Consortium raises $20m for Agorize

Existing investor Iris Capital held a first close for its IrisNext fund on €250m in 2017. The fund writes equity tickets of €5-30m for companies in later stages of growth.

Capnamic, which is also an existing investor, closed its Capnamic Ventures II fund on €115m in 2017. The fund invests €500,000-3m in companies.

The capital will be used to grow the company's footprint in Canada and meet demand for hackathons and challenges. The company will also invest in its platform and launch a recruitment campaign for its student base.

The company said 12% of its turnover is generated in North America.

Previous funding
The investment arm of the telecommunications company Bouygues Telecom Initiatives invested €300,000 in a seed round for Agorize in 2012.

Iris led a $2.6m series-A funding round for the company in 2014. Capnamic and Ader Finance also participated.

Company
Agorize employs 50 people and was founded in 2010. It is headquartered in Paris and operates offices in Stuttgart, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Via its online platform, the company enables its clients to launch hackathons and innovation challenges to engage their own employees and students from universities while tackling their strategic issues. Organisations that have taken part include Axa, Bank of America, Google and Uber.

People
Agorize Canada – Aurélie Wen (managing director).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Expansion
• France
• Industrials
• Venture
• Iris Capital
• Creadev
• France