If you’re a French entrepreneur, there’s a new venture capital firm in town.
Ovni Capital announces the first close of €50 million ($54 million at today’s exchange rate) for its seed-stage fund.
The firm’s two general partners, Arnaud Laurent and Augustin Sayer, have already invested in several companies in their previous jobs.
Laurent worked with Didier Soucheyr to create XLR Capital and invest in startups such as MWM and Onoff.
He has also invested in emerging startups through WeSprint, a startup accelerator.
Sayer grew up in the US and started his career there.
He was recently a partner at Newfund Capital, where he invested in 22 different startups such as FairMoney and Umiami.
As for the firm’s investment thesis, Omni Capital wants to support new startups with strong international ambitions from day one.
According to the Ovni team, many French entrepreneurs are still thinking about global expansion too late. That’s why the number of unicorns per head is higher in Berlin or Stockholm than in France.
“Statistically, we also see that French startups are three times more likely to get a Series B if they take this international approach from the start,” Augustin Sayer said in a statement.
In addition to this focus on startups with foreign employees or startups that communicate internally in English.
Ovni Capital will favor deep technology startups instead of platform games, marketplaces or software-as-a-service verticals.
And the VC firm plans to support entrepreneurs by bringing experts to the board.
Ovni Capital tried to raise money from successful entrepreneurs as much as possible.
In total, the firm managed to convince 50 French technology entrepreneurs to support the fund.
If some of them want to be actively involved, they can represent Ovni Capital on the boards of portfolio companies.
The company plans to invest between €250,000 and €2 million in 30 different startups.
In some cases, Ovni Capital may invest up to EUR 4 million in subsequent rounds.
First Portfolio Company Aseptio is a user consent management startup that recently raised €3.5 million from Isai, Evolem and Ovni Capital.
Sources: Techcrunch | newsfet.com