The team evaluated over 100 total applicants and invited 30 companies to pitch in person to a selection committee of Silicon Valley's tech influencers and Orange's SF-based in-house experts. Startups from an array of industries applied, with multiple entries in the categories of cloud services, customer data, video content aggregation and hardware products.

"Orange Fab embodies the movement to open, collaborative practices that simplify and accelerate engagement with innovative companies," said Elie Girard, Executive Vice President, Group Strategy and Development.

"We value the interaction with all of the companies in this process -- it's not just about 7 finalists but the 100+ startups who shared their inspirational ideas with us."

The second season of Orange Fab's accelerator program includes these 7 startups: 1-Page (gamified recruiting platform) ,Flamestower (personal, sustainable energy products and brands), Chronos (the full-stack for passively-collected personal data), 2600hz (cloud services to power voice, mobile, and video apps), Fiverun (the Apple Store shopping experience for retailers), Angaza (affordable Pay-As-You-Go  solar energy for the off-grid world) and Videopixie (a marketplace for video production services).

The Orange Fab program starts by sending each company to Paris for the first of two Demo Days (the other will be in San Francisco). In Paris, the startups will be at Orange's Executives Meeting, where they will have the opportunity to meet the company's top decision makers from around the globe. Over the course of the 12-week program, startups have exclusive access to semi-weekly mentoring events with Silicon Valley's notable entrepreneurs, world-class engineers, and experienced designers, along with options to receive $20,000 in funding, and work out of Orange Silicon Valley's offices in San Francisco.  

The same process is being repeated by Orange in other markets: Orange Fab France and Orange Fab Asia will announce their inaugural class within a couple months while Orange Fab Poland and Israel are getting ready to open their 1rst round of application.

Since the launch of Orange Fab in early March of 2013, the inaugural class of startups have continued to gain traction and build momentum. Phone Halo has shipped over 150,000 devices and is currently discussing distribution deals in Europe, Soil IQ closed a round of $1.5 million and will have products available for purchase in Q2 2014, and Fenix International raised $3.8M toward its Series B and launched ReadyPay Solar, making renewable energy available in Africa for as little as $0.39 per day. 

distributed by