IBM says it will also provide access to its research community and to sales, marketing and technical skills. "IBM invests more than $US6b per year in research with more than 3,000 people in eight labs around the world [and] with more than 4,914 new patents in 2009 alone," the company said.

"IBM is uniquely positioned to help start-ups because of the depth of resources, expertise, and experience with the most forward-thinking institutions, governments, and businesses around the world." Participant start-ups must be privately-held; have been in business less than three years; and actively developing software aligned to IBM's Smarter Planet focus areas.

IBM's Smarter Planet strategy aims to develop software platforms targeted to industry specific market opportunities such as smarter water, smarter buildings and smarter health care. It is based on "three big ideas": instrument the world's systems; interconnect them; make them intelligent.