26 Mar 2015

THINGS, Sweden's first co-working space for hardware start-ups in innovative areas such as the Internet of Things, wearables, 3D scanning and printing and medical technology, will officially open in Stockholm on March 26 with ASSA ABLOY as one of its main industry partners.

Initiated by business development company STING (Stockholm Innovation & Growth), THINGS will offer hardware start-ups - referred to as "members" - unparalleled facilities such as laser cutters and 3D printers to develop and test prototypes. Situated on the campus of Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, THINGS will also provide the members significant opportunities to build local and global networks to speed up international expansion.

As one of eight industry partners behind the THINGS initiative, ASSA ABLOY will get to collaborate with the members, as well as with the other industry, academic and technology partners such as Cisco and TeliaSonera. This cooperation is aimed at helping both the start-ups and the partners find solutions to each other's existing development problems or needs.

ASSA ABLOY CTO Ulf Södergren believes this networking environment will act as a great platform for developing the company's products.

"We see a clear trend in society toward networking products, which can lead to new business models - from simple to highly intelligent products," he says. "We want to be part of this development to ensure we can contribute together with players with a similar focus.

"Being part of the rollout of the Internet of Things (IoT) gives us the possibility to provide better information to our partners, installers, end-users and also to ourselves, as we can better understand how our products are being used and how they operate in the environment they have been developed for."

Unlike other hardware hubs around the world, THINGS is not owned by investors, making it an independent player. Its shared working environment has space for 30 members. Members that have already located to the site include Volumental, a cloud-based platform for creating accurate 3D models to customize products and services, and Evothings, a platform that enables the IoT industry to create apps and prototypes that interact with existing technology.

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