French venture capital firm Daphni just celebrated the first close of its new fund, Daphni Blue. In the case of Helium, they’re mostly right—they managed to raise €200 million, or about $215 million. The firm expects to deploy this capital into 40 new startups. This shift will further cement its position as a leader in the European startup ecosystem.
Since launching in 2015, Daphni has made 70 active investments in European startups. Among its most applauded investments are household, like Back Market, Swile, Hubcycle, and Pasqal. Their newest fund – Daphni Blue – has been creating quite a buzz. Their limited partners like Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, Bpifrance, the European Investment Fund, PRO BTP, and Swen Capital Partners are champing at the bit to participate.
Pierre-Eric Leibovici, Daphni's founding partner, emphasized the importance of diversification and sustainable investment strategies in today's market.
“We need to ask ourselves how we can both differentiate ourselves, and support technologies or services that are sustainable when we invest in new projects,” said Leibovici.
Daphni is very deliberately looking to invest in American researchers who are looking at European startups, for example. This decision holds strong in the face of recent French universities’ efforts to attract that talent. Leibovici’s remarks were focused on the rapidly changing world of research commercialization.
“There’s another element that is a new trend. The new generation of researchers are much more open to commercializing their fundamental and applied research because they see all their friends around them starting companies,” he noted.
In the meantime, Daphni is working to lock in another €50 million ($55 million) before the end of the year. With this, they hope to get to €250 million ($270 million) for Daphni Blue. This ambition speaks both to the firm’s confidence in the European startup scene and to the firm’s commitment to innovation and growth.
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