Farnell partners with ST to provide further support for French startups

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Farnell, the Development Distributor, announces a partnership agreement with ST to offer even greater support for startups in France. This includes special offers on specific ST products available to startups exclusively from the Farnell site. Together, Farnell and ST will be working hand-in-hand for specific events and exhibitions in order to better serve the young businesses attending and seeking bespoke support. The first of these events is the IoT Meetup in Annecy on 27^th June.

Farnell’s partnership with ST includes supporting the launch of the Open Innovation Challenge – a competition for startups to pitch their innovative and sustainable project or business plan, with the winners receiving a prize worth more than €50,000. The competition challenges startups to use the STM32 platform innovatively, technically and originally, with the challenge’s jury evaluating designs based on their features, embedded products, sustainability and potential market. Applications are open until 31^st May 2019, with the winning project being announced in June. The chosen project will win a free working space at selected ST sites in France for 2 years, preferential commercial arrangements on components for first orders, certification for the ST Partner Programme and much more.

Farnell understands the challenges facing startups, particularly accessing the right technical expertise. Start SomeWhere is Farnell’s own startup support scheme, which helps young businesses by offering preferential terms and conditions. In France, Farnell is currently working with more than 80 startups, supporting their everyday activities and trying to enable them to bring their products to market. Morgane Roche, Marketing Manager for South Europe and Benelux at Farnell, said “I heard young businesses who say ‘How could you help me more as a distributor?’ The Farnell support scheme enables them to achieve their goals and get the most out of our network, services and internal skills. As well as our Start SomeWhere scheme, we also offer an exclusive customisation programme, Design & Manufacturing services, and marketing support to help them grow their business.”

Some of the startups currently working with Farnell include:

• Senssight – Senssight is an industrial expert of thermal infrared vision systems. Their technology is being used to solve industrial problems in the transportation, security and industrial maintenance sectors as well as playing a key role in the development of smart city technology.

• Animalinks – Animalinks created CoHo (Connected Horses). CoHo is a smart solution for monitoring the environment of horses in stables. This technology connects the stables and monitors, manages and improves the horses’ environment in real-time and provides feedback to the owners.

• Uniswarm – Uniswarm designs generic robotics boards, ideal for robotics prototypes. There is an entire range of boards to suit all robotics needs including motion control, sensors, power management and general usage. The boards all come with open source firmware and are designed for use in industry due to their reliability and robustness.

For more information, please visit the Open Innovation Challenge website.