VIDEO INTERVIEW: Johan Lodenius, CMO at MediaTek, is on a mission to extend the influence of the Taiwanese firm beyond its chip designs. “A lot of what MediaTek does is about accelerating and reducing friction in the ecosystem,” he told Mobile World Live in a recent interview.

As part of those efforts, MediaTek, at this year’s Mobile World Congress, launched a new supply chain partner programme called MediaTek Labs Partner Connect. It’s aimed at helping developers of wearables and IoT devices design and launch products by matching them with members of MediaTek’s network of partners.

“One part of our Labs work is to help [customers develop] using our reference designs and the support we provide,” said Lodenius. “Another part is to help them get to market, so we line them up with a suitable manufacturer for the particular area they are working in. Whenever we can help our customers to do what they need to do faster, we also benefit. To me, that is just as important as providing the chips themselves.”

Lodenius also envisaged MediaTek playing an active role in a variety of ecosystems, referencing the firm’s $300 million investment fund, which will initially look to fund startups in greater China, Japan, Europe and North America.

“We’ll look for opportunities all over the world, in small and bigger companies, covering a wide range of areas, including robotics, electronics and medical,” said the MediaTek CMO.

Aside from anticipated growth in investment value, Lodenius said MediaTek would benefit from becoming “part of larger and different ecosystems, and being a partner in a range of growing areas”.

Watch the whole video interview here.