Jean François Caillard – director SFR Developpement
SFR’s SpeedStartingUp day is on June 27th and you can still sbmit your project.
SFR, Vodafone’s French Network Operator, has an investment branch which takes equity in start-ups: SFR Developpement. They launched it a few months ago and have already invested in 5 start-ups. It is for real! Digitick is one of these and SFR had tried the technology before getting into it. It is run by Jean-François Caillard who has a heavy track record within SFR.
How does it work?
Submit a quick overview of your project to “contact@sfrdeveloppement.fr”. If you’re selected, you are invited to do a 15 ‘ presentation of your project in front of about 100 persons on June 27th. It will be followed by a coktail where you’ll be able to meet the SFR operational teams. Here are some good tips. Submit your proposal by May 30th: SFR will answer by June 15th.
I believe that these investments can be explained by the Web1.0 history, when a couple of startups heavily succeeded partly because they were able to secure Operators’ business. Think of Wonderphone or Musiwave. These investments may be as much a business principle than a perspective for increased value : SFR’s revenues are close to €9 billion and the start-ups are far to account for a significant value on the balance sheet.