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Infrastructure / Innovations 12 February, 2020 11:00 am   
COMMENTS: Mateusz Gibała

PGNiG teamed up with another partner to accelerate startups

Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG) will use the services of HugeTECH’s IDEA Global accelerator. The cooperation will allow for the search and selection of startups whose innovative projects can be applied in the PGNiG Group. The undertaking is implemented as part of the second edition of the government’s Scale Up program.

HugeTECH has acquired the IDEA Global grant acceleration program in the amount of PLN 9.6 million from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP), which oversees the Smart Growth Operational Program 2014-2020, known as Scale Up. Its main goal is to select and then accelerate projects that will most significantly contribute to increasing the scope of cooperation between micro and small entrepreneurs with technology recipients. Startups that qualify for acceleration must be ready for the efficient development of their project in order to attract a strategic business partner – a potential recipient of technology. PGNiG will act as such a partner in the IDEA Global acceleration program.

“PGNiG already has a lot of experience in cooperation with startups not only as part of acceleration partner programs, but also thanks to its own scouting activities implemented under the InnVento brand. We have planned cooperation with HugeTECH for the next two years. We will select startups whose technological solutions will respond to our development needs,” commented Arkadiusz Sekściński, Vice-President of the PGNiG Management Board for Development. “It will be crucial for us to pilot selected projects, and in the case of successful tests – the possibility of commercial use and implementation,” he added.

This is another example of PGNiG’s involvement in a startup acceleration program with government support. As part of the previous Scale Up edition, PGNiG cooperated with the MIT Enterprise Forum Poland accelerator, and last year with Startup Hub Poland on the Poland Prize program addressed to startups from abroad.

“As a partner and recipient of technology in the acceleration program, PGNiG has the ability to choose and make decisions with which startups we will work directly. The comprehensive acceleration process and preparation of pilot projects will be covered by PARP subsidy,” explained PGNiG Vice-President Arkadiusz Sekściński. On February 6, 2020 in Warsaw, Inspire Day by HugeTECH will be held, during which the first group of startups participating in the IDEA Global accelerator will be presented.

“We know that combining the speed and flexibility of startups with the resources and knowledge of large recipients is a difficult and often complicated organizational process. That is why, as an accelerator, we unblock the free flow of ideas and projects, generating added value at the interface between startup and corporation. We are convinced that our cooperation with PGNiG will open new opportunities for startups,” said Daniel Dereniowski, President of HugeTECH.

HugeTECH creates and develops incubation and acceleration programs in cooperation with startups. It helps them to obtain financing, pitches technology projects to corporations, creating opportunities for innovative solutions to enter the market. It comes from the Startup Coalition INUP established in Rzeszów in 2016. HugeTECH runs the Rzeszów Startup Accelerator program and organizes the Rzeszów Startup Weekend.

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