Partech Ventures inaugurated the Partech Shaker in Paris yesterday, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron, the French Minister for the Economy, Industry and Digital Technology, AxelleLemaire, the Secretary of State responsible for Digital Technology, and Jean-Louis Missika, the Deputy Mayor of Paris.
Introducing the Partech Shaker Campus
The Partech Shaker, which is housed in the former premises of the Le Figaro newspaper, is the 1st campus in the world dedicated to open innovation launched by a venture capital firm. It will ultimately assemble around 40 start-ups that have received seed capital financing from Partech Ventures and from large international companies that invest in open innovation.
Initial Innovation Partners and Their Benefits
BNP Paribas, Dentsu Aegis Network, Econocom, France Télévisions, Haworth, Lagardère Active and Saint-Gobain will be the first “Innovation Partners” on site. Accordingly, they will benefit from permanent access to work spaces for a year, where their teams can review and test new innovative models by interacting with the Partech Shaker start-ups.
Support for Start-Ups and Flexible Workspaces
The Partech Entrepreneur I Seed Capital Fund is the most active fund in Europe, and has made 26 investments in 18 months. For the fund’s start-ups, the Partech Shaker is “a flexible workplace that is suited to their growth, a pleasant environment for attracting top world talent, a place for exchanging the most cutting-edge practices, and lastly, an area for welcoming clients, which enables them to focus on their business and to become world leaders”, RomainLavault, Partech Ventures’ General Partner explains.
“Previously, start-ups saw working with large companies as a privilege. Today, in a digital economy where flexibility matters as much as size, both players understand that they need one another”, Philippe Collombel, a Managing Partner of Partech Ventures, explains. In fact, open innovation has actually become a necessary addition to the traditional R&D efforts made by large companies, while start-ups are asking to be in contact with large companies in order to drive their business activities.
This place, which is the only one of its kind in the world, “will also be a weighty argument in favour of the start-ups in our portfolio choosing Paris to grow their business” adds Jean-Marc Patouillaud, a Managing Partner of Partech Ventures.
Strengthening Partech Ventures’ Leadership in Europe
Thanks to the Partech Shaker, Partech Ventures is consolidating its position as the leading European venture capital fund, as reflected in the Preqin 2014 ranking. Furthermore, Partech Ventures is set to launch the Partech Growth and Partech Entrepreneur II Funds in 2015, which will enable the company to support start-ups from the seed capital to the IPO stage.
