Insead, a global business school, and Luxury Tech Fund, the first fund at the intersection of innovation and luxury, have entered a strategic partnership where Insead will become the academic venture partner of Luxury Tech Fund.

Leveraging the growing interactions between Luxury and Tech industries and convinced by the relevance of combining academic and operational excellence, Insead and Luxury Tech Fund will join forces to steer and create a world-leading knowledge hub to support the emergence of “Luxury Tech”.

As the academic venture partner to Luxury Tech Fund, Insead reinforces its entrepreneurial culture and will provide academic knowledge and expertise supporting the emergence of Luxury Tech. The initiative will leverage the school’s best-in-class faculty, programme participants and strong alumni network to boost the luxury tech scene and contribute to further academic research in this area.

Taking advantage of its international deal-flow, Luxury Tech Fund is focused on funding the most innovative, cutting edge and promising ventures in the Luxury Tech universe (tech-enablers, new business models and innovative brands in the fashion, luxury, beauty, lifestyle and retail segments), as well as ventures that will foster disruptive thinking and innovation and durably impact traditional industries.

As a venture capital partner of Insead’s Luxury Initiative, Luxury Tech Fund will provide access to the Luxury Tech start-up ecosystem and contribute to support and accompany venture initiatives born in the Insead network.

Peter Zemsky, Insead deputy dean, dean of Innovation and professor of Strategy, said: “We are pleased to offer Insead participants and alumni access to the outstanding Luxury Tech Fund ecosystem through this new partnership. Both organisations are aligned to support the new generation of entrepreneurs worldwide in this fast-growing sector. We look forward to creating a world-class knowledge hub based on cutting-edge academic research and operational excellence by melding academic thought-leadership with industry expertise and entrepreneurial talent.”

 Céline Lippi, co-founder and managing partner of Luxury Tech Fund, said: “The luxury industry has been struggling to evolve with the advent of digitalization and technology. Global economy uncertainties have led to a need for new business models reinvention as a lever for growth & sustainability.

“A new wave of visionary founders driven by innovation, creativity, excellence, a will of creating a lasting impact for the next generation of consumers to lay dawn the foundations of an increasingly strong start-up ecosystem that will shape the industry. Our partnership with Insead will reinforce those foundations for future international outreach around the Luxury Tech directly linked to the Luxury industry.”

David Dubois, associate professor of Marketing at Insead, said: “As we witness the strong momentum of new Luxury Tech actors that reshape the industry, this partnership helps us to pioneer innovative research and pedagogical initiatives in this area.

“This first ‘Think Tank in Action’ bringing together alumni, partners, mentors, and industry experts from both Insead and Luxury Tech Fund, is a big step for the industry. I’m confident that the joint effort of both Insead’s strong alumni network and broader community and Luxury Tech Fund’s deep operational expertise will create a knowledge powerhouse and pave the road for entrepreneurs, academics and other actors contributing to this ecosystem.”

Geoffroy Rosset, managing partner at Luxury Tech Fund, stated: “Leveraging outstanding talents, academic and industry resources as well as market leaders in the Luxury and Tech industries will offer Europe the unique opportunity to take the lead in the exponential growth of the Luxury Tech segment globally. Our partnership with Insead will allow us to pave the way in this direction and ensure that Luxury Tech has a bright future ahead.”

The partnership is expected to further stimulate the industry by engaging all stakeholders – start-ups, investors, corporates, schools, alumni o media – and will kick off with a series of initiatives including:

•    Inaugural publication of a Luxury Tech Barometer 

•    White Paper publications and cases

•    Collaboration for the Insead RCLG (Retail, Consumer and Luxury Goods) Forum

•    Project work with Insead MBA participants to support start-ups under Luxury Tech Fund͛’s portfolio – TradeArabia News Service