TIM Wcap Accelerator
The market and economic models change very quickly. This is the premise of Open Innovation, an expression first coined in 2003 by the US economist Henry Chesbrough, who directs the Center of the Open Innovation of the Haas School of Business and who has written several books on the matter.
The paradigm prepared by the American scholar envisages that businesses innovate using not only internal resources, laboratories, their R&D departments, but also seeking external assistance. His vision has been widely accepted across the globe and in our country too, major companies, as well as small and medium enterprises, instead of concentrating all their innovative efforts internally, also look to what is considered and takes place outside their office.
TIM was one of the first Italian companies to adopt this new approach through a series of initiatives, including Working Capital, today TIM #Wcap Accelerator.
TIM #Wcap is indeed the business accelerator of the TIM Group that each year selects, boosts and finances digital start-ups.
The project started out in 2009 with the aim of encouraging the country’s digital development by financing innovative ideas. Over time, it has become structured and one of the most important programmes in the field of Italian digital innovation. In 2013, four accelerators were opened to welcome start-ups selected from time to time by means of a call for ideas.
The mission has progressively evolved towards identifying start-ups in line with the Group’s industrial strategy to integrate the solutions they develop into the company value chain, with consequent benefits both for TIM and the young businesses that, in becoming TIM suppliers, are given the opportunity to grow and consolidate.
Today, there are more than 50 collaboration activities between startups and the company.
