Startup Autobahn, Europe’s largest innovation platform which facilitates joint projects between young tech companies and established corporations, has kicked off its fourth round. A total of 31 startups have been accepted into Program 4 starting on March 22.

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 of these startups in October 2017 and organised 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.

Due to this process the selected 31 startups can expect one or more business units that strongly consider carrying out a pilot project. On Expo Day, which takes place in July 2018, the partners and network of Startup Autobahn will learn about many more joint projects which have happened as a result of the open innovation platform.

So far, a record number of 130 projects were initiated in just 18 months and many long-term projects have resulted out of it.  A total of 74 startups graduated from the innovation platform with more than 130 pilot projects so far.

In Program 4, one-third of the participating startups are based in Germany and one-third are 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, France, Austria, 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:

Arculus, Arkite, Aroma Bit, Braincities, CARFIT, Chargetrip, Codepan, COMPREDICT, Context360, Aelectra, Evertracker, Fleetonomy, Imagine, IOTA, MakeMyDay, Moduu, NEURO Controls, OTTO Motors, PACE, Riddle & Code, ROBORACE, Sensefinity, Sentiance, Shoof Technologies, Silentium, Smartransfer, South8Technologies, Streamr, Third Space Auto, WORKERBASE and WorkFusion.

The focus of joint projects includes e-mobility, human-machine interface, supply chain logistics as well related themes in field of vehicle tech (CASE), vehicle services (fintech/insurtech), enterprise processes (HR/Retail), energy, future of production and industry 4.0.

Neutral innovation platform 
Startup Autobahn was founded by Daimler, Plug and Play, University of Stuttgart, and ARENA2036. New founding anchor partners are Hewlett Packard Enterprise, DXC Technology, BASF, Porsche, ZF Friedrichshafen, Webasto and Deutsche Post DHL Group. Murata, Hella, Benteler, Linde Group, Jardine Matheson Limited, Wieland Ventures, PostNL and AGC Glass Europe contribute as ecosystem partners.