META's 2018 Challenge: become a Platform-based company

2018 will see us accelerate our evolution as we implement an ambitious digital transformation strategy. 

This article is adapted from an internal end-of-year blog post and Christmas speech. It is also one of a series by META staff on the year just past and the year to come. To get all our articles and downloadable reports, subscribe. 

A couple of years ago we set out a longterm strategy for integrating META's internal and external communications and knowledge management systems. In 2017 we took our first steps as we invested in staff, consolidated and linked our Communications and IT teams together under an overarching strategy, and piloted the use of new tools.  

This year, we build on that to implement the full vision: 

While the above sketch, for obvious reasons, hides a lot of detail, it does show four interlinked platforms: 

Exploitation and Innovation Platforms 

The Exploitation Platform (top right) will underpin our delivery of our 'Research Helicopter' activities, where we help researchers better transfer research results to the market (see How to treat your European research project like a startup by my colleague Andrea di Anselmo).  

Through our Innovation Platform (top left), on the other hand, we will help regions and cities improve their 'start-up infrastructure' and identify, support and grow startups through challenge-based innovation (an example was launched last year). 

Both Platforms have a few things in common: 

• they are 'white label' platforms, allowing us to deploy multiple exploitation and challenge-based websites, through which we will work with entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, officials and other innovation stakeholders; 
• integrated into our Internal Platform: these external websites connect via APIs to our knowledge management and collaboration Internal Platform (centre) to ensure that knowledge and opportunities flow throughout the company, notably to the Investment Platform (see below); 
• built from experience, not theory: both Platforms are being generalised from successful pilots (Common Exploitation Booster, Social Innovation Challenges, City Challenge, and many others) which have already provided valuable insights.  

Investment Platform 

META manages a number of venture capital funds, generally coinvestment vehicles combining public and private capital to invest in knowledge-intensive startups.  

We have so far invested in over 100 startups across Europe

We have so far invested in over 100 startups across Europe, and need systems for managing both our pre-investment pipeline and our actual investments and exits.  

We also need to better engage, inform and grow our private investors community, through for example partnering with and developing angels’ groups. 

Knowledge management and Internal communications 

Information must flow between these systems - for example: 

• The Exploitation and Global Innovation platforms should 'feed' companies and technologies into our Investment Pipeline
• Our investment decisions should be informed by insights gained and startups identified while training researchers (Exploitation) and helping with cities and regions (Innovation)
• Lessons learned from our Investments in startups must feed back into our work helping cities and regions (Innovation) and training researchers (Exploitation)

But insights into interesting technologies and promising startups are not the only sort of knowledge we need to manage. Our Internal knowledge and collaboration Platform must allow staff to:  

• share, store and find interesting content discovered online, our contacts with people and organisations worldwide, and many other sorts of knowledge 
• work together in cross-country, multidisplinary teams, encompassing everyone from policy experts to startup mentors to IT developers, social media professionals and investment fund managers. 

Ambitious and Essential 

It's an ambitious vision, but it's essential if META is to fulfil its promise.  

we can identify, coach, invest in and build a local startup, and then take it to new markets and investors across Europe

We are a unique company – no one else, in any given week, is helping governments design their innovation ecosystem, giving startups and researchers practical business mentoring, and actually investing in startups, in several countries. This means we can identify, coach, invest in and build a local startup, and then take it to new markets and investors across Europe.  

It also means that our collective knowledge is immensely valuable. But we need to digitally transform if we, and Europe, are to profit fully from it.  

I expect everyone to cooperate fully with our digital transformation team to ensure that they build what we need, and to approach these new tools with curiosity and enthusiasm.  

META combines venture capital fund management, entrepreneurial mentoring and innovation consultancy into an integrated Platform for transforming knowledge into growth. We invest in startups and innovators across Europe, and help governments, Institutions, regions and cities around the world foster more of them.  

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