IESE Venture Fund Plans to Invest €1 million Into 10 Startups

A group of students from the IESE Business School plan to invest between €800.000 and €1 million in 10 startups over the next two years.

These are not your typical students living with their parents, but students within the IESE General Management Program, where many are directors and executives in larger companies, according to Expansion. The program requires 15 years of business experience and attracts entrepreneurs, board members and other senior-level managers.

The IESE investment company now consists of 13 directors which have graduated in last year.

Also read: Barcelona Startup Getupcode Takes on 2016 With €200.000 in Funding

Open to all students in the program

The new IESE Venture Fund will be called PDG Invest has already made their first investment in the natural cosmetics e-commerce startup Cocunat.

All of the 40 students attending this year’s program are free to join PDG Invest.

“The investment objective is to allocate between €800,000 euros and €1 million euros to ten startups in two years,” says CEO and lawyer Ramon Faus.

Russian roulette

They plan to invest around €100.000 in each startup they choose. The investment group explains that their vast experience from many different industries is what makes them different, and adds that they will mainly focus on the tech sector.

They want to use 1/3 of the capital to invest in companies they call “Russian Roulette“, where they want to take a majority stake in the company, and then consolidate their position in future financing rounds. They will also use one other 1/3 of the money to invest in startups which are in their “growth stage”. In these instances, they will likely take a minority stake in each company.

Ideally, PDG will seek at least 5 percent of the company, and hold a seat on the board of directors.