Orange Fab, the international accelerator network for start-ups of Orange, expands in Belgium and Luxembourg

Orange Fab, the Group’s international accelerator for start-ups, has now launched in Belgium and Luxembourg. Start-ups globally now have access to 14 Orange Fab programmes located across Europe, Asia and the USA. Orange Fab in Belgium and Luxembourg, will offer selected start-ups specific support to accelerate their development in Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as internationally, leveraging the worldwide presence of Orange.

Orange Fab is open to Belgian and Luxembourg start-ups that are developing products and services in sectors like Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, mobile video content, and connected objects, amongst others. The group’s aim is to support and promote the digital talents who will change the way we live and work tomorrow.

Development support

Season One of Orange Fab Belgium and Luxembourg will start on 1 September 2017. Interested start-ups/scale-ups can already register their candidatures on the www.orangefab.be site. Once selected by a committee of Orange leaders and external experts, these start-ups will be offered three months of specific support (participation in events, conferences, advice and support on the important subjects encountered by the enterprise, participation in an international demo day in Paris with all the Orange Fab participants…), defined according to their needs, by recognised experts. During this period each start-up will be in contact with a Business Unit of Orange to identify a possible commercial partnership. Start-ups supported by Orange will also benefit from visibility within a very international dynamic ecosystem, plus powerful acceleration of their development.

To be eligible for the Orange Fab support programme, start-ups must meet a series of criteria: have a currently commercialised product or service (Minimum Viable Product), be active in one of the defined sectors, and be located in Belgium or Luxembourg.

About Orange Fab

Orange Fab is an international accelerator network for start-ups from Orange, now active in 14 countries. The main objective of Orange Fab 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 Orange Fab network is designed to be a launch pad for start-ups to accelerate their growth along with their local and international visibility.

Orange Fab has already contributed to the development of nearly 250 start-ups worldwide since the programme was launched in 2013. Orange has established partnerships with some of them, like (for example):

Textolife

The start-up Textolife offers the transformation of ephemeral virtual conversations (SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, emojis and Messenger) into a quality personalised book, or a PDF document. This start-up, accelerated by Orange Fab France in 2016, has established a commercial partnership with Orange in France. With this partnership, Orange clients can save their conversations in Orange Cloud, and print or share their chosen conversations with friends and family.

FAMOCO

FAMOCO, the laureate of Season 3 of Orange Fab France, markets a unique solution for secure professional NFC mobile terminals running Android. The solution is designed for enterprises looking for NFC readers that will allow easy and secure mobile deployment of their professional applications. Within the framework of a commercial partnership, FAMOCO is accompanying Orange in the deployment of the Orange Money service in Africa. In Belgium, FAMOCO terminals are used to securely identify prepaid clients in seconds.

Orange Digital Ventures recently invested in the start-up during their latest funding round.