Singapore Telecommunications : Go Ignite launches second global call for start-ups

Alliance seeks start-ups with market-ready solutions in Consumer Experience Artificial Intelligence, Connected Homes, and Internet-of-Things Security

Barcelona, Bonn, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, 1 March 2017 - Following the success of its inaugural global call for start-ups last year, Go Ignite, an alliance of four leading telcos, has launched its second global call at the Four Years From Now (4YFN) technology and start-up event at the Mobile World Congress 2017 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 Second Global Call is seeking growth stage start-ups that have market-ready solutions in Consumer Experience Artificial Intelligence (AI), Connected Homes, or Internet-of-Things (IoT) Security. Consumer Experience AI refers to the use of new technology to provide personalised customer support or new forms of customer interaction. Connected Homes are solutions that use software or hardware to enhance smart living or connectivity, while IoT Security leverages new technologies to keep vehicles, industries, smart homes and smart cities safe.

Mr Axel Menneking, Head of hub:raum explains, 'We are very happy to announce the second call for the Go Ignite program. In the telco industry this program creates an unmatched win-win-situation. The participating teams can gain exclusive knowledge and fast access to new markets and we get insights into innovative solutions and can create new business opportunities.'

Mr Bertrand Rojat, Start-up Ecosystem Director, Orange said: 'Following the success of our first call for start-ups last year, both in terms of the response we had and our ability to work together seamlessly across our accelerator programmes, this years' call will see us putting our collective support behind some key areas for our business units: consumer experience AI, Connected Homes, IoT security.'

Mr Edgar Hardless, Chief Executive Officer, Singtel Innov8, said, 'The Go Ignite alliance has been working with the winners of the first global call to deploy their solutions across various regions. Building on this momentum, we are excited to launch the second global call to engage more start-ups and accelerate the commercialisation of selected solutions. Together with the four telcos' collective resources and large customer base, we have also enhanced the benefits for selected winners of the Go Ignite Second Global Call to help them bring their innovations quicker to the market.'

Ms Ana Segurado, Global Managing Director of Telefonica Open Future_ said, 'At the heart of today's innovation in tech is the need to shift our paradigms from that of a closed environment where boundaries create limits on amount achieved, to that of an open environment, where more ambitious goals get met. Go Ignite paves the path for us to work with start-ups that venture on telco related ideas allowing us to create the disruptive technologies of the future. We are excited to announce the Go Ignite Second Global Call with our partners to select the best start-ups together and help scale their products and services.'

The application window is open from 1 March 2017 to 30 April 2017 for up to five winners to be selected. The alliance members will provide the winners with 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, South East Asia and Australia. The alliance members will provide them with a two-day training session with experts in telco innovation, technologies and investments practices, to help them refine their solutions and sharpen their strategies.

Through exclusive meetings, the winners will 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.

The inaugural Go Ignite global call last year was very positive for Contiamo, a German start-up. Its cloud-based data analytics proposal was selected as one of the five winners. Dr Tilmann Doll, Contiamo's Chief Operating Officer said, 'Participating in Go Ignite has been a huge success for us at Contiamo. We have been able to close contracts with multiple teams within Deutsche Telekom and Singtel and are still in active discussions with teams from Orange and Telefonica. In addition, we received very valuable feedback that helped us shape our product and bring it to the next level.'

Another winner was Blueliv, a Spanish cyber security start-up. BlueLiv's General Manager Mr Gerard Cervelló said, 'Joining the Go Ignite programme has helped Blueliv a great deal - we have opened or re-opened discussions with established cyber security teams from some of the largest telecom operators in the world and received very positive feedback on 'Threat Intelligence'. At Orange for example, after two successful 'proof of concepts', we are now about to work directly with several international clients of Orange Cyberdefense, and are confident to find more business opportunities in the near future.'

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

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