Accelerating Sustainability & Fintech: Innovation Scouting with Rabobank
Challenge
Rabobank’s Open Innovation team sought quick, reliable insights into a complex landscape. nlmtd scouted trends and solutions across Carbon Banking, Food & Agri, Energy Transition, and Digital Banking, and translated them into actionable insights.
Result
nlmtd developed a scalable scouting approach. We identified more than 5,200 companies across 180 projects, of which 54% contribute to the SDGs, and 12% operate in developing countries, enabling Rabobank to seize innovation opportunities worldwide.
Customer
The Dutch Rabobank
The customer
Rabobank is a cooperative bank based in the Netherlands. Known for its in-depth expertise in food and agriculture, Rabobank offers a wide range of financial products and advisory services tailored to the needs of farmers, agribusinesses, and customers of traditional banking products. Private and corporate clients are primarily located in the Benelux, while Rabobank’s agricultural clients operate on all continents, from the U.S. and Canada to Australia and New Zealand, and from Sub-Saharan Africa to South America.
Innovation at Rabobank, therefore, extends beyond financial products to include sustainable agriculture, nature restoration, the energy transition, and other key challenges and opportunities in the agricultural sector.
Rabobank’s Open Innovation team, our main client, operates within the Innovation Factory, the central innovation platform for Rabobank and its partners. The team’s role is that of internal consultancy for the bank. They help innovation leaders within the organization stay abreast of new, disruptive, and inspiring developments for future initiatives. In essence, the team supports these leaders in their buy, partner, and build strategies.
Our role
Since 2019, nlmtd has been the main scouting partner of Rabobank’s Open Innovation team, providing market insights and solutions within a wide range of core topics: Carbon Banking, Food & Agri, Living Ecosystem, Energy Transition, and the Digitization of Banking.
We work closely with the OI team to scout startups, conduct market and competitive analyses, and assist with preparing internal presentations.
The Tech Discovery team has consistently delivered valuable insights and expertise on startups to our organization over the past four years, helping us better navigate complex markets across diverse business domains.
How we did this
nlmtd acted as an extension of Rabobank’s Open Innovation team, supporting up to three projects per week. With our research skills, tools, and network, we helped Rabobank gain a clear overview of emerging innovations across its core areas.
See below for the Rabobank taxonomy.
Our impact
Since our partnership began, we have scouted more than 5,200 companies in 180 projects. Of these projects, 54% align with the SDGs, with a focus on sustainable agriculture, the energy transition, and nature restoration. In addition, 12% of the companies are in developing countries.
With this, Rabobank has the opportunity to make a significant impact on both the food and energy transitions. Two of the most pressing challenges of our time. We look forward to further strengthening our partnership in the coming years and continuing to act as the hub for the innovations Rabobank relies on.
Want to know more? We worked on this!
Rahel de Vriend
Rahel de Vriend
