France-based mobile network operator Orange has spun off its corporate venturing arm, Orange Ventures, and hired Mathieu de La Rochefoucauld as managing partner of the now independent firm.
Orange has committed an additional €350m ($426m) to Orange Ventures, which since September 2019 has been run by president and managing partner Jérôme Berger.
Berger said: “Our wish is to constitute an organisation which combines the best of both worlds: Orange’s business expertise as well as the agility of decision-making and the quality of the financial monitoring of the best investment funds.
“We closely support each startup post-investment in order to contribute to its development and facilitate its direct and structured access to the Orange ecosystem whenever it is relevant.”
Orange added in a statement: “For Orange, the purpose of Orange Ventures is to promote the emergence of future technological champions who support the transition to an increasingly digital and responsible world, at the service of all, by sharing their innovation capabilities with its 256 million customers worldwide.
“To achieve this, Orange Ventures differentiates by proposing a highly structured process for exploring and creating flexible and optional synergies between Orange and startups.
Orange Ventures currently invests in connectivity, cybersecurity, digital enterprise, financial services and e-health technology, as well as in new territories the group is exploring, such as Africa. Its portfolio companies include Monzo, Actility, Raisin and WeaveWorks.
The recruitment of de La Rochefoucauld as managing partner creates potential for Orange Ventures to develop a private equity model.
De La Rochefoucauld started at French bank Société Générale’s venture capital unit in 2000 before the asset management group’s merger to form Amundi. For the past 18 months he has been an associate director within its private equity funds group.
The move follows similar efforts by other telecommunications-focused corporate venturing units, including those operated by Swisscom, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom and, most notably, SoftBank, to attract third-party capital.
