Mandalore Partners announces its first investment in an innovation accelerator. This partnership between the Start-up & Spin-Off Studio Ker and Mandalore Partners will allow Mandalore to:
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Invest in the Start-up Studio Ker
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Create a vertical in Insurtech with APICIL group, a non-profit French corporation focusing on social protection in the “Auvergne Rhône-Alpes” (AURA) region
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Develop tech innovation in SMBs in the AURA region on others verticals with corporates
The AURA region is a great source of high-potential SMBs (nearly 3000 of them, the highest concentration in France), but struggles to scale due to a lack of tools to deploy these innovations. These promising companies generally need follow-up and financing.
Established in the heart of Lyon Tech-La Doua campus in Villeurbanne (22,000 students), the Start- Up Studio KER has access to the best French engineers and to 23 labs from INSA structured around multiple verticals, especially health. Ker is a Start-up & Spin-Off studio specialized in the creation and acceleration of tech projects in collaboration with the startups. Ker also provides seed money to the best startups. Its core technologies include in particular GreenTech, HRTech, FoodTech and SportTech.
The Start-Up Studio Ker focuses on a proven methodology and has the role of tech innovation catalyst. Ker identifies business-related needs with high added-value for its stockholders and partner companies, then gathers a team of high-potential engineers with complementary co-founders in order to launch entrepreneurial projects in optimal conditions for success. Mandalore Partners has been seduced by the multiple shared resources, the multi-disciplinary team, the market knowledge of partner companies and the privileged relations with labs and engineering universities (especially INSA Lyon) of Ker.
In addition, this investment will allow the establishment of a new vertical founded on insurance. This vertical will focus on three industries: digital insurance products (neo-insurance), Data and Artificial Intelligence especially targeted at prevention and services to insurers and brokers (marketing and sales). This investment thus fulfills the joint goal of Mandalore Partners and APICIL to address clients’ needs through innovation.
Other verticals besides insurance, such as digital, transports and energy, will be addressed in partnership with corporates. Financed projects will benefit from support on governance, fundraising, financial management, HR management and public relations.
« We are delighted to partner with APICIL and Mandalore Partners in order to help emerge new businesses around insurance, prevention, and health in corporations. Ker is open to other collaborations in order to build new verticals, based on its creation methodology and investment tool. » Sébastien Perros, CEO of KER.
« Mandalore once again highlights its capacity to support partner companies in their innovation approach and deployment of regional partnerships. Our sector expertise in InsurTech allows us to identify relevant projects in order to create appropriate innovation synergies. We are convinced that they will know how to benefit from it and put themselves at the forefront of InsurTech »Minh Q. Tran, Managing Partner and Founder of Mandalore Partners
« Convinced that open-innovation is the way to go about transformation, the APICIL group has actively joined support programs for startups and Intrapreneurial projects. This partnership is a new opportunity to develop innovative ideas coming internally, in order to transform our job as insurers and bring a new customer experience thanks to this collaboration with Ker and all of its multi-disciplinary partners. »Marie Christine Eudes, Director of Innovation and Services at Groupe APICIL
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