Quadia is pleased to announce its participation in the financing round of the France-based sustainable business school GEMA, through its fund focused on the regenerative economy launched in cooperation with the Belgian Bank Degroof Petercam. The investment is realized alongside the French private equity fund UI Investissement.
GEMA – Grandes Ecoles des Métiers d’Avenir – is a French private higher education group specialized in the two fields of sustainable business and artificial intelligence. The group provides courses ranging from Bachelor to Masters as well as basic training and work-study programs.
The qualified teaching corps, working in the two schools based in Boulogne-Billancourt, the ESI Business School and the IA School, is committed to training students on major social, technological and environmental challenges of our times, with a focus on both managerial and organizational as well as technical skills.
Since its founding in 2017, the school has already trained over 2000 students and has the ambition to become a leading school in France’s higher education landscape by preparing students for professions that are highly relevant for the future. The project, led by founder David Derkx, has a very ambitious Corporate Social Responsibility CSR strategy and aims to further develop educational content that combines business skills and technical knowledge relevant to sustainable development challenges. GEMA plans to open several additional campuses across France in the coming years.
The investment aligns with Quadia’s impact investment strategy as GEMA provides an inherently sustainable service which will help to further transform the higher education sector. Indeed, the integration of sustainability in business education worldwide is a key element in changing business practices across the sectors of the economy. Furthermore, the school will be able to integrate into its curricula and extra-curricular activities the particular expertise of Quadia in the area of SME business development, clean energy, sustainable food and circular production and consumption models.
The joint press release (French) can be found here.