5G Open Innovation Lab Welcomes SK Telecom, GAF, Deloitte and 16 New Startups Working to Transform the Future of Enterprise Edge Computing

SK Telecom becomes the first European corporate partner to join the burgeoning global software innovation ecosystem

BELLEVUE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–5G Open Innovation Lab (The 5G OI Lab) today announced three new corporate partnerships and welcomed 16 multi-stage startups, partner-selected to join The Lab’s Fall program, which kicks off this week.

“We have rapidly become an epicenter for the 5G and edge ecosystem through our unique, collaborative, development-focused program that is driving transformational outcomes in enterprises across multiple industry sectors,” says Jim Brisimitzis, Founder and General Partner of the 5G Open Innovation Lab. “Our distinctive model, differentiated from the conventional incubator or accelerator, is the only program globally building a model that directly connects multi-stage startups to global technology platform providers and leading enterprises. Startups that are part of this program will attest that the connections we help forge allow them to advance their innovation and commercialization goals at an unprecedented pace. So, we are delighted to welcome the latest startups to our program and join forces with our newest corporate partners, SK Telecom, GAF and Deloitte, to transform Edge into an enterprise reality.”

SK Telecom, GAF and Deloitte Join Growing Roster of Founding, Corporate and Industry Partners Dedicated to Disruptive Innovation enabled by 5G and Edge

SK Telecom, GAF, and Deloitte join 5G Open Innovation Lab’s growing list of prominent global partners dedicated to fostering disruptive innovation on the Edge. The three companies join founding members Accenture, Amdocs, Avanade, Dell Technologies, Intel, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and VMware, fellow corporate partners Ericsson, F5, Nokia, Palo Alto Networks, Spirent; and industry partner CNH Industrial.

Headquartered in South Korea, SK Telecom is the largest mobile operator in Korea with around 50 percent of the market share. Headquartered in Seoul, it is rapidly expanding its business beyond connectivity, driving innovations in areas of AI, media, metaverse, cloud and urban air mobility to deliver greater value to customers.

“We are excited to join the 5G Open Innovation Lab, which is playing a vital role in building a worldwide 5G ecosystem,” said Ha Min-yong, Chief Development Officer of SK Telecom. “By fully leveraging our experience in nurturing startups, we will work closely with promising startups from across the globe to create new business opportunities and take the 5G ecosystem to the next level.”

GAF, a Standard Industries company, is the leading roofing and waterproofing manufacturer in North America. For more than 135 years, GAF has been trusted to protect what matters most for families, communities and business owners with its innovative solutions and focus on customer service. GAF’s leadership extends to its commitment to making a positive impact on its communities, industry, and planet.

“In the next 5 years, approximately $1.3 trillion will be spent on connectivity networks worldwide and $300+ billion in the U.S. The opportunity for GAF is to advance the future of connectivity with aerial real estate in the domains we know well: roofing products, roof owners, and roofing contractors,” says Nihar Shah, Director and GM of Innovation, GAF.

Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world’s most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500® and more than 7,000 private companies.

“With the rollout of Edge AI chips and advanced networking sensor-generated data from products, pallets and machines growing at a rapid pace, sensor-generated data needs to be stored, processed, analyzed, and acted upon close to or at the edge of networks. The ecosystem enabled by the 5G Open Innovation Lab will be a key component of our future growth strategy in innovating new services and platforms,” said Ashish Verma, Chief Growth and Innovation Officer, US Strategy and Analytics, Deloitte Consulting.

16 Startups Selected to Join the Lab’s Elite Fall Program

Today’s announcement of the Fall batch brings 5G Open Innovation Lab’s startup ecosystem to 87 participating companies. Startups selected for the Fall program work on cutting-edge enterprise solutions in digital transformation, network security, smart manufacturing, IoT and wireless connectivity, network and data analytics, social robotics, private LTE/5G networks, and augmented reality.

Since the 5G Open Innovation Lab’s program inception in 2020, participating startups and alumni have raised a lifetime total of $1.154B with several exits valued at $200+M.

The startups selected to join the 5G Open Innovation Lab’s Fall batch are:

Accuknox (Cupertino, CA) delivers Zero Trust Security for Cloud (Public and Private), IoT/Edge and 5G platforms. AccuKnox is a Core Contributor to CNCF Kubernetes Run-time Security Platform, KubeArmor.

Aira Technologies (Saratoga, CA) is building base station software that improves wireless performance by using proprietary ML models to process contextual information already present in the data flowing through mobile networks.

Arcturus Studio (Beverly Hills, CA) builds tools for next-generation content. The company’s HoloSuite is designed to author, edit, and stream volumetrically captured performers so producers can build immersive virtual and augmented reality experiences with live-action performances.

Arix Technologies (Houston, TX), provides robotic inspections and corrosion analytics to improve productivity, safety, accuracy, and data-driven insights for corrosion risk management.

Atalayan (Santa Clara, CA) is building a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform that is service aware, device-aware and location optimized, integrating private 5G with an enterprise’s existing network and application infrastructure

DeepKeep.ai (Tel Aviv, Israel) Provides a platform for AI security against adversarial attacks and mistakes that impact their specific vulnerabilities throughout their development and deployment lifecycle. The DeepKeep platform provides risks assessment, protection, monitoring, and alerting of Machine Learning (ML) models.

Everguard.ai (Irvine, CA) Backed by one of the world’s leading start-up incubation firms and a global industrials conglomerate, Everguard.ai has pioneered Worker-Centric AI to provide a holistic approach to keeping workers safe, healthy and productive.

Firecell.io (Nice and Paris, France) is developing an Open RAN 4G & 5G Private Network solution for enterprises. Targeting industry applications, Firecell makes Private 5G as simple and affordable as WiFi enabling companies of all sizes to automate and modernize their industrial facilities.

Furhat Robotics (Stockholm Sweden and Boulder, USA) is building social robots that empower people to interact with technology the way we humans interact with each other.

Monogoto (Los Altos, CA – Tel Aviv, Israel) is shaping a smarter, more connected world with its developer focus, API-driven, Connectivity as a service cloud that enables IoT connectivity over Private or Public 5G/LTE networks with seamless interoperability VAS and advanced capabilities.

Neutroon (Barcelona, Spain) is SaaS platform to manage multiple vendor-agnostic Private LTE/5G networks and orchestrate the edge/cloud apps using these networks with more simplicity, efficiency, and unparalleled flexibility. Neutroon’s Hyperslicing™ technology brings end-to-end network slicing to Private LTE/5G reducing integration efforts with existing enterprise networks and enhancing isolation and reliability. Neutroon also provides a powerful GraphQL API to easily integrate with any third-party platform.

Sunlight.io (Cambridge, UK) is building the most efficient micro-cloud platform for the Edge, based on our thin Edge HCI stack with centralized management and application automation. Making Edge computing as easy as 1-2-3. Sunlight was recognized in 2022 by Gartner as a Cool Vendor

Swim.inc (Campbell, CA, and Cambridge, UK.) Recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor, Swim helps organizations transform their business operations by continuously augmenting human decision-making, using the most accurate, relevant data possible from real-time and contextual data sources.

Synadia (Los Angeles, CA) Synadia provides a cloud-native messaging and data streaming platform aimed at enabling the next generation of connected digital experiences. The company is behind the open-source project NATS.io, used by millions of developers globally. The technology serves as a connective fabric for modern distributed systems, allowing users to build edge applications with enhanced security, latency, and scalability.

Wilab (San Jose, CA) enables automation of multi-vendor 5G networks with a 3GPP compliant core NWDAF & edge NWDAF. This allows operators to automate customer experience improvement, low latency slicing and makes current tools 5G compliant.

Zededa (San Jose, CA) makes edge computing effortless, open, and intrinsically secure – extending the cloud experience to the edge. ZEDEDA reduces the cost of managing and orchestrating distributed edge infrastructure and applications, while increasing visibility, security and control.

About 5G Open Innovation Lab

The 5G Open Innovation Lab is a new global ecosystem model bringing together multi-stage startups, enterprise, industry partners and investors who connect and collaborate to develop disruptive new enterprise technologies and solutions that capitalize on the power of edge computing and 5G.

In just two years, the Lab has attracted a roster of world-class corporate and industry partners including Amdocs, Avanade, CNH Industrial, Dell Technologies, Ericsson, F5, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, Palo Alto Networks, Spirent, T-Mobile, VMware as well as 87 multi-stage enterprise startups who have collectively raised $1.2B of venture capital. Through the 5G OI Lab’s unique model of collaborative innovation, corporate partners work directly with ecosystem startups to accelerate commercialization through proof of concept, go-to-market, and other engagements and opportunities.

Contacts

Ellyn Winters

Ignition Communications (PR for 5G Open Innovation Lab)

ellyn@ignition.ca

Heather Racicot

heatherr@z-pulley.com