Open innovation practices are gaining traction. Hence, the relevance of measures for engaging and managing heterogeneous groups of distributed complementors is rising. This mixed-method case study defines a pilot demonstration of emergent technology as an innovation ecosystem and utilizes a knowledge transfer lens to explore the impact of an open innovation contest. The contribution to the IS research stream is threefold. Firstly, the paper portrays that open innovation contests can spark coupled open innovation and facilitate innovation management, without lowering the generative capability. Secondly, it explains these gains by concluding that contests can catalyze cross-border knowledge transfer within innovation ecosystems. Thirdly, the paper moreover proposes that additional innovation deployment measures are needed in order for sustaining established relations and for aiding the implementation of innovation ideas beyond the contests.