Macron pledges €5bn investment for late-stage venture

Marcon explained that the €5bn funding effort will comprise €2bn for investment in so-called "late-stage funds", while €3bn will be invested in publicly listed tech companies.

The financing will be collected from French institutional investors, especially insurers. A French official told Reuters that French insurers Axa and CNP Assurances, as well as asset managers Amundi and Natixis Investment Managers, were among the institutional investors that pledged to contribute.

Macron explained that the government intends to make it easier for startups to attract tickets of €50-100m and facilitate the creation of unicorns – privately-owned startups valued at more than $1bn.

The French president said he would like to see 15-20 more French unicorns by 2022, the end of his current mandate, according to a report by Radio France Internationale (RFI). Deezer, BlaBlaCar, DoctoLib, Meero and OVH are currently the only French unicorns, according to RFI. The region is lagging behind the US with its 182 unicorns, China on 94, and the UK with 25, according to the publication. 

In the first three quarters of the year, the region hosted 39 early-stage investments, totalling an aggregate value of almost €300m, according to Unquote Data. The venture space has performed less well than last year, when an aggregate value of €570m was invested across 88 transactions, though 2018's value was the highest yearly recorded in France to date.

On the fundraising front, 2018 seems likely to outperform this year: €1.58bn was raised in 2018 across 11 final closes, while €748m has been collected across four final closes this year. An additional €5bn raised in the next three years will give a significant boost to the capital availability in the French venture space.

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