StartupAutobahn picked IOTA among other tech startups to work on an innovation platform for Smart Mobility. StartupAutobahn was founded by Daimler, Plug and Play, University of Stuttgart, and Arena2036.

Plug and Play is a global innovation platform, headquartered in Silicon Valley, that connects startups, industrial companies and investors and invests in over 100 startups per year as a Seed Stage Investor. Plug and Play was founded in 2006 and has been operating numerous industry-specific accelerator programs at various locations worldwide. Plug and Play’s international network includes over 120 industry partners, some 180 investors and business angels, thousands of startups, and countless top-notch mentors. Startups within the Plug and Play network have secured $ 3.5 billion in funding. Among them were some successful exits, among others. from Danger, DropBox, Lending Club, PayPal, SoundHound, and Zoosk.

STARTUP AUTOBAHN is about facilitating joint projects between young tech companies and established corporations

In the current batch, 31 young tech companies – with the combined strength of now 16 corporate partners – will work on joint projects. Plug and Play – as the moderator of the program started the sourcing for these startups in October 2017 and organized hundreds of meetings between startups and the corporate partners of STARTUP AUTOBAHN. This gave the business units the chance to truly understand the startups technologies and to evaluate whether there is a strategic fit. Thanks to this process the selected 31 startups can expect one or more business units who strongly consider carrying out a pilot project.

On Expo Day taking place in July 2018 the partners and network of STARTUP AUTOBAHN will hear about many more joint projects happened thanks to the open innovation platform. So far, a record number 130 projects were initiated in just 18 months and many long-term projects resulted out of it.

German young tech companies already know that STARTUP AUTOBAHN is the best way to get projects with the participating corporations started. In Program 4 only one third of the participating startups are based in Germany and one third comes even from outside of Europe: USA (5x), Israel (3x), Canada (1x), Japan (1x) and Australia (1x). The European startups were sourced in countries such as: Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, France, Netherlands, Portugal and the UK.

The following young tech companies have been offered the opportunity to validate and pilot their technologies on a neutral platform, moderated by Plug and Play within a three-month program:

Neutral innovation platform – the best way for startups to get in business with our corporate partners