Plug and Play is a startup accelerator (we had already written whereof in this article) and probably the world’s leading open innovation platform. Its mission is to select high potential startup, whereby to improve and invest through its acceleration program, and finally link them with big corporations, wishing in turn to speed up innovation through collaboration, acquisition or investment in startup. Here are some numbers to understand the impressive work of this accelerator: each year, it analyzes about 6,000 startups, invests in over 160, has more than 180 business partners and 200 venture capital partners from Silicon Valley, arranges more than 365 networking events, is located in several countries with 22 offices. Among the very successful companies attended to this accelerator is worth mentioning PayPal, DropBox, Lending Club.
Plug and Play has developed vertical acceleration programs divided for industry and technology: IoT, Fintech, Retail, Mobility, Health and Wellness, Food and Beverage, Supply Chain and Logistic, Travel and Hospitality, New materials and packaging and, since 2016, Insurtech. For this latter acceleration program has been selected this year also an Italian startup, Neosurance.
In less than a year, Plug and Play’s Insurtech acceleration program has been so successful in the startup as well as Corporate segment (more than 40 partner companies) that it decided to focus even more on the insurance sector by further integrate “Insurtech” program from now on divided into three segments: General Insurtech, Property & Casualty, and Life/Health & Group Benefits.
Among the corporate partners of the Insurtech program, there is also BNP Paribas, whose collaboration started in 2016 through the US subsidiary of the group, Bank of the West, and more recently has been further strengthened through an agreement extending collaboration with Plug and Play to all the BNP Paribas subsidiaries worldwide. Additionally, in Paris at the headquarters of the Company, there will be a fintech/insurtech acceleration program that will be held twice a year and will select 10 startups from all around the world each time. Its name will be Paris Fintech Plug and Play Tech Center.
” At BNP Paribas, open innovation is perceived as a powerful transformation engine to build the bank of the future and offer our customers high value products and services “, said Jacques d’Estais, deputy COO of the group, when the partnership was disclosed. ” A goal that goes through the development of a Fintech incubation and acceleration ecosystem in Europe, the United States and Asia. So this new breakthrough in our partnership with Plug and Play will complete our current programs, such as the Fintech Acceleration Corporate Program, BNP Paribas Atelier, which has allowed strategic investments in 2016. Starting from this success, we are strengthening our positioning in the startup ecosystem through this new partnership. We will be able to take full advantage of the Plug and Play global experience and create unique links between us and European and Californian startups”.
BNP Paribas open innovation strategies are also led by the Italian subsidiary BNP Paribas Cardif, which was one of the first companies in the Group to experience open innovation initiatives: Call4Ideas Open-F@b implemented along with InsuranceUp, in partnership with Polihub, is just an example. Remember that the permanent call is always open, while the launch of the new thematic call4ideas is shortly expected.
play_circle_filled
