Samsung launches Silicon Valley incubator

Last night, Samsung opened the doors of its latest digs: a startup and entrepreneurship incubator/accelerator nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Located on the storied University Avenue in Palo Alto, the incubator is housed in the historic Varsity movie theatre.

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It will be part of Samsung’s Open Innovation Center division, which will also include a New York incubator come September. Next, the company may open incubators in other tech hubs such as Austin, Boston, Russia, and Israel.

As Samsung continues its focus on hardware, the startups it collects at the accelerator’s headquarters will be more focused on software.

Also in the innovation/Silicon Valley idiom, Samsung announced earlier this year that it would be making heavy investments in startups around the Western Hemisphere.

The Samsung Ventures America Fund is a $1 billion fund separate from Samsung’s $1 billion in assets under management through Samsung Ventures investments. The company also established a separate $100 million Samsung Catalyst Fund to invest in global innovation.

Samsung also announced at that time it would be opening a new Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center in Menlo Park, a relative stone’s throw away from the accelerator in Palo Alto.

“We see tremendous opportunities and transformations over the next five years driven by Big Data centered around mobility, cloud and the internet of things,” said Samsung chief Young Sohn in a statement on the company’s Silicon Valley ambitions.

“And Samsung will be a significant part of this revolution. This exciting opportunity for us to engage with entrepreneurs and innovators and empower them to leverage Samsung’s technology and global brand presence to bring our collective visions to the market.”