The implementation of a favorable ecosystem for drawing ICT start-ups to Luxembourg and fostering their growth is nowadays one of the top priorities of the country’s government. To that end, the Ministry of the Economy committed itself on 14 December 2015, together with 7 other major investors, to form a seed capital fund designed to finance such companies in their start-up phase.
The agreement signed by the State of Luxembourg, Arendt & Medernach, BIL, BHS Services, POST Capital, Proximus, SES and SNCI aims to gather 19.2 million euros of public and private funds in order to create a “Seed Fund” for financing new, innovative high-tech companies.
The fund, which will be operational as of early 2016, will be managed by a specialised team with all the skills required to identify and to select those projects with the highest potential for growth in Luxembourg, and will invest venture capital in projects that have reached the “proof of concept” stage, such as in the fields of cyber-security, FinTech, Big Data, Digital Health, telecommunications, satellite services or related fields. This seed capital fund will also enable investment in promising spin-offs to generate a maximum national economic windfall.
Finally, this initiative aims to contribute to the strengthening of the visibility of Luxembourg and its positioning as a genuine hub for the launch of new, innovative activities in one of the key sectors of the national economy.
