“Entrepreneurs who embark on this complicated period are often more motivated,” explains Marc Menasé. 609603092/Matthew Cerff/peopleimages.com – stock.adobe.com
Created by entrepreneur Marc Menasé, the investment company Founders Future is raising a new fund which is targeting 150 million euros.
It accompanied the first successes of the nutritional information application Yukaor fintech Lydia. The team at investment firm Founders Future, created in 2018 by the serial entrepreneur Marc Menase (Kelkoo, Nextedia, Teads…), is proud of the journey accomplished over the past five years. Specialized in what the world of venture capital calls seed, it supports companies in their very first years of life, from both a financial and operational point of view.
In 2018, this financing segment was still embryonic in France. Convinced that having been an entrepreneur oneself makes it possible to be better equipped to select the best projects at this stage of maturity, Marc Menasé, business angel in a personal capacity since 2005, then decides to “professionalize the support process“. At the time, he convinced about thirty seasoned entrepreneurs and large French families to follow it, and launched an initial fund of 50 million euros.
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The collective now brings together more than 80 families and entrepreneurs, and Founders Future is taking a new step. The company has already secured half of the financing for a second fund whose objective is 150 million euros. “What we have been doing for five years is materialized by the creation of valueunderlines the general manager. We have made 100 investments, which represent 250 million in consolidated turnover, 600 million euros raised and a cumulative valuation of the companies in the portfolio of more than five billion euros.”
Sectors in transition
If the venture capital market has cooled down significantly since last year, the seed segment is rather spared because the need for innovation is there. To the needs of digitalization of the economy are still growing, in addition to those of an energy transition that are shaking up many industries. “Entrepreneurs who embark on this complicated period are often more motivated, more ambitious in their project and better prepared.“says Marc Menasé. And to recall that the technological history of the last two decades has shown that each post-crisis period, whether in 2000 or in 2008 with Airbnb, has generated “exceptional company cohorts“.
Entrepreneurs who embark on this complicated period are often more motivated, more ambitious in their project and better prepared.
Marc Menasé, founder of Founders Future
Its investment team also mainly targets sectors in transition, on economic models that they master: food, bank insurance, real estate or health and well-being. “In transverse, there is of course also the artificial intelligence which will turn all these industries upside down.adds the entrepreneur. If Founders Future remains “a pure boot player“, 40% of the new envelope will be devoted to the growth of the champions of its portfolio, with tickets from 1 million to 7.5 million euros. “The frustration of a seed fund is being limited after a while when you’ve done all the up-front work.“, recognizes Marc Menasé. Three deals are already underway. If it already invests throughout Europe at the rate of 10 to 15 investments per year, Founders Future intends to strengthen itself in Spain and Italy. “We are now giving ourselves the means of our ambition to deploy our method in Europe and create even more champions“, he concludes.