Publicis gets in on the start-up game

As the startup businesses continue to grow, Publicis Groupe, the French advertising agency, has rolled out Publicis90 to celebrate its 90th anniversary by selecting 90 startups in the digital field to mentor and fund.To take part, projects can be submitted via the Publicis90 platform, the programme is open to students, new startups, entrepreneurs or even Publicis employees anywhere in the world.The 90 selected projects will receive between 10,000 euros and 500,000 euros, depending on project maturity and business potential.Projects will be pre-selected by region (the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe-Middle-East & Africa), with a first round of votes open to over 76,000 employees of Publicis (all projects submitted remain anonymous).A regional jury will then draw up a short-list from the pre-selected projects, before the final selection is made by a global jury that will pick the 90 most promising projects or startups.Meanwhile, this project is managed by Maxime Baffert, CEO of Proximedia.The selected projects will receive funding in the form of an investment ranging from 10,000 euros for projects about to be launched to 500,000 euros for start-ups that are already ramping up.Maurice Lévy, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, said the idea of Publicis90 is to help young entrepreneurs achieve their goals. "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,"He also said in a Business Insider report, "I believe nobody has dared to do something like this to support 90 projects. Nobody has dared to go after that big a number. It's complicated to select and a huge undertaking. We want to do something quite massive in order that it will be noticed both from inside the group and outside all people who have a project see we are really committed to the tech and digital space and that this is something important."The selected projects will be mentored by the company's experts in marketing, communications, management and technology.  As for selected projects submitted by its employees, they will have the benefit of a special internal incubation scheme.The holders of the 90 selected projects will be invited to participate to Viva Technology Paris, the first forum in France to bring together the people who matter most in digital throughout the world with over 5,000 start-ups.The event - created by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos - will be held from June 30 to July 2, 2016 at the Paris Expo Exhibition Centre at Porte de Versailles. The 90 selected projects will be honored at an awards ceremony held during Viva Technology Paris.The submissions platform runs until 28 February.