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Technocom 2: a second investment for the FNA
Investments for the future - 19 April 2012
The Fonds national d’amorçage (FNA), managed by CDC Entreprises, makes its second investment by subscribing €18.7mn in the Technocom 2 Fund beside Alcatel-Lucent, Orange, Groupe SEB and Soitec.
Within the framework of the Investments for the Future Programme (PIA), the FNA was established to support companies which produce technological innovations by providing them with equity funding at a very early stage. Endowed with €400mn, the FNA makes investments in startup funds managed by professional management teams, which themselves make investments in young innovative companies in the startup and development stages phases. It does not directly finance companies.
Technocom 2, endowed with more than €30mn following these commitments, will finance company creations, with amounts running from a few hundred thousand to several million Euros, resulting from French public, academic or industrial research, in digital technology applied to networks, energy, intelligent homes and health. Technocom 2 plans to finance and assist about fifteen young companies with strong growth potential
The Strategy Committee of Technocom 2, which includes representatives of each public or private partner, including CDC Entreprises for the FNA, the research division of Sorbonne Paris Cité, as well as the director of Telecom ParisTech, assists Innovacom, a fund management company, in the assessment of the projects and the industrial sponsoring of the companies financed. Innovacom has already signed agreements with several competitiveness clusters and public incubators particularly relevant for the technological priorities of the fund.
Apart from their financial commitment, the four private partners (Alcatel-Lucent, Orange, Groupe SEB and Soitec) will play an active role in the identification of the projects and assistance to the companies selected.
The establishing of this fund specialising in digital technology creates a new tool for the financing of the sector, in addition to the FSN-PME, a fund for direct investment in SMEs in the digital economy. It meets an identified need not covered by the market for the financing of start-ups in this sector.
