Plug and Play and Fraport AG Celebrate 3 Years of Successful Innovation Partnership
VIENNA, AUSTRIA. April 30, 2024 — On April 16, 2024, the Digital Factory, operated by Fraport AG's corporate strategy and digitalization team, celebrated its third birthday in the FRALounge directly at Frankfurt Airport. This celebration also marked an important milestone in the partnership between Plug and Play and Fraport by providing the stage to highlight the main achievements of our joint open innovation journey.
Fraport AG joined the Plug and Play Travel & Hospitality platform in Vienna, Austria in August 2020, during one of the most difficult times for the aviation industry. Since then, Fraport has become one of the most active corporate partners in the Plug and Play ecosystem running approximately 10 to 15 dealflows per year. Fraport uses Plug and Play’s dealflows to tackle its digital transformation challenges by collaborating with state-of-the-art startups and providers curated by the Plug and Play team.
“Since our partnership with Plug and Play began in August of 2020, more than three years of innovation and collaboration have flown by. With Plug and Play, Fraport AG became part of a global ecosystem, tapping into a network of over 50,000 technology and startup companies. With solutions to our specific challenges, Plug and Play stands as a partner that understands the value of diverse verticals and a global startup perspective,” said Claus Grunow, Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Digitalization at Fraport AG.
For more than three years, Plug and Play has run 42+ dealflow sessions for Fraport, resulting in 600+ scouted startups, 120+ individual meetings between the startups and Fraport’s business units, and 33 successfully completed pilot projects. As a success story, the pilot project between Fraport and Blickfeld, a LiDAR technology startup, can be mentioned. Fraport was looking for a solution that could detect and count passenger movements in Terminal 1 of Frankfurt Airport. With Blickfeld’s sensors, this project's objectives were met, resulting in an extension of the test period to explore the project’s viability and additional roll-out scenarios.
“We are thrilled to be celebrating three years of partnership with Fraport and its Digital Factory team! Working hand in hand with one of Europe's most successful airport groups has been an exciting journey so far, accompanied by many proudly achieved milestones. Being aligned with countless influential players, no matter what industry and geography, showcases the immense value of startup and corporate collaboration - proving a positive financial impact on its stakeholders. Here’s to many more years of partnership and pushing innovation boundaries together,” said Nik Munaretto, Managing Director at Plug and Play Vienna.
Beyond engaging in open innovation and collaborating with startups through the Plug and Play Travel & Hospitality platform and the global ecosystem, Fraport has also pushed the implementation of Plug and Play’s Innovation Training. The training aims to provide the participants with a formal training opportunity to support the knowledge acquisition and hands-on learning experience on topics such as innovation vision, strategy, capabilities, organizational structure, etc.
Read more about our partnership with Fraport here: https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/the-story-of-fraport/.
For more information about Plug and Play Travel & Hospitality, please visit: https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/travel/.
Plug and Play Contact:
Plug and Play Vienna
Email: vienna@pnptc.com
Website: https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/press/
About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform and most active venture capital firm in the world, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we're present in 60+ locations across 5 continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we've invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/
About Plug and Play Vienna
Plug and Play Vienna is the ultimate innovation platform, bringing together the best startups, investors, and the world’s largest corporations. Its vibrant office in Vienna right at the Vienna Airport offers an easy “fly-in and make business" opportunity. This merging of visionary entrepreneurs, Travel & Smart Cities corporate partners, and our unrivaled Silicon Valley tech expertise accounts for our proven success in Austria and the entire EMEA region. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/vienna/
About Fraport AG and Frankfurt Airport
Headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, Fraport AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange, MDAX) is one of the world's leading players in the global airport business. Fraport’s portfolio of companies spans four continents with activities at 30 airports worldwide. The Fraport Group generated revenue of €4.0 billion and profit of some €430.5 million in fiscal year 2023 (Dec. 31). More than 168 million passengers overall used airports actively managed by Fraport in 2023. Fraport’s home base Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is strategically located in the heart of Europe at the junction of vital intermodal road, rail and air networks. The surrounding Frankfurt Rhine-Main-Neckar region serves as an economic powerhouse and logistics hub for Europe and the world. In 2023, FRA welcomed some 59.4 million passengers and handled about 1.9 million metric tons of cargo.