BASF partners with Plug and Play to explore new digital solutions for customers in China
- Anchor partner in Germany and United States since 2017
- Partnership now extended to China
Shanghai, China, Germany – October 11, 2018 – BASF has expanded its partnership with Plug and Play, a global startup accelerator and corporate innovation platform, to advance digital innovation in China. The partnership provides BASF direct access to leading start-ups that focus on disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchain and smart sensors. By working closely with startups and partners on these technologies, BASF will be able to boost its product and service development to better support the customers.
“Our goal is to bring our experts together with digital pioneers to develop new digital products and services that offer additional value to our customers,” said Stefan Beck, Senior Vice President, Global Process / Enterprise Architecture and Chief Information Officer at BASF. “China is a very promising market with entrepreneurial spirit and many innovative ideas. We are proud to extend our collaboration and work with Chinese startups on ground-breaking technology, while offering them insight into real-world product application in the chemical industry and resources to help them scale up their technology.”
BASF has been an anchor partner for Plug and Play’s Startup Autobahn in Stuttgart and for its supply chain and logistics vertical in Silicon Valley since February 2017, working on new technologies related to supply chain automation, transparency and traceability. “In line with BASF’s overall supply chain strategy, innovation and digital solutions will drive our business performance across the entire supply chain,” stated Ralf Busche, Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain Strategy & Performance at BASF. “The innovation power of start-ups will play an important role in maintaining our leading position in the chemical industry.”
As part of this partnership, BASF has been running nine feasibility studies on projects with startups in China. Focus areas include warehouse automation and a sample center that handles commercial samples for customers. One of the companies BASF has already engaged with is G7, an IoT provider focusing on fleet management. BASF has started to test G7’s forklift management system at Pudong site.
Lining Chen, General Manager of Enterprise Division, G7 said, “We highly appreciate the support from Plug and Play which makes the cooperation between G7 and BASF possible. By leveraging our strength in the field of Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, we look forward to the partnership with BASF to build a brand-new industrial standard for digital security, which will improve business efficiency while reducing security risk.”
“We believe in open innovation at Plug and Play. We are convinced that together with our industry-leading partners, including BASF, we can identify and accelerate technologies that will improve supply chains, making them more efficient, and more sustainable,” said Farzin Shadpour, Vice President and Managing Director of Plug and Play’s Supply Chain Innovation Platform. “BASF, through its many different businesses, brings a diverse perspective to our Innovation Ecosystem that enriches both our start-ups’ and other partners’ experience.”
BASF has already demonstrated early successes with start-up accelerators such as AgroStart, which supports digital start-up companies in the agricultural sector in Latin America, and Plug and Play’s Startup Autobahn in Germany, which is developing future mobility solutions.
About BASF in Greater China
BASF has been a committed partner to Greater China since 1885. With major investments in Shanghai, Nanjing and Chongqing, BASF is the largest foreign investor in China’s chemical industry, and maintains the Innovation Campus Shanghai as a global and regional research and development hub. BASF posted sales of €7.3 billion in 2017 to customers in Greater China, and employed 8,982 people as of the end of that year. For further information, please visit www.basf.com.
About BASF
At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The more than 115,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF generated sales of €64.5 billion in 2017. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at www.basf.com.
