Nexen partners with Plug and Play

Nexen Tire has formed a strategic partnership with Plug and Play, the world’s largest corporate innovation platform and startup accelerator. Plug and Play was an early investor in Silicon Valley’s most renowned firms including PayPal, Lending Club, Dropbox and SoundHound. In doing so Nexen has highlighted its view of the importance of start-up thinking, future mobility, open-R&D and the Internet of Things (IoT) – all trends that the wider tyre industry is predicted to become increasingly involved in over time.

The two companies announced the partnership on 13 June at Plug and Play’s Sunnyvale, California headquarters. The cooperation means forming a strategic partnership to pursue “innovative collaborations in the tyre and mobility industries.” The announcement was made during the Summer Expo, one of the largest events at Plug and Play with over 500 attendees from major OEMs, top automotive suppliers, top tier venture capitalists, and startups.

Through the partnership with Plug and Play, Nexen Tire will seek to partner up with the next wave of the most promising technologies in the tyre and mobility industries. This goals is also to enable Nexen Tire to realize its ‘open R&D’ philosophy, offering collaboration and partnerships, especially to firms in the tyre technology field.

Don Lee, executive director of Nexen Tire America Technical Center said: “Nexen Tire is pleased to announce the partnership with Plug and Play, one of the world’s leading accelerators,” adding, “We hope to utilize this opportunity to build a stronger global presence in terms of technology and business, and transform into an innovative corporation while also contributing to the start-up ecosystem as a whole.”

Sobhan Khani, vice president, Mobility & IoT of Plug and Play also commented: “We are delighted to have another global corporation join our platform,” and added, “We hope this partnership will serve as an opportunity for both Nexen Tire and Plug and Play in nurturing an innovative business ecosystem for the automobile industry.”

Plug and Play describes itself as a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the platform has built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since its inception in 2006, its programmes have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 20 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 10,000 startups and 280 official corporate partners, Plug and Play claims to have created “the ultimate startup Protected ecosystem in many industries”, commenting: “We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding.”