Alexandre Mars is a French entrepreneur,

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

and author.

Entrepreneurship

In 1992, at the age of 17 and while still in high school, Alexandre Mars started his first venture organizing concerts. The money he earned allowed him to launch A2X, one of the first French web agencies, along with a friend when he was 22. He sold the company in 1998 and launched his venture capital firm. In 2002, Mars created Phonevalley, a mobile advertising and marketing agency that he sold to

Publicis Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. One of the oldest and largest marketing and communications companies in the world by revenue, it is headquartered in Paris. After 1945, the little-known Paris ...

in 2007. In 2006, he started ScrOOn, a platform specialized in social media that he sold to

Blackberry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

in 2013.

Philanthropic activities

In 2014, he created the

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Epic Foundation, which selects and funds organizations that fight childhood and youth inequality in areas like education, health, safety and social and professional reinsertion. The foundation develops giving solutions for companies and individuals. Its operational costs are entirely financed by Mars to the amount of more than $2 million annually, thanks to the revenues generated by his venture capital firm ''blisce/'', which invests in startups like

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

and

Pinterest Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...

Awards and honors

In 2015, Alexandre Mars was named among the “Top 20 Philanthropists Under 40” by ''

The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...

''. As President of the Commission for Sports and Society during Paris’s olympic bid, Alexandre Mars was chosen in 2018 by Tony Estanguet, head of the 2024 Olympics & Paralympic Games, to serve as a board member and ambassador.

Personal information

Alexandre Mars is married and has four children.

Notable works

* ''OSE : TOUT LE MONDE PEUT DEVENIR ENTREPRENEUR'', FLAMMARION, 2020 * ''Giving: Purpose is the New Currency'', HarperOne/HarperCollins, 2019 * ''La Révolution du partage'', Flammarion, 2018

References

External links

Epic Foundation website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mars, Alexandre Living people French philanthropists People from Boulogne-Billancourt HEC Paris alumni Paris Dauphine University alumni French company founders Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Year of birth missing (living people)