The Maryland Innovation Lab
Where Maryland Corporations collaborate with Global disruptors.
Supported by the Maryland Department of Commerce and the World Trade Center Institute, the Lab pairs leading global startups with corporate partners to solve critical challenges and unlock future opportunities through open innovation.
The Maryland Innovation Lab is a public-private initiative dedicated to driving corporate innovation, global trade, and next-gen solutions in industries. Central to the Lab is a 10-week solution validation sprint, a collaboration between startups and corporates guided by the UK’s foremost corporate innovation specialist, L Marks.
How Does it Work?
WTCI recruits three to five companies from its Maryland network seeking to scale innovation in their organization. WTCI and L Marks work with these companies to identify key pain points and challenges. Through its global network of startups, L Marks solicits applications from startups seeking to partner with the participating companies to develop solutions to their challenges. At Pitch Day, the companies choose from amongst the startups to enter into a 10-week guided accelerator program to develop the proposed solution with their new partners.
Phase One
Global startups travel to Maryland to participate in an intensive Boot Camp with the corporate partners, culminating in a competitive Pitch Day, where startups pitch their solutions to the participating companies for the chance to form a lasting partnership.
Phase Two
The five winning startups proceed to a 10-week, mentorship-driven accelerator that concludes with a celebratory Demo Day event, during which startups and corporate partners announce their joint innovations and partnerships.
After the Program
The matched startups and corporate partners continue to work together to further develop and deploy their solutions, with the goal of forming lasting partnerships.
What the Maryland Innovation Lab Offers
The Maryland Innovation Lab provides participating companies access to a proven innovation program with a typical commercial value of approximately $1,000,000. While the Lab is the first of its kind in the United States, the underlying model has been implemented more than 100 times globally and has delivered an industry-leading 78% solution deployment rate.
The Lab draws on a global network of more than 10,000 startups and scaleups across 100-plus countries to identify solutions aligned with your business needs. Our experts work alongside your team to evaluate potential partners, narrow the field, and select the best-fit solutions for your most pressing challenges. In just over half a year, participating companies can jump-start innovation in ways rarely achievable with internal resources alone.
What’s Next
We are now accepting inquiries from businesses interested in joining the third cohort of the Maryland Innovation Lab. For the first time, applicants will define the challenges this cohort tackles, rather than following a pre-selected theme. Any organization with a meaningful operational presence in Maryland that wants to jump-start innovation is invited to apply.
Startup Stats
Scouted
Countries Represented
Assessed
Companies Pitched
The First Cohort
Sustainable Food Systems
The theme for the first cohort was sustainable food systems. Specifically, how can we improve food packaging, processing, logistics, supply chains, agriculture, and distribution? This theme was chosen because of the numerous challenges the global food system is experiencing. Over 600 startups from around the globe were considered, and the industry partners – Sodexo, SIMPLi, and Pompeian – selected nine companies to participate in the boot camp and Pitch Day held in March 2024 at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business in Baltimore. Two startups – Portugal-based Assetfloow and UK-based Colateral – are currently working together with Pompeian and Sodexo in a 10-week collaborative innovation program to pilot, refine, and validate their solutions.
The Second Cohort
Decarbonization
The second cohort addressed decarbonization. Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges of our time, demanding urgent action to reduce emissions and build a sustainable future. The United Nations has set ambitious goals for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, and Maryland is rising to the occasion. Equally, to be truly sustainable, any change must be economically viable. Solutions must be accessible to communities and businesses of all sizes, ensuring that progress on climate does not come at the expense of equity or economic resilience. The Decarbonization and Affordability Lab is your opportunity to lead this transformation, bringing together industries, innovators, and policymakers to tackle decarbonization challenges head-on in a way that’s truly sustainable.
How it Started
The concept for the lab – the first of its kind in the U.S. – was first announced by the State of Maryland at the World Economic Forum in 2022. In April 2023, the project began under the leadership of Maryland Governor Wes Moore. The lab is part of the state’s Global Gateway Program, which helps attract more international businesses and eases their transition into the U.S. market by connecting them with local incubators and accelerators.
The Maryland Department of Commerce helps fund the lab and co-leads it with WTCI and L Marks, a corporate innovation specialist with operations in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Team
The lab is made possible through the generous support of the Maryland Department of Commerce. The department’s support is integral for building fruitful connections both in Maryland and abroad, ushering in a new era of cooperation and innovation in the Mid-Atlantic.
L Marks’ primary focus is identifying the startups/scaleups and helping them prepare their pitches to the Maryland companies. L Marks also uses its standardized process to manage the eight-month collaboration between the Maryland companies and startups/scaleups.
WTCI’s main role is to leverage its network of 3,500+ innovative globally minded businesses to identify Maryland-based companies interested in participating in the lab, serve as a liaison between the companies and L Marks, and help create the strategy for each project that is part of the lab.
Sponsors
