CM-CIC et al. invest €15m in Vi Technology

CM-CIC provided €3m in the round, while BPI contributed the largest sum of €7.5m. The latter invested via its €500m Large Venture fund.

Neptune Technologies is a Paris-based family office owned by chairman and CEO Gilles Vicard and his family. The firm is an existing investor in Vi, of which Vicard is also president.

The fresh capital will be used by Vi to accelerate commercialisation of its newest product, a solder paste inspection (SPI) system. The company also plans on further developing a new automated optical inspection (AOI) system for 3D printing.

Company
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Saint-Égrève, Vi manufactures systems designed to meet the electronics industry's inspection requirements for the performance and ease-of-use of surface mount technology.

The company claims to have installed more than 3,000 SPI and AOI systems, more than 2,000 of which it says are installed overseas across 35 countries. Vi says 95% of its revenues come from exports.

The company employs 120 staff, 80 of whom reside in France and principally work within research and development.

People
Gilles Vicard is the president of Vi, while Francois Amblard is its CEO. BPI investment director Litzie Maarek, associate Charlotte Corbaz and Large Venture fund director Maïlys Ferrère worked on the deal alongside CM-CIC director Karine Lignel and investment director Stéphane Simoncini.

Advisers
Equity – Duteil Avocats, François Pujol, Benoît Lespinasse (Legal); Grant Thornton (Financial due diligence, social due diligence, tax).
Company – Chammas & Marcheteau, Lola Chammas, Stephanie Bréjaud (Legal); Quartèse Avocats, Jean-Philippe Kapp (Tax).

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• Topics
• France
• Expansion
• Industrials
• France
• CM-CIC Capital Finance