SNCF is targeting start-up investments in the ‘digital ecosystem’ with its new EUR30 million SNCF Digital Ventures investment fund,
Under the management of Hi Inov, the venture capital unit of family-owned investment company Dentressangle Initiatives, SNCF Digital Ventures will focus on France and other European countries primarily, but will also look to the US and Israel to source investments in the EUR500,000-EUR4 million range
The fund will cover a wide spectrum of technologies – the Internet of Things, surveillance drones, big data, mobile customer service and information apps, the sharing economy, digital tools for SNCF employees and more. It will invest in companies with direct and indirect benefits for SNCF.
Guillaume Pepy, Chairman of SNCF’s Executive Board, says: “Today, SNCF Group cannot innovate alone. We need to take inspiration from innovators, developers and start-ups, and partner with them to create new services for our clients while making it easier for our employees to do their jobs.”
Pierre-Henri Dentressangle and Valérie Gombart, who head and co-founded Hi Inov, says: “By combining Hi Inov’s expertise in selecting and supporting start-ups with the industrial and business synergies we can generate with SNCF, we are bringing unique advantages to the world of innovation capital, advantages which will be very attractive to the entrepreneurs we are looking to finance.”
