of EIT Digital’s Accelerator
• Edward Wray, entrepreneur and angel investor
• Ian Wallis, editorial director of Startups.co.uk

You can now nominate companies that you consider worthy of a place in the rankings. Learn more about the ranking and the criteria for selection!

Nominate Europe's Corporate Startups Stars now

Deadline is Thursday 31 March 2016 and the top 25 ranking will be published online by our media partner startups.co.uk and launched at the Startup Europe Summit (Berlin, June 9-10). 

Note: this page was edited in May 2016 to reflect the fact that Neelie Kroes withdrew from the judging panel.