Daimler Greater China inks pact with Plug and Play to explore new technologies

Daimler Greater China has announced a new cooperation with the global accelerator and investor Plug and Play as the company seeks to further explore new technologies and foster a startup culture among its business units.

The new agreement will assist Daimler Greater China in identifying early- and growth-stage tech companies for business development and partnership opportunities, allowing Daimler to tap into a new generation of innovation.

Marc Lampe, Chief Information Officer at Daimler Greater China, said: “Daimler is fostering an innovative culture and so-called ‘back to garage’ spirit inside the company. We encourage our employees to constantly innovate and re-shape information technology, which is in line with the company’s global startup spirit. In 2015, we set up the Daimler IT Innovation Lab in Beijing regarding it as an in-house incubator. With Plug and Play, we will further embrace the digitalisation tide and will connect us more closely with the fast-developing startup world.”

As part of the cooperation, Daimler Greater China will create an office space in Plug and Play’s Beijing location to actively engage with the hosted startups, striving to bring new values and innovations to local customers.

The global Plug and Play Tech Center has over 20 locations in Silicon Valley, Germany, Spain, Singapore, China and Brazil, making it one of the biggest and most experienced accelerator operators. Having looked after more than 2,000 startups since it was founded ten years ago, Plug and Play has grown with a technical focus and venture capitals to become the world's largest global accelerator. Plug and Play organises over 365 events all over the world every year in order to network startups and investors and operates also as an investor.

This latest cooperation agreement expands an already successful relationship between Daimler and Plug and Play, which joined Daimler in May 2016 in establishing STARTUP AUTOBAHN, a new startup ecosystem in Stuttgart. Through cooperation with Plug and Play, STARTUP AUTOBAHN is highly networked with the German startup community in places all over the world, such as Silicon Valley, Singapore and Berlin.

Daimler Greater China has already taken important steps to promote innovation within its business units. The DigitalLife@Daimler initiative, which supported the implementation of this year’s inaugural Hackathon in China, was founded to establish a new culture of innovation to combine the strengths of the global company with the strengths of startups, and focuses on implementing projects relating to the digitalisation of the company. Furthermore, the Daimler IT Innovation Lab in Beijing brings a lean, fast and flexible agile startup culture to Daimler in order to create new values for Daimler’s customers as well as the company’s various business units.

Established in January 2001 and headquartered in Beijing, Daimler Greater China Ltd (DGRC) is responsible for the operations of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Daimler Trucks and Buses, Mercedes-Benz Financial (including Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance and Mercedes-Benz Leasing), Daimler Spare Parts and R&D Centers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.