It’s not every day that a new VC firm comes out of stealth. This time, University announces its first fund. Founded by a former Société Générale executive and two VC investors who worked at Serena Capital, Varsity has already raised 70 million euros ($75 million at today’s exchange rate) to support early-stage startups in various industries.
This is only a first close, as Varsity hopes to be able to raise up to 150 million euros ($161 million) for Varsity I. In total, the company plans to invest in around 30 startups in Europe. Some of Varsity’s limited partners include French public bank Bpifrance, MACSF, Sogecap and Elevation Capital Partners (with the creation of a feeder fund).
It means Varsity plans to invest anything between €1m and €5m depending on the investment opportunity with the option to invest in follow-on investments — Varsity has already invested €15m in five companies. While the group doesn’t have a specific company in mind, it says it plans to invest in finance, health, business software and climate startups.
The three founding members are Didier Valet, the former deputy CEO of Société Générale, as well as Kamel Zeroual and Florent Thomas, who worked for some time at Serena Capital.
Florent Thomas (pictured right) also created TalentLetter back in 2018. It’s an email newsletter for tech startups looking for potential hires. Each week, TalentLetter sends two profiles chosen because they can make a big impact in a fast-growing startup. Together with Marie Brayerthey also created Karma Driven, an invitation-only job board.
As for Kamel Zeroual (pictured left), he created the Startup Mafia podcast, interviewing several executives who work for a handful of successful tech startups. During the first season, he was interviewed by Swile executives. He shifted his focus to Alan and Checkout.com for the second and third seasons.
Both already know quite a few people in the startup ecosystem. So it will be interesting to see how the Varsity team plans to leverage these platforms to identify interesting investment opportunities and make sure they perform well at later stages.
