Orange accelerates the growth of start-ups and developers with KT Corporation and the Gyeong-gi Creative Economy Innovation Center (G-CEIC)

Paris, Wednesday, June 24, 2015

In the context of «Futur en Seine» , the international digital festival which takes place in Paris, Orange organised the "International Orange Fab demo day" on June 11.

• On this occasion, Orange announced a partnership with South Korea’s largest telecommunications firm, KT Corp., and the G-CEIC, a Korean government agency which supports the international development of ICT start-ups and companies, which is managed by KT, as part of their respective start-up acceleration programs.
• 30 start-ups from 10 countries, coming from Orange Fab, its accelerator network in Asia, Africa, the United States, Europe and the Middle East, and from the accelerators of its partners, hub:raum by Deutsche Telekom, and KT, participated in a morning of exchanges and demonstrations with the ecosystem’s players (investors, entrepreneurs, etc.).

The start-ups selected by Orange, KT and G-CEIC will benefit through this partnership of a range of initiatives which will assist them in their international development: access to work spaces, support from experts, participation to events and demo days organised by one of the partners. The partners will also be able to introduce these young companies to the investment vehicles in which they are involved, and help them to export themselves by giving them access to their markets.

Thus, five start-ups accelerated by Orange Fab Asia had the opportunity, last May, to participate in the KT Partners Fair. In the same way, three start-ups accelerated by KT were able to meet potential investors and partners during the international Orange Fab demo day:

• frasen , a smart sleep mask
• Irience , Iris based security systems
• Anyractive , makes all displays touchable to be interactive and convenient

By creating synergies between their respective acceleration programs, Orange, KT and G-CEIC aim to help digital innovators to reach new markets and thus accelerate their growth, while enhancing the attractiveness of their initiatives, thanks also to their complementary geographic presences.

105 start-ups already accelerated by Orange Fab

Orange Fab offers selected start-ups three months of support to allow them to develop their products and services. They also receive valuable advice from Orange innovators and experts as well as a number of entrepreneurs. In certain countries, eligible start-ups also receive funding in the form of convertible bonds. The programme was launched in Silicon Valley in March 2013 and currently operates in nine countries: France, Israel, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan in collaboration with Oasis500, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Taïwan and the United States.

Orange and the operator Deutsche Telekom signed a partnership last year through the accelerator Orange Fab and the incubator hub:raum, allowing young shoots to have access to their markets, which represents a potential of approximately 400 million customers.

Supporting start-ups is one of the pillars of Orange's open innovation approach to accelerate the marketing of innovations that will benefit its customers. The Group has the ambition to support 500 start-ups across the world by 2020, in a very operational logic that focuses on the rapid realisation of commercial partnerships, or in some cases joint ventures, in particular through Orange Fab and Orange Digital Ventures, its investment fund for early age start-ups.