Fujitsu Startup Accelerator Program Launches in Europe – Drives Faster Transformation Innovation for Customers and Rapid Scalability for Innovators

To boost the new European program’s impact, Fujitsu has also confirmed its participation at Web Summit 2019 (Lisbon, November 4-7, 2019), and will be the first Japanese corporate to participate in the event, described by Forbes magazine as “the best technology conference on the planet”². Selected Fujitsu Accelerator global partners will join the Fujitsu delegation at Web Summit³ to showcase their technology to more than 70,000 attendees and 2,600 accredited media.

The European Accelerator initiative leverages Fujitsu’s co-creation approach, using its Human Centric Experience Design (HXD) methodology to support customer digital transformation. The Accelerator program boosts a growing ecosystem of partners, including start-ups, enabling them to scale rapidly for enterprise environments. Customers can leverage Fujitsu’s global network of Digital Transformation Centers to speed up the ideation process.

Fujitsu's startup Accelerator program in Japan started in 2015. The "Fujitsu Accelerator" has involved more than 120 companies to date across seven seasons, and Fujitsu will invite applications for the eighth season in early October 2019.

Fujitsu initially seeking 24 startup Accelerator partners
Working with the Unknown Group, a global network of innovative organizations in more than 100 countries, the global Fujitsu Accelerator program is initially seeking 24 startup partners. For the best match, these companies will already be engaged in three different sectors – retail, financial services and the public sector – and specialize in technology areas including AI, analytics and digital interaction tools.

Following stringent quality checks to ensure new technologies can scale to meet customers’ needs and standards, Fujitsu will match startup solutions to specific digital business challenges⁴ and aims to build them into existing solutions, for delivery as a globally scalable SaaS service. The Accelerator program further strengthens Fujitsu’s ecosystem for connected services driving end-to-end innovation. Customers, global ICT players, technology partners, research institutions and academia are linked through trusted partner relationships with Fujitsu’s own intellectual property and subject matter experts.

As well as opening up and accelerating customers’ access to innovation, the Fujitsu Startup Ecosystem enables startups to deliver validated solutions to customers globally. Fujitsu expects the most promising startups to grow and to deliver their solutions through its customers. Startups participating in the program can leverage Fujitsu’s large customer base, take advantage of the trust it enjoys with customers and tap into Fujitsu resources, global coverage and market position in order to grow and sell new initiatives and innovations.

Pascal Huijbers, Chief Technology Officer, Western Europe at Fujitsu, says: “Starts-ups are a great source of inspiration but they often don’t scale for business-critical use by enterprise – and that’s where Fujitsu comes in. Through our Digital Transformation Centers, we get to see a lot of new, young and inspiring startups that deliver outstanding solutions and technologies. This program provides a way of identifying concepts that are interesting and valuable to our customers as part of co-creation ecosystems. The new Fujitsu Startup Ecosystem extends and deepens this potential by connecting startups to corporates, supporting their growth and giving our customers faster access to innovation that they know is tested, reliable and supported.”

Notes to editors
¹Countries in this Fujitsu region are the United Kingdom and Ireland, Spain, The Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, Portugal, Finland and Sweden
²Web Summit attracts more than 70,000 delegates and speakers, including the CEOs and founders of the world’s biggest companies, the most promising new startups and influential investors. Web Summit is also the world’s largest gathering of international journalists, attracting more than 2,600 global journalists from publications including Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, CNN, CNBC, and the Wall Street Journal.
³For further details see: https://www.fujitsu.com/pt/microsite/innovation-challenge/index.html
⁴Target partner solution areas:

• Financial: Solutions related to fraud management, asset management, compliance as well as wallets or onboarding tools to interact with the end customer.
• Retail: Solutions related to smart inventory and forecast management, personalized customer experience, connected and digital kiosks or fitting rooms as well as frictionless checkout and fraud detection.
• Public: Solutions related to predictive maintenance for government buildings, fraud prevention in the social welfare system as well as easy tools such as chatbots to interact with the public