15/05/19 08:42

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Orange Belgium invites tech scale-ups to enter third Orange Fab season to realise their growth ambitions

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Orange Fab, Orange’s exclusive international accelerator network, kicks off its third edition in Belgium and Luxembourg. This year, start-ups will be able to internationalize their footprint and accelerate entry into new markets thanks to Orange Fab’s worldwide scope.    

For the third year in a row Orange Fab BeLux is opening its doors to tech scale-ups that are developing new products and services in four innovative areas: smart metering and smart mobility, cloud services, 5G projects and automation.

Scale-ups that enter the Orange Fab programme not only benefit from business acceleration focused on developing win-win business opportunities with Orange Belgium to better serve its customers. They can also capitalise on the international visibility of the Orange Group with its worldwide presence in 29 countries, reaching more than 250 million customers. Orange Fab has a worldwide footprint spread over 17 countries in 4 different continents, including Silicon Valley. Start-ups joining the Orange Fab community, can also benefit from Orange’s presence at international fairs such as Vivatech and Mobile World Congress. As such, Orange Fab is unique thanks to a double specificity: its focus on commercial partnership opportunities and its international scope.

The first two seasons of Orange Fab were a great success as Orange teamed up with the six winners to build concrete business opportunities and further develop their products and services, fundamentally changing the way we will live and work in the future. For instance, Orange Belgium has recently announced an equity investment and long-term partnership with Orange Fab season one winners CommuniThings to commercialize the scale-up’s smart parking solutions Etay Oren, CEO of CommuniThings, explains: “CommuniThings is poised for accelerated growth and we could not envisage a better partner to realize it with. The commercial force and technological know-how of Orange Belgium were a major catalyst in forging this partnership aimed at tapping into new markets”. Likewise, iReachm, selected from Orange Fab’s 2nd season, is currently rolling out a proof of concept enabling sales agents to transform a voicemail into a Virtual Assistant who takes calls, schedules meeting requests into an agenda and adds data to the user’s address book. iReachm CEO Peter Staveloz continues: “Orange Fab gave us the possibility to expand our commercial network within Orange and work closely together with internal teams with a specific area of expertise. It is a wonderful experience with lots of added value.”

And with Chatlayer, an AI-powered start-up also selected through Orange Fab, Orange Belgium is developing a conversational engagement platform, using artificial intelligence to automate human conversation.  

Chatlayer CEO Joeri Van Steen confirms: “Orange Fab has taken us to the next level, helping us to roll out our product and services at a faster pace with the support of their experienced teams”.

Werner De Laet, Chief Enterprise, Innovation & Wholesale Officer of Orange Belgium, explains: “I am delighted that, for the third year running, we are seeking to develop win-win partnerships with scale-ups, not only in Belgium and Luxembourg but also in other countries of the world. With Orange Fab as a mature accelerator for start-ups, we focus on practical innovations to serve essential customer needs “. New tech scale-ups from across the globe have until May 31 to register on the Orange Fab website www.orangefab.be. On 20 June the ten selected start-ups will be invited to pitch their innovative products and services to a jury composed of Orange Belgium’s Executive Committee and external professionals. Orange Belgium is looking forward to welcoming them in this third season.  

About Orange Fab

Orange Fab is an international accelerator network for start-ups from the Orange Group programme, now active in 15 countries. Orange Fab’s main objective is to create a commercial partnership between the start-ups and the Business Units of Orange. It will also help start-ups develop their business and activities. The network Orange Fab is designed to be a launch pad for start-ups to accelerate their growth and boost their local and international visibility.

Since its launch in 2013, Orange Fab has already contributed to the development of nearly 250 start-ups worldwide.

 

About Orange Belgium

Orange Belgium is a leading telecommunications operator on the Belgian market with over 3 million customers; Orange is also active in Luxembourg through its subsidiary Orange Communications Luxembourg.

As a convergent actor, we provide mobile telecommunications services, internet and TV to private clients as well as innovative mobile and fixed line services to businesses. Our high-performance mobile network supports 2G, 3G, 4G and 4G+ technology and is the subject of ongoing investments.

Orange Belgium is a subsidiary of the Orange Group, one of the leading European and African operators for mobile telephony and internet access, as well as one of the world leaders in telecommunications services for enterprises.

Orange Belgium is listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange (OBEL).

 

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