Partech entrusted with managing France’s largest tech cluster seed fund

Paris Saclay University inaugurates the Paris Saclay Seed Fund this January. Partech has been named to raise and run the new investment fund, with support from the biotech expertise of Kurma Partners. The fund’s aim is to nurture the new generation of entrepreneurs from the innovation cluster.

€50 million to fund projects by Paris Saclay entrepreneurs

Partech just announced the fund’s first closing at its €50 million target only three months after starting fundraising. The fund will invest between €100,000 and €2 million in pre-seed and seed stage companies coming out of the Paris Saclay ecosystem. “The campus brings together 17 elite schools, universities and labs, including HEC, Polytechnique and CentraleSupélec, as well as top research centres such as CNRS and INRIA”, explains Claire Godron, Senior Associate, who is in charge of the fund’s investments.
The seed fund will endeavour to identify the most promising start-ups and leverage the cluster’s enormous potential to encourage innovative projects in their development from the earliest possible stage. The fund will support students and former students, as well as researchers under contract with one of the institutions on the campus. “A quarter of the students in these schools create their own start-ups. Our goal is to provide first-stage financing and operational support so that their projects can blossom more quickly”, says Romain Lavault, General Partner in charge of all seed activities at Partech.
It makes for a win-win partnership between Partech and Paris Saclay, which Claire sums up like this: “The seed fund will help the Paris Saclay ecosystem to flourish, while Partech will be able to take earlier positions and improve its deal flow”.

Nurturing up-and-coming entrepreneurs

Like other funds managed by Partech, the new seed fund will not only provide financial backing: the youthful entrepreneurs can look forward to operational support from Partech, as well as from investors in the fund.
The investor roster includes a string of major industrial and service groups, including the likes of BNP Paribas, Chanel, Cisco, Econocom, EDF, Groupama, JCDecaux, Orange, RATP and Société Générale, as well as alumni from participating schools, former entrepreneurs and leaders of CAC 40 groups. Each one has promised to set aside time to mentor the seed fund’s entrepreneurs.
To ensure that participants interact as much as possible, the Paris Saclay Seed Fund will organize frequent gatherings, including quarterly meet-ups and individual contacts with investors so that entrepreneurs can ask for advice and tap into business opportunities.
By nurturing these new companies, Partech and Paris Saclay University are working to develop Saclay into a globally renowned cluster along the lines of Silicon Valley.