Thales courts academia, startups with xPlor program.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

Thales USA is teaming up with academia and startup companies to gain an edge on new technology, said one top executive.

Earlier this year, Thales launched an innovation center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The project has been dubbed xPlor and is a way for the company to take the pulse on what's new in the industry.

"The idea behind that is to ensure that we are in the flow of all of the good innovation that goes on in the U.S. in small enterprises, with major institutions like MIT and Stanford and spinoffs of young companies and entrepreneurial organizations that we can partner with in some capacity and leverage across our businesses in the U.S.," said Alan Pellegrini, president and CEO of the company.

Through xPlor, Thales identifies new technologies and interesting small businesses. Once located, Thales looks to partner with the startup by making an investment in the entity or licensing the company's technology.

"We have a small group of very entrepreneurial people at Cambridge that are searching for these opportunities and connecting them with the chief technology officers around the [Thales] group," Pellegrini said.

The project originates from the belief that the greatest innovation in the world is going on in the United States, he said during an October media briefing with reporters at Thales' Clarksburg, Maryland, factory.

...