ICT Giants Seeking Startups for Long-Term Relationship

Top players in the information and communications technology (ICT) and entertainment industries are putting a wealth of free (or next-to-free) resources and tools at the disposal of tech startups to facilitate their growth.

In French, the translation proposed by the Office québécois de la langue française for “startup” is “jeune pousse”—literally a “young shoot.” The OQLF’s definition of a startup is as good as any: a recently launched, innovative and dynamic enterprise, especially one operating in the new economy, that is expected to grow quickly.

In recent years, the ICT sector has seen many of these “young shoots” spring up, grow at an accelerated rate and disrupt entire industries.

The situation has prompted many major corporations to roll out programs designed to cement ties with the potential “next big things” in their market. The table below provides an overview of some of the programs catering to the needs of technology startups. More details on these programs are available here.

* Not affiliated with an incubator, accelerator or VC firm.

For Amazon, Facebook, Google and other ICT and digital giants, these solutions have been fuelled primarily by the price battles being waged in the cloud computing industry. Disney, the odd man out on this list, has developed a particularly generous program in order to play a part in the development of technologies and services poised to potentially deliver a slew of benefits to its multiple assets.

Taking advantage of the cloud wars

Over 700 million Snapchat photos and videos are shared every day via Google Cloud Platform, whereas Amazon’s cloud services enable Pinterest’s 100 million users to pin to their hearts’ content.

Many tech success stories have begun as a tiny team of enterprising go-getters working out of a garage or an Internet café. Pinterest, for example, started out as a 12-person operation in a small apartment, although it saw its user base explode from 10,000 in 2011 to 17 million a year later. It was able to absorb this phenomenal growth without investing massively in IT infrastructure because it had embraced Amazon Web Services (AWS) early in its development.

Cloud computing is big business: Amazon, the undisputed leader of the pack, currently provides cloud-based data services to more than 1 million business customers and raked in nearly $5 billion in 2014 for doing so. Dell, once the world’s largest computer manufacturer, recently announced the purchase of EMC, a provider of high-end data storage and cloud computing services, in what has been hailed as the largest deal in tech history.

This is one of the reasons Google, Microsoft, IBM and others have developed cloud-based platforms and set up programs that double as marketing tools for reaching out to the Snapchats and Pinterests of tomorrow and locking in their loyalty today.

Disney’s strategy

Although Disney takes a different approach, its goals are the same: helping to fast-track the development of tech startups in the hopes of reaping the rewards somewhere down the road.

Instead of offering IT infrastructure, however, Disney Accelerator opens up one-of-a-kind access to a bevy of top brands and the movers and shakers working for this entertainment industry powerhouse, not to mention mentorship services and investment capital.

That is precisely what happened with Sphero, accepted into Disney Accelerator’s 2014 cohort. Sphero used the experience as a springboard to develop an app-enabled droid that is a miniaturized version of a character from the new Star Wars movie, which Disney has slated for a much-anticipated December release.

The beginning of a beautiful friendship?

As cloud-enabled services expand, other high-tech tools and resources are spreading to the international stage to support the emergence and expansion of innovative initiatives of all kinds.

Mobile application development is an excellent example of this. The three corporations that dominate the market—Apple, Google and Samsung—are making sure their app stores are continuously brimming over with the latest and greatest innovations by providing their development partners with access to the likes of Apple Developer Program, Google Developers Launchpad and Samsung Enterprise Alliance Program. The Apple program is limited to iOS development, and the Samsung to Android, while Google Launchpad, according to its website, is open to non-native apps.

By offering startups free tools and resources, leading ITC corporations are pulling out all the stops to forge long-term relationships with promising up-and-comers. Today’s tech titans are determined to provide these “young shoots” with fertile ground, where their agility and creativity can take root and flourish.

In so doing, they hope to secure their allegiance early on, watch the seeds they sow bear fruit and do their part to usher in the next major paradigm shift. And what do startups get in return? An extensive array of platforms and services from some of the industry’s heaviest hitters and an ecosystem built specifically to expedite their growth. As the saying goes, it’s a win-win!

Support programs for tech startups

Please note:

• All amounts indicated are in U.S. currency.
• Programs may be changed or cancelled by their proponents at any time. The contents of this table were compiled based on information available in October 2015.

Danielle Desjardins

Danielle Desjardins offers analysis, research and writing services for media and cultural enterprises through her company, La Fabrique de sens. Before that, she was director of planning for Radio-Canada, where she was responsible for strategic, corporate and regulatory matters for more than 20 years.

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