Startup Collaboration: How to Build Win-Win Partnerships
Why do startups and corporates need each other, and what makes the partnership work?
Florian Fehr, Managing Director of NEEW Ventures, joins Patrick at IFAT and interviews three founders: Rajiv Singhal from Grensol, Stefan Delinde from Minimise, and Gary Lewis from Resourcify about their businesses and what makes a startup-corporate partnership work.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- Why startups and corporates operate at different speeds, and why that difference is the point of the collaboration
- Three founders, three completely different business models built around partnering with corporates
- What Florian calls the “secret sauce” of a partnership that works
The episode also covers how NEEW Ventures operates as both venture builder and bridge maker for EEW.
This is the final episode of the series Incineration in the Circular Economy, produced in sponsoring partnership with NEEW Ventures.
Video Impression
People
Florian Fehr, Managing Director at NEEW Ventures
https://www.linkedin.com/in/florianfehr/
Startup Founders:
Rajiv Singhal, Grensol Group
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajiv-singhal-008b1b/
Gary Lewis, Resourcify
https://www.linkedin.com/in/circular-gary/
Stefan De Linde, Minimise
https://www.linkedin.com/in/s-de-linde/
Patrick Hypscher, Circular Business Strategist, PaaS Expert
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hypscher/
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:25 Series recap and episode plan
1:39 Meet Florian and NEEW Ventures
3:28 Why corporates need startups
5:17 Founder spotlight Grensol
12:06 Founder spotlight Minimize
17:15 Founder spotlight Resourcify
20:31 What makes collaborations succeed
23:55 Outro
About
NEEW Ventures is a venture builder and subsidiary of EEW Energy from Waste, one of the market leaders for thermal waste treatment in Germany.
Founded in 2021 in Berlin, NEEW Ventures builds startups that use data, AI, and digital tools to create value from waste. Its portfolio includes Wasteer, which uses AI-based waste composition analysis to cut emissions and operating costs at incineration plants, and Minimise, a digital traceability platform for e-waste recycling. NEEW Ventures also runs the Circularity Hub for startups, researchers, and industry professionals, and the Waste & AI Hub (WAIH), connecting AI experts with waste industry operators. Find out more at: neew-ventures.com
Further Links
https://www.neew-ventures.com/
https://www.eew-energyfromwaste.com/
Transcript
[00:00:00] Intro
Patrick Hypscher: My name is Patrick Hypscher, and this is Circularity.fm, the podcast about understanding, building, and managing circular business models
[00:00:25] Series recap and episode plan
Patrick Hypscher: In the previous episode, we talked to Fabian Böhmer and discussed the value of a good sustainability report and compared waste incineration to landfill. Today, I will talk to Florian Fehr, Managing Director of NEEW Ventures, and we will look into good ways of how startups can collaborate with corporates at the example of EEW. After an initial conversation with Florian, Florian will take my seat and interview three founders, Stefan from Minimise, Rajiv from Grensol, and Gary from Resourcify. All three will share success stories and patterns of what it takes to make a good collaboration between startups and corporates. If you want to get the key learnings from this episode, sign up to our newsletter. You can find it at www.circularity.fm.
Patrick Hypscher: Florian, we are about to finish this, series. Philippp, your colleague and managing director in crime kicked it off, Yeah … in Premnitz. we hear different perspectives, from the EEW colleagues how waste incineration works. and now we’re here at IFAT, and want to focus also on startups.
[00:01:39] Meet Florian and NEEW Ventures
Patrick Hypscher: But before we do that, Florian, give us a short introduction. what’s your background? How did you, come to the waste management sector, and what does NEEW Ventures do?
Florian Fehr: Yeah. So I’m very happy I ended up in this very purposeful business. I studied business back in the days, helped to build, one or two companies, worked with Viessmann. And that time it was quite clear for me to stay within the purpose-driven sustainability, space. and then luckily I met Philipp at some stage, and we actually got introduced to EEW. and this is pretty much how, how NEEW Ventures started. So EEW, which we’ve heard also in, in the first, episode, they’re running, incineration plants. they’re doing that quite well, but they also wanted to kind of set up for the future to some extent, diversify their business model a little bit. So NEEW Ventures was founded in order to build startups. So we are a venture builder. we are, out there to build startups that can independently exist in the market, have an impact, and, drive things forward. By now we’ve built three startups, but we’re also not only building startups, we are also, helping to be a bridge maker for EEW. So we are the intersection to knowing what innovation is out there. We are the ones that have the network maybe that EEW does not have yet. we’re the ones that can test run bits and pieces that, let’s say, hardly driven engineers wouldn’t touch yet. But we can maybe do a quick test run on it and then say, “Okay, guys, this is already looking promising. Come back in a year or so.” So this is, where we’re trying to position ourselves with NEEW Ventures, yeah. Okay.
[00:03:28] Why corporates need startups
Patrick Hypscher: So I hear you’re building startups. You’ve already built startups. we had Benedict already, as part of the series, and you’re partnering with startups. So, so what is it? What’s, the benefit and the beauty of startups? Yeah.
Florian Fehr: So I think there’s, there’s two things that we can learn from startups. So one thing is that it’s, being fast, in the market, testing things, validating things. There’s different urgencies to it. It’s the, the willingness to survive, right? If you’re not fast enough, if you don’t get your bills paid, if you’re, if you’re not really trying to push it, then- you just no longer exist. But at the same time, having that urgency to really build something that, is not out there yet. So usually when you build a startup, most of the time you’re building something that no one has done yet, or at least it’s some- something new. So that combination is something that when we, look at EEW, which is a relevant player for many, many years, where it’s about performing at high levels, not changing things on a daily basis- being consistent, doing things right that’s the, the success recipe for EEW. And now coming in from the sideline and complimenting that with, you, you know, those things about speed boating or whatsoever and mixing things up a little bit, I think that’s the relevance, from startup for EEW. Sometimes also just opening the horizon, giving a trigger, giving an impulse, that’s what we can bring. Yeah.
Patrick Hypscher: Okay. Wonderful. So you, you look at, five years and more of experience, in bringing startups and EEW and corporates together and drive innovation. but let’s get, specific, and let’s hear some founders and discuss how they collaborate with startups.
Florian Fehr: Yeah. So I’m, I’m also very much looking forward to, checking in with the guys.
[00:05:17] Founder spotlight Grensol
Florian Fehr: Rajiv, happy to have you. First of all, where are you from? What brought you to IFAT?
Rajiv Singhal: Well, I grew up in India, and then, over the course of my professional journey, ended up in Switzerland, and, and now we live there, and, we have our own little business in Switzerland, so it’s a great place to be.
Florian Fehr: Very nice. W- what is it that you miss most about India?
Rajiv Singhal: India, I mean, it’s a vibrant country, lots of amazing people, amazing food, and as we stand, the most populous country and a great growth opportunity, and something which we can all learn from and see how we can tap those markets.
Florian Fehr: Cool. So Rajiv, the, the problems that you, tackle, nowadays, can you give us a quick story of what are the things that you’re tackling? How are you doing it? And, what’s up next, so to speak?
Rajiv Singhal: No, for sure. we at Grensol in Switzerland, we are working on waste which would have otherwise been incinerated or landfilled, and how do we use this waste as a source of critical raw materials for the Western world? So in other words, we are trying to see how we can use our existing suite of technologies which rely on, on nature’s fundamental forces like gravity, magnetism, and light to ultimately make new materials from stuff which would have otherwise been wasted. So, bring it back into circulation, use the resources which you already have, which we don’t have to dig a hole for, to, to produce those resources. That’s what we do.
Florian Fehr: and, quick technology r- ramp, not too long because, I’m not an engineer, but, how, how is it happening?
Rajiv Singhal: So we are working on waste streams which are coming out of existing recycling plants. Yeah. So our primary use case, which we have developed right now, is the waste coming out of car recycling plants, which is a lot of plastics with a little bit of metals, a little bit of glass. So we have worked on this technology which can separate out the plastics and ultimately make that into industrial chemicals or feed stocks or precursors for making new plastics. Glass, which we can ultimately make, construction raw materials for. And finally, metals, which are easy to separate, which we have developed our own tech to separate out metals, to ultimately bring them back into a circular economy. And we want to do this even better, and that’s just something which we are working with Sprint, the innovation agency of Germany, to make this even better and recover even more from waste. So things like raw, like rare earths in a gallium arsenide that we can ultimately put back into the system so we can secure our supply chains.
Florian Fehr: So I mean, it’s something new, right? As we call it, it’s a sprung innovation, right? It is … as mentioned in Sprint. But what’s the, benefit for the client? So I mean, of course, it’s, rerouting waste streams, but who is the client for you, and who would be the perfect partner?
Rajiv Singhal: So client and partner setup. For us, we sit right in the middle between recyclers and downstream producers of materials or energy, if I may say so. And what we are doing is taking an environmental liability for recyclers and turning it into a profit opportunity. So stuff which they would have not recovered previously or paid someone to get rid of their waste, with our tech, we can allow that to be a profitable opportunity and not have to have that liability of, of getting rid of, of waste. Yeah. So that’s the first thing which we are doing. The second thing is we are securing supply chains. So, today we don’t have to take a tanker of natural gas through Strait of Hormuz to make plastics in Europe, but we can reprocess our plastics and make it into new plastics. And the, third thing is, of course, how can we prepare ourselves for future regulation? Because as we are developing more regulations in Europe to recycle more, to keep our garbage on shore, you know, how do we do this, right? So we need to have these distributed plants which we are building to allow us to keep our waste and our resources on shore.
Florian Fehr: So the perfect client is a recycler that, buys hardware off you?
Rajiv Singhal: Or, or just to clarify on the business model there. We want to develop these with our perfect clients, which is on both sides, which is either the first is the recycling companies who produce this waste. Yeah. And the way we are approaching this is not by a tell approach, saying that we are so fantastic and, you know, here’s our amazing technology, but, like, look, we h- we want to put our own skin in the game here. We want to develop this with you. So, it’s a part of this whole collaborative framework which we want to do so that we can, you know, overcome resistance of existing recycling companies. So the business model is we would develop it together with the recycling company, take equity ownership over there as well, and then it’s our own situation which we can then work towards and improve ownership in what we are trying to do here. And then whatever molecules we are able to make from there, you know, we can sell it together and, and profit from it together.
Florian Fehr: Okay, then one, one last question. So w- which is the, the perfect setup? So what’s the size? How much space do you need maybe for your setup? How mo- how modular is it?
Rajiv Singhal: This is, great because, I mean, I cut my teeth in the mining business, and so one of the things which we were super sensitive about was how do we permit these things? And this is something and if you are permitting a mine in the Western world or anywhere, you know, it’s a 10 to 15-year exercise. We don’t have those, that kind of time. So we said we are going to build something which is small, modular, which fits in 800 square meters of space- Okay … inside a building- Yeah. Which is easy to permit. And this is something we want to do, is not transport waste So we want to have it in a, in a nice modular setup, which is designed to process 20 to 25,000 tons of waste, which is a sweet spot of an average size recycling plant. And so this is something which we are trying to put together, build it something which fits inside a building, easy to permit, mm, doesn’t consume too much energy, and, you know, it doesn’t disrupt an existing recycling plant, but build like a modular solution which can then plug into existing value chains.
Florian Fehr: Okay. So I’m gonna… I said one last question, but I’m gonna have another last question. Go ahead. So what’s the one thing that you’re from Grensol asking for? What’s the, wish scenario for IFAT
Rajiv Singhal: I mean, our IFAT ideal scenario is to find partners who would test out their waste streams in our plant, which we’ve already built and operating in Switzerland. So the idea being, bring us your waste. And here we’re not talking about one Ziploc bag, but more like, you know, bring us a decent amount, bring us big bags of waste, run it through our system, you know exactly what’s gonna come out, and then we basically build the plant we just spoke about earlier together- Yeah on the basis of the qualities that, that actually you’re producing.
Florian Fehr: Very nice. Let’s find those partners. Thanks. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
[00:12:06] Founder spotlight Minimize
Florian Fehr: Stefan, welcome to, IFAT. Quick, personal question. Where are you from, and what brought you to IFAT?
Stefan De Linde: So I’m from the Netherlands, and what brought me to IFAT is the fact that we have a lot of partners here at the conference that we can meet in one space and meet up with from all over the world.
Florian Fehr: Great. So that’s a good benefit. Let’s talk about what, what you are doing with your partners. So what’s the business model?
Stefan De Linde: So primarily, the business model centers around the fact that more and more electronics are produced every year. More and more e-waste is generated every year. And in between, we see that a lot of efforts to become more circular, it’s really allow- around a lot of let’s study how we, how we become more circular. Let’s, you know, let’s try and find out how we can optimize design. and those are all really important, but you can start tomorrow doing something circular, and that is what we offer. So super basic, down to earth, we collect waste, electronic waste, in developing countries, and that electronic waste is then properly recycled, whereas usually those countries, it might be a bit more difficult. We document that, and then we go to the companies in, Europe or the US, Asia, and we say, “If you contribute to this project, you get access to this data, and, and you can immediately say that you’re doing something for circularity.”
Florian Fehr: Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. So Minimise started that a couple of years ago, and right now… I mean, you talked about the partners, so who i- who is that perfect partner? Who is that customer? Who is that client that you’re working with? And maybe they… G- give us an example.
Stefan De Linde: Yeah … yeah. Of course. exactly. So yeah, we started in 2023 with our first collection projects, and since then, really 2025 and beginning 2026 is when it really started going. for example, Dell is a customer of ours that, is really kind of the perfect match. They sell products all over the world, electronics, displays, printers, whatever you name it, they have it. And what is the quickest way for them to contribute to a circular economy across the world is to start collecting e-waste, and they do that in the US already. But then they said, “What about Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico?” So at that point, they said, “We don’t wanna manage that infrastructure ourselves, so can we just work with Minimise to do that?”
Florian Fehr: Very cool. Yeah. And I also read about, the other day that Refurb is a customer, and they’ve been doing that for quite some time. So- I mean, they’re, using Minimise as a software for what exactly? Maybe they’re just to make it even- Yeah … ano- another anecdote, so to speak.
Stefan De Linde: Of course. Yeah. So immediately from day one they were there. Nice. And they used to plant a tree per purchase, and now they switched with us to saying, “We’re collecting, some e-waste for every purchase.” Mm. And so the software in this sense is, you know, the data that we publish to them is accessible to them in a portal, and they can assign the customers individually a journey of the waste that is collected. So the, the way the software is used is you might buy something from Refurb, and then they can choose to say, “Here is a proof that we collected something.” And a few months later they say, “Oh, did you know what we collected? We now dismantled it, and this is the material we got out of it.” And then finally, it might be shipped to a downstream recycler. And then they might say, “Here, look.” It’s months after the purchase, they still have a touch point to the, to that initial purchase by saying, “Oh, something else happened again.” So they use the software to extend the customer experience besides doing something for the circular economy.
Florian Fehr: Yeah. Cool. Yeah. so while being at IFAT, what’s your ultimate goal? Maybe what, what’s the one thing that you wanna get out? what’s up next, for Minimise?
Stefan De Linde: Yeah. So we have a lot in the pipeline at the moment, and that has a lot to do with, for example, our first collections, in Kenya that we really would like to be in charge of how is that being recycled, where can we place the materials on the market. And that is something that historically in the past we weren’t really able to contribute too much to or to steer so much. So instead, now we said we want to be the owner of that waste- Okay … and thereby decide where it goes. And that must be done with partners who are present here at IFAT.
Florian Fehr: Yeah. So- I mean, it’s a new offering then, right? That you’re doing-
Stefan De Linde: It’s a completely new offering, and you have to involve, of course, procurement departments from, manufacturers. But primarily with shipping waste, there’s a lot of regulations and, yeah, nowhere better than IFAT to, to get the heads in the same space and discuss how we’re gonna make that happen.
Florian Fehr: Very nice. Yeah. Cool. Thanks, Stefan. Best of luck.
Stefan De Linde: Yeah. Thank you very much.
[00:17:15] Founder spotlight Resourcify
Florian Fehr: Gary, great to have you.
Gary Lewis: Thanks.
Florian Fehr: First of all, personal question, where are you from and what brought you to IFAT?
Gary Lewis: I’m from New Zealand personally. and I’m at IFAT ’cause we have a stand here from Resourcify. Yeah. Yeah. And we’re here to spread the word.
Florian Fehr: Very nice. So for the audience, what is it that Resourcify does?
Gary Lewis: Resourcify is we, we have a great software for managing, orchestrating, and scaling, both waste, and product take-back and compliance. So yeah, great software for tracking and tracing, and an orchestration service to run and scale recycling networks around the world. We’re in 19 countries. We’ve recycled last year 4 million products from 24000 locations.
Florian Fehr: Cool. So who is the customer, the client, the partner that you deal with on a daily basis?
Gary Lewis: Big companies who have a lot of, products, a lot of materials, or a lot of, waste streams. normally with a relatively complex structure, so many locations and many countries, which means they have to deal with many regulations, compliance issues, tracking issues, language, you know, you name it. So cross-border, complexity in managing waste and material flows. That’s a good customer for us. So a retail company, a supermarket, a big manufacturer, a car company, someone who has big complex products around the world, that’s a good, good customer for us.
Florian Fehr: Yeah. So, before I entered the waste industry, you were already there, so you’re definitely one of the front runners of innovation within the industry. I mean 19 countries by now, big audience that you’re dealing. How did you end up being where you are now, as a, as a one or two main factors?
Gary Lewis: We’re entering the US right now. You see each d- each market is different. each has its specialties. It’s just really interesting to grow and scale a business, I think, in this sector, and I think that’s been the main thing for me. It’s just, it’s a really interesting entrepreneurial journey to grow something in the waste industry, and now the transition to circularity. I think it’s a very important topic environmentally, but also now, socially and for, security issues, many reasons. It’s just been a really interesting journey, it’s been interesting from day one. What… where we’ve been really great is sharing our vision also with, with externals. We’ve been really lucky to win some really great customers which have grown with us. Yeah. We’ve been lucky enough to raise a lot of capital. We’ve raised, close to 28 million euros of growth capital, over the last six, seven, eight years. And this has obviously helped fuel our journey as well. So a combination, I guess, of luck, resilience, but also money- Yeah … just to be super clear. Yeah. So it’s just interesting.
Florian Fehr: And spreading the vision, right? Yeah. So, j- joining forces around that. So what’s, what’s up next? So IFAT ’26, what is it that you wanna get out? What is it that you’re looking for?
Gary Lewis: I think a big transition right now from the waste industry to circularity, and we’re positioned very much on the circularity side. So hey, that’s growth scale and just, you know, increased recycling rates. How circular is your company? We want to spread that message. We want companies to understand they can take action. So we’re here to meet big, big waste producers in waste terminology and help them understand the potential in their products, the potential in their companies, to grow and, and scale, and also to build our recycling network. We have a lot of customers here, and we’re hoping to win some new ones.
Florian Fehr: All right. Very nice. Cool. Thanks, Gary. best of luck. Thanks for joining.
[00:20:31] What makes collaborations succeed
Patrick Hypscher: Flo, we just listened to a few cases, how startups collaborate with companies. I mean, you have so much experience. We just also got the cases. W- what is it that decides upon success or failure?
Florian Fehr: Yeah, I mean, also just… So I spoke to Rajiv from India, I spoke to Stefan from the Netherlands, and I spoke to Gary from New Zealand. Yeah. Also, just bringing that background, to the table, I think has an influence on, on business building. So even just there from looking at that perspective, that was very, very cool. And then obviously, I mean, we had, we had the different levels there, right? Gary, who has been in the market for quite some years- Mm who showed resilience of being the first person kind of pushing into that market, being successful on fundraising, and also now being successful on, on obviously having a big, customer audience. To Stefan, who is, innovating in the Global South, right? Correct. collecting e-waste, having an impact there, collecting 500 to- tons, 1,000 tons. It’s not much if you look at what the sheer volumes, we’re looking at, at, at IFAT here right now, but it really has an impact. So, And you have to get started somewhere. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Right. And then, and Rajiv, right? having that set up in Switzerland and now being also able to scale that and set it up, I mean, that’s just very cool. And I mean, I’m gonna take those guys and bring them in contact with, the colleagues at EEW. Maybe they have a waste stream of tires or whatsoever that they- for once couldn’t take. But now maybe with Grensol as a partner they c- they can take. So yeah, it’s those, opportunities to, to connect.
Patrick Hypscher: And, what’s the secret sauce to, make this connection work then?
Florian Fehr: Yeah. So I think it’s, it’s a lot of trust that you need to somehow, enable. and I think with us as NEEW Ventures, right, we’re, we are part of EEW. yes, We have our, let’s say, s- set up and an entity, we’re a little bit separate in our Berlin office, yes, but at the same time we know where we’re coming from, we know what the pains and gains from EEW are, what they’re looking for. We know the colleagues quite well, and we also kind of go into the exchange and say, “What is it that, that you need, that you want, that you’re looking for?” So it’s that active exchange on what is it that we can bring, what is it that we can help to deliver. And then it’s a, it’s, it’s a matter of being relevant, right? Okay. so of course sometimes you bring stuff that might not be relevant, but it’s doing that in a way that works for both sides.
Patrick Hypscher: Yeah. Last question, Flo, following up on what you just said, so what is it that you need that, EEW needs, and someone who is listening right now, who should reach out to you?
Florian Fehr: Yeah, so I think for us what’s always very important is, to just have a idea of what’s out in the market. sometimes, whenever we look at stuff, we look at it from an incinerator eye. But maybe if you look at it from a recycler eye or from a product design, perspective, there could also be a combination of things. So I would love to get in contact with, with, players that, that want to build something with us, with NEEW Ventures, with EEW, maybe something completely new that has not been done yet from a co-venturing perspective, from building a startup together. Or just partnering together because there’s a technology out there that might work in a different country but not, being used in Germany yet. So for us that, that’s the, the shout-out to the audience. Would love to, to get in contact and, chat.
Patrick Hypscher: Yeah. There seems to be a reason why it’s called NEEW Ventures.
Florian Fehr: There you go. You got it.
Patrick Hypscher: Flo, thanks a lot.
[00:23:55] Outro
Patrick Hypscher: This was the final episode in our series, Incineration in the Circular Economy. This series was produced in sponsoring partnership with NEEW Ventures. If you have an innovation in waste incineration or in waste management in general, reach out to Florian and Philipp from NEEW Ventures. We will add the contact details to the show notes. And if you like this series and the podcast, leave a review, on Spotify or Apple iTunes. This helps others to find the podcast. As always, let’s drive a profitable circular economy. And please don’t forget, the most abundant renewable resource is your imagination.
Patrick Hypscher: My name is Patrick Hypscher, and this is Circularity.fm, the podcast about understanding, building, and managing circular business models