KPN Ventures
Investing in entrepreneurial talent
KPN Ventures invests in promising startups. This allows us to accelerate the development of ideas, products and applications. And, it's also helping our customers move forward.
We live in a world in which new technologies are rapidly surpassed by even more innovative technologies. To stay ahead in this world, it is more important than ever to work together with talented entrepreneurs. Startups that develop innovative products that can benefit our customers. And that we can use to make the Netherlands a little safer, more sustainable and better.
Helping each other move forward
We believe that startups have a lot to offer us – and we have a lot to offer them. That is why our investment fund KPN Ventures offers them not only access to growth capital, but also to our extensive knowledge of ICT technology, marketing and sales, as well as our broad network of business partners and customers. This way, startups can grow and mature faster. And with their creativity and short time-to-market they can also improve our products.
KPN Ventures invests – directly or indirectly – in proven and scalable innovations in the field of the Internet of Things, Connected Home, Cyber Security, eHealth, Cloud Services and Data & Analytics solutions.
We believe in outside-in innovation: we innovate by learning from enterprising start-ups in the whole ecosystem. Because a positive and innovative start-up climate benefits everyone: entrepreneurs, startups, our partners, customers and us. In this way, we are helping Dutch society as a whole develop.
"KPN is in a market full of technological developments, where much is to be gained from working with entrepreneurial talent and by investing in innovative companies."- Hans Söhngen, managing director KPN VenturesJasper Wireless
We have a lot to offer startups and scaleups. And they can mean a lot to us. Our partnership with Jasper Wireless, a pioneer in cloud-based platforms, is proof of this. Their solutions help customers manage all their devices connected via the Internet of Things. This way, businesses can implement their own IoT services on a global scale. With Jasper Wireless, KPN has found the perfect partner to connect our customers to a reliable online platform.
But it’s not just KPN customers who can benefit from this innovative service. By participating in Jasper Wireless we gained a financial advantage too. That was certainly the case in February 2016, when Jasper Wireless was taken over by Cisco for 1.4 billion dollars.
Revenues from the sale of our stake in Jasper Wireless have been added to the reserves of our KPN Ventures investment fund. This will allow us to keep investing in young technology companies that are developing the Netherlands.
Censornet
Beveiligen van MKB Nederland
We zijn altijd op zoek naar strategische investeringen in ondernemingen die met hun expertise KPN en haar klanten verder helpen zoals het Britse cybersecuritybedrijf Censornet. Een moderne en digitale werkplek draagt bij aan een betere bedrijfsvoering maar cruciaal daarbij is dat de werkplek voor alle medewerkers ook overal en altijd veilig en up-to-date is. Vanuit die gedachte heeft Censornet een centrale oplossing ontwikkeld. Met één veilig cloud-beveiligingsplatform krijgen organisaties en gebruikers volledige bescherming tegen bedreigingen via email, internet en cloud. Ongeacht of zij op kantoor, thuis of onderweg zijn.
Facts KPN Ventures
Established: 2015
Fund size: 70 million
Director: Hans Söhngen
Objective: To promote outside-in innovation, the creation of strategic partnerships with innovative technology companies and achieving a healthy return on invested capital.