South-Korean multinational
Samsung is to establish a startup accelerator in Israel. The company, a world famous conglomerate with headquarters in Samsung Town, Seoul, offers a range of hardware, software, and cloud solutions. It is globally recognized for its ‘Galaxy’ suite of smartphones. The startup accelerator, which is to be based in Samsung’s development center in Yakum Industrial Park, Yakum, Israel, will be the company’s first.
Samsung’s operation will be run by the Head of the Open Innovation Group at Samsung Electronics Israel, Yossi Smoler, alongside the former director of the Israeli Ministry of the Economy’s incubators program. Startups chosen to join the accelerator will receive a grant worth $50,000 with a place to work and a laboratory. More importantly, they will receive advice from Samsung business mentors and mentors from other organizations. Samsung will consider 6-10 startup companies as the first batch going through its accelerator. Registration for inclusion in the scheme closes September 12, 2015.
"This is a real catalyzer, because it will enable the Israeli startups to penetrate the global market on a large scale, through connections within Samsung," explained Yossi Smoler in a comment made to Globe’s Israel’s Business Arena. "When took up my post in October 2014, I decided to set up an entity that would find Israeli companies that were not yet mature and help them reach maturity in order to cooperate with Samsung. The first tool for doing this is the accelerator," he added. "We'll look for startups whose products are synergetic to Samsung's product line, whether telephones, televisions, or any other product we develop, and see later whether there is room for cooperation between the two sides."
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