Paris-based VC Ventech, an early backer of digital music company Believe and secondhand marketplace unicorn Vestiaire Collective, has closed a €175m generalist fund to back European startups, mainly at Series A.
The fund will back up to 35 companies across the region in digital health, industrial software, cybersecurity, as well as sectors related to European sovereignty such as semiconductors and AI infrastructure. Half of the fund will be dedicated to AI-native startups.
Tickets will range from €500k-€6m, with follow-ons of up to €15m per company.
It is Ventech’s sixth fund since launching in 1998 and will see founding partner Alain Caffi retire, with managing partner Jean Bourcereau stepping up as chairman. Associates Stephan Wirries and Audrey Soussan are also becoming general partners at the firm.
It is a rare example of passing the torch to younger generations as many VCs in Europe struggle to plan for the succession of founding partners.
“Many VC firms are still very founders-focused,” says Soussan. “But the industry is now 20, 25 years old and these founders are starting to retire… and it’s hard to find a successor.”
Sharing the cake
Ventech was launched by Caffi together with founding partner Eric Huet, who since 2006 has taken the lead of Ventech China, a separate investment arm of the firm. Jean Bourcereau joined early on as an equity partner and took over as managing partner in 2018.
In 2008 the trio opened the shareholding to additional partners with the arrival of general partner Claire Houry. There are now seven partners at the firm, based in Ventech’s main European locations (France, Germany and Finland). Partners don’t have equal ownership but they do have the same financial incentives, says Bourcereau. He says this “creates a balance” and is the reason the firm has seen no senior departures in two decades.
There is no formalised career progression path that associates and principals follow to make it to partner. But Bourcereau identifies two key milestones: the ability to bring deals to the table without a chaperone, which is the role of a principal, and the next step — completing a whole cycle from initiating a deal to exiting the company favourably.
“It’s not a firm rule but it corresponded in the past to the moment people were appointed as GPs,” says Bourcereau. “It means they know their business.”
This approach has been key to Ventech’s success, says Wirries. “In a business where it’s about long-term servicing, you need to bring up the people involved,” says Wirries.
“The starting point for successful foundership is to enlarge the cake. It means enlarging the business.”
Managing LPs
Managing the transition with LPs, who “like to see the same faces they’ve trusted for 20 years”, can be tricky, says Bourcereau.
“The key is to be very transparent and take your time, sometimes executing something you told them years before,” he says. “This is a business where only time shows who’s good and who’s not… It’s not a short-term thing.”
Ventech says 95% of LPs returned to back the latest fund. They include institutional investors, family offices and founders of former portfolio companies.
The fund has already made 15 investments in France, Germany and the Nordics, and has also backed a European founder in the US.
