Meet the Corporate: connecting corporates to innovative scaleup solutions

The challenge
How we helped
The outcome

Grosvenor joined London & Partners’ Innovation Fellowship network in early 2023, providing access to Grow London’s community of world-class scaleups.

Through tailored events, scaleups can understand a corporate’s key challenges and investment priorities, while companies can showcase their business to corporate decision makers.

Over the past three years, Grosvenor and London & Partners have built a repeatable, high‑impact innovation pipeline through a series of Meet the Corporate pitching sessions.

Each engagement has enabled Grosvenor teams to rapidly explore emerging solutions, pressure-test new ideas and progress pilots with cutting‑edge companies aligned to their strategic priorities.

To date, four Meet the Corporate cycles and one additional fintech scouting sprint have been delivered, unlocking new partnerships across sustainability, HR technology, creative, enterprise and leasing efficiency.

Meet the Corporate/scouting cycles delivered

Applications reviewed

Companies selected to pitch

Pilots launched

About Grosvenor

Grosvenor is an investor and manager of neighbourhoods across London with a 350-year history.

Grosvenor has an active innovation team that invests in early-stage companies aligned with strategic aims set out by business units. Its UK business, with £5.8bn of assets under management across 1,350 properties, is responding flexibly to occupier needs.

It’s also expanding its sustainability agenda to include ambitious social and environmental goals: to reach net zero by reducing emissions by 52% by 2030 and 90% by 2040, in line with the Science Based Targets Initiative.

The challenge

At the start of 2024, Grosvenor reached out to London & Partners to connect with our ecosystem of early-stage proptech companies.

The company was looking to:

Improve building maintenance and repairs.
Reduce operational carbon.
Reduce embodied carbon.
Enhance sustainability measures (eg water, biodiversity, accessibility, etc).
Enhance data management and insight.

How London & Partners helped

A scan of our global network identified 39 highly relevant companies, which were filtered down with the Grosvenor team to eight high-potential startups for the pitch.

These companies had the opportunity to showcase their innovative solutions and engage in in-depth Q&A sessions with Grosvenor's investment team.

From a competitive field of eight companies, two advanced to the pilot stage to test their solutions with Grosvenor.

This inaugural session established the innovation rhythm and laid the groundwork for future cross‑team engagement.

The outcome

From a competitive field of eight companies, two advanced to the pilot stage to test their solutions with Grosvenor.

Inotek

Inotek is running a pilot across four Grosvenor buildings to trial its AI-led fault and leak detection capabilities using its thermal drone surveying service. This trial aims to quickly and accurately identify building faults which support enhanced property maintenance.

Consigli

Consigli is running a trial of two AI tools with Grosvenor’s Development team across different projects to address enhanced project delivery. The aim of the trial is to accurately and quickly review tender documentation to reduce errors and discrepancies, and to optimise building plans.

A repeatable innovation process

Each programme follows a proven structure that combines deep alignment with Grosvenor’s goals and London & Partners’ global innovation network:

Strategic alignment: working with Grosvenor’s Innovation team to identify priority focus areas for the year ahead.
Problem statement design: collaborating with the relevant business unit to shape a clear, actionable problem statement that surfaces the most valuable innovation opportunities.
Targeted scouting: our account managers leverage their deep knowledge of the scaleup ecosystem to pinpoint companies best positioned to address Grosvenor’s needs.
Open call for applications: a wider application process captures additional, high‑potential solutions from London & Partners’ global network.
Curation and shortlisting: all applicants are reviewed with Grosvenor and the most compelling companies are selected to pitch.
Live pitching to key decision-makers: finalists pitch in person at Grosvenor’s London office to leaders from across the business.
Internal evaluation and selection: Grosvenor assesses which companies best meet the criteria and show strongest potential.
Pilot development: high‑fit companies progress to pilot discussions, with several moving into live trials.

Why this partnership works

Grosvenor’s commitment to structured innovation, combined with London & Partners’ ability to access and curate high‑quality scaleups, has created a scalable model for testing emerging technologies.

This collaboration continues to help Grosvenor:

Accelerate solution discovery.
Reduce risk through targeted pilots.
Stay ahead of market and regulatory shifts.
Engage multiple teams in innovation activity.
Build long‑term relationships with high‑growth companies.

Get in touch to learn more

Grow London runs monthly Meet the Corporate events to connect corporates to highly relevant scaleup solutions.

If you’re a scaleup keen to get in front of corporate decision-makers, check out our Grow London Global Programme.

If you’re a corporate, please contact Ruby Mould at [email protected].

I continue to be excited about the community of Open Innovation Fellows we are building at Grow London, not only for the opportunity for the Fellows to share best practice and learn from their peers, but also for the connections we are making to scale up leaders and innovators across our ecosystem. This will ensure London remains one of the most innovative global cities and a place to connect with innovators, corporate leaders and investors.

Janet Coyle CBE
Managing Director, Grow London, London & Partners