France-based telecommunications firm Orange launched a startup accelerator in partnership with social media company Facebook on Monday that will support network infrastructure technology.
The Telecom Track scheme will form part of the Orange Fab accelerator initiative, and the telecom company’s corporate venturing subsidiary, Orange Digital Ventures, will provide fundraising advice and access to its investor network.
Participating startups will receive the same benefits as all other members of Orange Fab, including the option of €15,000 ($16,400) in funding, and they have until May 14, 2017 to submit applications.
Orange and Facebook have formed the partnership through Telecom Infra Project, the engineering-focused consortium dedicated to telecom network infrastructure innovation of which they are both members.
Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière, executive vice-president of innovation, marketing and technologies for Orange, said: “We believe that with our partnership with Facebook and the opening of the new Telecom Track, we are able to encourage and support this community of startups, which has the ability to really disrupt this space and develop new innovation within telecoms.”