France’s CMA CGM is scaling up its support for the start-up initiative founded by its chairman Rodolphe Saade.
The liner giant and partners have created Zebox Ventures, an early stage venture-capital fund designed to support promising international start-up projects.
Seed capital from Zebox Ventures will be used to invest between €50,000 ($55,000) to €250,000 in around 50 start-ups every year.
That amounts to a potential annual investment of between €2.5m to €12.5m.
Speaking at a tech event in France on Wednesday, Saade outlined emerging goals for the fund and Zebox, the startup accelerator he founded in 2018.
Zebox, which is managed by entrepreneur Severine Gregoire, would also establish new innovation hubs in Singapore and Manchester.
These would complement existing hubs in France, Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, Virginia in the US and more recently in Abidjan in West Africa.
Zebox has already helped raise more than $235m in funding for promising start-up projects, CMA CGM said.
Saade established the company four years ago to offer support to startups “by giving them access to an unprecedented international network”.
He has described the company’s ambition as becoming “an indispensable element of innovation in the world”.
The company has grown since its formation to comprise 17 partners including financiers such as BNP Paribas and logistics and shipping operators Ceva Logistics, project44 and Cargomatic.
These have launched over 100 projects, mostly focused on shipping and logistics, decarbonisation, and digitalisation.
Past investments have included in container booking portal Nyshex as well as Searoutes, which provides shippers with devices to track their carbon footprint.
