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Serena Capital, a major player in financing and accompanying high growth digital companies, has launched its 3rd fund in 8 years; Serena Data Ventures, dedicated to Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.
Institutional investors and large corporate groups have committed close to 80 million Euros to Serena Data Ventures which just closed its first investment in Heuritech, a French startup specialized in deep learning technologies.
Serena Capital reinforces its start-up support with the arrival of 3 new Venture Partners and Amélie Faure hired as Operating Partner.
The first European investment fund dedicated to Big Data and Artificial Intelligence
At the end of 2016 Serena Capital published a study focused on the “Data Revolution” and the great dynamism of European start-ups in the field of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. In the coming years identifying and leveraging data will disrupt all business sectors including banking, insurance, health, energy, manufacturing, trade, logistics, etc.
This is why Serena Capital chose to devote its new fund to this massive scale disruption; the largest of its kind since the arrival of the internet. Several innovative players (large groups, tech companies, start-ups, research centers, accelerators etc.) joint forces for the launch of this fund.
The Serena Data Ventures team, backed up by their reputation for efficient and added value support and their experience with the first two funds in software and Big Data, will facilitate the rise of future data champions in Europe. The new fund will invest between 500,000 and 3 million Euros in the first financing rounds.
Serena Capital has also teamed up with the American VC firm Firstmark to launch “Data Driven Paris” on the same model as the not-to-miss New York event which each month brings together tech experts who are passionate about Big Data, AI and data science.
Serena Capital reinforces its start-up support with the arrival of 3 new Venture Partners and Amélie Faure hired as Operating Partner
Three serial tech entrepreneurs will bring their expertise to Serena Data Ventures:
- Bertrand Diard, President of Tech in France and Founder of Talend, a recent French success story listed on the Nasdaq and leader in Big Data,
- Sylvain Gauthier, CEO of Easy Vista, worldwide technological company (ALTERNEXT Paris),
- Jamal Labed, COO of Easy Vista and former President of Tech in France.
Amélie Faure, serial software entrepreneur, joins Serena Capital in the role of Operating Partner to structure and reinforce the operational support provided to portfolio companies.
Top-tier institutional and corporate investors
Allianz, BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, MACSF, MAIF and several “family offices” have all contributed to Serena Data Ventures, convinced of its investment strategy in Big Data and AI as well as its operational support provided to entrepreneurs.
“Our investment in Serena Data Ventures replies to 2 strategic objectives of BNP Paribas: participate in a vertical sectorial approach important for all our business lines, and continue our policy of financial support for start-ups as led by our innovation departments since 2012. We are convinced of the relevance and positioning chosen by Serena Capital in creating this new fund.” says Myriam Beque, spokeswoman for BNP Paribas.
“MAIF sees Big Data and AI as two major accelerators in pivoting towards a trusted digital platform. We believe that investment from our “MAIF Avenir” fund and our close collaboration with the Serena Capital team will place us on the forefront of these strategic technologies.” states Romain Liberge, Chief Digital Officer at the MAIF group.
Bpifrance – major player in the development of France’s start-up ecosystem – sees every day entrepreneurs with promising projects and measures their need for operational support. “We were won over by the fund’s originality in being entirely dedicated to data-driven start-ups. With technological transformation affecting all sectors and all jobs, data mining represents a key source of growth for companies.” explains Arnaud Fauquembergue, Investment Manager within the Capital Innovation Fund of Bpifrance.
Heuritech, Serena Data Ventures fund’s 1st investment, raises 1.1 million Euros
Heuritech has raised 1.1 million with Serena Data Ventures and well-known business angels such as Renaud Visage (CTO eventbrite) and Nicolas Pinto.
Heuritech has developed, thanks to deep learning technologies, an automatic real-time recognition solution of objects, shapes, textures, people from within any image or photo posted on social media and the internet. This innovative tool is being used in various ways but notably in the world of luxury and fashion as a means to detect clothing trends for designing collections and managing purchases/restocking, optimizing recommendations and merchandising on e-commerce platforms, and for qualitative and quantitative client segmentation, etc.
Tony Pinville, Co-Founder and CEO of Heuritech, states “With Serena Data Ventures, we found a VC who goes far beyond what we imagined; just a few weeks into our collaboration the team has already given us access to the best market experts, whether that be in marketing, sales organization or product development.”
About Serena Capital
Created in 2008, Serena Capital is a reputed investment firm in France and in Europe with more than 300 million Euros under management. Within a few years, Serena Capital has become a key player in financing and supporting early growth digital start-ups and has just launched the first fund in Europe dedicated to Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.
Serena I portfolio companies:
AramisAuto (sold to PSA), Bonitasoft, CoachClub, Arlettie, laFourchette (sold to Tripadvisor), Launchmetrics, Melty, Prestashop, Prixtel, Sequans (NYSE : SQNS), SantéVet, Selectron, RSI Video Technologies, Worldstores
Serena II portfolio companies:
Alkemics, Coorpacademy, TVTY, Work4, FinalCAD, Qualtera, Dataiku, TextMaster, Habiteo, Cheerz, Lengow, Evaneos, iContainers, Hopwork
For more info, please visit https://www.serenacapital.com/