David Laroque 🌔

Soooo pretty much how French VC has always been. VC firms suing each other. LPs firing GPs. LPs taking funds back. VCs suing entrepreneurs. It's always been a dramatic scene. 🇫🇷 🐓🍷🥖 https://lnkd.in/eK8JbgDA #vc #venrurecapital #startups #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #tech #technology #innovation #money #business

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What do you need to be top quartile as a SaaS company in Europe? Sébastien Le Roy started to share the results of the Serena European SaaS benchmark during #Saastr Europa this week. Great way to quickly check whether you’re on track for a next VC round or simply what you have to improve. More results coming soon with the whole report.

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I’m pleased to have contributed to Arianee’s position paper, "From A Production-Based to A Service-Based Economy: The Role of Tokenization in Decoupling Growth." This insightful paper tackles a topic close to my heart. This paper outlines numerous practical strategies for companies to progress on tackling overproduction while creating new economic opportunities. Thank you Arianee, Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel and of course my friend Francois Souchet for the opportunity to collaborate. #circulareconomy #technology #circularbusinessmodels #sustainability

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The Venture market is very weird right now and it sometimes feels like we are in the hottest and coldest fundraising market ever at the same time. Time to invest or time to wait? I’ve tried to summarize my understanding of what’s happening in a blogpost. 

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🚀 For the last 6 months, we've been working on a new programme to accelerate VCs raising their next fund... 🎙️ I am delighted to announce we are now live! Applications are now open to participate in the first programme for emerging VC managers based in Europe, providing fundraising workshops from fundraising experts, LP connections and world-class mentoring. We kick off the first cohort of 15 - 20 VCs in Q1 2025. 🧐 Fundraising is hard. Hard for founders. Even harder for VCs. There is a vacuum of fundraising support for funds, and there's never been a more difficult time to get one off the ground... So what do participating funds receive? 1️⃣ Warm introductions to Limited Partners and Family Offices 2️⃣ Fundraising templates 3️⃣ 10+ hours of world-class mentoring 4️⃣ Content delivered through workshops with a focus on fundraising 5️⃣ Strong peer community 6️⃣ Opportunity of an LP commit from our network Who are the mentors? 👥 VC mentors include founding partners from some of the most successful VCs in Europe such as LocalGlobe, Dawn Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Partech, Heartcore, Speedinvest, and many more. Collectively, they have raised over $11bn across 80 funds 🤯 👥 LP mentors include investors from some of the most active Limited Partners such as the BBB, KfW, Isomer and many more. Who is the programme for? 🚀 Emerging VCs (broadly those raising Funds I - III) based in Europe 💰 We expect applicants to already be exceptional investors, we will focus on making them exceptional fundraisers. How much does it cost? 💰 👉 It's completely free! With no hidden costs. We want to avoid selection bias and level the playing field for under-represented managers What is the time commitment? ⏲️ 👉 Designed to fit a General Partner's busy schedule, participants will attend at least 3 LP networking events, 6 days of high-impact workshops over a 3-month period and receive 10 hours of mentoring. How to apply? 🎯 👉 You can learn more & apply directly from our website 👉 All those applying will receive access to LP investor lists, fundraising templates and exclusive benefits from our partners. How will we select the funds? ⚖️ With the help of Blue Future Partners, our fund selection partner, we will select VCs with a differentiated strategy, a partner team with deep domain experience, and those that we believe will most likely become the next generation of top-tier funds. 🎗️ I researched and dilligenced all the VC service providers I was recommended, to select partners with a track record of supporting the Emerging Manager community. This programme would not have been possible without the support of: HFL as our fund admin partner 📕 Osborne Clarke as our legal partner 📃 Sage as our technology partner 🧑‍💻 Ballou as our PR partner 🎤 Leela Capital Regulatory Solutions as our regulatory partner 𝍍 Johnston Carmichael Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers as our accounting partner 🧾

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From missing payroll 27 times to making over 500 investments! Meet Fabrice Grinda, named No. 1 Angel Investor by Forbes, who has made over $300 million in exits from over 700 investments! Fabrice began his entrepreneurial journey in 1998 by co-founding Aucland in France. In 1999, he raised $18M from Bernard Arnault, a venture fund luxury-goods magnate in exchange for 51% of the company. Later in 2000, Fabrice sold the rest to his fund. Fabrice founded Zingy in 2001, a mobile media startup. Despite facing early struggles and missing payroll 27 times, he finally succeeded when the company’s revenue scaled to $200M in 2004. Later, he sold Zingy for $80M to a Japanese media conglomerate ForSide. In 2006, Fabrice co-founded OLX with Alec Oxenford, which became one of the largest classified sites in the world with over 200 million monthly unique visitors. In 2010, the South African group Naspers Limited acquired it. Soon, Fabrice found a yearning for angel investing and building startups. He partnered with Jose Marin to jointly evaluate angel investment opportunities, and launched FJ Labs, a VC firm, to further pool the startup investment activities. Earlier, when they made around 178 investments, they received a 5.5x average return on 31 profitable exits. Among his angel investments are: Airbnb Alibaba Group Dropbox Palantir Technologies viagogo Wikimarket Uber Parking Panda To date, Fabrice, through FJ Labs, has made over 1000 startup investments and over 300 exits with an impressive realized 39-40% IRR. Fabrice’s portfolio allocation is 20% cash, 70% early-stage tech startups, and 10% real estate. As a serial angel investor, Fabrice and his team analyze over 100 companies weekly and make new investments every 15 days. His investment ticket size remains around $10k to $300k. He decides whether to invest or not based on four criteria: -The team -The pitch (market size & business model) -The product -The commercials Would you allocate 70% of your assets to startups? TDV Partners #angelinvesting #finance #investing #wealthcreation #ujwalsutaria #tdvpartners

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A must read for every founder (and investor) in B2B marketplaces. ⤵️ All credits to Fabrice Grinda + FJ Labs 👏🏽 https://lnkd.in/eB7uGzyH #firstdegree #founders #investors #whyrelationshipsmatter
#alwaysbelearning #sharingknowledge

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💸 Our business angel cash-out guide is out! 💸 I put together these 4 rules, compiling years of experience advising the best VC investors in managing their portfolio and their exit strategies ( 👋 Romain Afflelou Jean-David BENICHOU Jeremie Attali Marc Menasé Patrice Giami Fanny MIARA) For early-stage investors, finding the right monetization path is a significant challenge. The best, and most complex, option is selling shares on the secondary market. I put together this guide to help early stage venture investors maximize their returns, structured around four major rules RULE 👍 : Prepare this transaction strategy ahead of time RULE 🤘 : Find the right timing to do so RULE 👌 : Price their shares on the secondary market RULE 👊 : Efficiently manage your secondary process You can access the full version of the guide on https://lnkd.in/eqY2XQ_M If you want advice on how to maximize your portfolio I am more than happy to seat with you and discuss your strategy - just book a timeslot in my agenda https://lnkd.in/eFCPXU_g #venturecapital #businessangel #ROI #secondary #portfoliomanagement

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What are some valuable insights into the European startup ecosystem? I recently had the opportunity to read an insightful discussion between two established investors in the European venture space - Saul Klein of LocalGlobe and Raluca Ragab of Eurazeo. At the TechCrunch StrictlyVC event in London, they generously shared their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges facing founders and investors across the continent (for source or entire article see comment). While the fundamentals of starting and scaling a high-growth business remain similar everywhere, Saul and Raluca highlighted some key differences that impact the European landscape. One aspect they discussed was the relative lack of liquidity events compared to the U.S., which makes returns riskier for investors. With fewer large exits, it can be more difficult to attract later stage capital. 🔝 At the same time, both highlighted many promising qualities of Europe's startup hubs. Talent pools are deep, and multinational collaboration comes naturally to entrepreneurs in the region. Government programs also aim to foster innovation, and COVID has accelerated the digital transformation of traditional industries 🏭. However, Klein and Ragab's perspectives underscore the work that still needs to be done in Europe to catch up with the U.S. exit environment. Their balanced view got me thinking about how to strengthen Europe's network effects in the long term. As leaders seeking to build an inclusive world of shared prosperity, what innovative strategies could help connect the continent's many vibrant startup ecosystems? I'd love to hear your thoughts. #D11ZVentures #techcrunch #FutureOfTech #VCInsights

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An outstanding group of startups in the latest INOVEXUS acceleration cohort , each addressing unique industry challenges. TALONIC's founders are missing on the snapshot - they called in from Berlin. If you are challenged by the ever increasing amount of unstructured data you need to access & comprehend to make the right business decisions, you should definitely take a look at TALONIC - providing your teams a single AI platform to manage all data. If you are interested to embark and support TALONIC's journey - just leave quick comment here

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"Agentic AI" is the buzzword in VC. But can AI agents actually plan and act ? 💡 The idea is that AI systems can plan and execute workflows autonomously with goals inputs. Example: "book me a 7 day trip in France that costs no more than X to discover hidden cultural gems". Does it work with the current AI systems? 🙅‍♂️ According to DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, current AI systems are not good at planning, they can't problem solve, they can't do actions in the world for you. They are "very much passive Q&A systems". However according to Demis, this might be the next era in AI. 👀 By combining the work done with AlphaGo in games (agent players that are very good at planning) with multi-modal "real world" learning (Gemini) and applying this to language and everyday workloads, he believes that we might get there. João Duarte Darko Butina Xavier Mesnier Pepijn Rot

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The French government is spearheading a renewed push to integrate the European Union's fragmented capital markets to revive the bloc's flourishing startup ecosystem and reduce their dependence on U.S. venture capital funds. Complicated local regulations and oversight have prevented the EU from developing deep, unified capital markets on par with the U.S. This forces promising European startups to inevitably turn to U.S. VCs and IPO markets as they scale, representing a missed wealth creation opportunity for the bloc. French officials argue that reviving the long-stalled EU capital markets union must be a top priority. This would harmonize financial rules and oversight across the 27-nation bloc, providing startups access to larger pools of integrated risk capital. While the majority of the nations are on board, at least in principle, several governments remain reluctant to cede regulatory control of their financial markets. Another proposed solution involves getting public sector investors, such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), more involved in riskier startup bets.

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📣 Major Update for French Founders and VC Firms! 🚀 Versible eu We have built a full database of all the private funds investing in #Seed, #SeriesA, and #SeriesB across nearly every sector in the #French ecosystem. As part of our mission, we are developing the next generation of venture capital management software. Our goal is to streamline the fundraising process and enhance investor relations for founders and investors throughout Europe. Each of our initiatives aims to shine a spotlight on the hardworking individuals who are shaping the future of the world. Stay tuned for Monday 27th. #Venturecapital #Seed #Lafrenchtech #LegalTech #Agriculture #Mobility #Deeptech #FoodTech #InsurTech #BioTech #HealthTech #Realestate #Web3

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💟 This is the kind of news that makes you love Venture Capital! 🦄🇫🇷 Some will only remember the €1.5 billion exit for a French company. It's not a UNICORN valuation, it's a real EXIT! 3️⃣ 6️⃣ Some will only remember the x36 multiple on investment. 💥 Some will only remember the €175 million proceeds returned to the funds with a single operation. 👑What I'll remember, is Denis Ladegaillerie's passion, vision, and ambition. These are the keys to success. Excited to share this fantastic news for Believe, for Ventech, but also for the entire Tech ecosystem! 🚀 #VentureCapital #SuccessStory cc France Digitale

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Tomorrow I’m lucky to be hosting a panel with three exceptional founders: - Gilles Gaillard - Co-founder of Animaj, raised 100m EUR (in equity and debt) in 2023 to build an AI-powered animation studio that counts 𝗮 stunning 15 billion (!) YouTube views per year. Animaj acquires animation and cartoon franchises to turn them into digital-first content and amplifies their distribution using AI. - Baptiste Jamin - Co-founder of Crisp IM, 42 alumni, also can be called the “King of Bootstrap”. He started building chatbots in 2015, 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗹. Crisp centralises all customer interactions through live chat, chatbots, and a shared inbox. Today Crisp serves over 600,000 companies without raising any funds. - Vincent SIMON - Co-founder of Relationchips and founder of Simundia. Vincent is a serial entrepreneur & investor who founded a coaching platform that raised over 15m EUR & is currently working on a no-code sales workflow platform. What do they have in common? They started their career as freelancers and worked their way up to become highly successful entrepreneurs. 👉 Join us at Le Wagon tomorrow at 7pm to hear their story. We’ll also host a networking session for you to meet people from our community who are working on projects that might interest you. 🔗Link to register in the comments.

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💡 I was discussing with Julien Hobeika about agents the other day. We had a typical VC question. What is gonna be grabbed by incumbents and what could be opportunities for newcomers. This conversation is endless but we started slicing the problem with 2 axis: Where automation sits in the enterprise: 🅰️ -"Top-down" sponsored automation. These are high volume areas and if not met properly can have business critical risk 🅱️ - Long tail user productivity, often underserved and sponsored by individual users or small teams, requiring a more DIY approach. I have around 10 automation ideas daily, but as a non technical user, I find the barrier to entry for using Zapier effectively to be non-trivial The complexity of automation: 1️⃣ - Sequencing friendly workflows with straightforward chains and finite branches 2️⃣ - Complex, non-sequencing friendly workflows that require a goal-oriented approach with potentially infinite branch and loop combinations. ➡️ Our initial hypotheses point towards: 🐘 There is an opportunity for incumbents (Workato, UIPath) to use genAI to add even clever 'steps' in their tool AND potentially ease the creation of workflow using "prompt to workflow" mechanism. This is already happening. I've been impressed by how aggressively they have been implementing more capabilities into their offerings 🦸🏻‍♀️🦸 This is a new paradigm. Existing sequencing friendly automation tools are failing at this. A new agentic native approach can build those automations. We’re excited about founders building here and have already partnered with teams like Qevlar AI | We're Hiring! (in security operations), and Parloa (in customer service). Who’s next? 😉 🪄 There is an opportunity to bring automation to the masses. We believe that delivering prompt-to-sequence automation to every individual holds a lot of promise. We expect teams to create a magical product experience enabling anyone in the organization to become a software creator 🤖  This is the more futuristic box. Is that basically automating yourself? Get your digital twin to work for you and you earn the money on its behalf? We will keep ideating on this framework. What do you think? Doreen Huber Tom Mendoza Sai Sriramagiri Ted Persson EQT Ventures Kaushik Subramanian

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Whether you're a French startup founder or investing in the French tech ecosystem, this is a must-have resource: The Serena 2024 Edition of the Ultimate VC List is live! Fundraising can be incredibly time-consuming. That’s why, back in 2016, Serena created the Ultimate VC List to streamline the process for entrepreneurs in France. Now an interactive platform, it has supported over 100,000 entrepreneurs and VCs in the ecosystem. Some key trends Sébastien Le Roy and Maxime Furet spotted when putting this edition together: 🚀 The French VC ecosystem is thriving with new funds like Resonance, OVNI Capital, Yellow, and Varsity, signaling a vibrant and expanding market. 🌍 There’s increased interest from US and European funds for French startups, particularly in AI and climate tech, and a rise in non-traditional investors such as Business Angel Clubs and Family Offices (which are now covered by a new section). 🔧 Infrastructure investors are playing a critical role in funding innovative hybrid models amid global warming challenges. ♻️ The growing presence of impact VCs highlights the focus on socially and environmentally impactful investments.

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IA funding is (still) surging. As uncertainty continues in the start-up ecosystem, IA is still trending. For example the amount raised by AI media generation deals doubles since Q4 2023. But one spot seem to be left on the side : AI tools for investors. VC are betting big on AI but aren’t using AI at all to make better bets. And the AI castle might crumble one day. The CEO of Hugging Face is already warning that dozens of founders are reaching out on a weekly basis to be acquired. So there might be a lot of losing bets still alive. So why so few start-ups are working to solve this issue? Is it because the market is to small? Is it because VCs don’t believe in a data-driven approach (I don’t believe in this one, VCs are too smart to not try something new)? Or simply nobody’s building in this ecosystem? A few start-ups are starting to try to tacle the problem. And we’re on this path to. Easing data collection on the start-up, the market and competitors. Carefully selecting the right metrics to make the right decision. And making it simple and super efficient so you don’t spend hours on it anymore. If you’re curious to see how it works, shoot me a DM 👀 #AI #VC #startup

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