Siemens is establishing an independent unit on October 1, 2016, to promote disruptive ideas more effectively and accelerate the advancement of new technologies. The new unit will be called next47. One billion euros will be available for the first five years.
With next47, the company is consolidating its existing commitment to startups, aiming to combine flexibility, speed, and independence with a global customer base, long-standing experience, credibility, and financial strength. Chief Technology Officer Siegfried Russwurm will lead the new unit on an interim basis.
“Siemens was itself a startup in 1847 (…)”,
says Joe Kaeser, Chairman of the Board of Management of Siemens AG.
“With next47, we are following the ideals of our company founder and creating an important innovation base for the further development of Siemens.”
Avoiding rigid corporate structures
The new unit will retain a certain degree of autonomy, but will still be able to leverage the Group's advantages. It will be located in Berkeley, Shanghai, and Munich and will cover all regions of the world from there. Next47 builds on Siemens' existing startup activities. Next47 is open to employees as well as founders, external startups, and established companies who wish to pursue business ideas in the company's strategic innovation fields.
“next47 creates freedom for experimentation and growth – without the organizational restrictions of a corporation,”
says Siegfried Russwurm.
“Our new unit consistently follows the Siemens strategy and opens us up to disruptive ideas along our core themes of electrification, automation, and digitalization.”
Electrification of aviation as the first project
Next47's first project, which was agreed with Airbus in April 2016, is the electrification of aviation. Both companies aim to demonstrate the technical feasibility of hybrid-electric propulsion systems for smaller aircraft up to medium-sized passenger aircraft by 2020.
Other areas of innovation will include artificial intelligence, autonomous machines, decentralized electrification, and connected mobility. The new unit will also focus on blockchain applications, which are intended to simplify and secure data transfer in industry or energy trading, for example.
Siemens has been working with startups since the late 1990s: Within 20 years, the company has invested more than €800 million in around 180 startups. Siemens interacts with more than 1,000 startups annually, initiates around 20 collaborations each year, and has founded more than a dozen of its own startups to date.
