".... Launched nine months ago, Time for the Planet is a non-profit fund that wants to create and finance 100 companies to fight against greenhouse gases. This mission company has already raised 800.000 euros and plans to reach one billion euros within five to ten years.
... Personalities like Jean Jouzel, former vice-president of the IPCC and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, Jean-Michel Aulas, president of Olympique Lyonnais, or funds like Holnest and Evolem have notably invested ... "
“…… Everyone will be able, within ten years only, to regain their initial stake. No dividend will be paid out despite the possible profitability of the projects, until "having returned to +0 degree compared to the pre-industrial era", indicates this company with a mission. We are talking here about "rate of return for the planet" rather than traditional indicators such as internal rate of return (IRR) or return on investment (ROI).
READ ALSO: Ecology: how young people make companies move from within
As for projects to be funded, Time for the Planet is looking more for initiatives led by scientists or successful entrepreneurs "more in search of changing the world than of becoming billionaires", smiles Coline Debayle. Among the projects that could see the light of day: batteries without rare metals, kits to transform thermal vehicles into electrics, a technology that replaces cement, etc. A mix between heavy research, high-tech and low-tech… .. ”
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Five young Lyon entrepreneurs are launching Time for the Planet, an investment fund unparalleled in France by its ambition (to raise a billion to create 100 new businesses fighting against global warming) and by its method: rely on the collective intelligence of managers who forgo their commissions, investors who forgo their dividend and the appreciation of their share, and business creators ready to develop their project in open source.
Can we use two very capitalist tools, the investment fund and the start-up, to promote a very long-term objective, the fight against global warming? And so ultimately raise a billion euros to invest without hope of financial profit in 100 new companies contributing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
It is the ambition of a deeply innovative, ambitious project, which further advances the reflection on the company of tomorrow than all the reports of the last ten years. This is the Time for the Planet project (T4P, time-planet.com), launched by five co-founders, Nicolas Sabatier, Mehdi Coly, Laurent Morel, Arthur Auboeuf and Denis Galha Garcia.
Their hypothesis is that there are investors and entrepreneurs more interested in the usefulness of the projects they carry out than in their personal enrichment. And that these investors and these entrepreneurs do not find themselves today in the rules of the game of investment funds, modeled on that of the gold digger: to fall on a vein, to value it by as many barriers as possible, and to resell it quickly to get rich. Rules that twist projects and players: a generation of young talents of idealistic entrepreneurs becomes a generation of frantic gold diggers, ready to sell their start-up to the giant with the highest bid.
The co-founders are entrepreneurs who have proven that they know how to start businesses and who want to break this rule of the game. T4P brings together three teams: the co-founders, the investors and the entrepreneurs. Each team has a clear role, and everyone on each team can give their best without ulterior motives, because they know that their enthusiasm will go to the common mission and not to the personal enrichment of another player. This logic of playing together extends to the T4P environment, which would like to have only partners and no competitors: all its know-how and that of its participations will be in open source and the company wants its organization and everything it produces is replicated to the maximum.
Let's see the rules set for each team.
The co-founders
The co-founders renounce personal enrichment, since they do not expect any gain from their shares and they cap their remuneration at 4 minimum wage: a significant saving compared to traditional funds. On the other hand, they have the free conduct of the project in the long term, and they have built the tool for that. The status of T4P is that of the Société en Commandite par Action (SCA), a status rarely associated with the general interest (it is for example that of Lagardère), but which ensures the long-term autonomy of co-founders (the general partners), irremovable and with full management powers: they appoint the managers of the company (themselves), chair the general meeting of shareholders, and approve its decisions. Their financial risk is limited, as is their remuneration, since their shares are grouped together in a company which shields the general partner's liability for his personal property.
Investors
As many investors as possible, are shareholders of T4M. They too renounce any personal enrichment: they know that the stock will not increase and that the company will not pay dividends. They have a dual role, that of providing money, and that of approving projects (on the basis of one action, one vote) and above all of discussing and pushing them. The advantage of T4P projects over those of traditional funds will be that they are discussed, improved and supported by a growing community of shareholders who will be their salespeople, their innovative force, their customers, their partners, etc.
The action is and will always be worth one euro, because the company will permanently issue, once or twice a year, new shares at this price, through a capital increase a first is in progress, aiming to increase the capital to € 600.000 by integrating the declarations of intent already collected). The shares are negotiable, but after notification to the company which may or may not acquire (the logic is that it does not). A redemption by T4P is possible within 10 years, also at one euro per share (the commitment is moral and not legal). The non-distribution of dividends is obtained by statutes which send it back… to the day when global warming will have returned to that of the pre-industrial era!
Entrepreneurs
The third category of players, entrepreneurs financed by T4P, also limit their personal enrichment, since their remuneration is capped and the company created will be majority-owned by T4P (which will then provide the necessary means) and will renounce any patent protecting its knowledge. -do (open source). Entrepreneurs and their team will be able to devote themselves entirely to the success of their project. They will all be united around the same objective, without the barriers created in start-ups by the number of shares held by each according to their date of arrival in the company.
And the controls?
A scientific committee controls the quality of the projects, which are tested before being proposed to shareholders. The shareholders choose the auditor and elect a Supervisory Board, which has extensive powers of control. The Council has no legal responsibility for management errors, but a strong moral responsibility, that of the arbitrator indicating that the letter or the spirit of the agreed rules has not been respected.
The strength of this control rests less on the texts than on the logic chosen by T4P of transparency of the rules and the game. This transparency is extraordinarily facilitated by the renunciation of personal enrichment and the absence of business secrets to protect. Everyone sees what others are doing and knows the rules. Each team knows they can't do anything without the other two, and knows the game would end if the trust was broken. And no one wants him to stop!
All in all, this new form of society, which we could perhaps call the SEG, or Société d'Enrichissement Général, will surely evolve, but it is testing an original model which we can only hope for success and reproduction.
) and an ecological concern that others would not have.