Our Founder’s Story – Breteau Foundation

Our Founder's Story

The Breteau Foundation

Sebastien Breteau founded the Breteau Foundation in 2013, a non-profit organisation with a vision to provide access to quality education for all children, regardless of background or location.

Starting as a pilot with its flagship EdTech Tablet Programme in two schools and 50 students in South Africa, the Breteau Foundation has rapidly expanded to 13 countries and now supports over 100,000 children. The Foundation partners with schools, NGOs and local governments which most recently includes a partnership with the Western Cape Education Department in South Africa that will roll out teacher training across the district and impact 50,000 children who will receive tablets, preloaded with educational apps in numeracy, literacy, critical thinking and creativity. In addition to the EdTech Tablet Programme, the Foundation runs a number of hybrid and offline initiatives to accommodate diverse learning settings and remote environments. In 2022, education programmes launched in shelters and community centres in Ukraine which borrowed from the success and learnings from our work with refugee children in Lebanon.

The Foundation is led by a team of passionate educators based in the UK, South Africa, Lebanon, Ukraine and Latin America and Caribbean region who continue to provide pedagogical and localised expertise to enhance quality education for children.

Education And Career

Outside of the Breteau Foundation, Sebastien is a successful entrepreneur, investor and avocado farmer. He is the founder and CEO of QIMA, a solutions provider for global supply chain quality and compliance of consumer goods and food.

After graduating from HEC Paris in 1997, Sebastien moved to Hong Kong, where he developed his experience with the Asian markets and supply chains. He quickly started his entrepreneurial journey by setting the first operation to import Tamagotchi to France. He then created a company specializing in the design and export of promotional products and packaging, servicing large FMCG companies in Europe which rapidly expanded to other countries outside the EU and developed an internal need for supply chain quality control and supplier compliance.

In 2005, Sebastien Breteau founded AsiaInspection with the core concept of taking quality control online. The company received the Best SME award from Christine Lagarde on behalf of the French Chamber of Commerce in 2006, and the ‘E-Business of the Year’ award from Alibaba in 2008.

In 2018, AsiaInspection became QIMA to better reflect the global coverage and the tech-enabled services the company provides. Over the years, Sebastien has led QIMA through a number of successful joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions of over 15 companies.

Today, QIMA partners with 30,000 brands, retailers and importers globally to secure and manage their global supply chain through their unique technology platform. The company has become a leading player, employing over 3,500 people in 35 offices and operating in 85 countries.

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Breteau Foundation
48 – 49 St. James’s Street London, United Kingdom