Partnership Manager

Subject: Proposal to Hire a Partnership Manager for L&T Innovation Fund

• Context
  
  

L&T Innovation Fund (LTIF) is increasingly becoming a key vehicle for engaging with the startup ecosystem and supporting L&T’s strategic innovation and growth priorities through Open Innovation. Over the last few quarters, we have seen a significant increase in:

• Inbound interest from startups seeking strategic capital
• Investment opportunities referred by various ICs
• Ecosystem engagements (accelerators, incubators, VCs, banks, etc.)
  
  

This growing traction is very positive, but it is also putting substantial pressure on our currently lean team. Given this breadth of responsibilities, the current team is stretched across the wide mandate we have as well as internal and external stakeholder management. The Innovation Fund is looking to fill a gap in the role of Partnership Manager.

• Partnership Manager – Rationale and Role Definition
  
  

The Partnership Manager will drive strategic collaborations with startups, research institutions, technology providers, and ecosystem partners to accelerate innovation across L&T’s business verticals. The role involves scouting, evaluating, structuring, and managing partnerships to deliver measurable business and technological value, aligned with L&T’s innovation roadmap.

Title: Partnership Manager – L&T Innovation Fund

• Key Responsibilities
• Ecosystem & Startup Engagement
• Identify, evaluate, and onboard high?potential startups aligned to L&T’s innovation priorities.
• Build relationships with incubators, accelerators, VC firms, academia, and government innovation bodies.
• Represent L&T Innovation at ecosystem events, demo days and forums.
• Partnership Development & Management
• Assist in structuring partnership models (PoCs/ pilots/strategic alliances/co-development/co-investment etc.).
• Track end?to?end partnership lifecycle: Identify startups → connect to IC → PoC → scale?up/partnership.
• Technology & Innovation Scouting
• Continuously monitor emerging technologies relevant to L&T sectors (Infrastructure, Energy, Manufacturing, Defence, Digital, etc.).
• Benchmark competitors’ innovation partnerships and global trends.
• Maintain a pipeline of promising partnerships with clear stage?gates and evaluation metrics.
• Internal Stakeholder Management
• Work closely with L&T business units to identify use?cases and unmet needs.
• Facilitate cross?functional teams during PoC structuring and execution.
• Prepare internal presentations, business cases, and progress dashboards for leadership.
• Governance, Compliance & Documentation
• Coordinate evaluations, financial modeling, and risk assessment of partnership opportunities.
• Manage the pipeline and conduct first-level screening of startups
• Assist in preparing newsletter, internal notes etc
• Conduct market, sector and competition research
• Perform quantitative and qualitative analysis
• Support portfolio monitoring, reporting and preparation of review materials
• Profile
• Reporting

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