Serena et al. in €10m series-B for Lengow

The contributions made by each of the three firms remain confidential, but Serena Capital typically invests upwards of €1m.

BPI France invested via its Digital Ambition Fund, used last week by the state-backed fund manager during a $45m round for storage software specialist Scality.

The Lengow round, reportedly the largest seen within the European e-commerce feed management segment, provided the company with the capital it needs to develop its technology and bolster international expansion.

Already active in 45 countries worldwide, the business will bolster its foothold in the UK and Germany via bolt-ons and enter the US and Asian markets. By late 2016, the software developer hopes to double its workforce, currently standing at 90 professionals.

In addition, an up-to-date version of its online marketing and e-commerce software suite will be launched in Q3 amid predictions that the e-commerce sector will experience a sales boost from €156.28bn in 2014 to €219.44bn in 2016 in the larger European markets.

The deal is the third reported in short succession by unquote" featuring a French software developer. An Omnes Capital-backed MBO for retail specialist Bimedia was previously announced, followed by a €2m first round for aviation-focused technology firm Conztanz.

According to unquote" data, the round also represents the third recent joint foray for Serena and Alven. The duo took part in a €3m injection into data science software developer Dataiku in January and joined forces a second time in June, when €5m was deployed in support of Belgian translation service TextMaster.

Previous funding
Since inception, Lengow has received a total of €11.4m in funding. Its first institutional round took place in March 2010, when Kima Ventures injected €200,000 into the business.

In June 2011, this was followed by a €1.2m investment by Alven, which deployed equity via its €100m third fund.

Company
Lengow was founded in 2009 as a software-as-a-service developer. The company provides e-commerce businesses with a centralised feed web interface meant to optimise the distribution of their product catalogues.

With headquarters in Nantes, the developer works with more than 3,500 clients across 45 countries worldwide. It currently employs 90 people.

People
Nicolas Louvet, investment director at Serena, led the VC's work on the deal, as did partner Jeremy Uzan for Alven. BPI France was represented by investment director Nicolas Iordanov. Mickael Froger co-founded Lengow and is the company's current CEO.

Advisers
Equity – Pinot de Villechenon, Morgan Hunault-Berret, Amélie Maindron (Legal).
Company – François Brocard (Legal).

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