Search for subversive innovation big companies pouring into the Silicon Valley incubator Plug&play

November 10 News, according to foreign media reports, Panasonic, Volkswagen, the United States the largest mutual insurance company state Farm, Germany well-known Enterprises Bosch group have become Plug&play partners, hope in the rapid development of science and technology industry to find opportunities, To avoid missing emerging products that could subvert their industry.

8 years ago, when Saeed Amidi created Plug&play, he just wanted to offer a reasonably priced shared office space for Silicon Valley's small start-up companies. He never thought that Plug&play would become a famous incubator for Silicon Valley, and many multinationals came here hoping to participate in the incubator project.

Now, Johnson has joined the alliance to become a part of the Plug&play accelerator. Why should Johnson be concerned about start-ups in networking equipment as a well-known company that supplies pharmaceuticals, health care and medical diagnostics? This is partly due to the emergence of networked health-monitoring and fitness products Fitbit, Jawbone and Pebble production. At a higher level, the growth of all the big and small businesses is driven by high technology, so having a place in Silicon Valley creates an essential bridge between Johnson and emerging entrepreneurs and broader research programs.

"Johnson wants to be able to lead the next wave of innovation, save costs for shareholders, and make our health products a better place," said Johnson, director of the Innovation department in California. "This innovative approach to cooperation is part of our overall strategy, and we want to work with entrepreneurs," says Ken Drazan, Drezins. Venture firms and start-ups establish close relationships to identify and promote the development of the most promising science and technology in the medical field. ”

This July, Johnson became the third corporate sponsor of the Plug&play Accelerator and reached a strategic partnership with State Farm and the Bosch group. The accelerator project introduced 20 start-up companies to the Plug&play headquarters for a three-month entrepreneurial training camp.

From September to the end of December, these startups were given the opportunity to be introduced to potential partners, customers and investors, and to learn to refine their products and marketing strategies.

Plug&play has also launched similar accelerators for the retail industry, which has Coles department stores and Toshiba, media and financial technology industries. Each project has a core sponsor team. These sponsors will contribute their time, management experience and some funds to promote the operation of the project. By doing so, they are able to engage directly with start-ups in their own or surrounding industries.

"In the past, they will wait for startups to grow up, buy them for valuable technology, and then apply technology to their products," Amidy said. "Now, unlike in the past, they will be involved in early startups. ”

In recent years, shared office space and technology incubators have begun to prevail throughout the United States and around the world, such as the Atlanta Tech Village (Atlanta Tech Sanlitun), Cincinnati Brandery, 1871 in Chicago, and the Arkansas Innovation Workshop (Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub). One of the most famous of these is Silicon Valley's Y Combinator,dropbox, Airbnb and Stripe, with the help of Y Combinator to succeed.

Plug&play it is necessary to attract some of the top entrepreneurs, because the financial strength of the sponsors is crucial to its success and prestige.

Plug&play in Silicon Valley, and now its size has gradually expanded to the world. It has operations in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

Amidy, in addition to renting office space to start-ups as in the past, is also profitable by participating in investment activities.

Coles, like Johnson, hopes to occupy a seat in the High-tech industry, and to compete in this fiercely competitive market.

This May, Coles department store joined Plug&play's retail accelerator project. This contributed to its cooperation with augmented pixels. The latter is a research and development of expanding reality and virtual reality program of the start-up enterprise.

Augmented pixels and Coles department store don't seem to have much overlap. But seriously think about it, the user's shopping experience is augmented pixels can play a space of expertise. If a user discovers an interested armchair while browsing the online catalogues of Coles department stores using the ipad, augmented pixels's expanding reality technology can help optimize the shopping experience, for example, by allowing users to experience the effect of an armchair in the living room, or see if the color matches the living room. This will undoubtedly help Coles department store to promote sales.

Augmented pixels, who had raised less than $1 million from private equity, would hardly be able to forge a partnership with Coles, without relying on Plug&play's matchmaking. From the beginning of 2015, augmented pixels technology will be used in the shopping process of Coles department store.

Plug&play has brought direct customers to start-ups, making it less of a detour for these fledgling companies.

"Our relationship with Plug&play allows us to benefit in a number of ways, for example, we can get to know and reach out to prospective start-ups and gain opportunities to collaborate with non-competitor legal entities," State Farm, a veteran insurer with 92 years of history, said in a statement. or through the forum and the Silicon Valley VCs and education experts to explore. ”

State Farm has started using networked devices to reduce insurance premiums. For example, it tracks customers ' driving habits by using OnStar and Sync's onboard technology, and State Farm offers insurance discounts for customers who are cautious and safe in driving.

Start-up company Locbit also joined the Plug&play accelerator. Founder Bojan Boian Spassov is developing a technology that allows hotels, wineries and supermarkets to connect to thousands of devices. His idea is that by using sensors and software, all stores can remotely control the temperature of each refrigerator, track which products will soon be sold out, or realize the automation of lighting.

BASF knows that this is a trend that the world will greet. The more he studies the market, the more profoundly he understands that Google, Microsoft and many smaller companies are seeing this.

But Locbit is just a small, obscure company that needs a resounding brand to help sell its products. Panasonic is one of the sponsors of the Plug&play retail accelerator. Locbit and Panasonic are now collaborating on a small project that includes research and development of the refrigerator networking feature. At present, two companies are preparing to implement a comprehensive deployment plan, such as the installation of some major hotels to reinstall.

In short, Plug&play has built a bridge of communication for start-ups and well-known companies, creating a lot of cooperation for the large and small companies involved in the accelerator project, which is particularly valuable in an era of efficiency supremacy.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)