Idinvest et al. in €150m series-E round for Sigfox

The pool of existing shareholders – BPI France, Elliott Management Corporation, Intel Capital, Air Liquide, Idinvest and Ixo – were joined by new backers Salesforce, Total Energy Ventures, Parrott, Alto Invest, Swen Capital Partners and Tamer Group.

Additional investors are also expected to join the round to reach the announced €150m, as the round features a greenshoe allowing new strategic and financial partners to join the group's capital.

Idinvest invested via its Growth Fund I, which is now fully invested, and announced a first close on €250m for its Growth Fund II.

The new round, which brings the total raised by the startup to around €230m, is aimed at enabling Sigfox to expand its international network from 26 to 60 countries by 2018 and hit its break-even point.

Previous funding
In 2015, French cellular network operator Sigfox raised €100m from strategic and financial sponsors. Existing backers Elaia Partners, Ixo, Partech Ventures, BPI France and Idinvest all reinvested in the round. They were joined by Elliott, Telefonica, SK Telecom, NTT Docomo Ventures, GDF Suez, Aliad (the corporate venture arm of Air Liquide Group) and Eutelstat.

The funding round was aimed at supporting Sigfox's expansion into new markets, predominantly in the US. The round comprised a first close of around €80m and a greenshoe of €20m to allow new investors to join the round in the following months.

In March 2014, the company had raised €15m from a consortium comprising Idinvest, BPI France, Elaia, Intel Capital, Partech and Ixo. Elaia, Ixo and Partech and Intel besides provided a €10m round in 2012, and a €2m round in 2011.

Company
Founded in 2009 , Sigfox is a cellular network operator specialising in low-throughput machine-to-machine (M2M) and IoT communications.

The company has developed ultra-narrow-band technology, which is designed to operate a network on unlicensed frequency bands while combining long-range data transmissions.

Sigfox is headquartered in Labège with additional offices located in Mountain View, California and Madrid, and has an established presence in France, Spain, the UK and the Netherlands. It currently employs around 60 staff. According to market sources, the group is currently valued around €600m.

People
BPI France – Paul François Fournier (executive director).
Elliott Management Corporation – Franck Tuil (senior portfolio manager).
Parrott – Henry Seydoux (CEO).
Idinvest Partners – Christophe Bavière (founding partner).
Total Energy Ventures – Patrick Pouyanné (CEO).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• France
• Technology
• France
• Venture
• IDInvest Partners (AGF Private Equity)
• BPI France
• iXO Private Equity
• Internet of things