The 5G Open Innovation Lab will soon start a new round of their 12-week startup development program, for which you can apply now! Every round, 12 – 15 companies can participate, and the program is aimed at tech companies that are involved in advanced analytics, AI, IoT, cyber security, automation, edge, cloud, 5G, etc. These companies should have some degree of commercial success already. The program provides access to mentors, potential partners, and investors in the US, and is an excellent opportunity for Finnish startups to grow and develop significantly. Participation can be done remotely, and is free of charge.
Keep reading for more details! The following article comes directly from the 5G Open Innovation Lab:
About the Lab
The 5G Open Innovation Lab is designed to be a collaborative, development-focused ecosystem approach that brings together visionary startups, industry leaders, technical experts, and investors to break down silos that hamper innovation and build what’s next. The Lab provides selected startups with access to cutting-edge
technology, industry expertise, and resources that help them accelerate their growth and scale their business.
The Lab deviates from traditional startup accelerator and incubator models. They are founder-friendly (equity and fee-free) because we strive to work with multi-stage teams from Seed to Series C. The program focuses on helping startups generate traction based on their priorities and goals, not the Lab’s. We also focus exclusively on opening the right doors, enabling success with their partners, and networking startups through their
ecosystem.
Why 5G, why now?
Communication service providers (CSPs) are transforming their underlining network platforms from monolithic to cloud native. This transition is forcing the global wireless mobility industry to consider new monetization pathways due to the high CAPEX cost required to deploy these networks. Furthermore, the emergence of enterprise private 5G networks (P5G) and edge computing has the potential to unlock new demand for CSPs instead of pursuing existing saturated markets.
We have made it our mission at the Lab to build a community of platform, industry, research, and public
partnerships that explores, experiments, and understands the potential for software defined applications and services running on future 5G & edge networks. While connectivity is critical, we also believe that growing
demand by enterprises for use cases dependent on private and edge computing will shift market dynamics powered by software applications and infrastructure. Digital transformation across industry will drive
innovation enabled by wireless networks and edge computing totaling trillions of dollars in market opportunity.
Our program
Every year our program hosts two 12-week Batches of 12-15 startups across all funding stages. Our Spring Program launches in early March and our Fall Program launches in mid-September. The Lab recruits
internationally pre-vetted companies through our network of partners, venture firms, and Founders. Startups admitted into Batches will commit to our 12-week virtual program with access to the following benefits:
- No equity requirement – Participating startups are not required to offer equity in exchange for participation in our program.
- Hands on engineering – We are providing engineering access to leading platform experts largely supported by Founding, Corporate, and Technical Partners.
- Industry mentorships – Startups will be paired to industry mentors they align with. Our mentorship program focuses on product validation, shared industry insights, and pathways to POC engagements.
- Global exposure – Our partnerships are critical to developing global ecosystem while establishing routes to global markets for participating startups.
- Lab access – We operate our sandbox environment including 2 standalone 5G networks with edge computing onsite. Our Labs provide startups the opportunity to deploy, test, and receive customer feedback from their products while also exploring product collaborations with our partners.
Lab goals
- Technical leadership harnessing the value developers (startups) create when building on future 5G and Edge platform.
- Commercial & Consumer use cases in support of current and future product and service needs which all partners can participate in and leverage. We are prioritizing commercial (enterprise) use cases.
- Unifying the 5G & Edge developer ecosystem comprised of startups, technology platforms (Intel, AWS, Microsoft, etc.), and research (UW, NASA, PNNL, etc.).
Our alumni
We will post updates throughout the month on the ICTOulu website, as well as on our LinkedIn channel. If you want to know more about our activities and we how can support your business, please feel free to contact us.