Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Singtel and Telefonica on Wednesday established a partnership that will share the combined resources and expertise of their start-up accelerator programmes with promising young companies.
The agreement aims to foster the growth of start-ups in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Selected companies will be able to draw on the networks and technology of the four telcos, as well as leverage their market expertise, partners, working facilities, and operating units.
Some budding companies could also gain access to a collective mobile customer base of more than 1 billion people.
"Having built up extensive experience of working hand-in-glove with start-ups across the world, Orange sees the formation of global partnerships such as this as the critical next step to ensure that digital innovators continue to flourish," said Nathalie Boulanger, Orange’s start-up ecosystem director, in a statement.
"With our collective and complementary footprints spanning four continents, we can provide start-ups with access to new markets, thereby enabling them to accelerate their growth further," she said.
The benefits of the partnership are available to companies supported by Deutsche Telekom’s hub:raum, the Orange Fab, Telefonica Open Future, Singtel Innov8, and Innov8 Sparks, the last being a network of start-up incubators operated by Singtel’s operating units.
"With the partnership between Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Singtel and Telefonica, we see a huge opportunity to develop the bridges between the ecosystems in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America and to provide start-ups with critical market access, funding and expertise to become more successful with their international expansion," said Min-Kin Mak, vice president of hub:raum at Deutsche Telekom.
