Go Ignite invigorates programme with open call for co-innovation with start-ups

28/02/2018

Reading time: 9 min

Alliance seeks start-ups with market-ready solutions in IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber security, 5G, Customer Experience Enhancement and Big Data Analytics

Bonn, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, 28 February 2018 – Following the success of its previous global calls for start-ups, Go Ignite, an alliance of four leading telcos, has launched its third global call at the Four Years From Now (4YFN) technology and start-up event at the Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona.

Go Ignite comprises hub:raum, Orange Fab, Singtel Innov8 and Telefonica Open Future_, the open innovation arms of Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Singtel, and Telefonica.

The Go Ignite Third Global Call is seeking growth stage start-ups that have market-ready solutions in six areas: Artificial Intelligence (AI), cyber security, 5G, big data analytics, customer experience enhancement and Internet of Things.

“We are very pleased that the Go Ignite call for start-ups is gaining global traction. This year’s global call focuses on key areas which accelerate the digital transformation of the economy and will change every facet of our lives,” said Mr Edgar Hardless, Chief Executive Officer, Singtel Innov8. “Together with our alliance partners, we look forward to helping qualified growth stage start-ups refine and bring their innovations quicker to our respective markets.”
Starting this year, the Go Ignite alliance has lifted the requirement for ideas to be submitted by a certain date, making it much easier for global start-ups to submit their ideas year-round. The winning start-ups will enjoy a wide range of benefits including mentoring expertise, contacts, office space, event support and access to a combined market of more than 1.2 billion customers across Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Mr Axel Menneking, Head of hub:raum said, “With the new format of the Go Ignite Global Call we extend the opportunity for interested start-ups to approach the four telcos continuously. Together with them we can create new business opportunities and help them to access our respective markets.”

Through exclusive meetings, the winners will be also be given the opportunity to form business partnerships with the four telcos. They will also be introduced to the telcos’ key decision makers and’ venture capital teams where successful start-ups will receive funding to grow their business.

Mr Bertrand Rojat, Orange Fab Managing Director, Orange said, “Co-innovation between telecom operators on strategic and disruptive fields is of great importance to Orange. Go Ignite is a unique opportunity to energise these joint initiatives in support of our business units’ key priorities and to attract international start-ups to help us accelerate our development plans.”

Mr. Miguel Arias, former entrepreneur and recently appointed Managing Director of Telefonica Open Future said, “Go Ignite is just another shop window to Telefónica’s open innovation approach, bringing down old boundaries and widening our reach and those of our partners. The business units of the alliance members face similar challenges, for us it really makes sense to join forces and find solutions together. On the other side, for a start-up, gaining access to the business of four leading telcos is a very powerful value proposition. It is the first Go Ignite call for me and I am eager to meeting the winning projects, hopefully as promising as in previous editions.”

The five winners of the last year’s edition – Sparkcognition and NanoLock Security for IoT Cyber Security; Cujo and Vayyar Imaging for Connected Homes and SafeToNet for Consumer Experience AI – attended a two-day workshop in Telefonica’s headquarters in Madrid where they met the key internal stakeholders of each of the four telcos. The meetings with experts in telco innovation, technologies and investments practices helped them to refine their solutions and sharpen their strategies to better align their innovations with market requirements.

To find out more about the Go Ignite Third Global Call, please visit http://go-ignite.com/.

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About Deutsche Telekom (telekom.com)

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies, with some 168 million mobile customers, 28 million fixed-network lines, and 19 million broadband lines.

More information: Deutsche Telekom at a glance .

About hub:raum (hubraum.com)

hub:raum connects the digital startup ecosystem with Deutsche Telekom, linking tech entrepreneurs and high growth startup companies with the expert network, capital, and business opportunities of Deutsche Telekom. hub:raum offers various programs out of three locations in Berlin, Krakow and Tel-Aviv.. Start-ups can benefit from seed financing, co-working space, mentoring, networking events and connections to Deutsche Telekom business units as well as access to customers.

About Orange (orange.com)

Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 41 billion euros in 2017 and 152,000 employees worldwide at 31 December 2017, including 93,000 employees in France. Present in 29 countries, the Group has a total customer base of 273 million customers worldwide at 31 December 2017, including 211 million mobile customers and 20 million fixed broadband customers. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. In March 2015, the Group presented its new strategic plan “Essentials2020” which places customer experience at the heart of its strategy with the aim of allowing them to benefit fully from the digital universe and the power of its new generation networks.

Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).

For more information on the internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.

About Orange Fab (fab.orange.com)

Orange Fab is a start-up accelerator programme launched by Orange that aims to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship. Born in Silicon Valley in 2013, the programme is now present in 15 countries in Europe, Africa, the USA, the Middle East and Asia. Orange Fab has accelerated more than 300 start-ups since its launch.

The program offers selected start-ups support to allow them to develop their products and services and to go commercial with Orange and its partners. They also receive valuable advice from Orange innovators and experts as well as a number of entrepreneurs.

More recently, Orange Fab has opened the Intrapreneurs Studio, a new initiative for selected Orange employees to incubate internal start-ups.

Supporting start-ups is one of the pillars of Orange’s open innovation approach to accelerate the marketing of innovations that will benefit its customers. The Group aims to support 500 start-ups across the world by 2020 with a focus on the rapid realisation of commercial partnerships, or in some cases, joint ventures, via Orange Digital Ventures, its investment fund for early age start-ups.

About Singtel (singtel.com)

Singtel is Asia’s leading communications technology group, providing a portfolio of services from next-generation communication, technology services to infotainment to both consumers and businesses. For consumers, Singtel delivers a complete and integrated suite of services, including mobile, broadband and TV. For businesses, Singtel offers a complementary array of workforce mobility solutions, data hosting, cloud, network infrastructure, analytics and cyber-security capabilities. The Group has presence in Asia, Australia and Africa and reaches about 670 million mobile customers in 22 countries. Its infrastructure and technology services for businesses span 21 countries, with more than 428 direct points of presence in 362 cities.

For more information, visit www.singtel.com

About Singtel Innov8 and Innov8 Sparks (innov8.singtel.com)

Singtel Innov8, the venture capital arm of the Singtel Group, invests in and partners with innovative tech start-ups worldwide. It has a fund size of US$250 million and its own set of decision making, approval and funding processes. Beyond funding, Singtel Innov8 is a gateway for start-ups to tap on the resources and expertise of the Singtel Group, while enabling the Group to gain access to emerging technologies. Singtel Innov8 focuses its investments on technologies and solutions that can lead to quantum changes in network capabilities, next generation devices, digital services and enablers to enhance customer experience. Headquartered in Singapore, Singtel Innov8 also has offices in San Francisco and Tel Aviv.

For more information, visit http://innov8.singtel.com.

Innov8 Sparks is a network of start-up support and funding initiatives across Southeast Asia, founded by members of the Singtel Group. Founding members include Singtel Innov8 (Singapore), AIS The Startup (Thailand), Kickstart Ventures by Globe Telecom (the Philippines), Optus-Innov8 Seed (Australia), and Teman Dev by Telkomsel (Indonesia).

About Telefónica (telefonica.com)

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world by market capitalization and number of customers with a comprehensive offering and quality of connectivity that is delivered over world class fixed, mobile and broadband networks. As a growing company it prides itself on providing a differential experience based both on its corporate values and a public position that defends customer interests.

The company has a significant presence in 21 countries and 350 million accesses around the world. Telefónica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy.

Telefónica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.5 million direct shareholders. Its share capital currently comprises 5,037,804,990 ordinary shares traded on the Spanish Stock Market and on those in London, New York, Lima, and Buenos Aires.

About Telefónica Open Future_ (openfuture.org)

For further information: www.openfuture.org.

Telefónica Open Future is Telefonica´s global platform designed to connect her to entrepreneurs, startups, investors and public and private partners around the world to capture innovation and business opportunities. Its goal is to support talent at all stages of growth through a comprehensive model for acceleration that is designed to connect talent with organisations, investors and companies. The programme incorporates all of Telefónica Group’s open innovation, entrepreneurship and investment initiatives (Think Big, Talentum, Crowdworkings, Wayra, and the innovation funds) through a global network that is open to participation by external partners that wish to develop their own entrepreneurial and investment strategies, and connect to large corporates. To date, 800 startups have been invested. Telefónica Open Future_ is present in 16 countries.More info: https://www.openfuture.org/en

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Nicole Clarke