Alcatel and Runway announced last week that they intend to jointly incorporate Runway Telecom, a dedicated Telecommunications and Datacommunications incubator based in Israel. Runway Telecom will be the managing partner of a fund to be raised by Runway in which Alcatel will commit up to 50 percent, jointly with other investors.
Runway Telecom is intended to screen, select and assist seed-stage Israeli telecom and
Datacom start-ups. Runway Telecom will focus on technology start-ups in wireless infrastructure, optics, next generation networks, and new telecom solutions
and services. Runway Telecom intends to simultaneously incubate up to 6-8 start-up companies over a 12-18 month incubation period.
Alcatel builds integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 23 billion in 1999, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.
Runway is a launching pad for Israeli Internet and Software startups, helping Israeli entrepreneurs build their venture. — (Albawaba-MEBG)
