Honda Announces Partnership with MassChallenge Boston
In an effort to reach out to New England’s top tech innovators, Honda has announced a new partnership with MassChallenge, a non-profit startup accelerator based in Boston, Massachusetts. Today at a joint-event, Honda and MassChallenge will attempt to foster relationships between Boston’s tech talent and the automaker’s own open innovation initiatives in Silicon Valley, Honda Developer Studio and Honda Xcelerator.
Honda says it plans to continue visiting Boston on a regular basis, and will hold regular office hours to meet with local startups at MassChallenge.
“Boston has a deep bench of tech talent supported by prestigious universities and bolstered by a healthy VC presence,” said Nick Sugimoto, Senior Program Director of Honda Silicon Valley Lab. “There is a tremendous level of passion and creativity beyond Silicon Valley that we want to tap into.”
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Honda Developer Studio was created in late 2014 to “elevate the connected car experience” by allowing developers to collaborate with Honda R&D teams to test their road-ready apps on prototype vehicles. Honda Xcelerator, the company’s other major Silicon Valley outpost, provides funding, a collaborative workspace, and mentoring to tech innovators for rapid prototyping.
According to a press release, the company is especially focused on “emerging connected car and vehicle intelligence technologies, along with novel human-machine interfaces.”
“The transportation sector has been a challenging market for startup organizations to break into, but companies like Honda are working to remove the high barriers to entry,” said MassChallenge Boston Managing Director Scott Bailey. “Through this partnership, we are excited to be driving innovation in the space by helping high-impact, high-growth entrepreneurs get to market and scale their businesses more efficiently.”
Honda also recently partnered with the Israeli tech community for the first time via OurCrowd, one of the world’s top equity crowdfunding platforms.
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