Go Ignite: Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Singtel, Telefonica pick innovative start-ups

Go Ignite, an alliance of the world’s leading telcos including Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Singtel and Telefonica have announced the winners of the second global search for start-ups that offer the most innovative solutions for three key technologies including Consumer Experience Artificial Intelligence, Connected Homes and Internet of Things Cyber Security.

This year’s winners are Sparkcognition and NanoLock Security for IoT Cyber Security; Cujo and Vayyar Imaging for Connected Homes and SafeToNet for Consumer Experience AI. These start-ups will have the opportunity to form business partnerships with the four telcos and tap into the alliance partners’ collective mobile subscriber base of over 1.2 billion mobile phone subscribers across five continents.

“Also in this second edition we received numerous applications from strong teams,’’ says Axel Menneking, managing director of Deutsche Telekom’s hub:raum. “The five winners were able to convince us with their ideas on artificial intelligence and security issues. The topics range from helping to protect children from bullying, protect critical infrastructure, and secure management platforms. I'm sure these teams will be doing good pilots with us and the other three telecom companies.”

The winners are attending a two-day workshop that kicks off today in Madrid to help them refine their solutions and sharpen their business strategies. In addition, each start-up will receive support including access to mentoring and expertise, co-working space and invitations to community events and networking opportunities.

“For us and our partners we have a firm belief that working collectively and in an open manner with the start-up community is critical to accelerate our innovation in these three key areas,” says Bertrand Rojat, Deputy Director of Orange’s Technocentre. “These are exciting times and we are delighted to be working with these ‘scale-ups’ to jointly deliver something truly remarkable to our customers.”

Consumer Experience AI refers to the use of new technology to provide personalised or new forms of customer support. Connected Homes are solutions that use software and/or hardware to automate and remotely control home appliances with ease, while IoT Security leverages new technologies to keep smart vehicles, homes and cities safe.

“The alliance partners are pleased to select five deserving winners from a pool of high quality submissions worldwide,’’ says Edgar Hardless, Chief Executive Officer of Singtel Innov8. “The second global call focused on these three key areas which are becoming increasingly relevant and critical to the digital world we live in. We look forward to accelerating the adoption of the innovative solutions and bringing them to the customers of the Singtel Group.”

Go Ignite (http://go-ignite.com/) is an alliance aimed at connecting the start-up ecosystems across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

The Go Ignite global call for start-ups encourages teams world-wide to enter their projects into any one of the categories identified by the alliance to be of strategic interest. The alliance will help the start-ups pitch to venture capital firms to secure fresh funding needed to grow their business.

“This marks the continuation of our strong support in working with startups and other telcos to find and grow the next disruptive idea,” says Ana Segurado, Global General Director, Telefonica Open Future. “It´s open innovation initiatives built with partners such as Go Ignite that truly creates the right framework to develop the business of the startups. We very much look forward to working with the winners and hope this will be the beginning of a relationship which provides value to all parties involved.”