Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of Orange, welcomed the first six finalists selected by the new Orange Fab, a three-month accelerator program that supports U.S.-based start-ups.
The first class of Orange Fab's accelerator program includes:
- AlephCloud (Content Control and Privacy for the Cloud), http://www.alephcloud.com/
- Fenix international (Power for 600M off-grid mobile customers), http://fenixintl.com/
- Phone Halo (cloud-based tracking for items), http://phonehalo.com/
- Re:Char (mobile data collection and cloud analytics for Kenyan farmers), http://www.re-char.com/
- Talkdesk (call center software for small businesses), http://www.talkdesk.com/
- Virtrue (online identity verification service), http://www.virtrue.us/
"As a global provider of high quality connectivity, data, and content, Orange has maintained during the last 12 years a history of close engagement with Silicon Valley" noted Elie Girard, EVP - Group Strategy and Development. "Orange Fab is the logical next platform for that engagement, since accelerators have become a strategic component of technologies discovery and adoption. This experience will also inspire accelerators Orange could launch in France and in Europe."
Orange Fab will conduct mentoring sessions with notable Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, world-class engineers, and experienced designers. Along with the possibility of receiving $20,000 in funding, the start-ups will have the option to work out of Orange Silicon Valley's offices in San Francisco. The program will culminate with two demo days, one in Paris in June and one in Silicon Valley in August.
The recruitment of the next class of Orange Fab will start in the fall of 2013.
http://orangefab.com/
