EmblemThe relatively recent European company VC with its registered office in Paris publicizes the final closing of the first fund. Eighteen months after the first closure of the emblem team, a total of 80 million euros was secured (around 85 million USD at current exchange rates).
This is a considerable feat in the current financing environment. According to the latest European state of Atomico in 2024, financing Venture fell for the third yr in a row. One of the primary reasons is that the acquisitions and IPO are not likely going to work now.
As a result, VC as an investment category is less attractive than it was. Several VC firms are trying to lift funds for one other despite the current artificial intelligence boom, which may potentially be a huge investment opportunity.
But this didn’t stop the emblem from reaching a hard hat – the maximum amount that it was originally aimed at collecting. Founded by Bénédict de Raphélis Soissan and Guillaume Durao, the duo has already made several interesting investments as business angels before creating an emblem. They have invested in a card game in cryptographic trade SowStartup of pet insurance Dalmaand a cultivated meat company GourmeyTo mention only a few.
They desired to go a step further with the appropriate VC company, which to the emblem, an investment company that wishes to make 25 to 30 investments with the initial fund. Ideally, they would favor to run or run seeds with tickets from 500,000 euros to EUR 3 million. But the company is able to follow one other primary investor, if there is a good opportunity.
(*85*) has already invested in 16 startups from the first closing in March 2023. Techcrunch covered several of them. Examples include:
- Pivot, a purchase tool and competitor CoPa.
- Mobile companyInspiration for drawing voodoo and other studio consumer applications B2B Studio B2B.
- Altrove, a recent material company using artificial intelligence and automation of the laboratory to speed up research.
- Volta, an online trading platform, akin to Shopify, but focused only on B2B transactions.
This is a diverse portfolio when it involves the area of interest, but also geographical. “We made 16 investments. To give you an idea, there are eight in France, six in Scandinavians – Denmark, Sweden – and then we made one in the USA and one in Italy, “said TechCrunch de Raphélis Soissan.
The primary emphasis stays on France and the Nordic technology ecosystem. He has over 200 limited partners who have invested in the first fund, including family offices and technological entrepreneurs, akin to the founders of Unity, Pleo, Qonto, 3Shape, Spendesk, Voodoo, Pennylane, Jobandtalent, Ledger and Zendesk. They put on greater than half of the total amount.
The rest were collected from several funds, in addition to the obligations of each EIFO (Danish Sovereign Fund) and Bpifrance (The French Suvereign Fund). (*85*) already thinks about its next fund, which needs to be more or less the same size as this.
“Now we have some time when we don’t have to raise. So we enjoy it. But you never want to be outside the market, said De Raphélis Soissan. “So, because the implementation takes you 4 years, and we are half, it signifies that next yr we’ll have to start out again.”