While 3 billion people are confined at home, digitalisation is bound to dramatically accelerate across sectors and “remote” is emerging as a new standard. This redefines how people live, work and consume, while businesses have to massively switch online and reinvent themselves. Startups closing seed rounds at the moment are ideally positioned to seize the opportunities lying ahead in the new “normal” world, while incumbents are dealing with old infrastructure and massive cost-cutting plans.
Amidst all this, global VC firm, Partech has just announced the final closing of its latest Seed Fund — dubbed as — Partech Entrepreneur III, at $100M (€92.3 million). The firm plans to invest it in post-COVID trends in health, work, commerce, finance, mobility, and computing.
Despite the lockdown, the fund is also actively investing in Europe, US and Asia to support seed-stage startups in the reboot of what our personal and professional lives will look like in years ahead.
With the Partech Entrepreneur III Fund, the firm now claims to be one of the largest seed investors around the globe, with its seed funds exceeding $300M in total and topping 160 investments in 22 countries across Europe, US and Asia. Founded in 1982, in Silicon Valley, Partech seed funds are run by a dedicated team of 10 investors made of former founders and startup employees, located in San Francisco, Paris and Berlin.
Partech invests across all stages of seed, from pre-seed rounds of a few hundred thousand dollars to pre-Series A rounds of several $M, from chips and deep tech to marketplaces. Investments are focused on 6 verticals revealed and accelerated by the 2020 crisis:
Future of Health: Personalised, Online, AI-assisted
Future of Work: Remote, Collaborative, Continuous education
Future of Commerce: Software-enabled, Social, Instant
Future of Finance: API-based, Data-driven, Decentralized
Future of Mobility: Autonomous, Multimodal, On-demand
Future of Computing: Edge, AI, Wireless
Partech seed funds are large by design, so as to be able to invest pro-rata (or more) in follow-on Series A and B rounds led by other Funds. After 18 months from the initial Partech investment, 2/3 of companies have either raised Series A, or been acquired at a higher valuation. They have raised more than $1.5B in follow-on money as of today.
“We didn’t want a VC in our seed round, and then we spoke to Partech. I’m super glad they decided to support us from Day 0, being always there for us to challenge us and help us go to the next stage.”
– Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, Co-Founder & CEO of Alan
The Partech seed team syncs up monthly with other top international venture funds for upcoming Series A and B rounds of its Seed Portfolio, and has invested alongside / helped build syndicates with more than 100 other leading Funds, including multiple times with Sequoia, Index, Accel, Bessemer, Greycroft, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Menlo Ventures and NEA.
Founders benefit not only from a highly dedicated and hands-on support by each investor in the Partech seed team (highly praised with a NPS of 80 as of Q1 2020), but also from the larger Partech community, sharing advice and best practices. This community is managed day-to-day by a team of 6 people full time, is strong of 400 Founders and has access to key decision makers at a hundred Fortune 500 companies (of which a third are Partech LPs).
“We simply wouldn’t be where we are today without the outstanding daily support from Partech. They have really been a deeply transformative partner for our business and it has been a huge privilege to have them onboard from day 1. We are extremely thankful for this amazing journey together!”
– Vincent Dupied, Co-Founder & CEO of Dejbox
The Partech platform is very active with dedicated events every 6 weeks, as well as its popular cross-border Talent Marketplace (1,000 job offers and 4,000 candidates currently on the platform). The Founder community is extremely diverse, with first-time and repeat entrepreneurs, from more than 22 countries and 17% of the startups were started by female co-Founders (29% for the seed investments in the last 2 years). These Founders are actively giving back to the community, helping peers, making introductions and even becoming investors themselves.
“The Partech team was there from the beginning to support us from idea to exit. They are great partners for globally minded entrepreneurs. They move quickly to make decisions, helped us navigate critical and strategic decision points in the business. They bring a unique international investing perspective and support network to bear for rapidly scaling companies.”
– Sujay Tyle, Co-Founder & CEO of Frontier Car Group –
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, Partech Entrepreneur III has closed 8 new investments and committed to 2 more, contributing to a diversified portfolio across the 6 target verticals accelerated by the 2020 crisis.
Partech Entrepreneur III – current portfolio (including 15 unannounced investments). Previously, Partech seed funds (Partech Entrepreneur I and II) have notably been the first to invest in high profile companies such as:
Aiden.ai (UK) – AI for real-time Marketing Budget optimization – ACQUIRED BY TWITTER
Dejbox (France) – Lunch delivery platform for employees – ACQUIRED BY CARREFOUR
Frontier Car Group (US) – C2B Car Marketplace – ACQUIRED BY NASPERS/OLX
Pricematch (France) – Yield Management SaaS for Hotels – ACQUIRED BY BOOKING.COM
Streamroot (France) – P2P CDN Platform for Video Streaming – ACQUIRED BY CENTURYLINK
Alan (France) – Full-stack Health Insurance Platform
Alkemics (France) – Data Exchange SaaS for FMCG Retailers and Brands
Bloomon (Netherlands) – Flower subscriptions and in-home deliveries
Bugcrowd (US) – Crowdsourced cybersecurity
Cubyn (France) – E-commerce Fulfillment Platform
Drover (UK) – All-in-one Car Subscription Platform
Glofox (Ireland) – Fitness Studio Management Platform SaaS
Holberton School (US) – Next Gen Software Engineering Training
Jellysmack (US) – Original Video Content for Social Platforms
Novicap (Spain) – Supply Chain Finance and SME Factoring Marketplace
Ornikar (France) – Online Driving School
Oviva (Germany) – Medicalized Nutrition Platform
Peanut (UK) – Mobile-first Social Network for Moms and Expecting Mothers
PushDoctor (UK) – Online Medical Consultation Platform
Resolution Games (Sweden) – AR/VR Gaming Platform
The Guarantors (US) – Real Estate Insurance Platform
Xendit (Indonesia) – Cardless payment processing platform for online merchants
Partech is a global investment firm with offices in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin and Dakar. that operates from various cities across the world. It brings together capital, strategic support, and operational experience for entrepreneurs at seed, venture, and growth stages across continents. It invests $200K to $50 million in a wide range of technologies and businesses for both customers and enterprises ranging from software, services, and digital brands across industries.
Main image picture credits: Partech
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