Iris Capital launches €250m European tech investment fund

Iris Capital, a Paris-based VC firm, has raised €250m to invest in European tech.

The firm will back startups from the Seed to growth stage and will seek to invest from €1m up to €30m.

A spokesperson told Tech City News that Iris Capital would seek to deploy some of the fund to fuel “great UK startups and, or, support the UK expansion of international startups”.

Known as ‘IrisNext’, the fund drew investment from corporates such as Orange, Publicis and Valeo, which were joined by Bpifrance and BRED Banque Populaire.

“In the last five years, together with Orange and Publicis Groupe, we’ve successfully co-created what we call the multi-corporate VC model.

“We would like to thank Orange and Publicis Groupe for their renewed trust and we are looking forward to expanding the success of this model with our new corporate partners,” said Pierre de Fouquet, managing partner and co-founder at Iris Capital.

IrisNext will be targeting companies operating within verticals including the Internet of Things, cybersecurity and 5G networks, all the way through to artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and software design.

Although it will eye potential investments opportunities in the UK, the fund will primarily focus on France, Germany and the US.

“Our mission at Iris Capital is to identify and fuel promising entrepreneurs to help them grow and scale their businesses across Europe and beyond, notably thanks to our corporates network. We are delighted at the renewed trust from the original backers and look forward to welcoming new contributors,” added Antoine Garrigues, managing partner and co-founder at Iris Capital.