Orange is announcing the launch of Orange Fab in Romania – an international startup accelerator program at Orange Group level. This program is available in other 14 states in Europe, Asia and America.

Innovation Ecosystem

Orange Fab Romania is a 1 year accelerator, designed to support entrepreneurs in developing innovating products and distributing these on the national and international markets.

This program seeks to discover Romanian startups, companies that have validated their products in tests and that are able to improve our lifestyle and to establish new trends through the use of technology. The teams selected will be granted access to technologies and APIs for the further development of the product, will be supported in testing prototypes and will have access to Orange distribution network in order to achieve business growth.

The selection process and accelerator phase will be carried out in partnership with How to Web, an organization with experience in the startups ecosystem. The program teams will enjoy mentoring provided by technical experts, product managers or Orange management staff and that of its partners, but tailored according to the specific requirements of each project.

Orange Fab Program is structured on four main areas:

• Smart territories (Smart City, agritech, energy, retail)
• Future of Life (artificial intelligence, bio-technology, digital life, health)
• Security (cyber-security and military security)
• Networks of the future (Blockchain, Software Defined Networking, Quality of Experience management – QoE, network APIs)

The Orange Fab program includes an accelerator phase for the selected start-ups, a pilot project phase and a demo day event.

5G Functionality Demo

In this context, Orange Romania has prepared a functionality demo for the 5G technology, also covering the benefits that such a technology brings through the innovations it supports. The example was selected from one of the 4 areas included in the Orange Fab program, namely bio-medicine. This Demo was carried out together with Symme3D, through its Biotech One printer.

Symme3D has developed a 3D printer usable in the medical industry. Thus, Symme3D has shown how the health industry of the future can operate on a communication network where low latency is vital. This printer enables printing of live stem cells and generates organic tissue. Currently, lab equipment is of large sizes and cumbersome but with the 5G technology, the lab can become mobile, operable in real time.

Orange reasserts its commitment to endorsing the Romanian technical entrepreneurship by adding projects and initiatives able to support every life cycle of the innovation ecosystem. The first step, that of pre-accelerator, was made in 2014, by initiating a collaboration with Innovation Labs. Orange Fab is providing the accelerator component, where the best proposals can be included in pilot projects such as Alba Iulia Smart City 2018. The innovation and technology devotees have access to all the resources required to develop products that will satisfy the connectivity requirements of the society of tomorrow.