APC 2015 Annual Report Download - page 34

2015 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC32
OVERVIEW OF THE GROUP’S STRATEGY, MARKETS AND BUSINESSES
1RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
5.5 Financing innovative start-ups
In 2000, Schneider Electric created an investment structure
called Schneider Electric Ventures to invest in high-tech start-ups
whose innovations fi t with the Group’s future development. In
2010, Schneider Electric Ventures became Aster Capital with the
launch of a new capital investment fund to fi nance innovative start-
ups operating within the areas of energy, new materials and the
environment. This second fund received a capital subscription of
EUR105 million, from Schneider Electric (EUR40 million), Alstom
(EUR30 million), Solvay (EUR15 million) and in 2012 by the European
Investment Fund (EUR20 million), a benchmark fi nancial partner in
Europe.
Managing a portfolio of partnership
opportunities
The mission of Aster Capital is to purchase minority interests in
innovative start-ups in the fi elds of energy and the environment
based in Europe, Israel, North America and Asia. The scouting
activities constitute a source of particularly productive partnerships
and forge contacts with more than 1,500 small and mid-sized
businesses around the world each year. In 2015, one new
investment was realized, joining the fi rst thirteen companies already
in the portfolio, including Lucibel, Iceotope and Digital Lumens.
After having successfully exited from Solairedirect (acquired by
Engie in 2015), Aster’s fi rst fund currently still holds about eight
equity interests, notably in Agilence, Jet Metal Technologies, Tronics
and Casanova.
Eco GTB – EUR1.3 million investment in
October 2015
Eco GTB provides a very light building management system to
multi-site commercial buildings to save energy(average 1 to 2-year
payback) andbetter operate andmaintain distributed stores. The
company, incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Paris,
operates hundreds of storesin France.
Identifying emerging trends and technologies
and delivering relevant inputs
Aster Capital is in touch with start-ups on a daily basis. This gives
Aster Capital a unique perspective on emerging technologies,
customer needs and new market segments. The work is shared
at three levels:
•by identifying emerging trends and weak signals which may
have an impact on markets, customers and/or future Schneider
Electric business, and sharing them on a regular basis with the
leaders within Schneider Electric;
•by introducing about 300 start-ups each year to Schneider
Electric teams within relevant countries, businesses and
corporate departments; and
•by publishing market analyses that are presented to Schneider
Electric teams. Again this year, more than 10 topics related to the
energy and environment sectors have been covered and shared
within Schneider Electric. An innovative element introduced last
year is that the Aster Capital teams have made a dedicated
web platform available to all Schneider Electric employees,
which gives them even easier access to all of these resources,
information and databases.