Nico Simko

Paris-based VC Breega hits first close of $75M Africa fund to back pre-seed and seed startups #paris-based-vc-breega-75m-africa-fund

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Whether you're a French startup founder or investing in the French tech ecosystem, this is a must-have resource: The Serena 2024 Edition of the Ultimate VC List is live! Fundraising can be incredibly time-consuming. That’s why, back in 2016, Serena created the Ultimate VC List to streamline the process for entrepreneurs in France. Now an interactive platform, it has supported over 100,000 entrepreneurs and VCs in the ecosystem. Some key trends Sébastien Le Roy and Maxime Furet spotted when putting this edition together: 🚀 The French VC ecosystem is thriving with new funds like Resonance, OVNI Capital, Yellow, and Varsity, signaling a vibrant and expanding market. 🌍 There’s increased interest from US and European funds for French startups, particularly in AI and climate tech, and a rise in non-traditional investors such as Business Angel Clubs and Family Offices (which are now covered by a new section). 🔧 Infrastructure investors are playing a critical role in funding innovative hybrid models amid global warming challenges. ♻️ The growing presence of impact VCs highlights the focus on socially and environmentally impactful investments.

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Thrilled to finally reveal the launch of FlexAI, led by the incredible Brijesh Tripathi and Dali Kilani, which just raised a $30M seed round to make AI compute infrastructure more efficient and accessible to everyone. Our investment thesis: 1. Strong macro-tailwinds - Compute for AI is a mature market with sustainable demand growth from new models over the next years - But the compute demand is already exceeding data center capacities and supply of GPUs, creating a supply constraint for Nvidia’s top units - AI model development is attracting large amounts of funding, much of which will be dedicated to computation and costs/performance will matter more and more. 2. The need for a European AI infrastructure - Compute power is high on the geopolitical agenda. Who will control AI will control the world. - European AI model companies rely today on US-based hardware and US-based cloud providers to build "European" AI models - If Data sovereignty and security matter, then there is an urgent need for a European AI compute platform 3. An exceptionally skilled team to build this European AI compute platform - Brijesh has built customized systems and hardware for AI use cases at NVIDIA and Apple before, and designed + scaled compute systems for autonomous driving at Tesla and Zoox, as well as with the Intel super-compute platform - Dali has a demonstrated track record of executing and delivering both hardware and software projects, and leading engineering teams (this is the second time we back him, not a coincidence!) - both have known each other for a long time and worked together at NVIDIA. have built GPUs themselves and were there when Apple and Tesla decided their launch their own chips for the exact same reasons (cost and performance trade-off + reduce dependency on third party suppliers). - They have already demonstrated the strength of their network by signing key partnerships even before product launch and have assembled Tier 1 advisors around FlexAI. Thrilled to be partnering with Alpha Intelligence Capital, Heartcore Capital , Elaia , Frst and Motier Ventures to build the AI compute infrastructure the world needs, made in Paris (with love). https://lnkd.in/e3aXXZSB cc Partech

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The French government is spearheading a renewed push to integrate the European Union's fragmented capital markets to revive the bloc's flourishing startup ecosystem and reduce their dependence on U.S. venture capital funds. Complicated local regulations and oversight have prevented the EU from developing deep, unified capital markets on par with the U.S. This forces promising European startups to inevitably turn to U.S. VCs and IPO markets as they scale, representing a missed wealth creation opportunity for the bloc. French officials argue that reviving the long-stalled EU capital markets union must be a top priority. This would harmonize financial rules and oversight across the 27-nation bloc, providing startups access to larger pools of integrated risk capital. While the majority of the nations are on board, at least in principle, several governments remain reluctant to cede regulatory control of their financial markets. Another proposed solution involves getting public sector investors, such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), more involved in riskier startup bets.

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IA funding is (still) surging. As uncertainty continues in the start-up ecosystem, IA is still trending. For example the amount raised by AI media generation deals doubles since Q4 2023. But one spot seem to be left on the side : AI tools for investors. VC are betting big on AI but aren’t using AI at all to make better bets. And the AI castle might crumble one day. The CEO of Hugging Face is already warning that dozens of founders are reaching out on a weekly basis to be acquired. So there might be a lot of losing bets still alive. So why so few start-ups are working to solve this issue? Is it because the market is to small? Is it because VCs don’t believe in a data-driven approach (I don’t believe in this one, VCs are too smart to not try something new)? Or simply nobody’s building in this ecosystem? A few start-ups are starting to try to tacle the problem. And we’re on this path to. Easing data collection on the start-up, the market and competitors. Carefully selecting the right metrics to make the right decision. And making it simple and super efficient so you don’t spend hours on it anymore. If you’re curious to see how it works, shoot me a DM 👀 #AI #VC #startup

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What you need to know this week in 🇫🇷 French Tech Updates: 🤦‍♂️ My thoughts on this tweet and the reactions it sparked 🤴 Why San Francisco is the Iron Throne of the startup world 🤖 Mistral reportedly raising again at a $5b valuation 💶 5 French startups who raised €22.75M Get the whole update here! https://lnkd.in/eaYbFT94 #startups #venturecapital #frenchtech #ai

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While Silicon Valley and El Segundo may be the first names that come to mind when VCs think of deep tech hubs, New York is growing its footprint too. With leading deep tech startups like Hugging Face, RunwayML, Via, and Bowery Farming already based in the Big Apple, the city's deep tech ecosystem is slowly but surely headed in the right direction. In fact, New York's share of US fundraising continues to rise, surpassing 15% of total US VC deal volume for the first time in 2023. A recent New York Post article highlighted some of the exciting neighborhoods pushing deep tech innovation in the city, like the Brooklyn Navy Yard which is seeing a resurgence in hardware and manufacturing, the Brooklyn Army Terminal which is now a hub for climate-tech, and Manhattan/Brooklyn broadly which face a rapid uptick in AI/ML talent. I've only just started my journey in deep tech, but I wanted to give a special shoutout to folks like Rohan Pujara at Valhalla Ventures and Saptarsi Bandyopadhyay at NSIN who are actively fostering a more connected and inclusive deep tech community here in NYC. If you are a local founder or VC working in the space, I would love to connect and continue fueling NYC's deep tech boom.

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With Altrove, Emblem is backing a clear "moonshot", a startup offering a pretty unique risk/reward profile, and... its first French/Nordic founding team! 😊 Thibaud Martin (former founder and CEO of Jubiwee, a startup acquired by Haiilo in 2022) and Joonatan Laulainen, PhD (Materials Science PhD from University of Cambridge) are on a mission to enable more efficient and faster inorganic materials discovery, using AI and lab automation. Altrove aims to help its customers address the key challenges of achieving climate goals and de-risking their supply chain (geopolitical concerns, price volatility, tariffs, etc.) by collaborating with them on designing, synthesizing, and manufacturing alternatives to their critical materials, starting with those containing rare earth elements. We are embarking on this purposeful journey next to fantastic co-investors such as Contrarian Ventures, our friends Mikkel Hesselgren and Nicklas Jensen from Deichmann Media (who are building one of the most forward-thinking European family offices), Entrepreneur First, and business angels like Thomas Clozel (CEO of Owkin) and Julien Chaumond (CTO at Hugging Face). Should you want to learn more about altrove’s specific approach in this dynamic field, you will find a link to the great article written by Romain Dillet from TechCrunch in the comments below. Cc: Bénédicte de Raphélis Soissan, Rokas Peciulaitis, Robina v. Stein, Nikolaj Deichmann, Coralie Chaufour

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I'm very proud to share the news about our TLcom Capital LLP TIDE Africa II fund final close at $154mn. While we remain laser focused on our journey to build the best early stage VC in the world investing in Africa, this is a serious milestone for us more than doubling our first fund size, expanding team, entering new African markets and most importantly growing the ability to partner with the best and brightest founders out there building in and for Africa. Many thanks for all our LPs, the many who kept believing in us since TIDE Africa I, and those who decided to back us on this one and join our journey - we couldn't make it without you! https://lnkd.in/eDjapC85 On a more personal note, it's been a patchy year. A year full of reflection, learning and realisations. In a world that keeps going sideways often fuelled by populists agendas, wars and hate, and with too many of us wanting to always win (by making sure someone else is losing), not being able to digest and understand complexities and nuances, and feeling obliged to have a firm view within 20sec about everything, our responsibility is even bigger. It's tough out there. On the macro, on the details and on everything in between. So what does it have to do with Africa VC? We have the privilege of helping and supporting the ones who stand up, look complexity in the eye and decide to build for the better. Of course we want and need it to return multiples of cash, but our real job is be there for the journey, and remember it's never "linear up into the right". To partner with those who can understand the complexity and nuances of the problem better than anyone (and not try and flatten it), but can define simple and scalable solutions to these complexities. Have a long term strategy and vision, and not a short sighted view. Distinct the core of the problem from the noise, paint in their (and our) minds how the world will look in a decade and create a path to get there and make it better. And in all of it, it remains about people. People who need to have the drive, the focus, the mental flexibility and curiosity but also the boldness to embark on these journeys. And our role is to help. To listen, to be a sounding board. The most trusted advisor, but also push back when needs be. And through all of it remain humane, and remember they too have life outside work, feelings, challenges and difficulties. So what's next? I'm nearing 13years in, but it's only the beginning... With the best partners and team around, we celebrate, but keep our eyes on the prize. Build a memorable platform, partner with the best founders out there and contribute what we can to making Africa better, while embracing complexity, diversity, nuances keeping curious and humane. Now back to work. A lot to build... With Maurizio Caio Omobola Johnson Andreata Muforo and Eloho Omame #AfricanTech #VentureCapital #Startup

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Over the past 18 months, I've spent hundreds of hours researching French startups and scaleups. Inspired by Jeffrey Bussgang's annual Rocket Ship Startup List, I decided to create a database with the most exciting, high-growth, high-potential companies I've found. The result is ⭐️ The French 84: the most promising startups in France ⭐️ The database captures the companies that I believe will be great places to work at, invest in, or partner with. This is the resource I wish I had when I first arrived in France and I hope you find it helpful! See the full list here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gvyQ-zdK? #startups #frenchtech #venturecapital INSEAD

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From missing payroll 27 times to making over 500 investments! Meet Fabrice Grinda, named No. 1 Angel Investor by Forbes, who has made over $300 million in exits from over 700 investments! Fabrice began his entrepreneurial journey in 1998 by co-founding Aucland in France. In 1999, he raised $18M from Bernard Arnault, a venture fund luxury-goods magnate in exchange for 51% of the company. Later in 2000, Fabrice sold the rest to his fund. Fabrice founded Zingy in 2001, a mobile media startup. Despite facing early struggles and missing payroll 27 times, he finally succeeded when the company’s revenue scaled to $200M in 2004. Later, he sold Zingy for $80M to a Japanese media conglomerate ForSide. In 2006, Fabrice co-founded OLX with Alec Oxenford, which became one of the largest classified sites in the world with over 200 million monthly unique visitors. In 2010, the South African group Naspers Limited acquired it. Soon, Fabrice found a yearning for angel investing and building startups. He partnered with Jose Marin to jointly evaluate angel investment opportunities, and launched FJ Labs, a VC firm, to further pool the startup investment activities. Earlier, when they made around 178 investments, they received a 5.5x average return on 31 profitable exits. Among his angel investments are: Airbnb Alibaba Group Dropbox Palantir Technologies viagogo Wikimarket Uber Parking Panda To date, Fabrice, through FJ Labs, has made over 1000 startup investments and over 300 exits with an impressive realized 39-40% IRR. Fabrice’s portfolio allocation is 20% cash, 70% early-stage tech startups, and 10% real estate. As a serial angel investor, Fabrice and his team analyze over 100 companies weekly and make new investments every 15 days. His investment ticket size remains around $10k to $300k. He decides whether to invest or not based on four criteria: -The team -The pitch (market size & business model) -The product -The commercials Would you allocate 70% of your assets to startups? TDV Partners #angelinvesting #finance #investing #wealthcreation #ujwalsutaria #tdvpartners

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Four years ago today, I launched First Check Ventures as a passion project to support great founders and keep busy during the pandemic. Today, we have more than 4,000 LPs, invested in 100+ companies across 5 continents and 25 countries, and delivered incredible returns for our investors. We take pride in discovering the next generation of unicorn founders and being the first check in for over 90% of our investments. Our founding teams are diverse (97%) and have at least one female co-founder (45%). These four years have been the best of my life. Witnessing the growth of our portfolio companies, founders evolving, and strengthening partnerships has been truly rewarding. I thank everyone for their role in this journey and hope to continue to build trust with those who put their trust in me. Although I've been quiet on social media this year, I've been working on exciting things that will be shared publicly soon. #VentureCapital #Startups #DiversityandInclusion #Entrepreneurship #Investing #FirstCheckVentures #angelinvesting #angelinvestors #earlystage #angellist #startupfunding #startups #venturecapital #latinamerica #emergingmarkets

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💟 This is the kind of news that makes you love Venture Capital! 🦄🇫🇷 Some will only remember the €1.5 billion exit for a French company. It's not a UNICORN valuation, it's a real EXIT! 3️⃣ 6️⃣ Some will only remember the x36 multiple on investment. 💥 Some will only remember the €175 million proceeds returned to the funds with a single operation. 👑What I'll remember, is Denis Ladegaillerie's passion, vision, and ambition. These are the keys to success. Excited to share this fantastic news for Believe, for Ventech, but also for the entire Tech ecosystem! 🚀 #VentureCapital #SuccessStory cc France Digitale

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Unveiling the Secrets of Equity Distribution in Over 400 Successful Startups: A profound analysis conducted by Hervé Lebret explores the fascinating world of equity allocation in startups that have gone public. This report not only gives us historical insights but also offers a detailed breakdown across various sectors and regions, shedding light on trends that have shaped the startup landscape. Key Insights: 1) Evolution of Equity Practices: Starting from the early days in Silicon Valley with Fairchild Semiconductor, equity distribution has evolved into a complex but strategic tool for aligning interests among founders, investors, and employees. 2) Variations Across Sectors: The report highlights significant differences in equity distribution among sectors such as biotech, medtech, and tech startups, with adjustments tailored to specific industry demands and lifecycle stages. 3) Geographical Differences: It also delves into how practices vary by region, with notable distinctions between places like Silicon Valley and Boston, and even international contrasts. Equity is not just a means of compensation but a strategic lever that can drive alignment, motivate significant contributions, and foster long-term loyalty. The insights provided by analyzing these 400 companies illuminate paths that current and future entrepreneurs and investors can consider for optimizing their strategies. PS. check out 🔔 for a winning pitch deck the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel https://lnkd.in/eA8XCZGr

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ummary: A French startup, FlexAI, has raised €28.5 million in seed funding to create a cloud service for AI training. The company aims to simplify the complex process of accessing and managing computational resources for AI development. Key takeaways: FlexAI's founders have impressive backgrounds in engineering and AI development. The company's goal is to make AI compute infrastructure as easy to use as general purpose cloud services. FlexAI's cloud service will allow developers to access virtual heterogeneous compute across multiple architectures on a usage basis. Counter arguments: Some may argue that there are already existing AI compute solutions in the market, such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. There may be concerns about data privacy and security when using a cloud service for AI development. ummary: A French startup, FlexAI, has raised €28.5 million in seed funding to create a cloud service for AI training. The company aims to simplify the complex process of accessing and managing computational resources for AI development. Key takeaways: FlexAI's founders have impressive backgrounds in engineering and AI development. The company's goal is to make AI compute infrastructure as easy to use as general purpose cloud services. FlexAI's cloud service will allow developers to access virtual heterogeneous compute across multiple architectures on a usage basis. Counter arguments: Some may argue that there are already existing AI compute solutions in the market, such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. There may be concerns about data privacy and security when using a cloud service for AI development. #venturecapital #vc #venture

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🚀 Exciting Collaboration Opportunity: Tokenization of Real Assets with BIS Innovation Hub! 🚀 I'm thrilled to share that BIS Innovation Hub is seeking private financial institutions to collaborate on their groundbreaking Project Agora, focusing on the tokenization of real-world assets to enhance cross-border payments. This presents a unique opportunity for financial institutions to engage in a transformative initiative. 📄 Summary of the Project: Project Agora, initiated by BIS along with seven central banks (Bank of France, Bank of Japan, Swiss National Bank, etc.), aims to integrate tokenized commercial bank deposits with tokenized central bank money. This initiative seeks to streamline cross-border payments using blockchain technology and smart contracts, addressing inefficiencies in the current financial system. 🤝 Synergies with BitSpectrum: BitSpectrum, with its decentralized finance solutions, is perfectly positioned to complement Project Agora. Here’s how: - Shared Objectives: Both focus on improving financial systems through blockchain and tokenization. - Complementary Technologies: BitSpectrum’s robust decentralized platform can enhance Project Agora’s unified ledger for cross-border payments. - Enhanced Liquidity Management: BitSpectrum’s tools can ensure efficient liquidity in Project Agora’s framework. - Regulatory Compliance and Security: Both initiatives prioritize meeting international financial standards. 🌟 Call to Action: I'm reaching out to my network for potential joint applicants. If you are a financial institution such as a commercial bank, deposit-taking institution, FMI, or a critical service provider in the payment ecosystem, and you hold an account with any participant central bank, let's explore this opportunity together! 📅 Application Details: - Deadline: May 31, 2024 - More Info: [BIS Project Agora Overview](https://lnkd.in/gPizgG8S) 🔗 Why Collaborate? Partnering with BitSpectrum and Project Agora offers unprecedented international exposure and the potential to secure new accounts while contributing to a pioneering global financial transformation. Interested parties, please DM me or reach out directly via email. Let’s make an impact in the world of finance together! #Tokenization #Blockchain #CrossBorderPayments #FinanceInnovation #CollaborationOpportunity

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Fellow mentors! This post is for you 🌸 Climate tech founders' growth journey is not an obvious one. As mentors, supporting them in a way aligned with the impact we aim for, is not an easy task. #UnderStatement Common startup playbook cannot be the only way forward. So… Because Techstars Sustainability Paris hub is genuinely committed to giving back to its mentors, they gave me the green light to go ahead and create something special as community mentor lead 🔥 Introducing: ▶️ Climate Tech: A new playbook towards life-centered growth ☀️☀️ We co-designed this unique workshop, tailored for your needs and questions, together with 🦓 Moh Al-Haifi expert in growth marketing for impact focused businesses! ✅ Join us for inspiration: hear why it's time to rethink the building blocks of business models and growth in Climate tech startups. ✅ Join us for concrete tactics and fresh ideas: discover how you can leverage "life-centered" growth and communication strategies in your work with your founders. ✅ Join us with a "personal growth" mindset: Ample time will be allowed for questions and recent examples. Logistics: Tuesday April 30th, 5-6 pm CET (+ an extra 30 min for questions and further exploration), online A word about my co-host: Moh Al-Haifi is a social entrepreneur and growth marketer looking at marketing from a regenerative lens. After working within the agency, innovation and startup world as a marketer for over 10 years, he founded and now runs the impact focused growth marketing agency, Zebra Growth. Moh has worked with a variety of social and climate tech startups globally, supporting them to grow with a new type of playbook that is future-fit and aligned with a life-centered economy! Interested? Link available by DM Thank you to Rebecca Ravenni Raphaele Leyendecker Fabbri for saying YES to this embryo of idea last autumn! Photo: luxurious wisteria at my daddy’s garden which embody for me efforts, care and new hope 🌸 #ImpactInvesting #SystemsChange #SharingIsCaring

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The future of venture is about direct partnerships between founders and private investors. This leads to more flexibility in business model and timeline, opening the doors to innovation. This new paradigm requires new financing channels that understand the unique needs of private investors. Their theses, incentives, and strategies are not as standardized as those of VC. The key driver of founder-investor partnerships is trust and authentic relationships, which naturally lead to collaboration and partnership. This can not be achieved through digital marketplaces or fundraising platforms alone. It requires eye contact and hand shakes (and ideally hugs). This is why SVRN is fostering a venture building environment through the format of a social club. We know that when we get a vetted network of founders and investors into consistent, curated social experiences, friendships are formed, and over time, companies are built and investments are made. Check out the article for more on how SVRN is connecting founders, angels, and family offices to drive the new paradigm in venture building. https://lnkd.in/gJRUinMK

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Together with our CTO, Antoine Latrille, I'm delighted to share the study on AI adoption that we conducted across 80 of our startups in France and in the USA. Here is a preview of the key insights: 1) IA integration is about wining the race of productivity => 70% of companies have implemented IA and 67% reported productivity gains. Motivation is not only internal as 1 over 4 startup fear competitor could outpace them. 2) Internal knowledge is preferred as outsourcing => for 90% startups as they want to ensure they can swiftly adapt to AI advancements and maintain control over their innovations 3) US ecosystem is more favorable but both French and American startups share desire to integrate AI => 10 out 12 AI tools are coming from the US with a more favorable regulation and bigger AI investments ($67b against $2b in France in 2023). However 95% of French startups have or want to integrate IA and 1 over 5 have participated in our IA Booster program. Initiated in December, Newfund IA Booster was meant to support startups learn from real-life AI applications, promoting an in-house approach to innovation. At Newfund, we're committed in bridging cross-Atlantic differences and supporting our startups in harnessing the full potential of AI to outpace global competition. To read more about the study: https://lnkd.in/eArUP4uR #AI #Startups #Newfund #USA #France #Innovation

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