To celebrate its 90th birthday, Publicis Groupe has set out to fund 90 startups to honour the holding group's history.
The Publicis Groupe was founded by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet in 1926, which, it says, was very much a startup at the time with only two staff. Now it has set up Publicis90, where anyone from a startup to a person with an idea or even one of the 80,000 Publicis global staff members can submit an idea they believe deserves funding.
People have until 28 February to submit entries. Projects will be pre-selected by region and then the first selection process will comprise voting on projects by Publicis staff. A regional jury will draw up a shortlist from the pre-selected projects before the final selection of 90 is made by a global jury.
The selected projects will be mentored by Publicis Groupe experts and will receive funding in the form of investment, ranging from 10,000 euros for projects about to be launched to 500,000 euros for startups that are already ramping up. As for selected projects submitted by Publicis Groupe employees, they will have the benefit of an internal incubation scheme.
Maurice Lévy, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, says: “Publicis90 is very much in line with the philosophy of Publicis Groupe and its founder, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet. The idea is to help young entrepreneurs achieve their goals. Not just through investment but also by putting Groupe resources at their disposal for a year.
"Rather than look back and pat ourselves on the back for 90 years of history, we have taken the forward-looking approach of extending a helping hand to young entrepreneurs."
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