Press Release - 13 April 2016
Proximus supports Luxembourg start-ups
The Digital Tech Fund, in which Proximus invests, aims to finance technology start-ups in the Luxembourg ICT sector
On 12 April 2016, Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Economy Étienne Schneider presented a start-up fund set up by the Luxembourg government in partnership with a group of private investors, including Proximus, in order to support the financing and development of start-ups active in the field of ICT, which is considered a key sector of the national economic diversification in Luxembourg.
The fund, called the "Digital Tech Fund", was launched at the initiative of the Minister of the Economy as part of the "Digital Lëtzebuerg" program. It will acquire holdings in innovative companies created less than seven years ago and which develop products that, preferably, already exist in the form of a functional prototype. The fund aims, above all but not only, to make risk- capital investments in fields such as cyber security, FinTech, Big Data, Digital Health, media, and next-generation communication networks, digital learning, the Internet of Things, telecommunications, and satellite services.
Set up according to the principle of "evergreen funds", the Digital Tech Fund will also aim to facilitate the transfer of new technologies from publicly funded research, particularly the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg, with which a partnership is being formed to support the creation of the spin-off.
The Digital Tech Fund, which will start operating in May 2016, will be managed by Expon Capital S.A.R.L., which has proven experience in the management of funds. Given that it was developed within the framework of a public-private partnership, the fund's other stakeholders are (in alphabetical order): Arendt & Medernach, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg SA (BIL), Expon Capital, High Capital (BHS Services), POST Capital, Proximus, and SES.
Through the Digital Tech Fund, Proximus wants to support innovative Luxembourg start-ups, reaffirming its commitment to the Luxembourg market with its subsidiaries Tango and Telindus Luxembourg.
As a reminder, Proximus also invests in Belgian start-ups active in the field of new technologies, such as Tessares, a spin-off created with the Catholic University of Louvain la Neuve (UCL) to optimize Internet connection capacity through fixed-mobile aggregation, or Awingu, which has developed a web platform that makes it possible to integrate a company’s applications on any device. Proximus is also involved in Eggsplore, an incubator that works on smartfin technologies in order to promote them internationally.
About Proximus
Proximus (Euronext Brussels: PROX) is the leading provider of telephony, Internet, television, and network-based ICT services in Belgium via its Proximus and Scarlet brands. Proximus’ aim is to deliver the best customer experience and to simplify the customer journey by offering accessible and easy-to-use solutions to the residential, enterprise and public markets. Proximus’ high-quality interconnected fixed and mobile networks offer access anywhere and anytime to digital services and data, as well as to a broad offering of multimedia content. Proximus is active in Luxembourg through its subsidiaries Telindus Luxembourg and Tango and in the Netherlands through Telindus Netherlands. Its subsidiary BICS offers best-in-class international wholesale solutions for voice and mobile data service providers worldwide. At the end of 2015, Proximus had around 14,000 employees and generated underlying revenue of EUR 5,994 million.
More information on Proximus: www.proximus.com and www.proximus.be
