The incubator boom
Orange contributes through practical, innovative initiatives to territories’ social and economic development. In particular, the Group supports the development of incubators and hives promoting the emergence of start-ups. These start-ups often use new technologies to develop innovative services with high potential in terms of societal impact.
What is an incubator?
It is a support structure for start-up projects, also known as start-up accelerators. The incubator allows entrepreneurs to let their project grow and their business develop in a secure environment, providing easier access to the skills, tools and infrastructures crucial to its success and growth. The incubator often offers advice, training, and funding for the studies needed to help the project mature, along with hosting and access to a network of partners.
What are the different types of incubator?
Incubators can stand out thanks to the services they offer, whether they are for-profit or non-profit structures, or the type of projects they target. Most incubators are non-profit structures linked to public or quasi-public bodies: associated with public research, schools, competitiveness clusters or economic development agencies. Private incubators are run with the goal of making a profit. Generally, they take a percentage stake in the capital of the supported company. They may also co-build a project with an entrepreneur.
Which Orange partnerships have been made with startup accelerators?
“In the future, Orange will be at the center of an ecosystem of small businesses and start-ups supported by our infrastructures,” says Stéphane Richard, Chairman of the Group. This sentence perfectly sums up the aim of Orange, which has many strengths it would like to make available to entrepreneurs to help create and, in some cases, co-develop innovative services.
To this end, the Group signed a partnership with La Ruche to support the development of its structure in Paris and to create new incubators regionally, in order to open and share Technocentre resources, and to support entrepreneurs with human and technical resources.
The Group supports two incubators in Africa. CTIC Dakar is an initiative by the World Bank, which Orange quickly joined, offering support in strategic thinking and in financing the project’s implementation. CIPMEN in Niamey, which has been fully established by Orange, draws heavily on the experience in Senegal and will soon be inaugurated.
In France, Orange is also involved in socially responsible company Simplon.co, which gives free, intensive short courses in digital programming for groups who are disadvantaged or under-represented in terms of digital entrepreneurship. Orange financed training courses for female developers, some of whom now develop mobile applications and websites promoting collective well-being and offering innovative community societal solutions.
