Plug and Play Launches New Corporate Innovation Model Focused on the Travel Industry in Europe

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Plug and Play Travel & Hospitality is expanding its offering to Europe with a new corporate innovation model. This practice intends to bring startups directly to the headquarters of participating corporations through a series of deep dive innovation days. These deep dive innovation days will act as the filtration process for choosing relevant startups to participate in future corporate innovation programs.

The founding partners include Swissport, Star Alliance, Brussels Airport Company, and Vienna International Airport. On September 10^th, Plug and Play will host one of the first innovation days at Brussels Airport focused on Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), Baggage-as-a-Service (BaaS), biometrics, sustainability, and smart airports/smart cities.

"The purpose of why we created this new model is to drive results when corporations and startups engage with Plug and Play. When we bring startups to a corporation's headquarters, it gives them an opportunity to involve all of the different decision-makers in identifying new startups and technology providers they will work with, invest in, or acquire," said Jordan Bray, Head of Corporate Partnerships for Plug and Play Travel & Hospitality.

"This partnership is a clear sign of Brussels Airport's ambition to continuously improve and innovate in order to deliver the best services to its clients, passengers and airlines. This will give us continuous access to the latest developments in all areas of aviation/airport business," explains Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company.

"Our partnership with Plug and Play is an important step towards our vision of becoming the world's most digitally advanced airline alliance by delivering more seamless journeys to our global customers," said Jeremy Drury, Star Alliance Director Digital & Technology Services. "The workshops hosted with Plug and Play provide us an exceptional understanding of future digital trends both inside and outside the travel ecosystem and allow us to find corresponding startups with which to partner to take the customer experience to the next level."

Simon Messner, EVP Performance & Innovation at Swissport International, said, "New technologies emerging from startups are an important piece of our innovation strategy and to identify them we've been partnering with Plug and Play for over two years. We are delighted to see a program launched closer to our European operations."

"Innovation will make travelling much more convenient, by cooperating within the global network of Plug and Play we want to attract and support new business ideas to work in Vienna International Airport, to meet our ambition as a frontrunner in air travel improvements," welcomes Vienna International Airport CFO, Günther Ofner, on the launch of Plug and Play Travel Europe.

Prior to each event, partners are asked to identify specific technologies, opportunities, or problem statements that they are looking to explore through innovation. Between 12-15 startups will attend and pitch how their product/service has the potential to solve industry problems. These events will act as a filtration process for partners to determine which companies they would like to engage with through pilots, proof-of-concepts, commercial deals, partnerships, investments, and/or acquisitions.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Plug and Play is a global startup ecosystem bringing together airports, airlines, hotels, and the rest of the industry to drive open innovation through its Travel and Hospitality Program. They recently expanded to include travel-specific programs in Europe, Shanghai, Singapore, and UAE.

If you would like more information about this topic or how to get involved, please email Jordan Bray at jb@pnptc.com.

About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 28 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 10,000 startups and 300 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries. We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club, and PayPal. For more information, visit: https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com

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