Partech closes second growth fund on EUR 650m

The second vehicle is significantly larger than its predecessor, Partech Growth I, which raised EUR 400m in 2015.

The GP registered Partech Growth II as a French special limited partnership (SLP) in April 2019, with a EUR 400m target, according to Unquote Data.

Partech now manages a range of VC strategies, including its flagship Partech International Ventures series of funds. The latest vintage in that strategy, Partech International Ventures VII, reached a final close on its EUR 400m hard-cap in 2016 (a significant step up from the EUR 130m Partech VI vehicle). The fund mostly focuses on Series A and Series B rounds, covering primarily the technology sector for the most part.

In early 2020, Partech held a final close for its third seed fund, Partech Entrepreneur III, on USD 100m. That vehicle invests at various seed stages, from pre-seed rounds of up to USD 200,000 to pre-Series A rounds of up to USD 2m.

The final close of Partech Growth II will further boost the European VC fundraising tally for 2021. While comparing favourably with the EUR 16.3bn raised at final close across 87 funds in 2019, the 82 closes worth a total of EUR 20.5bn seen so far this year marks a bit of a cool-down compared to the record EUR 32.6bn raised in 2020.

Partech is near the top of the list of largest VC funds raised so far in 2021, especially if looking purely at managers with European roots. Other notable fundraises this year have included Index Ventures XI closing on its target of USD 900m in July, while Balderton hauled in more than USD 1.2bn across two funds: Balderton Growth Fund I held a final close on USD 680m in May and the flagship Balderton Capital VIII closed on USD 600m in November. France-based Sofinnova Partners also held a EUR 472m final close for Sofinnova Capital X, which focuses on early-stage healthcare venture investments.

Investors
The fund attracted more than 45 institutional investors, endowments, foundations, pension funds, life insurers, asset managers and funds-of-funds, the VC said in a statement. It also counts more than 40 family offices, entrepreneurs and business angels in its LP base.

British Patient Capital announced it has made a EUR 30m commitment to the fund.

Investments
Partech intends to continue its existing growth capital strategy with the fund, partnering with 12–15 companies and writing cheque sizes of EUR 20m-70m. This is a step up from the EUR 10m-50m ticket range of the first Partech Growth Fund.

The fund has already been used to back five companies in the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. These include Rohlik, a Prague-based online grocer; Paris-based Skello, an online scheduling and personnel management SaaS tool; Paris-based Rouje, a women's fashion brand; Amsterdam-headquartered Studocu, a knowledge-sharing platform for students in higher education; and Stockholm-based Billogram, an integrated customer experience, bill and payment platform for large B2C enterprises.

Partech said it would aim to back digitally native scale-ups in sectors including enterprise software, consumer brands, healthcare, financial services and education, among other technology-driven segments.

According to a statement, Partech's current portfolio includes 12 unicorns: Alan, Bolt, Cazoo, Jellysmack, Made.com, ManoMano, People.ai, Rohlik, Sorare, Toss, Wave and Xendit.

People
Partech – Omri Benayoun (general partner).

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