IMT Digital Fund and IGEU celebrate their 10th anniversary
Ten years ago, Institut Mines Télécom (IMT), Fondation Mines-Télécom and Caisse des Dépôts created the Grandes Ecoles and Universities Initiative (IGEU) and the IMT Digital Fund to meet funding needs for start-ups. An anniversary celebration was held at the Aéro-Club de France with Claude Imauven, President of Fondation Mines-Télécom, and Jean-Yves Gilet, President of the Grandes Ecoles and Universities Initiative, bringing together all those who have contributed to this successful initiative: beneficiary start-ups, graduate schools and universities, corporate sponsors, honor loan funds and the volunteers on their approval committees. Nicolas Dufourcq, General Director of Bpifrance, a key partner in the program, reaffirmed his support for the initiative and shared his strategic view of the economic challenges of business creation based on innovation.
“We are very proud to have been one of the first groups of public schools to set up incubators and an honor loan program for start-ups. Institut Mines-Télécom has an important role to play by providing comprehensive support to create and assist businesses in all ways, and more broadly in accelerating innovative start-ups.” Odile Gauthier, Executive Director of Institut Mines-Télécom.
The IMT Digital Fund is the leading fund of the initiative, with over 150 start-ups from incubators at Institut Mines-Télécom schools supported through €6 million in funding.
Since the IGEU was founded in 2012, a total of over 350 start-ups have been supported through its 10 managed funds, and 550 entrepreneurs have received €13.5 million in funding.
“We have been able to support entrepreneurs thanks to our corporate sponsors, who decided to team up with us 10 years ago to commit to financing this honor loan fund: Nokia, Orange, BNP Paribas, Accenture, Dassault Systèmes, Airbus and Sopra Steria.” Claude Imauven, President of Fondation Mines-Télécom.