The Plug and Play Tech Center, an innovation platform connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies, announced the launch of a new office in Basel, Switzerland.
The move was made possible through a partnership with its founding partner uptownBasel.
Plug and Play Basel will be situated in the uptownBasel Competence Center in Arlesheim where it will provide co-working spaces for the startups to utilise and scale their business.
The launch event, which will mark the start of the first programme batch, is planned for March 2022.
The basis of Plug and Play Basel will be a 3-month open innovation programme that will run twice a year.
Each programme welcomes selected national and international startups that are addressing the specific technological needs of the founding partners.
The startups and business units of the partners will work together on pilots and proof of concepts, leading towards production-ready implementations.
The goal is to have at least one joint project completed for each startup, to be showcased at EXPO Day, the final event at the end of each programme
Further offerings for startups, partners, and the growing ecosystem include dealflows, workshops, mentorship sessions, networking between partners, investment opportunities, and a series of monthly events including Selection Days, Innovation Days, and EXPO Days.
Plug and Play, headquartered in Sunnyvale, 50 miles outside San Francisco, is located in vibrant Silicon Valley and has more than 35 satellite offices worldwide.
Hans-Jörg Fankhauser, site developer, architect and implementer of the uptownBasel project explains,
“Plug and Play Basel will use innovation as a lever to solve big challenges of our time with technologies like Industry 4.0, IoT, smart manufacturing, future logistics, and robotics.
Together, we will not only deliver profits to our corporate partners and startups, but also create new jobs, boost the region’s productivity, and build a long-term growing tech ecosystem.”
Daniela Bar-Gera, Head of Plug and Play Basel added,
“Basel is the perfect fit to be another European Hub for innovation: Its location in the Three-Country-Triangle (Switzerland, Germany, France), its industrial tradition and expertise as well as outstanding academics such as the University of Basel, the FHNW, and the various world-renowned institutes, such as the FMI (Friedrich Miescher Institute) provide the ideal foundation to be the leading open innovation platform.”
Featured image: Edited from Unsplash
