French firm VC Daphni is announcing the first closure of its new fund, Daphni Blue. The firm has raised € 200 million (about $ 215 million in current exchange rates). He expects to collect up to € 250 million ($ 270 million) by the end of the year.
Some of Daphni’s most prominent investments of the past include the rear market, Swile, hubcycle and pulp. In general, the firm has invested in 70 European startups since 2015.
With his latest fund, Daphni plans to invest in 40 other startups. Limited partners in Daphni Blue include Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, BPIPRANCE, European Investment Fund, Pro BTP and Swen Capital Partners.
“We need to wonder how we can both distinguish, and support technologies or services that are sustainable when investing in new projects,” founding partner Pierre-Eric Leibovici.
“Because at the end of the day, there are cycles, and we can see that at some point, or the consolidon market, or it prevails by American players, or after all, there was not enough progress to start.”
While most VV firms mention artificial intelligence in every other sentence, Daphni wants to emphasize science (in general) as the main factor for the other wave of innovation: life sciences, biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics.
“When you talk about quantum, well calculation, quantum computing is the basic physics combined with hardware and software,” Leibovici said. He also said that large language models are advances in mathematics first and most importantly.
As a result, Daphni is recruiting different profiles to join the team. For example, a doctorate graduate and a doctoral student are in the investment team.
“There is another element that is a new trend. The new generation of researchers is much more open to commercialize their basic and applied research because they see all their friends around them the companies starting,” Leibovici said.
While French universities are setting aside part of their budget to attract American scholars, Daphni says he did not choose to focus on basic science because of this.
“It’s a coincidence. We started this long before there was this trend,” Leibovici said. Of course, Daphni is open to invest in American scholars who are starting a start in Europe.
In addition, Daphni will have to establish this newly raised capital and prove that he has found an efficient investment strategy. “Growing is not a goal in itself. What is a goal in itself is the distribution of returns, and therefore emerges,” Leibovici said.
