Oslo, 15 June 2016 – Telenor Group has selected eight digital product and service ideas from its employee innovation initiative Ignite, for a three-month incubator program to build internal startups.

Ignite Incubator is an innovation program for Telenor Group’s own budding intrapreneurs with an idea for a great digital product or service, and an ambition to transition “napkin ideas” to pilot products impacting millions.

“Our minds are set on taking an exciting, relevant position in the digital lives of our customers. With the Ignite program, we encourage employees to come forward with their ideas for engaging, mass market digital products with the potential of global success. I congratulate the eight winning teams and dedicate my support to their continued journey to develop their business plans and prototype their products,” said Sigve Brekke, Telenor Group President & CEO.

“Some of the most successful global companies not only empower their employees and facilitate innovation but have seen some of their best products and services emerge from within their walls. The Ignite Incubator is part of our drive to stimulate further innovation internally, fashioned after the work we do with startup communities. I’m extremely proud to see the many solid ideas Digizens have put forward in this intrapreneurship programme – some of which we could potentially pick-up locally – and that we will see one of our teams push ahead and establish their own startup,” said, Albern Murty, Digi’s Chief Executive Officer.

Photo 1: Digi employees Lee Leong Tat, Chia Weng Yan and Ian Yap holding up their golden ticket for the Ignite Incubator. Beginning September, the winning team from Digi will spend the three months at a startup incubator in Bangkok, Dhaka or Oslo to build their idea into a testable prototype or minimum viable product

Photo 2: Digi employees Ian Yap, Chia Weng Yan and Lee Leong Tat pitching their idea at the Ignite Incubator pitch day in Bangkok last week

Photo 3: Eight winning teams for Telenor’s Ignite Incubator, the global telcos’ first intrapreneurship programme focused on sparking innovation internally

 

Solving Customer Pain Points

From more than 500 applications, 30 teams from ten countries were shortlisted and pitched for a place in the incubator at an event in Bangkok last week.

Ideas selected to the next stage range from payment solutions and tuition apps to a system for identity verification for worry-free online transactions.

One of these winning ideas emerged from a group of three Digizens, namely Chia Weng Yan, Lee Leong Tat and Ian Yap Vern-Choong. Named after Batman’s famous butler Alfred, their idea focuses on an app that makes it hassle-free to deal with your apartment’s management office by digitising how you pay your monthly service charges, check-in guests, book facilities, lodge complaints, receive resident information and more.

“In many cases, dealing with property management has always been a highly manual process. We believe it’s time to leverage on the technology we use every day – our smart devices and connectivity – to bring convenience to home owners everywhere. It’s an idea that is globally applicable and we hope to benefit as many people as we can with Alfred. I can’t wait to get started in the incubator and receive hands-on experience working as an intrapreneur,” said Chia Weng Yan, founder of Alfred.

From September, the eight winning teams will join incubators located at the dtac Hangar in Bangkok, Startup lab in Oslo or Grameenphone Accelerator in Dhaka, to develop their ideas into testable prototypes. Their day jobs will be kept open and they will receive the normal salary during the three month period.

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Risk Free Startup Community

Ignite Incubator is part of a drive to foster innovation internally and is modelled on Telenor Group’s work with external startup communities in our global markets.

“This is a unique and relatively risk free opportunity for eager internal entrepreneurs to develop and test great ideas for a digital products that can leverage on Telenor Group’s scale, expertise and technology. I’m very impressed with the level of ideas received and the engagement across all of our 13 markets, with almost a thousand employees wanting to become Telenor “intrapreneurs,” says Gunnar Sellæg, Telenor Group Chief Product & Innovation Officer.

Successful pilots following the incubator period will be given resources to develop into a product to impact the societies in which Telenor operates, and that millions of our customers will use in their daily digital lives.

 

Facts About Ignite Incubator:

• All submitted ideas were screened and teams were selected to pitch in front of an international panel in Bangkok on 9 June 2016.
• Proposals will be judged on how the solution solves a customer problem or pain point, has a viable technical solution, and market potential.
• Teams with the best ideas get to spend three months at a startup incubator in Bangkok, Dhaka or Oslo to take their idea into a testable prototype or minimum viable product (MVP).
• In December the selection panel and Telenor Group senior management will decide which should be developed further, either internally in one of Telenor’s 13 companies or at Group-level, or potentially spun out as an external company.

 

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