The joint start-up incubator formed late last year by the innovation arms of European operators Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefónica, and Singapore-based SingTel, has been rebranded as Go Ignite.
The quartet said in September their alliance to connect start-ups in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East is designed to bring international scale to local innovators and entrepreneurs.
The move came as each acknowledged the limitations of their solo initiatives.
Deutsche Telekom’s hub:raum and Orange’s Orange Fab incubators started work together back in 2014 in an attempt to boost scale.
At the ‘Four Years From Now’ (4YFN) tech and start-up event at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, the alliance restated its mission to help start-ups develop their businesses, accelerate the commercialisation of their projects and find scale outside of their home markets.
Ana Segurado, Managing Director of Telefónica’s innovation arm, Open Future, said: “It is impossible to think about successful innovation models that develop on their own. Collaboration is the most efficient tool when it comes to putting in place new technologies that help resolve global problems. Go Ignite wants to support entrepreneurs to turn their projects into innovative products.”
Nathalie Boulanger, Start-up Ecosystem Director at Orange, claimed: “We can offer a wealth of services to help start-ups tap into the support and business development opportunities they need at a time when speed and agility is of the essence.”
The launch of the new Go Ignite brand at MWC was attended by a global call for start-ups to enter projects into five Go Ignite categories: internet of things (IoT), cyber security, big data analytics, content delivery and customer experience enhancement.
Five start-ups will be selected for the Go Ignite incubator programme, which ends on 30 April.
The Go Ignite alliance said selected start-ups will benefit from its collective resources, including its market insights, partners, work spaces, potential investment, coaching and events.
They will also have the opportunity to gain access to alliance members’ business units and customer bases, across five continents.
Min-Kin Mak, Vice President of Deutsche Telekom’s hub:raum, said: “Each of the carriers involved has built a programme to work with start-ups and to leverage [their] corporate assets. Linking these initiatives brings a complete new level of support to start-ups. Go Ignite is eager to attract and to work with the most promising and category leading start-up companies.”
Edgar Hardless, Chief Executive Officer of Singtel innovation unit Innov8, added: “Combining our resources together, the Go Ignite programme can give start-ups a better chance to scale across markets worldwide. Given its deep connections and market insights in Asia where it is based, Innov8 is well-positioned to further open doors to emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region.”