France Télécom and Publicis launch €300m VC fund

The two companies intend to enlist other investors in order to raise €300m overall. Details regarding the fund's structure and its management company have not yet been released.

The vehicle will pursue seed-capital and early-stage investments - providing equity tickets of up to €1m - as well as later-stage financing for more established companies, where it will invest up to €15m per deal. The fund may also co-invest in start-ups outside Europe further down the line, alongside American or Asian partner funds.

Set to focus primarily on France and Europe, the fund will target digital technology, content and services companies. This would include businesses dealing in online marketing, e-commerce, mobile content and services, online gaming, social networks, middleware, cloud computing, security, and online payments.

Both founding sponsors believe the existing venture ecosystem to be somewhat lacking given the needs of today's internet startups: "French investment capital has been suffering for far too long from the absence of a solid ecosystem to link young companies together with larger groups, research centers and government systems," notes France Télécom's Stéphane Richard. Publicis' Maurice Levy adds: "All over Europe, there are young companies with powerful, game-changing ideas, and they're not getting the financial backing they deserve."

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Venture
• France