Idinvest et al. back Sensee with €17.5m

Idinvest contributed €7.5m to the round. The GP had previously backed Sensee's president Marc Simoncini with its previous venture Meetic in 2001 – the dating site was consequently listed in 2005.

The French online optical market has proved particularly popular for investors in recent years, as many believe consumers can benefit from substantial savings by bypassing brick-and-mortar stores. Alven Capital and a consortium of private investors notably provided Happyview.fr with €3m of growth capital funding in early 2011.

Company
Sensee finds its roots in the LentillesMoinsCheres.com website; Simoncini backed the business in early 2011 with a view to develop it as an online optician platform. Sensee was launched in October 2011 and offers prescription spectacles as well as sunglasses and contact lenses.

People
Benoist Grossmann led the deal for Idinvest. Pierre-Eric Leibovici and Pierre-Yves Meerschman represented Orkos. Partech was represented by Jean-Marc Patouillaud.

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

• Topics
• France
• Now researching
• Expansion
• Consumer
• France
• IDInvest Partners (AGF Private Equity)