• Plug and Play Technical Centerthe world’s largest innovation platform that connects early-stage investors, startups and large companies, sees the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region as a potential new hub for its innovation activities.
• The new strategic location for Plug and Play operations in CEE will cover the markets of Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania and up to Greece.
• Plug and Play will support local startups through co-investments and work to build connections with the regional seed and early-stage venture capital community.
“We see the potential in Central and Eastern Europe. We recognize the abundance of technological talents and the possibility of investing. Establishing a presence in the region would involve working with the biggest companies, which is why we are now looking for potential partners.
“In general, there are not many large companies born in the CEE countries, on which our economic model is based. What we are exploring is the possibility of having something that is initiated by the government or by public institutions. And then ensure that this project is profitable,” Alfredo Gomez Soria, Sr. Head of Corporate Partnerships and Government Relations, EMEA, at Plug and Play, says for The Recursive.
The innovation platform plans to announce its official operations once partnerships with its first enterprise clients have been concluded. Notably, Plug and Play has already entered into partnerships with around a hundred regional universities and already has customers in +51 sites. To further facilitate technology transfer between academia and industry, Plug and Play is actively seeking collaborations with local universities.
“Just looking at the volume of venture capital activity and judging by the experience of the venture capital teams we met during our trip to the CEE countries, we see how countries and Ecosystems like Bulgaria are advanced, thanks to the role of the Fund of Funds. But we still think that one aspect is missing which is collaboration between companies and startups. And that’s our USP,” emphasizes Alfredo Gomez Soria.
The strengths of the Plug and Play team Romania, PolandAnd Bulgaria as the largest innovation hotspots in the CEECs in terms of investment opportunities and valorization of regional startups. During his recent visit to Bulgaria, Alfredo Gomez Soria was interviewed by Recursive about the reasons for choosing Sofia as the headquarters of his CEE office.
“We would hire locally to ensure our office connects with businesses and governments. In addition to enabling startup innovation, Plug and Play also helps the government lay the foundations for policy strategies that contribute to the development of the innovation ecosystem. We play the role of intermediary or advisor to companies that have challenges that can be solved through innovation,” explains Alfredo Gomez Soria.
What Startups and Plug and Play Industries Will Focus on
“Spanning over 22 verticals, we can really go in any direction we want, but it also depends on the needs. During our visit to Bulgaria and the region, we identified the themes of Health, AI, Deep Tech, Agritech and Knowledge Transfer as very interesting. This does not mean that we will not be willing to support other relevant verticals,” says Alfredo Gomez Soria.
Plug and Play has a proven track record, with several notable startups from the CEE region following its accelerator programs. For example, Polish companies Symmetrical, a payroll and human resources software startup, and Nethone, machine learning software for fraud detection, became success stories thanks to Plug and Play programs.
Startups that collaborate with Plug and Play have access to a large network of companies and other startups, as well as the possibility of financing from Plug and Play and other partner companies. Additionally, selected startups also have the opportunity to validate their business models and secure their first customers through proof of concept (PoC) initiatives.
How Plug and Play Works with Business
“In order to identify areas of innovation and develop solutions that meet these needs, we use an end-to-end innovation process that follows a specific methodology developed in-house. Our goal is to create a collaborative and safe space for brainstorming, innovation, deep dives, sourcing and PoC. Thanks to our reach, we can be very flexible and adapt our approach to each company,” explained Alfredo Gomez Soria.
To find the best solution for a specific business innovation challenge, Plug and Play searches through its extensive database of over 65,000 startups. On top of that, their venture capital team is constantly looking for new startups on a daily basis.
“We work with large European companies such as Schwarz Group for three years. We can take the acquired expertise and apply it to help CEE companies who want to drive innovation in retail. For CEE, at present we mainly work with banks such as Raiffeisen Bank International and Unicredit, and a few venture capital firms including Inven Capital,” says Jakob Ulcnik, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Plug and Play for The Recursive.
The global one-stop shop for innovation
Plug and Play can be described as a one-stop shop for innovation as it combines business innovation, startup acceleration and venture capital investment. To date, the company has matched over 65,000 startups and over 550 businesses. Plug and Play has more than 1,500 active portfolio investments and has backed startups that have raised more than $9 billion in venture capital.
In its role as a corporate innovation platform, Plug and Play connects partner companies with startups to help them reduce innovation risks. It creates tailor-made accelerator programs for startups in verticals of interest to its enterprise clients. In other words, Plug and Play partners with companies to help them accelerate startups in their priority areas. In addition to this, the company also invests in top startups.
They work with some of the world’s largest companies such as Mercedes Benz, Roche, P&G and Shell. Their accelerator programs are structured in cohorts and require no equity or fees. They are free for participating startups since all costs are included in the innovation services offered by Plug and Play to its partner companies.
“We are very involved and focus on early-stage startups. Being present globally, we can compare all markets and identify gaps. In Europe, we see that there is abundant public funding, but we believe that to grow you need funds that offer larger notes and can fuel growth beyond Series A. That’s why before June 2023, we plan to close our Plug and Play industry. – Series A agnostic fund for Europe,” concludes Alfredo Gomez Soria.