French venture capital firm Daphne The first end of its new fund, Daphni Blue, is being announced. The company has raised 200 million euros (about US$215 million in current exchange rates). It is expected to raise as much as 250 million euros ($270 million) by the end of the year.
Daphne’s most eye-catching investments in the past include back markets such as Grade, Husband and Pasqal. Overall, the company has invested in 70 European startups since 2015.
With its latest fund, Dafni plans to invest in another 40 startups. Daphni Blue’s limited partners include Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, Bpifraance, European Investment Fund, Pro BTP and Swen Capital Partners.
“We need to ask ourselves how we can both distinguish ourselves and support sustainable technology or services when we invest in new projects,” founding partner Pierre-Eric Leibovici told me.
“Because at the end of the day, there are cycles, we can see that at a given moment, the market merges, either dominated by American players, or ultimately, there isn’t enough breakthrough in the first place.”
While most venture capital firms mention AI in other sentences, Daphne hopes to focus science on the next wave of innovation: life sciences, biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics.
“When you talk about quantum computing, quantum computing is a combination of basic physics with hardware and software,” Leibovici said. He also said that large language models are mathematical breakthroughs first.
As a result, Daphne is recruiting different profiles to join the team. For example, PhD graduates and PhD students are investing in teams.
“There is another new trend. A new generation of researchers is more open to commercializing their basic and applied research because they see all the friends around them starting the company.”
And French universities are Put it aside Daphni said part of their budget attracted U.S. researchers, so it did not choose to refocus on basic science.
“It’s a coincidence. We launched this trend long before this trend,” Lebovic said. Of course, Daphne is willing to invest in American researchers who start startups in Europe.
Next, Dafney will have to deploy this newly raised capital and prove that it has found an effective investment strategy. “The raising itself is not the purpose. The purpose itself is to distribute the reward, so it is to withdraw.”
