EmblemA relatively new European VC company based in Paris announces the final closure of its first fund. Eighteen months after the first closure, the emblem team managed to secure a total of 80 million euros (about $ 85 million in current exchange rates).
This is not a small achievement in the current funding environment. According to the latest situation in Atomico’s European technology, in 2024, business capital funding declined for the third consecutive year. One of the main reasons for this is that acquisitions and iPos do not really happen now.
As a result, VC as an investment category is less attractive than it was. Many VC companies are struggling to raise the next chapters despite the current artificial intelligence eruption, which could possibly represent a huge investment opportunity.
But that did not prevent the emblem from reaching its hard lid – the maximum amount it had initially set to increase. Founded by Bénédicte de Raphélis Soissan and Guillaume Durao, the twin had already made some interesting investments as business angels before creating an emblem. Were invested in the Crypto trading card game SergeantStart of pet insurance Dalmaand cultivated meat company GourmetTo name some.
They wanted to go a step further with a correct VC company, which in the emblem, a seed investment company that wants to make 25 to 30 investments with its original fund. Ideally, they would prefer to drive or coordinate seeds with tickets ranging from € 500,000 to € 3 million but the business is willing to follow another investor if there is a good opportunity.
The emblem has already invested in 16 newly established companies since its first closure in March 2023. TechCrunch has covered some of them. Examples include:
- Pivot, a supply tool and the Coupa competitor.
- The first mobile phone companyA B2B Mobile App Studio Design of Voodoo inspiration and other consumer applications studio.
- Altrove, a new materials company using AI and laboratory automation to accelerate research.
- Volta, an electronic trade platform such as Shopify, but focused exclusively on B2B transactions.
It is a different portfolio when it comes to a catering area and geographical focus. “We have made 16 investments. To give you an idea, there are eight of them in France, six in Scandinavian – Denmark, Sweden – and then we did one in the US and one in Italy,” De Raphélis Soissan told Techcrunch.
Emblem’s basic focus remains in France and Scandinavian technological ecosystem. It has more than 200 limited partners invested in the first fund, including family offices and technology entrepreneurs, such as the founders of unity, Pleo, Qonto, 3shape, Spendesk, Voodoo, Pennylane, Jobandtalent, Ledger and Zendesk. Face more than half of the total amount.
The rest have been derived from various funds, as well as commitments by both the EIFO (Danish sovereign fund) and the BPIFrance (the French dominant fund). The emblem is already thinking of his next fund, which should be about the same size as it.
“Now we have a little time when we don’t need to increase. So we’ll enjoy it. But you never want to be out of the market,” De Raphélis Soissan said. “So, since it takes you four years to grow, and we are about halfway through the road, it means that in a year, we will have to start again.”
