THALES

Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 64,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of €14.9 billion in 2016. With over 25,000 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design and deploy equipment, systems and services to meet the most complex security requirements. Its partners rely on Thales’s high-tech solutions, and especially on its world-class expertise in the key digital technologies of Internet Of Things/ connectivity, big data, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, to make the best decision in every decisive moment.

A strong believer in innovation through cooperation, Thales is fully committed to the collaborative nature of Viva Technology. For many years, the Group has pursued a strategy of open innovation with public and private research institutes and with innovative SMEs and tech start-ups. Thales set up 20 joint laboratories with various research institutes worldwide, maintains partnerships with 50 universities across the world and heads the cybersecurity programme at STATION F in Paris, the world’s largest start-up incubator. The identification of start-ups, extraordinary founts of innovation, is one of the Group’s main objectives in terms of innovation. Over the past three years, Thales approached more than 500 start-ups with a view to testing their technology, exploring opportunities for cooperation, taking them on as suppliers, entering into partnerships or, in some cases, to acquire them. These collaborations and synergies with start-ups boost the digital transformation of the Group and its clients and foster the type of technological breakthroughs needed in the digital age.