Qantas has dropped its startup accelerator after just two rounds of programs

Qantas has dropped its venture arm and associated AVRO Accelerator, designed to boost startups and help the airline’s innovation agenda.

The accelerator, run in partnership with Slingshot, ran two 12-week programs since it was started in 2017. Five Qantas staff are affected.

Investment and alliances with startups and digital disruptors is being devolved back to the airline’s individual units.

The move was first reported in the AFR’s Street Talk column.

“We’ve had a centralised innovation team for two years and it’s seen us work closely with startups and invest in some new ideas,” Andrew McGinnes, a senior Qantas spokesman told Business Insider.

“It succeeded in broadening our thinking and now that we’ve completed the second round of our AVRO Accelerator program, we’re disbanding the centralised team and putting responsibility for innovation back into each business unit.

“We still see innovation as absolutely core to what Qantas does, and we’ll continue to focus on new frontiers like Perth-London, Project Sunrise (long-haul flying) and the new businesses that are coming out of Qantas Loyalty, like insurance and financial services.” Read more

Chris Pash - Business Insider - 1 November 2018