This morning, ISAI announced the closing of a €30M second fund dedicated to making investments in mature companies looking to grow quickly, make acquisitions, and provide a bit of liquidity to shareholders. ISAI first announced the searching of a second fund in the beginning of April, and it seems they had no trouble securing the money. Investors in the new fund highly overlap with investors in the first fund, although there are new entrepreneurs investing as well as, notably, Groupe Amaury (l’Equipe, le Parisien, …).
While their first fund has focused on the “growth” stage of startups (investments include BlaBlaCar, Commerce Guys, Shopmium & more), this second fund, aptly names ISAI expansion, will focus on helping young tech companies to expand their scope. Christophe Reynaud, Managing Director of ISAI and former manager of Paris Business Angels, puts is:
ISAI’s role is supporting founders, sharing our knowledge as investors not only with capital but with our deep understanding of the internet sector, and to help them take advantage of ISAI’s ecosystem within its entrepreneur’s fund. Once parts of the finance chain become defective, that is where we step in. Our two funds have very different mandates, but their origins are their same.” (translation)
ISAI has been very critical of the current investment ecosystem in France, and this continued effort to improve it with their entrepreneurs’ fund comes as no surprise given the announcement yesterday of France Digitale, a lobbying association for the startup ecosyte, which has its eyes on changing the VC structure, among other things, in France. ISAI’s fund counts several entrepreneurs as founders and investors: Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet of Priceminister, Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux of Virgin Mobile, Stéphane Treppoz of Sarenza, and Ouriel Ohayan of Appsfire.
Frenchweb reported[FR] that, while their first fund for growth startups receives about 100 applications per month, they anticipate to have around 10 per month for this fund, hoping to close their first investment before September. Jean-David Chamboredon, GM of ISAI & outspoken supporter of startups in France, wrapped it all up quite nicely.
ISAI is a startup. A startup that finances other startups with support from… startupers! Like in any startup, we’re not worried about being too busy, au contraire! We want to meet as many entrepreneurs as possible and to associate ourselves with the success stories that only the internet sector knows how to create.” (transation)