The French carrier, Orange, has revealed through a press release that startups in their early stages and operating in their domiciled markets (inclusive of Europe and Africa) are to be identified and funded through an investment program branded Orange Digital Ventures.
The nitty-gritty of the program is the financing of startups working on new transformations of the telecoms and digital sector. Also, the searchlight will be beamed on startups that are working to advance e-health, connectivity, security services, big data and the internet of things, cloud and communications. To help start-ups in their global expansion as an investor and catalyst, the firm has earmarked 20 million euros for this and to also invest in the start-ups minority holdings as well.
“Orange builds on its existing open innovation strategy with an “early stage” investment program branded Orange Digital Ventures. It will identify and fund start-ups during their initial development as well as provide the strategic relationships needed for them to become valuable companies”, the statement on their website reads.
Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators and a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. This isn’t the first time that Orange is investing in Africa. It launched Niger’s first startup incubator, startup accelerator programs in Ivory Coast and Israel and joined forces with USAID to boost mHealth innovations across Africa.
