Photo credit: Kārlis Dambrāns.
Chinese phone maker Huawei today rolled out an Internet of Things (IoT) accelerator called I5Lab.
Based in Singapore, I5Lab will zero in on IoT devices for smart living, transportation, and logistics. It will provide IoT startups with mentorship, access to investors, industry-grade test beds, global marketing, and the opportunity to do business with Huawei.
Huawei has tied up with NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore, for the program, which aims to help transform the city-state into a “smart nation.”
“With one of the most connected societies, open data sets, and high-skilled ready talent, Singapore is an excellent test bed to nurture IoT ideas that will bring us closer to a smarter future,” Huawei-Southern Pacific chief marketing officer Lim Chee Siong says in a statement. “Ultimately we are looking to build our future business partners from the ground up.”
Startups will be able to verify their solutions within Huawei’s network and leverage its expertise. Huawei is present in 170 countries worldwide and works with 45 of the world’s top 50 telecom providers connecting two-thirds of the world’s population.
Citing a 2015 report by McKinsey, Huawei says the IoT market stands at US$11.1 trillion, with an estimated 100 billion devices going live by 2025.
Interested startups may submit their business ideas by January 31, 2017 and those who will be incubated will be revealed in February. The program will run until October.
Editing by Neha Margosa
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