Feed additive and health ingredient co-development hosted by Nutreco

During the Animal Health Innovation Europe Summit, Nutreco and ViAqua hosted 2 roundtables on corporate-startup collaboration and co-development of Nutritional Health / Feed Additive solutions. After outlining the example of the Nutreco-ViAqua partnership, participants from both start-ups and corporates provided their perspectives.

Key takeaways on the ingredients for successful collaboration in this space:

• Balance value and limitations: start-ups and corporates can be effective together if they focus on doing what they to best and work together synergistically. Corporates generally prefer limiting a startup partner from partnering with others; a partnership only works if the overall value case is positive for the corporate, the start-up and its other investors
• Tackle regulatory issues early on: regulatory challenges are the main hurdle for almost each animal health startup and a key expertise and source of value creation for corporates
• Ensure trust, transparency and ownership: build trust through transparent way of working and work together as if you’re part of the same team, while ensuring that project team members from both sides can make the required decisions
• Manage expectations and sense of urgency: where possible, clearly define scope, terms and contributions upfront to avoid surprises further down the road, as well a roadmap with timelines as the basis to keep moving forward on a pace that allows the startup to survive and thrive
• No one-size fits all approach: every collaboration is unique and partners are best served by starting with a blank slate to define the optimal way forward for that specific case