Saab wins Best Start-up Hack and Best Start-up Collaborator at Ignite Awards 2019
Saab was awarded, not one but two awards, during the annual Ignite Sweden Day Conference in Stockholm for our successful collaboration with start-up company Attractive Interactive.
Ignite Sweden is a programme aimed at encouraging collaboration between large companies and start-ups. During this year’s conference, Saab was awarded Best Start-up Collaborator for entering new partnerships during the year, as well as Best Start-up Hack for moving from first meeting to implementation in record time.
“In order for Saab to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing world we constantly need to harvest potential outside of Saab, and working with start-ups is one way of doing that. It is also a way for us to be present where we need to be,” says Magnus Ahlström, Head of Saab Global Innovation.
Together with the start-up company Attractive Interactive, a small gaming company located in Karlskrona, Sweden, Saab shared ways of working and experiences from the partnership during the conference.
“It is incredibly gratifying that large companies like Saab have opened their eyes to Sweden's fantastic tech scene,” says Pär Hedberg, CEO of Sting and initiator of Ignite Sweden. “With over 15 years of experience at a start-up incubator, I can see that start-ups getting their first customer early scales up their business much faster. What Saab is contributing with by collaborating with start-ups is important for Sweden.”
The partnership with Attractive Interactive has provided new smart methodologies and lightweight algorithm proposals supporting Saab’s ongoing baseline developments within both our Enhanced Flight Vision System as well as our Overheat Detection System. Mixing two diverse domains might seem strange but there are similarities. A mobile platform game developer does not have access to the most high-performing processors or GPUs, at the same time, avionic applications in the aerospace domain do not use the latest processing devices for safety and reliability reasons. This calls for lightweight and smart software solutions that can handle large amounts of sensor data in real-time. The partnership is an excellent way to secure that Saab uses the most optimized approach to the specific challenge.
“It feels great, we were actually the only company to receive not one but two awards. I am honoured to represent such a dedicated team within Saab – without their passion and drive none of this would have happened,” says Fredrik Kroll, Innovation Manager Avionics Systems.
Award motivations from Ignite
Best Start-up Collaborator
“With a strong personal engagement to pave the way through internal processes, Saab and its representatives in Ignite Sweden have proven it is possible to partner up with start-ups, despite differences in size, finances and culture. By being open to new ideas and new technologies, they have during this year entered into new partnerships, a key factor in keeping both start-ups and corporates in the international forefront.”
Best Start-up Hack
“With a pragmatic approach to both economic and legal aspects when it comes to start-up collaborations, Saab has, thanks to a strong internal ambassador, moved from a first meeting through pilot to implementation in a record-breaking one month period."