Innovation and collaboration meet at SLUSH conference

Innovation is at the forefront of everything ABB does and partnerships with high potential startups and tech companies are an important part of it.

Today a global startup and tech conference SLUSH connects startups and tech talent with international investors, executives, and media over two days in Helsinki, Finland. The event characterized by a unique energy and enthusiasm has grown to attract 15,000 attendees from a hundred countries, including startups and investors all the way from Silicon Valley to celebrate entrepreneurship.

This year Slush will have more venture capital funds and investors than ever. Since Slush 2015 a year ago, the organization has tracked more than $200 million venture investments. ABB is among investors attending Slush in Helsinki.

As ABB’s strategic venture capital investment arm, ABB Technology Ventures (ATV) scouts the globe for the best startup technology partners aligned with ABB’s mission of improving efficiency and operational quality while lessening industry’s impact on our environment.

To this day, ATV has invested over $150 million into high potential industrial technology and energy companies across the world. ATV partners with leading startups across the globe to accelerate growth and commercialize technology in terms of the future factory, software & analytics, and energy tech.

Leveraging the capabilities, energy and agility of startups together with our assets, market insight and reach will help reduce time-to-market for these solutions, enabling our customers to take advantage of industrial digitalization much quicker and in a more flexible way.

In turn, the partnerships within ATV portfolio companies have accelerated their paths to commercialization through their access to ABB’s deep R&D resources, global sales channels and wide-ranging partnerships.

In addition to ATV’s operations, ABB is supporting global innovation and seeking partners to write the future together with us through other initiatives as well.

In September 2016, an innovation growth hub SynerLeap was inaugurated at the ABB Corporate Research Center in Västerås Sweden, which is approximately 100 km west of Stockholm. SynerLeap enables small technology companies to grow and expand in a global market in industrial automation, robotics and energy. Located at the ABB Corporate Research Center, the SynerLeap companies get access to ABB’s premises, as well as ABB’s experts, scientists and customers while collaborating with our partners and other SynerLeap member companies.

The latest advancement in the field of our venture investments is the IdeaHub Innovation Challenge we announced a few weeks ago. To develop our variable speed drives we are looking for startups and other innovators to work with us for the next big ideas to revolutionize the future of drives by making them more intelligent, more effortlessly connected and more intuitive in terms of simplicity. Partner with us and tell us about your idea, concept or technology on an online innovation platform, the IdeaHub, by January 31, 2017.

Come visit ABB at Stand 6B.16, Hall 6 and see some of our latest developments in technology. We are looking forward to meeting you among other startups and tech companies.

Let’s write the future together.