SynerLeap, the global innovation growth hub of ABB today announced they are working with Microsoft for Startups to support the acceleration of startups and open innovation. The announcement marks an important extension of the ABB and Microsoft strategic partnership driving the digital transformation of industry.
Initiated in 2016, the wider partnership connects ABB’s domain expertise in the industrial Internet of things (IIoT) with Microsoft Azure to support a broad range of industrial use cases, including asset health, condition monitoring, energy efficiency and more. The technology sharing, co-development and co-selling that have been hallmarks of the partnership have helped establish a strong market position with more than 200 digital solutions now available under the brand of ABB AbilityTM.
With the shared commitment to startup acceleration announced today, the two companies are super-charging the innovation funnel for the ABB AbilityTM portfolio of solutions. Under the new arrangement, ABB and Microsoft are harnessing technologies to support industrial customers and startups alike. Large and mid-sized customers in sectors like manufacturing, transportation, utilities, and construction will benefit from access to the startup ecosystems of both ABB and Microsoft and their game-changing innovations.
For ABB and Microsoft, this latest evolution in the partnership provides new opportunities to connect and bolster a value-adding ecosystem of partners that can foster positive network effects. “To tackle the transformational challenges our customers are grappling with – how to improve productivity, enhance worker safety, increase energy efficiency and enable more sustainable operations – unleashing the power of the industrial innovation ecosystem is key,” said Peter Löfgren, Managing Director, SynerLeap.
“With this next evolution in our partnership with Microsoft, ABB is empowering our forward-leaning open innovation model with customers, partners, suppliers and SynerLeap startups from all over the world to push the boundaries of technology and create superior value for industry,” continued Löfgren.
For startup founders and their teams, the coming together of ABB and Microsoft around startup acceleration means access to more and better resources to grow their businesses. Being a part of ABB and Microsoft’s joint acceleration efforts represents an opportunity to tap into technical sessions, expert coaching, specialized learning and technology tools like Azure and GitHub, while engaging with the companies’ vast base of customers to ideate, experiment, prototype and test new concepts.
“With this expansion of our strategic partnership, ABB and Microsoft are deepening the collaboration between our respective startup acceleration efforts to create an environment with the right support and structures enabling innovators in the IoT space so they can shorten development cycles and scale faster,” said Andrew Macadam, Global Field Lead of Microsoft for Startups.
SynerLeap and the Microsoft for Startups team based in Switzerland will facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas, joint events and matchmaking between startups and their peers, investors, and pilot customers across the world. Participating companies can leverage a constellation of unique go-to-market relationships and a critical mass of R&D and commercialization capabilities from both organizations.
The partnership between SynerLeap, which already boasts more than 140 successful collaborations with startups, and the Microsoft for Startups team complements other relevant ABB initiatives such as the ABB Electrification Virtual Startup Challenge, the ABB Industrial AI Accelerator program and ABB Technology Ventures, the firm’s corporate venture capital group.
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB’s success is driven by about 105,000 talented employees in over 100 countries.
SynerLeap is ABB’s global innovation growth hub. We support startups to accelerate and expand in a global market together with ABB. SynerLeap opens up for investments and offers a unique mentorship and access to ABB’s networks partners, customers and technology in automation, robotics and energy to company members. Today, more than 100 companies from 19 countries spanning five continents have joined SynerLeap including Graphmatech and MTEK from Sweden, Everactive from USA and NumoCity from India. www.synerleap.com
