In this interview, Florence Sardas talks about the Mazars XFactory start-up incubator. The incubator stands out for its commitment to diversity and gender equality, in particular by welcoming 70% female entrepreneurs. Florence explains how the idea for this innovative incubator came about and reveals the programme’s objectives and areas of support. She also discusses the importance of Web 3 in this initiative.
Could you introduce yourself?
Florence Sardas, partner at Mazars and member of the Executive Committee of Mazars in France, in charge of transformation and data.
How did the Mazars incubator idea come about?
The idea for the incubator came from a project team within Mazars’ Innovation Transformation programme. We were looking to go beyond our traditional service offerings by asking ourselves how we could contribute more to innovation and the tech ecosystem, given our wide range of skills from audit to advisory, tax, legal and data. Two key words guided our thinking: ‘tech’ and ‘diversity parity’. We wanted to crystallise these values by launching an incubator that would showcase entrepreneurs, particularly female entrepreneurs.
Can you tell us about this incubator?
We are committed to welcoming 70% women entrepreneurs into this incubator, focusing on tech projects.
Web 3 is particularly relevant to our initiative. According to the Sista collective, only 2% of the funds raised by start-ups are allocated to women entrepreneurs, which is clearly not enough. We believe that this figure is even lower when we look at the Web 3 sector, so we’ve decided to launch this initiative by sponsoring the Female Founders Challenge at VivaTech 2023, marking our commitment to supporting tech companies.
Coinaute: What kind of support will the incubator provide?
Mazars has a wide range of expertise and a presence in over 90 countries. Although the incubator is initially being launched in France, we are rapidly looking to expand internationally. We have extensive experience in helping companies expand internationally. We offer comprehensive support, from accounting and capital markets to the development of business plans.
What are your criteria for selecting projects? Will the incubator be open to Web3-related projects?
The selection criteria will be revealed in the autumn when the call for projects opens. However, it is clear that 70% of the projects selected will be led by women entrepreneurs and that the projects will be closely linked to technology. The final criteria are still being discussed with our team and will be validated at a later date. However, it should be noted that Web 3 is an area on which we are particularly focused, as it illustrates perfectly our objective of supporting technology projects to make them visible and understandable to the markets. Our role is to act as a beacon in the world of technology, including Web 3, and to bring entrepreneurs closer to the corporate ecosystem, funds and financial institutions.
And in conclusion, Mazars is committed to supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly for women, in the world of Web 3.0 and beyond, by promoting greater diversity and inclusion in the tech sector.
