Consultancy firm Sia Partners has launched its own incubator and EUR 3 million investment arm called Studio in order to further devote itself to the startup market. It’s first participation, announced earlier this year, concerned Big  Moustache, an e-commerce firm which provides shaving and other beauty products on a subscription basis.

Sia Parnters will act as the sole investor in the new investment fund that will accompany select start-ups over the next three years, through their incubation and acceleration periods. Studio targets investment tickets of approximately EUR 500,000 for a 25-45% stake in companies in a large range of industries. The firms’ founder and CEO Nicolas Gueugnier states that this new involvement gives companies like Big Moustache access to the multi-sector expertise that these consultancy firms possess, which brings the opportunity to unlock a lot of potential.

The investment seems to confirm the trend of consultancy firms working more closely together with startups than ever before. In 2015, KPMG launched its own Ignition Centre, while Capgemini followed in 2017 with and incubator to couple startups with corporate investors.  These firms hope to profit from disruption abilities of these startups, believing that they are better suited to provide growth in the near future. The mix a startup studio provides between the small scale of newly founded companies and established corporates allow for the latter to provide capital, knowledge and a network for the former in order to achieve their common goals.