Samsung Electronics has opened a $100 million fund—part of which will be directed to projects in Israel-- to support innovative applications of product systems related to its product line of televisions, mobile phones, computers and other digital devices.
“We’re going to support early stage entrepreneurs and academia. We want to make sure we’re part of the disruptive forces sweeping the technology industry,” said Samsung Electronics chief strategy officer Young Sohn, according to Israel’s business daily Globes newspaper.
Money will also be invested in projects in California’s Silicon Valley as well as Cambridge, Mass., and will focus on projects related to cloud infrastructure, human interface and mobile health.
To jumpstart the fund, Samsung launched a contest that will award $10 million in seed investments later this year to entrepreneurs, engineers and artists hoping to use technology “to improve people’s lives,” Globes reported.