Partech leads $4.5m seed round for Giroptic

Deploying capital alongside Partech and 360 were fellow VCs SOSV and Finorpa; the latter is a seed-focused accelerator investing in startups in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais area.

Also investing were Pascal Cagni, founder and CEO of early-stage venture firm C4 Ventures, Fotolia.com CEO Oleg Tscheltzoff and US hip hop singer Aloe Blacc.

A source close to Partech told unquote" the firm drew equity from its seed-only Partech Entrepreneur II fund, which closed on €60m in April 2015. The VC's contribution remains confidential but the vehicle typically invests €300,000-1m per deal.

Meanwhile, 360, which closed a €35m new seed fund earlier this week, financed its investment via one of its previous vehicles, unquote" understands.

The institutional round comes a year after Giroptic secured $1.4m from crowdfunders in May 2014; the figure far outstripped the $150,000 target the campaign launched with.

Having raised almost $6m since foundation, the business has accelerated production for its full-angle recording device 360Cam over the past few weeks and has begun shipping the first deliveries.

Company
Founded in 2014, Giroptic manufactures full-angle, waterproof recording devices. Headquartered in Lille, the business operates additional offices in San Francisco.

Designed after years of research, its flagship product 360Cam features three wide-angle lenses, three internal microphones and a number of sensors used for real-time image fusion purposes. At $499 per unit, commercial launch for the camera has kicked off in recent weeks.

People
Partech's work on the deal was coordinated by partner Romain Lavault. Richard Ollier co-founded Giroptic and is the company's current CEO.

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