Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, Plug and Play aims to scale innovation through enabling leading corporations to collaborate and partner with the brightest startups. Plug and Play has helped more than 500 organisations from around the world build, run, and scale corporate innovation programmes across more than 40 locations, focused on industries as diverse as fintech, insurtech, IoT, brand and retail, mobility, new materials and packaging, sustainability, food and beverage, travel and hospitality, health, and supply chain.

Plug and Play is also one of the world’s most active early-stage investors, backing more than 250 startups every year alongside the world’s best VCs. Notable companies backed at early stage by Plug and Play include PayPal, Dropbox, N26, Lending Club, Hippo, Rappi, Honey, Applyboard, Flutterwave, Turing and many more.

The Plug and Play UK team – led by Kieran Borrett - will partner with leading corporations to support their innovation ambitions and help UK-based startups access the world’s largest network of corporations and investors.

Speaking about the launch, Saeed Amidi, CEO and Founder of Plug and Play, said: “As a global hotspot for innovation and home to a strong network of entrepreneurs, the UK has the potential to be one of Plug and Play’s biggest Innovation Platforms. Today corporations need to engage in open innovation to stay relevant, and we support them to do this on a global scale. We invite corporations, governments, and startups to join us in our mission to make innovation open to anyone, anywhere.”

With UK founding partner Jaguar Land Rover, Plug and Play will build a global open innovation platform with a focus on the mobility and sustainability ecosystem. The goal is to bring together leading corporations and other ecosystem players to evaluate and test new technologies and business models pioneered by startups, to enable corporations to solve business challenges and seize new opportunities. The platform will also support Jaguar Land Rover in achieving their ambitious target of net zero by 2039.

The Plug and Play UK programme will begin with a Kick-Off Day on 21 June, with further corporate partners to be announced soon.

François Dossa, Executive Director, Strategy and Sustainability, Jaguar Land Rover, said: “With the launch of the Open Innovation platform, Jaguar Land Rover is looking at the entire mobility and sustainability ecosystem to offer an unparalleled customer experience, shaping the future of our industry and paving the way to the future of mobility. We will explore everything from second-life batteries and the circular economy to new fintech, insurtech, and digital services – all aligned with Jaguar Land Rover as the proud creators of Modern Luxury.”

In collaboration with BT Group as a Founding Partner, Plug and Play will support BT’s Startup partnerships team collaborate with the best startups across a range of ecosystems beyond its core telecoms markets, including enterprise technologies, health, fintech, drones, and products and services that can capitalise on the company’s market-leading 5G network, and accelerate the company’s mission to connect for good.

Meg Blight, Startup Partnerships Director at BT Group, said: “Plug and Play’s international Innovation Platform gives BT a key route to connect with the best startups worldwide. Our partnerships and investments in this space are already accelerating the digital revolution at BT. We are delighted to grow our relationship further with Plug and Play as they establish themselves in the vibrant UK tech scene.”