Sovereign fund boosts French entrepreneurs
Jul 20, 2015
In mid-2013 the CEO of one of London’s biggest VCs, DFJ Esprit, warned that the United Kingdom risked losing its place at the top of Europe’s venture capital table.
The warning followed data showing that France had just overtaken the U.K. for the number of venture deals above $5 million, a surge driven by one organisation in particular – Bpifrance, a French sovereign fund set up in 2012 to consolidate various state investment and loan guarantee bodies.
In 2012 Bpifrance (and venture capital predecessor CDC Entreprises) invested €1.3 billion ($1.8 billion) in French SMEs, mostly via privately managed French funds, but also with €239million ($327 million) of direct investment.
The organisation can claim some involvement in 95% of French venture deals, and its seed and venture fund portfolio comprises €6.7 billion of funds, which includes €2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) of actively investing funds.
Such a heavy presence inevitably causes some friction and Bpifrance has been accused of inflating valuations in order to win bids for itself and the funds it backs against other consortiums.
Antoine Boulay, head of institutional relations at Bpifrance, strongly denies this: “We always invest pari passu with private investors and we never over-bid against a private proposition”.
Nonetheless, the number of large venture deals in France has climbed, thanks in part to Bpifrance’s €500 million ($680 million) Large Venture fund, set up to offer later-stage venture tickets of €10 million to €50 million.
Large Venture recently funded half of a $30 million Series C round for French digital health company Withings.
“There was a lack of a French VC for the big tickets and, often, foreign funds were the only ones with the capacity to invest in promising French businesses, before taking them abroad to rationalise and merge into bigger companies.”
Despite the defensive nature of this approach, Boulay maintains that Bpifrance’s focus is on stimulating private venture capital investment and helping to turn France into Europe’s leading startup nation.
“I think our venture industry is now equivalent to the British one and this is the result of 19 years of determined public action and private mobilisation,” he says proudly.
Yet Bpifrance still accounts for about 40% of the French VC market, a share that the organisation would like to see fall. The ultimate sign of success would be for Bpifrance to render itself unnecessary, though Boulay doesn’t see that happening.
“For venture capital public funding is irreplaceable and we think this is the case everywhere except California,” he says.
Instead, Bpifrance wants more consolidation among French fund managers to improve specialisation, extend networks and, ultimately, drive even more deals per year.