Brazil. BASF was named the chemical industry's TOP 1 in open innovation for the fourth consecutive year and ranks eighth among the 100 TOP 100 Open Corps 2023, a ranking that recognizes open innovation leaders in 30 market categories.
BASF is the first agribusiness company in Brazil to dedicate an environment 100% focused on digital innovation and co-creation focused on intrapreneurship, with "AgroStart Garagem". Created in 2019, the program had, in the first three years, nearly 50 accelerated internal projects, with a total return on efficiency of more than 1 million euros.
Among BASF's initiatives that contributed to the recognition is the open innovation platform AgroStart, a pioneer in Latin America, which has already interacted with more than 600 startups across the region and is a benchmark in the acceleration of agtech startups in the region.
In 2019, the "Suvinil Fora da Lata" program was created, born from the desire to open doors to the open innovation ecosystem of startups, supporting those linked to innovation, technology and the creative economy, seeking to co-create innovative solutions, establish valuable alliances and generate positive transformations for the paint market.
BASF also has investment in startups, BASF Venture Capital (BVC), which began operations in the South American region in 2019 by becoming a shareholder in SP Ventures' AgVentures II venture capital fund. The committed capital was $4 million. Last year, it made its first direct investment in the region, $10 million in Traive, a startup that develops technological infrastructure for financial services.
In addition to the platforms, the company has the Center for Scientific and Digital Experiences, a physical and digital space to promote connections with the open innovation and digital transformation ecosystem.
In the last year, onono has mapped more than 300 startups/solutions to open innovation challenges for BASF's own challenges and also for customers, opened more than 50 challenges for the ecosystem and reached more than 50 thousand connections through content platforms and events, empowering cultural transformation.
