Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, blockchain: the tech industry is moving at a pace like we have never seen before. This is due to the combined efforts of forward-thinking, entrepreneurial spirit and funding. In the UK, more than 589,000 innovative start-ups were created in 2017 alone, driving radical changes to the current status quo.

The tech industry isn’t discriminative, either. Tomorrow’s innovation relies as much on the ideas of start-ups as on the engagement of blue-chip corporations to provide backing and industrial know-how. When start-ups and corporates collaborate together, the results can be strikingly efficient.

Capgemini has provided technological and business solutions since 1967, a decade before Steve Wozniak’s first prototype of Apple I. Fast forward half a century and Capgemini UK has teamed-up with Early Metrics, the international rating agency for start-ups, founded in 2014.

In a short amount of time, Early Metrics has positioned itself in a unique place where it has its eyes on some of the most exciting technological projects that exist. Early Metrics rates innovative start-ups and SMEs, scoring them out of 100. The analyses are used by large enterprises to better engage with young ventures, through partnerships, mergers or acquisitions.

Capgemini UK uses these reports for its clients. Capgemini’s Applied Innovation Exchange (AIE) is one of the many forerunners of technological advancement in today’s world. The AIE team works with businesses to plan their technological future by designing and implementing digital solutions. The AIE’s particularity lies in the fact that they dive head-first into the technical experimentation and application of emerging technologies. Using Early Metrics, the UK AIE team identifies the right start-ups whose solutions answer the needs of their corporate clients, then develop a prototype in weeks that aims to mitigate risks often associated with such innovations.

Take the DVSA for instance. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has the ambition to develop a new portal that will allow people to take their theory driving test anywhere in the world, from any device. This would allow the DVSA to have heightened efficiency, limit waiting time for candidates, as well as reduce the costs of operating driving test centres. However, they have to eliminate the possibility of fraudulent entries and ensure that online tests will not be cheated on. The DVSA came to Capgemini UK and more specifically the AIE to explore how they could achieve this. The AIE turned to their start-up curator, Early Metrics, to help them find the most relevant start-ups in anti-fraud technology.

Using Early Metrics to identify which companies would most fit the DVSA’s needs, AIE then designed a POC (proof-of-concept) solution combining different start-ups’ technologies: an AI solution provided by TypingDNA – a keystroke recognition platform – that offers the ability to identify individuals off their keystroke. Each of us has a way and speed of typing that can be represented as a personal ID. If someone else is typing or if a robot or programme is typing, the AI can identify that it is unnatural to the user’s previous movements.

The outcome of this tripartite partnership is multi-fold. A win for Capgemini for showcasing to their client, the DVSA, a way of approaching the challenge through a truly innovative approach. A win for TypingDNA by getting the opportunity to collaborate with the DVSA. And a win for Early Metrics in contributing towards the ongoing tech revolution. This is one of many examples on how a relationship like that of Capgemini UK/Early Metrics could benefit the tech industry by sourcing the market for the most innovative start-ups, then combining resources and expertise to create a complete product.

The collaboration between Capgemini and Early Metrics is unusual but necessary in today’s world; it is one where the corporate organisation has removed traditional risk associated with innovation and working with start-ups to connect resource with opportunity – and speed up the pace and reduce risk of innovation.

This could be the new era where connecting the right technology and know-how with the right ideas more efficiently allows for a smarter and more agile technological horizon. Expect more of it to come.