US-based investment and technical innovation platform Plug and Play has announced its partnership with four of Thailand's largest conglomerates including: PTT Plc, the national oil and gas conglomerate, Thai Oil Plc, an oil refinery with the country's biggest capacity, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Plc (BDMS), the country's largest private hospital operator, and K.E. Group, one of Thailand's largest real estate investors and developers.

For over a decade since its inception, Plug and Play has built the largest innovation platform on the planet, bringing together startups, investors, and blue-chip corporations.

Joining the platform as Founding Anchor Partners, the four corporations intend to leverage Plug and Play global ecosystem to facilitate meaningful introductions with 13 of the finest startups sourced from 15,000+ startups in Plug and Play global network.

Under the inaugural theme of Smart Cities vertical in Thailand, the selected startups will have the opportunity to conduct pilots, POCS and new relationships with Plug and Play Founding Anchor Partners. This 3-month accelerator program, which runs from August to November, requires no participation fees and does not take prerequisite equity from the participating startups.

Among this year's selected startups are: smart locks technology HAVR, blockchain-based data monetization for smart city IoT device Streamr, AI for understanding human behavior Bleenco, smart materials for the industrial IoT Imagine, axial flux electric motors Magnax, universal indoor positioning platform Steerpath, full-stack mobility sharing solution SharingOS, urban air mobility platform Ascent, AI-based sound recognition technology for smart building SoundEye, customer touchpoint platform Abizo, smart city ecosystem Qlue, cloud-based solution to enhance proximity marketing Kiana and P2P mobility sharing application Haupcar.