As hard as it is for a startup to raise a round of funding (especially early stage), it’s even harder for startups to assess which Venture Capital firms (or Angel Investors) to approach for investors. Key strategies often include looking for firms or individuals who have invested in the same sector or business model in the past, but things get complicated when you add in that a startup must assess how well previous investments performed, and whether investors can add anything beyond a check to the fundraising.
Last week, I met Romain Vidal from Caphorn Invest, and was pleasantly surprised at how Romain demonstrated Caphorn’s value-added as an investor. Caphorn’s first fund is a 50 Million euros, brought together through 120 entrepreneurs and executives including Jean-Paul Richard (former VP of Marketing for Pernod Ricard). Caphorn’s VCs identify startups that Romain described as “bridging the old world and the new world,” and identifying executives among their investor pool who can add value, whether by making introductions to his network, or advice on the sector that the investment is operating
Rude Baguette has not previously written about any Caphorn investments, which include Avob, ExaqtWorld, Magic Recycle, Mes Materiaux, and Milibris – not the traditional web companies we cover, but startups nonetheless. The fund makes investments between 1-2M€, doing between 5-7 investments per year, it seems.
Unfortunately, Caphorn doesn’t make it easy to know who their 130 backers are – I’m sure not all of them want to be named publicly – however, it makes it difficult for startups to know if they have someone in their arsenal who can add value. Nonetheless, Caphorn Invest invites any startups working on the transition between “old world” – brands, retail stores, the industrial sector, etc. – to the “new world” (i.e: web, mobile, connected, etc.) to come talk to them to see if there is a fit.