Translations

ORANGE, committed for the development of local startups

7. Community involvement

Social investment

Sector Telecommunication, Medias, ITC

Year 2018

Country France

Transmitter

Context

Orange is a French telecommunications company with nearly 260 million customers worldwide.

Part of the “Essentiels 2020” strategic plan, the CSR approach mobilizes all subsidiaries around three sustainable performance levers: customer support, local support for the economic and social development of each region and a controlled ecological equation.

The Group's CSR approach is managed by a dedicated organization: the Group CSR department, which reports regularly to the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.

Via Orange Start-up, a global open innovation ecosystem dedicated to start-ups, the company has already helped more than 500 start-ups in their development projects.

Objectives

To use the numeric as an endogenous development tool of territories.
To identify, support and promote new talents, start-up and innovative models of shared value creation linked to territorial problematics.
To promote sustainable synergies with the young talents thanks to the deployment of new programs with a numerical and social vocation.

APPROACH

The Orange’s main goal is to identify, support and promote in all territories new talents, start-up and innovative models having a social impact.

These are the tools used by Orange to develop local startups:

« La Ruche » network (5 incubators in France)
4 African incubators (Senegal, Niger, Guinea and Mali)
The Orange Fabs, start-up accelerators by Orange
The Orange Prize for Social Entrepreneurs in Africa and the Middle East

Orange Fab France selects promising start-ups several times a year and offers them business development programs and managerial reinforcement:

The "Original" program for start-ups developing services and products in a wide variety of fields,
The "Telecom Track" program for start-ups focused on network infrastructure innovation
The dedicated "Women Start" program to women founders or co-founders of start-up around the world.

In May 2008, Orange signed a partnership with Google within the framework of its investment funds Orange Digital Venture (ODV) to invest in technological startups in Europe, Middle-East and Africa. It is going to permit Orange to increase its visibility and the quality of the ODV investment portfolio.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

In 2017, Orange supported 435 entrepreneurs, 82% more than in 2016, through grant financing, reward sponsorship and networking.
By investing in local companies, Orange forges new partnerships to develop its B2B business. These investments allow Orange to explore new territories while having more visibility.
International investments led to a crossed fertilization of territories, which can influence in a positive way the group management.
More than 500 startups supported in the world since the beginning of its entrepreneurship support program.

Benefits

Development of the Social Entrepreneur Orange Price since 2011, which rewards each year 2 companies and/or startups which use information technology to answer the local population’s needs. This Price allows these companies to benefit from a financial help and a specialized advisor so as to make their business profitable.
A contribution to the French wealth in 2016 which amounted to 32€ billion thanks to the CSR.
More than 600 Tunisian young women have been initiated to the code in order to bring solutions to their community thanks to mobile technologies related to healthcare or nutrition.