Despite the challenging fundraising environment, the French VC industry demonstrated remarkable resilience, establishing itself as one of Europe’s strongest players in 2023. According to Dealroom, France was the only country, aside from Italy, among the top 10 tech markets in Europe where VCs closed more funds in 2023 compared to the previous year. French VCs successfully closed 29 new funds, raising a total of $4.7 billion.
This positive momentum continues into 2024, with new funds emerging to support the growing demand for innovation. One such fund, Wind, has closed its first €90 million of a targeted €130 million, dedicated to European deeptech startups in the climate sector. Additionally, Quantonation Ventures secured €70 million for the second close of its early-stage fund, aiming for a €200 million target to back global startups.
In line with this trend, Axeleo Capital, another prominent French venture firm, has announced the first closing of its €125 million Green Tech Industry I fund. Backed by three major investors — the Révolution Environnementale et Solidaire fund (funded by Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale’s societal dividend), Bpifrance (which invested in companies like Gamestream and Kurma Partners), and the Fonds National de Venture Industriel (FNVI), managed by Bpifrance as part of the French government’s Plan France 2030, alongside the Veolia group — the fund aims to drive investments in the green tech sector.
Currently, the financing of the first plants of industrial and innovative startups lacks resources and specialised players able to take account of their specific industrial and commercial risks. There is a financing gap for such companies that aim to bring a green innovation. Axeleo Capital’s ‘Green Tech Industry I’ fund is impact-driven by nature and classified as Article 9 (SFDR), to finance innovative and resilient green technologies in Europe.
Investing in European geentech
With nearly €300 million in assets under management, this VC firm is taking a new step forward to become one of the major players in Europe in the financing of industrial innovation and is pursuing its VC strategy of developing thematic funds. The firm provides equity investments from seed to Series B stages, operational guidance, and strategic assistance to B2B software and greentech startups.
With a final target of €250 million, GTI I aims to make 15 to 20 investments in Europe with lead tickets ranging from €3 million to €10 million in the energy (new renewable energies, storage, etc.), chemicals, and materials (biomaterials, plastics recycling, etc.), agriculture and food (bio-based fertilisers and pesticides, etc.) and mobility (electric motors, decarbonisation of air and sea transport, etc.) sectors.
Portfolio of investments
These funds have been used to make an initial investment in Sweetch Energy, a start-up specialising in osmotic energy, a permanent, controllable renewable energy source. The capital will be used to finance the first electricity production demonstrator using the innovative INOD® technology, currently being developed in the Rhône delta.
Besides this, Axeleo Capital has backed an interesting lineup of startups as detailed here:
- Saagie: A dataOps platform for data-driven companies, targeting enterprise-scale data initiatives.
- Trustpair: An anti-fraud platform specializing in payments, aiding corporate security.
- Triver: A fintech startup that revolutionises how small businesses access finance.
- Kestra: An unified orchestration platform to simplify orchestration for both engineers and business users.
- Geovelo: A navigation app focused on eco-friendly biking routes.
Who is behind the VC?
Initiated by Guillaume Sarlat (Venture Partner in London) and Marc Lechantre (Partner in Paris), this fund combines financial and industrial expertise. It aims to provide startups and their founders with decisive support at the crucial stage of setting up their first plants and launching them on a large scale.
Guillaume has over 20 years of experience in tech and Greentech as an investment banker and investor. Marc spent over 16 years in the automotive industry with the Stellantis group, in production, strategy, and international management roles.
With the operational involvement of Mathieu Viallard, co-founder of Axeleo Capital, the GTI I team was recently joined by Sandra Dubos as Investment Director. With a degree in biochemistry, Sandra has over 15 years of experience in tech, including six years in venture capital, particularly in deeptech, chemistry, and healthcare.
Following the success of our Software B2B strategies, the launch of GTI I represents a major step in the development of our management company. In line with our values and our entrepreneurial DNA of supporting founders, this fund allows us to address a field of major innovations around decarbonisation, green technologies and the renewal of industrial sectors in Europe,’ said Eric Burdier and Mathieu Viallard, co-founders of Axeleo Capital.
‘With the whole Axeleo Capital team, we are very happy with this first closing which allows us to act now. The support of our sponsors and investors, whom we thank for their confidence, reinforces our collective ambition to contribute to the emergence of tomorrow’s European and green industrial sectors’, said Guillaume Sarlat and Marc Lechantre.
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