SK Telecom and Mercedes-Benz Collaborate on 'Startup Autobahn'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seolgina Cho] SK Telecom announced on the 13th that it has signed a business agreement with Mercedes-Benz Korea to discover promising startups and collaborate on business.

Through this agreement, SK Telecom will participate as a key partner in the startup collaboration platform ‘Startup Autobahn’ and focus on jointly developing new businesses by actively supporting the challenges and growth of startups in New ICT fields such as 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and the metaverse.

Startup Autobahn is a global open innovation platform established in 2016 by the Daimler Group, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, which supports startups with expert mentoring, networking opportunities, and investment attraction through venture capital (VC).

SK Telecom and Mercedes-Benz Korea will select the final participating startups through Startup Autobahn by September and then operate a technology, service, and commercialization verification program for about 100 days. In December, they plan to operate a phased support program, including announcing tangible results.

In this process, SK Telecom will support the final selected startups to test their technologies and services using its core infrastructure such as 5G, AI, MEC, and the metaverse, and provide verification opportunities for actual commercialization.

SK Telecom stated, "Based on New ICT competitiveness and Mercedes-Benz’s mobility technology, combining promising startups’ ideas can discover various new businesses," and added, "we plan to share pilot services developed with startups with global telecom companies in cooperative relationships and develop these into global business opportunities."

Startup Autobahn is a startup support program that has discovered more than 5,000 startups worldwide and produced achievements such as jointly conducting pilot projects in various fields including AI and mobility. It was first launched in Germany and has since been held in the United States, China, India, and last year was held in Korea as the seventh country worldwide.

At the signing ceremony held on the 11th at the Culture Station Seoul 284 in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Thomas Klein, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Korea, said, “Through cooperation with SK Telecom, we have an opportunity to pass on accumulated know-how in cutting-edge New ICT fields to startups,” and added, “We will continue to expand cooperation to support various innovative startups and do our best to create an open innovation ecosystem.”

Ha Hyung-il, Head of Corporate 2 Center at SK Telecom, said, “SKT plans to continuously cooperate with promising global startups,” and added, “Through this partnership, we plan to actively support creating new business models with strong innovative companies.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.