Grace Ashiru
Orange has bolstered its efforts to support African tech start-ups, helping them thrive in an ever-evolving digital landscape. Through its Orange Ventures arm, the global telecommunications giant with 266 million subscribers, has partnered with Digital Africa to invest in start-ups via the Fuzé initiative.
Fuzé is a €6.5 million fund created by African entrepreneurs to support start-ups in the ideation and minimum viable product stages. This fund is fully owned by Digital Africa. The collaboration, launched at Vivatech in Paris, builds on the partnership established between the two organizations in 2023 to finance start-ups within the Orange Digital Centre (ODC) network.
The ODC network, an ecosystem operational in 17 African and Middle Eastern countries and 8 European countries, aims to unite young individuals for start-up incubation and acceleration, along with providing support and investment to project leaders.
Faycal Adlouni, the managing partner at Orange Ventures, emphasized the company’s dedication to fostering entrepreneurship and innovation across Africa.
“The Orange Group is wholeheartedly dedicated to cultivating the future leaders of the technology sector in Africa and the Middle East. This collaboration, involving Orange Middle East and Africa, Orange Ventures, and Digital Africa, will allow us to pool our resources to create an environment that supports the success of start-ups,” he stated.
During the first year, five tech start-ups within the ODC received $54,200 each through Digital Africa’s Fuzé program.
Grégoire de Padirac, the CEO of Digital Africa, noted that the new initiative reinforces the strategic partnership established last year.
