Launched in 2020, Newlab and Verizon collaborated to create a 5G innovation program to support the next generation of applications in mobility, energy, and industrial automation. The program’s goal was to uncover high impact startups working on products that could be further enabled by 5G technology. The selected startups used Verizon’s 5G network to test a wide range of solutions in areas including industrial robotics, drone delivery, enhanced GPS, vehicle connectivity, and technology enabling Vehicle-to-X systems. Ultimately, Verizon and Newlab sought to uncover solutions that could drive clean technology usage in everything from urban transit to drone usage, industrial manufacturing and more.

Launched in 2020, Newlab and Verizon collaborated to create a 5G innovation program to support the next generation of applications in mobility, energy, and industrial automation. The program’s goal was to uncover high impact startups working on products that could be further enabled by 5G technology. The selected startups used Verizon’s 5G network to test a wide range of solutions in areas including industrial robotics, drone delivery, enhanced GPS, vehicle connectivity, and technology enabling Vehicle-to-X systems. Ultimately, Verizon and Newlab sought to uncover solutions that could drive clean technology usage in everything from urban transit to drone usage, industrial manufacturing and more.

Through three years of partnership and five cohorts of startups, Newlab and Verizon have worked together to prove the value of 5G’s effects on next-generation products and systems. These pilots have led to a number of positive outcomes both for Verizon and the startups, including the opportunity to test technology and receive feedback, and, in some cases, direct investment in the startups. Additional outcomes include further co-development of products, integration into Verizon platforms, additional go-to-market support. In 2022, Verizon collaborated through the Studio with LGE to design a ‘factory of the future’ powered by 5G, testing applications to create a fully wireless factory environment. Importantly, the studio has uncovered several examples of how 5G technology can enable world-changing solutions to issues like food insecurity, factory inefficiency, electric vehicle charging, homeland security, and more.