Porsche seeks for strategic dialogue with European founders

Since its founding in 2009, NOAH has developed into one of the most renowned start-up conferences in Europe. Porsche presented its strategic innovation areas, mobility solutions such as Porsche inFlow and the competition "Porsche Next Open Innovation" at the two-day conference at the STATION, Berlin Gleisdreieck.

Ideal opportunities to strengthen network and ecosystem

"In order to hold its own against conventional and new competitors, Porsche is opening up and working to establish a strong ecosystem with competent partners," says Patrick Kück, Head of Strategy and Innovation at Porsche. "Start-up conferences such as NOAH offer us ideal opportunities to strengthen our broad network and promote new, innovative ideas," continues Kück, who always seeks dialogue with his team at eye level with founders and other investors.

“GHOST – feel it.” start-up wins Porsche innovation competition

Driving with feeling: the start-up “GHOST - feel it.” has won the second edition of the “Porsche Next Open Innovation Competition” with a technology that could give the Porsche driver haptic feedback on his driving performance in the future.

A current example: the "Porsche Next Open Innovation" innovation competition. In February 2019, the sports car manufacturer launched together with the platform "High Mobility" the open competition for digital developments in the categories "Home", "Drive" and "Arrival" for the second time. The demand was for applications relating to the vehicle vision of the sports car of the future. Developers could use app mockups in a protected environment to build their own applications and present and test them virtually using a vehicle emulator. In a keynote at NOAH conference, Patrick Kück, Andy Grau (Innovation Manager at Porsche) and Risto Vahtra (Founder of High Mobility) gave insights into the innovation competition and showed which teams won out of more than 750 applications. The winning team "GHOST -feel it." presented its solution over two days in interactive sessions at NOAH - a technology that could provide Porsche drivers with haptic feedback on their driving performance in the future.

Further examples of Porsche's cooperation with founders are:

Gapless, Germany

Last September, Porsche invested in the Berlin start-up Gapless. Gapless makes it possible to digitally manage vintage vehicles, including their entire history, and to share the data with other users in a forgery-proof manner. The value of collector's items is to be maintained or increased through complete traceability. The start-up company is developing a solution based on blockchain technology that securely encrypts data records.

WayRay, Switzerland

Also in September 2018, Porsche joined WayRay as a strategic lead investor. The Zurich-based start-up develops and produces holographic augmented reality head-up display technologies and works to seamlessly integrate virtual objects into the driving experience. Compared to conventional head-up displays, WayRay offers a much smaller projection system that can be installed in any vehicle - regardless of the interior design. The technology will be tested for both, driver and passenger. It thus also has potential for new concepts in the context of highly automated driving.

Rimac, Croatia

In June 2018, Porsche acquired ten percent of the technology and sports car company Rimac Automobili. The Croatian company develops and produces components for electric mobility and manufactures its own electric super sports cars. Rimac focuses on battery technology in the high-voltage range, electric propulsion and the development of digital interfaces between man and machine (HMI). As part of the investment, Porsche has entered into a development partnership with Rimac.

You can find an overview of other start-up activities and investments here, strategic technology topics and a look behind the scenes on our Medium blog.

Commitment to Tech and Start-up Conferences

Participation in tech and start-up conferences opens up new opportunities for the sports car manufacturer to track down trends and innovations and to build up a network of competent partners. Porsche would also like to use new formats such as the NOAH Conference to target the younger target group. Because: Among the young Porsche customers, for example, there are relatively many company owners. Porsche is relying on a brand presence that does not focus on the vehicle. Dialog formats such as panels and pain point pitches are also used. In addition to the NOAH Conference, Porsche is a strategic partner at other conferences such as the re:publica in Berlin, the TNW in Amsterdam, the Web Summit in Lisbon and the Slush in Helsinki.