Autonomie et Solidarité promotes employment in the northern region of France and to this end, encourages entrepreneurship, anyway a strong feature of the economic history of the region.
With this objective in mind, A&S counsels and provides equity and other financing to start-ups or fresh-starts deemed successful in providing good employment.
130 companies make up the portfolio of Autonomie et Solidarité. Each year 30 new companies join, others exit since the policy of A&S is to sell out in year six after having arranged for the entrepreneur to acquire the A&S shares if he wishes to do so.
Autonomie et Solidarité has been practising this particular not for profit venture capital activity for more than twenty-five years.
Sylvain Bluntz, a board member of A&S, was among the founding individual shareholders which are now more than two thousand three hundred. Sylvain has a track record with various FMCG multinational companies in the field of innovation.
Several major financial institutions have equity in Autonomie et Solidarité: Caisse des Dépôts, Mirova Natixis, Amundi, Mandarine, Crédit Coopératif, Caisses d'Epargne CIC and others, along with La Région Hauts de France.