Kima Ventures, run by Jeremie Berrebi & Xavier Niel, announced this week a new program, Kima15, which will look to invest $150K for 15% equity in companies, promising a turnaround of less than 15 days. The seed stage VC firm, which already has a reputation for investing fast and simply, also announced that their term sheet for said deal is publicly available (here), with an FAQ to answer any questions startups might have.
The announcement comes just days before Kima Ventures is set to host a networking day in Paris for its somewhat large portfolio of startups, the goal of which is to allow journalists, potential partners & investors, and other interested parties to see who exactly is in Kima’s portfolio.
One point I found particularly interesting is that the application is available entirely on AngelList, a service popular in the US and UK, but which hasn’t quite taken hold in France just yet. When I discovered the application process, I was hoping that Kima would also have listed all of their investments publicly – no such luck on the home page but when you look at their activity page, I counted 113 startups that they’ve listed as investments (and I don’t think that’s even half of their historical investments).They aren’t joking – they really do invest in one startup per week.
Many have pointed out that Kima15 is no different than Kima Ventures’ current investment strategy – the stories of Jeremie Berrebi offering a term sheet over Skype (he lives in Tel Aviv) after just a 10-minute phone call have become something of a legend in the Paris startup scene – I however, would argue that it’s something more. This is a concrete process, a promise, and a step towards transparency – Kima Ventures has always been known for investing hard and fast with terms that, while you wouldn’t jump with joy at the valuation, are fair for a decent number of people. Their investment strategy has gotten them in on deals like Rapportive (sold to LinkedIn), Producteev (sold to Jive), Sparrow (sold to Google) Leetchi (Wired’s #1 startup 2013), Ifeelgoods, Restopolitan & more.
Speaking with partner Jeremie Berrebi, I joked with him that some of his current startups would be happy with the “15% for $150K” deal, as I’ve heard that the valuation can go much lower when dealing with Kima – he jokingly said that they reserve the right to increase the equity stake if the company isn’t at the $1M valuation that Kima15 promises. It remains to be seen how many of the Kima15 applicants will be told that they’re not quite there yet, but I do believe that it’s a good step in the direction towards transparency.
That being said, there are a few points in the term sheet that might irk the more experienced entrepreneur.