We must now call it Orange Ventures and consider the French venture capital fund to be one of the largest in Europe. In order to boost investment activity for startups, the former Orange Digital Ventures (ODV) initiative, launched in 2015, continues to increase the amount of its budget.
It started out with an investment capacity of 20 million euros, will have made its mark through investments in Monzo (a UK online bank) and Luko (a French insurance startup) during its passage to 100 million euros and is now rising to 350 million euros from. Startups with a turnover of up to 20 million euros are traditionally awarded in seeds, but also in series A or B.
Orange Ventures still has the same team of around twenty employees, initially led by Pierre Louette, the former CEO of Agence France-Presse and current director of the Les Echos-Le Parisien group. Orange has not said whether the group that works for the venture capital fund will increase its workforce while Orange Ventures is based in Paris and Dakar.
One thing is certain: the new upper turnover limit of 350 million euros will continue to look for projects in what are currently the most attractive sectors. Orange Ventures would like to invest in cybersecurity and fintech in particular, but should also turn to young, innovative companies in the context of connected health.
Top 10 in European venture capital
Orange Ventures has not only increased the budget and simplified the name, but has also distanced itself from the activities of the operator in order to ensure complete transparency (conflicts of interest would never be very far away). She explained it by providing an outline of her ambitions: “Achieve the financial performance of the best venture capitalists and make your investment decisions autonomously.”
The new legal entity will therefore be included in the top 10 European venture capital investors. A new turning point for the project born in 2015, which is in an evaluation period for 2020 on young shoots that will have managed to raise € 5 billion last year, an amount close to that of the year 2019.
Also read: French Fintech takes stock of 2020
Orange Ventures will continue to focus on the most common types of fundraising, namely investments up to EUR 5 million. In her press release, she allowed herself a new limit of 20 million euros, enough to keep looking for ever more mature projects, in addition to her hat to historical investors …
