Aerospace

Rolls-Royce partners with IoT start-ups

Posted 15 February 2018

R2 Data Labs, the data innovation team inside Rolls-Royce, has become a major corporate partner of IoT Tribe North, a leading accelerator for tech start-ups. The partnership will see Rolls-Royce provide mentoring and technical support to new companies specialising in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The agreement is an example of R2 Data Labs’ commitment to collaborative innovation and building an ecosystem of partners that harnesses the latest thinking and technologies from a wide community of innovators.

Caroline Gorski, Director for Global Ecosystem and Partnerships for R2 Data Labs, said: “Successfully delivering value from data innovation is pivotal to Rolls-Royce's digital strategy – but we can't do it all by ourselves in a vacuum. Working with IoT Tribe helps us to engage with technology innovators who can challenge our ideas, bring us new technical insights and encourage our employees to get a broader perspective on the possibilities of data innovation. At the same time, we also get to help those innovators to succeed, and share in their pace, inventiveness and energy.”

Tanya Suarez, CEO and founder of IoT Tribe, said: “The evidence gathered to date, shows that it can be 3x faster and 5x cheaper, to work with start-ups rather than try to develop new key-enabling technologies internally. The expertise and domain specific know-how of Rolls-Royce will be combined with the disruptive technologies of our start-ups, enabling the firm to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the cyber-physical worlds.”

The partnership with IoT Tribe is part of a 12-week programme for Internet of Things start-ups, based at the Digital Media Centre in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Sixty start-ups competed for the chance to participate in the programme, of which nine were taken forward. The founders come from all around the globe, from the UK to Colombia, and span diverse fields including digital manufacturing, green tech, health and logistics.

Neil Crockett, Chief Digital Officer for Rolls-Royce and Head of R2 Data Labs said: “As a leader in applied industrial AI and analytics applications, we want R2 Data Labs to help Rolls-Royce become the ‘must work with’ industrial company. The benefits go both ways: we’re giving exciting start-ups access to a bigger data innovation stage, while tapping into their potential, so we can accelerate the value we create for Rolls-Royce and its customers.”