French captain company Daphni announces the first closure of his new fund, Daphni Blue. The company raised 200 million euros (around $ 215 million at current exchange rates). He plans to raise up to 250 million euros ($ 270 million) by the end of the year.
Some of Daphni’s most remarkable past investments include the rear market, the swile, the hubcycle and the Pasqal. Overall, the company has invested in 70 European startups since 2015.
With his last fund, Daphni plans to invest in 40 other startups. The limited partners of Daphni Blue include Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, Bpifrance, the European Investment Fund, Pro BTP and SWEN Capital Partners.
“We must ask ourselves how we can both differentiate ourselves and support technologies or services that are sustainable when we invest in new projects,” said Pierre-Eric Leibovici to me.
“Because at the end of the day, there are cycles, and we can see that at one point, either the market is consolidated, or it is dominated by American players, or in the end, there was not enough breakthrough to start.”
While most VC companies mention artificial intelligence in all other sentences, Daphni wants to focus on science (as a whole) as the main factor of the next wave of innovation: life sciences, biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics.
“When you talk about quantum computer science, well, quantum IT is a fundamental physique combined with hardware and software,” said Leibovici. He also said that large language models are first and foremost breakthroughs in mathematics.
As a result, Daphni recruits different profiles to join the team. For example, a doctoral graduate and a doctoral student are part of the investment team.
“There is another element that is a new trend. The new generation of researchers is much more open to the marketing of their fundamental and applied research, because they see all their friends around them that start from businesses,” said Leibovici.
While French universities are set aside Part of their budget to attract American researchers, Daphni says that he did not choose to refocus on fundamental science because of this.
“This is a coincidence. We have launched as well before there was this trend,” said Leibovici. Of course, Daphni is open to invest in American researchers who start a startup in Europe.
Then Daphni will have to deploy this newly increased capital and prove that it has found an effective investment strategy. “The increase is not an end in itself. What is an end in itself is the distribution of yields, and therefore comes out,” said Leibovici.
