Orange has launched a new venture fund that will be investing in digital startups “working on the new and next transformations of the telecoms and digital sectors.” E-health is one of the fund’s areas of interest, in addition to big data, communication, connectivity, the cloud, payment, the Internet of Things and security services.

The Orange Digital Ventures will be investing in startups across the carrier’s vast footprint, not just France (its home turf). It will take capital investments via minority holdings in companies developing innovative solutions and technologies, as well as inventing new business models.

“Orange intends to leverage its already active role in the global digital ecosystem, and through these new investments get closer to companies that are agile at grasping and acting on technology shifts vital to the creation of tomorrow’s digital services,” the company said in a statement.

The company believes this new approach will reinforce existing “Orange open innovation initiatives, like Orange Fab, while also allowing the support of new companies in their ramp-up phases.” The goal is to transform talented entrepreneurs into key players in their chosen markets and in so doing, benefit Orange and its customers. We’ll see how that goes…