Nurturing Innovation | Startups develop 5G services in Elisa Co-Creation Challenge

Winner gets the chance to present their pilot in MWC 2020.

Elisa Co-Creation Challenge 2019 focuses on a subject that has been addressed very little at this time: people-driven service design in utilizing 5G. Participating startups are challenged to test solutions that have concrete impact for both corporate customers and consumers and improve society.

The pilots and experiments startups are creating will focus on at least one of these very central features of 5G: ultra-fast broadband, low latency, or massive internet of things. Elisa is providing the participating teams a chance to develop and test their pilots in an environment that supports 5G.

Elisa´s Antti Ihanainen is thrilled about the theme of this year´s competition. "5G will have a massive impact on the lives of customers, corporations and all Finnish society. I’m excited to see how teams experiment and collaborate in one of the world’s leading 5G environments in a customer-centric way. We expect to see incredible and meaningful results," says Ihanainen.

In addition to the 5G network, Elisa provides the startups its wide range expertise considering network technology, service design and mobile devices. Competing teams have the chance to further develop their ideas with experts from both inside and outside Elisa.

The prize of the Elisa 5G Co-Creation Challenge 2019 is a 25 000 EUR pilot with Elisa. The winning team also gets a chance to present their pilot in MWC 2020 in Barcelona. The other finalist teams will also get a prize of 4 000 EUR. The winner will be chosen in November and leaving 3 months to run the pilot before presenting at MWC.

The application period for the competition opens on Saturday the 25th of May and ends on Sunday the 23rd of June. Semi-finalist teams will be selected in early July and 3 finalist teams will be picked in early September. Applications for the competition can be send to startups@elisa.fi and more information about this year´s competition can be found from the website of Elisa Co-Creation Challenge.

List of previous winners:

Elisa Co-Creation Challenge 2018: Lifemote

Elisa Innovation Challenge 2017: IqBox

Elisa Innovation Challenge 2016: Emergence and Lukoton

Elisa Innovation Challenge 2015: Foller