FIRST CLOSING AT €90M FOR THE ISAI VENTURE III FUND.

10 years after launching its first fund (Blablacar, Evaneos, Stickyads...), ISAI announces the launch of its new early stage VC vehicle to support and fund French Tech entrepreneurs.

Paris, May 6th 2020. ISAI announces a €90M first closing of its third fund that will focus on the post-seed stage. This intermediary closing of ISAI VENTURE III, which took place during lockdown, confirmed investors' interest for the entrepreneur-backed VC model as well as for ISAI's investment strategy.
ISAI was able to rely on its historical investors, mainly the community of Tech entrepreneurs as well as institutional investors such as BPIFrance, Arkea, Quadrille or Idinvest.

This new fund is focused, as were the preceding funds, on digital startups (SaaS, marketplace, AI...). The team will remain, as it always has, very vigilant towards the capital efficiency of business models. This is one of the crucial factors that should enable ISAI's portfolio to cope well with the current crisis. It is also a key alignment factor between entrepreneurs and investors. ISAI VENTURE III, whose maximum size has been set at €120M, will invest as lead investor in around 20 businesses with tickets ranging from €1M to €3M, with the ability to undertake follow-on rounds. A separate pocket will be dedicated to seed funding, with 150k€ tickets deployed in a "Super Angel" manner. This fund is the sixth fund raised by ISAI, that currently has around €500M under management.

Jean-David Chamboredon, Managing Partner and co-founder of ISAI, explains: "We are of course proud of what we have accomplished during the past 10 years and we want to continue to contribute to the emergence of the biggest French Tech successes. The loyalty and involvement of our investors during these uncertain times is absolutely remarkable. I want to warmly thank those who have trusted us for a long time, and the few that joined our investor base during this closing."

"Crises are periods of profound change, during which great talents, innovative and disruptive project initiators, reveal themselves" emphasises Thierry Vandewalle, entrepreneur-investor that became General Partner. "Look at Stripe, Slack, Whatsapp, AirBnB, Github... all were created during the subprime crisis!"

True to its motto "festina lente" (Hasten slowly), ISAI will continue to act as the "sparring partners" of talented founders to enable them to progressively realise their ambitions. 

"You don't necessarily need a lot of money to develop a product, test a market and validate a business model. We strongly believe that creativity is greater under constraint. However, once the models have been validated, our role is to help our portfolio companies to accomplish the finest fundraisings with the best french or international players" highlights Christophe Raynaud, co-founder and General Partner. 

With a team mainly based in Paris and a New York branch, ISAI will reinforce its transatlantic approach in the years to come. 

"For many digital start-ups, the reference market is the US. It's very important that we invest in US start-ups founded by French citizens in addition to supporting French start-ups in their North American expansion" underscores Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, co-founder of ISAI and largest individual investor of this new fund. 

About ISAI: 

Launched in 2010, ISAI is « the » French Tech entrepreneurs’ fund gathering more than 300 entrepreneurs across the world. Roughly 250 successful entrepreneurs, who have invested in ISAI, and more than 50 startup cofounders supported by ISAI share the collective ambition to write great entrepreneurial stories. ISAI invests in differentiated projects founded by ambitious teams that it rigorously selects and actively supports.

ISAI Gestion, authorized by French regulator AMF, can fund and support high potential companies at early stages (venture capital, €150k to €3M initial tickets with ability for follow-on rounds) or at more mature stages (growth equity/LBO, €5M to €30M investments). Follow ISAI at www.isai.vc and on twitter @isai_fr.

Contact(s)

Kablé Communication –

Nolwenn Salaün : nolwenn.salaun@kable-communication.com - 06.68.41.54.32