Eurazeo Growth III holds final close on EUR 1.6bn

Harriet Matthews
23 July 2021

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Eurazeo has held a final close for its third growth fund on EUR 1.6bn, surpassing its EUR 1bn target.

Eurazeo Growth Fund III held a EUR 155m interim close in July 2019 and had raised EUR 500m by January 2021, according to Unquote Data. The fund is now 60% deployed.

The vehicle is significantly larger than Eurazeo's second growth fund, which held a final close in February 2019 on EUR 340m.

Eurazeo's fourth growth fund is expected to come to market in 2022, according to Unquote Data.

The GP's European growth strategy has a team of around 15 investment professionals in Berlin, London and Paris.

Eurazeo has enjoyed a busy 2021 for fundraising to date. The GP raised EUR 1bn for its secondaries programme in July 2021, as reported. The firm also launched its Eurazeo PME IV in May 2021, as reported; the fund focuses on mid-market businesses with enterprise values of EUR 50m-500m.

In addition, Eurazeo raised EUR 340m of additional commitments for a newly created continuation fund for its growth strategy in February 2021, as reported. The fund was to acquire a 32% stake in Eurazeo Growth's assets, with Eurazeo holding the remaining 68% and receiving cash proceeds of EUR 215m while netting a 25% IRR on the investments.

Investors
Eurazeo has committed EUR 320m to the fund, while EUR 200m in capital commitments have been secured from retail investors, according to a statement. Notable LPs in the fund include BPI France, the EIF and British Patient Capital.

Investments
The fund will back European technology companies in the B2B software-as-a-service, digital health, cybersecurity, infrastructure software, fintech and marketplace space. The fund provides equity tickets of EUR 25m-100m for initial investments and invests from the Series C stage onwards, in line with its previous vehicles. In addition, Eurazeo can provide follow-on investments from its Growth programme or its other vehicles, including its mid-cap PME strategy.

The fund had backed 24 companies as of February 2021, including Backmarket, Contentsquare, Doctolib, ManoMano and Payfit.

The GP first backed online luxury clothing and accessories marketplace Vestiaire Collective in 2015 via its growth strategy and the GP participated in its latest EUR 178m funding round in March 2021.

Eurazeo's recent growth investments beyond France include HPE Growth portfolio company PPro, a payment software platform for which the GP formed a EUR 160m continuation fund in June 2021, as reported.

Recent exits from Eurazeo's growth portfolio include Sweden-based Tink, which was sold to Visa in June 2021 at a EUR 1.8bn valuation.

People
Eurazeo – Yann du Rusquec (partner, Eurazeo Growth); Benoist Grossmann (managing partner, Eurazeo Venture and Growth, CEO of Eurazeo Investment Manager).