FRENCH VENTURE CAPITAL

LANDSCAPE
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. What’s new in 2019? Page 4-7

2. 2018 in a Snapshot Page 8-11

3. Overview: Why We Are Excited About France Page 12-20

4. The French Ecosystem: Stronger Than Ever Page 21-26

5. Public Sector is Pushing Hard to Support the Tech Ecosystem Page 27-31

6. Diversity & Talent in France Page 32-36

7. Deep Dive on French VCs Page 37-46

2
 A WORD FROM OUR TEAM

In this first edition of our report, we aim to share our enthusiasm on the French Tech and Venture Capital ecosystem as well as
touch upon a few additional topics.
We wish to share our excitement about France and dive into a few data points that show the country’s explosive growth in tech and
VC investments over the last four years. We look at the role that the public sector has had on catalysing this growth. We also look at
the diversity and talent which makes up this ecosystem and end by diving into the main VC’s and investors that have been injecting
Eric Martineau-Fortin capital into France.
Managing Partner At White Star Capital, we started investing in France in 2016 and have made two landmark investments in the country into Klaxoon
and Meero. We established a permanent office in Paris in 2017 and since formally set up a regulated fund in France in the second
half of 2018.
We also recruited a few weeks ago an international investment professional to join us in France as a Principal towards the middle of
the year with the intention to strengthen our continental European team. We are much looking forward to continuing investing in
the fast growing French market!

Over the past few years, we’ve been fortunate to witness of the fast acceleration of the French tech ecosystem. We are now building
global champions out of France in technology, as we’ve seen decades ago with a number of our local international champions in
what have now become traditional industries. Our French entrepreneurs are as ambitious as others, fearless and do think global well
from Day 1. We succeeded in creating over the last few years an environment of trust, bringing top-tier French and international
investors to support growth stories in technologies to a large scale.
Matthieu Lattes We are engaged since mid 2018 to build in Paris a solid team of professionals with strong complementary international
General Partner backgrounds, supported by our colleagues out of New York, London, Tokyo, Hong-Kong and Montreal. We will keep doing so in the
coming months with the recruitment of more international talents in Continental Europe out of our French office.
We are much looking forward to announcing shortly our new French portfolio company after Klaxoon and Meero and to keep meeting
the most promising start-ups that will join them in the coming months.

“The ambition of “France has “The vitality of the “The French market
French Entrepreneurs developed all the French startup has seen an
is increasingly global necessary assets to ecosystem is incredible boom and
and matches with turn its new remarkable and very explosion in Startup
their world-class generation of promising as the and VC activity in the
technical skills and startuppers into businesses further last 3 years – vive la
Pauline Studer Alex Wilson Jean de Lencquesaing Sanjay Zimmermann
creativity: the perfect global leaders” mature and scale” French Tech! ”
Associate (Paris) French touch!” Associate (London) Associate (New York) Associate (Montreal)

External data sources: 3

WHAT’S NEW IN 2019?
WHAT’S NEW IN THE ECO-SYSTEM?
Overview of France’s activity early 2019

Strong 2019 start for French start-ups with significant funding rounds

Series E Series C Series F Series C Series C

$170m $125m $92m $62m $60m
2013 2011 2013 2012 2012
Offers a booking Upgrades biomass into Digitalises points of sale Provides the Optimizes Web and
platform to help find high quality compounds worldwide technology to mobile sites
doctors for nutrition thanks to Paris launch a marketplace Paris
Paris insect properties Paris
Paris

Alongside high funds dynamism

Bridgestone EMEA et Axa Venture Partners Partech doubled its AngelSquare launches
Seventure Partners
Iris Capital announce a held a $150m first close Africa VC fund to $143m AngelSquare Impact, its
announced a first close
corporate venture for its AVP Early Stage II and opened a Nairobi second investment
for its €100m fund
partnership: fund ($180m hard cap), office in addition to its structure, dedicated to
Health for Life Capital II
Bridgestone joins Iris focusing on high-growth Dakar practice “impactful” start-ups –
Next alongside Orange, technology companies having a positive impact
Publicis and Valeo on society or the
environment

Source: news run

5
RECENT SEED TRENDS
Overview of France’s activity early 2019

Structured Seed players

SaaS Companies remain of high interest

Glance at some of the hot sectors

FoodTech PropTech HRTech

MonBuilding
Wizbii

Dark Kitchen

Source: news run. Note: Reflects notable investments under €3m since 01-Jan-2019. 6
 Number of participants
WORLD CLASS TECH AND VC EVENTS
Notable events to come in 2019 Number of start-ups

May July September June October

16-18 18-19 24 11-12 10

Paris Brest Paris Paris Paris

50,000 1,000 4,300 5,000 43,000

1,800 100+ 2,000 110 400

7
2018 IN A SNAPSHOT
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Superb last 12 months for the French Tech
“PARIS BECAME THE MOST
ATTRACTIVE EUROPEAN CITY
FOR FOREIGN DECISION-
MAKERS” *
This performance is mainly
explained by the uncertainties
related to Brexit – EY report
“IDINVEST LAUNCHES A
$829M PRIVATE DEBT FUND
AT 60% COLLECTED FROM
FOREIGN INVESTORS”
Exceeded target of 600M and will
target the European “lower mid-
market” - Fusacq, Les Echos
“DEEZER RAISED A $185M
SERIES F”
The on-demand music platform
raised the biggest round of the year
from Orange, LBO France, Saudi-
based Rotana and other investors. –
Tracxn and CBInsights
*Additional details provided in the report
“BPIFRANCE WILL PROVIDE
€10 BILLION TO FUND
FRENCH COMPANIES” *
This concerns companies at key
stages in their development –
Business France
“BPIFRANCE ORGANIZED THE
4TH EDITION OF BPIFRANCE
INNO GÉNÉRATION”
With 43,000 entrepreneurs, 1,000
speakers and 300 thematic
workshops, this event is one of the
largest gathering of entrepreneurs
in Europe – Bpifrance
“THE FRENCH GOV’T WILL
WIDEN AND SOFTEN THE
TALENT VISA LAUNCHED IN
2017 FOR FOREIGNERS” *
This Visa program targets now any
innovative company (not only
digital) – La Tribune, Maddyness
“ULTIME SOFTWARE
ACQUIRED PEOPLEDOC FOR
$300M”
Thanks to this acquisition,
Ultimate Software will expand its
activities in Europe and distribute
PeopleDoc’s services to its own
customers – TechCrunch
“FRANCE HAS A VERY ACTIVE
PUBLIC AND INCREASINGLY
PRIVATE AI RESEARCH” *
In 2018, four important companies
including Google and Fujitsu
launched an AI Research Center in
Paris – FranceIsAI
“THE FRENCH GOV’T
ANNOUNCED THE CREATION
OF A €400 MILLION FRENCH
TECH SEED FUND” *
This new fund will be operated by
Bpifrance and focused on deep
tech – L’Usine Digitale
9
NEW FUND ANNOUNCEMENTS IN 2018
Over $1B in new capital raised by French VC funds this year
French VC’s closed four funds in 3Q, the most of any European country*

$210M $192M
Stage: Stage:

Sector: Sector:

$180M Stage: $174M

Stage:
Sector:
Sector:

$163M $151M
Stage:
Stage:

Sector:
Sector:

$104M
Stage: Legend
Stage Sector
Sector: Seed AI CleanTech
Series A Fintech Ecommerce
$70M Series B Smart City Food
Stage:
Series C Mobile Software
Sector: Growth Fund

Source: Tracxn (based on French domiciled funds – with the exception of White Star Capital) and *Pitchbook – European Venture Report, 3Q 2018
10
PARIS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Paris: A major European city for tech and startups

1st European Europe’s 2nd

city in terms city by
of number of
knowledge LinkedIn
spillover1 members
The city was
with AI skills
ranked 2nd
in Europe
for its access
2nd European
to capital
city for
Europe’s 2nd Artificial
talent pool Intelligence
for IT talent
developers

All quotes come from Business France Tech Book, 2017 11

1 Knowledge spillover: Stimulating technological improvements in a neighbor through one’s own innovation.
OVERVIEW: WHY WE ARE
EXCITED ABOUT FRANCE
 VC FUNDING IN FRANCE
Funding has almost quadrupled in the last 4 years with a significant rising deal size

VC funding in France (2013-2018) Total funding allocated to top 10 deals

$ 3.3B 48%
42% 44%

33%
28%
22%

$ 2.4B

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

4.7x
$ 1.8B
Average VC-backed funding
$ 6m
$ 1.4B

$ 4m

$ 0.7B $ 2m
$ 0.6B

$ 0m
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Average Deal Value ($m) Median Deal Value ($m)

2
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
2

Source: CBInsights 13
 PARIS: EUROPE’S SECOND LARGEST TECH HUB
Both in terms of deal volume and deal amount

While Paris is still half the amount of funding and deal volume of London, it is over 1.5x larger than Berlin

Top European cities by Total Deal Amount Top European cities by Total Deal Volume
(2018) (2018)
$ 3.2B 465

1.9x

$ 1.7B
1.5x 206
$ 1.1B 143
113
80
$ 0.4B $ 0.4B

London Paris Berlin Stockholm Barcelona London Paris Berlin Stockholm Barcelona

Source: CBInsights Source: CBInsights

14
 PARIS: EUROPE’S SECOND LARGEST TECH HUB
Even clearer when looking at Seed funding only

When looking at Seed funding only, Paris’s scale ahead of other cities becomes even more apparent, which is setting this market up
for several more years of funding and deal volume growth as the seed companies funded today begin to mature

Top European cities by Total Top European cities by Total

Deal Amount in Seed funding (2018) Deal Volume in Seed funding (2018)
$ 218m 106

2.1x

$ 104m 49
2.5x 37 37

$ 42m 18
$ 23m
$ 12m

London Paris Berlin Stockholm Barcelona London Paris Berlin Stockholm Barcelona

Source: CBInsights Source: CBInsights

15
 FUNDING STAGES & EXITS
In the last decade, seed stage deals as a % of French deal volume increased by 230% and exits grew steadily

As seen earlier, seed funding represents the largest share of total
funding in France. Indeed, Seed-stage funding increased by 230% of
the percentage of total deal volume captured over the last 10 years.
However, later stage of venture funding still need to improve in the
years to come.
The total number of exits rising year over year since 2010 is another
encouraging sign as it suggests healthy levels of M&A activity in the
country. The # of VC-backed exits has grown as well albeit not at the
same pace, as later stage funding still remains low. We do believe the
increase seen across Europe at the VC funding level contributes to
accelerate the number of exits.

% of French deal volume The number of French exits has been

per stage, per year steadily rising year-over-year since 2010
100%
90% 725
653
80%
70%
60%
403
50%
40%
259
30%
178
20% 133
103 100
10% 54 51
24 30 41 37
10 15 16
14
0%
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Seed Series A Series B Series C Series D+ Number of exits in France (VC Backed)
Number of exits in France (Total)

Source: CBInsights 16
 SIZING UP FRANCE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
France sits with top regions for venture deals and has recently become one of the fastest growing markets

CAGR Deal Volume

Region Total Deal Volume (FY 2018) Total Deal Amount (FY 2018) (2016-2018)

U.S 7,658 $98.8bn +5.6%

U.K. 1,139 $7.1bn +15.8%

France 690 $3.3bn +11.0%

Germany 547 $3.7bn +6.8%

Canada 528 $2.8bn +5.1%

Israel 300 $2.4bn +12.5%

Source: CBInsights
*Western Hemisphere only, VC deals Angel round through Series E+

17
 DEAL SHARE BY STAGE; PAST 3 YEARS
France’s Startup ecosystem is young and froth with potential

A higher % of investments in the seed stages indicates a the youngest ecosystems in the Western Hemisphere with
younger ecosystem. France, having experienced record over 71% of deals at the Seed stage. This means in the coming
growth, especially at the seed stage with startup renaissance years we should expect to see a trickle down effect into the A,
in the last few years has in relative terms one of B and C stages as the ecosystem matures.

Seed/Angel
share of deals 49% 49% 49% 62% 69% 71%

Series A
share of deals 24% 24% 28% 22% 18% 19%

Series B
13% 13% 11% 10% 8% 6%
share of deals

Series C
7% 7% 6% 4% 3% 2%
share of deals

Series D
share of deals 3% 3% 3% 1% 1% 1%

Series E
share of deals 3% 3% 2% 1% 1% 1%

Source: CBInsights 18
 INCREASING # OF $50M+ ROUNDS
Signs of a growing ecosystem of later stage investors betting on the development of France-born global
champions

$1 300m # of $50M+ rounds-since 2015 15

International funds
9
$1 100m 10

4
$ 900m 3 $ 826m 5

$ 700m 0

$ 500m
Domestic funds
-5

$ 375m
$ 315m
$ 279m
$ 300m -10

$ 100m -15

-$ 100m 2015 2016 2017 2018 -20

Deal Amount Deal Volume

Source: CBInsights Source: CBInsights

• With growth rounds exceeding $100m, we can say that the market is buying exits comprised
between $300m and $500m
• Hence, this leads to the creation of genuine global leaders
• In France, the ecosystem as well as the macro-environment (social, education, taxes,
infrastructure…) became attractive for international investors
19
 HOT FRENCH SUBSECTORS
A snapshot of France’s strongest subsectors over the past 3 years

DeepTech/AI Mobility / Transportation

Activity Examples Activity Examples
33 36 $ 250m 22 18
$ 560m 40 7 15
21 $ 200m
$ 345m
$ 360m 20 $ 150m $ 108m -5
$ 100m $ 69m $ 81m
$ 143m -25
$ 160m $ 84m 0 $ 50m
$ 0m -45
-$ 40m
2016A 2017A 2018
-20 * 2016A 2017A 2018

Deal Amount Deal Volume

Deal Amount Deal Volume

FoodTech/AgTech EdTech/HRTech
Activity Examples Activity Examples
$ 280m 22 22
34 33 11 20
$ 600m 29 40 $ 169m $ 154m 10
$ 400m $ 180m
$ 280m 20
$ 127m $ 182m 0
$ 200m 0 $ 80m $ 36m
-10
$ 0m -20
2016A 2017A 2018 -$ 20m
2016A 2017A 2018
-20 *
Deal Amount Deal Volume
Deal Amount Deal Volume

Source: CBInsights; * White Star Capital portfolio companies; Funds that invested in the below-mentioned sectors 20
THE FRENCH ECOSYSTEM:
STRONGER THAN EVER
 TECH GIANTS’ IMPACT ON FRANCE
Giants are developing AI/Research Labs in France but are still focusing mainly on Paris

US Giants are expanding their R&D and The location of giants’ AI/Research Labs in
Operations teams into France France
Cloud Computing
Has a Cloud Managed Services (CMS) center
located in Montpellier and a data center
located in Paris
Has a cluster of data centers, three in Paris
and one near Marseille

Artificial Intelligence
Launched its first AI Lab ever in Paris at
the end of June 2018
*
Has opened an AI Lab in Paris in March
2018
Has a Parisian AI Center since 2015
Has one AI center in Paris since March
2018
Has an AI Center in Paris since January
2018
Has two AI Centers near Nice since 2011
Acquired Xerox’s AI Research Center in
Grenoble in June 2017
Has a Parisian R&D Center since 2014
Built its third largest AI R&D Center in *IBM is the giant developing the most its CMS and data centers in different regions of France
Paris in March 2018
Source: FranceisAI by France Digitale
22
Source: CBInsights
 CONTINUED LARGE TRANSACTIONS IN 2018
Significant # of >$200m exits in last 2 years

2017 2018
Teads Metrologic Group
F Founded in 2011 Founded in 1980
$307m Advanced 3D measurement software $417m1
Video advertising solutions
Montpellier Meylan

Zenly PeopleDoc
Founded in 2011 Founded in 2007
$300m Cloud-based HR management systems
$300m
Real-time location sharing
Paris Paris

Optis
Compte Nickel
Founded in 2012 Founded in 1989
$295m $300m
Fintech Design & Software
Paris La Farlède

Chauffeur Privé Cedexis

Founded in 2012 Founded in 2009
$236m $100m
Booking transporting platform Traffic monitoring platform
Levallois-Perret Paris

Source: Tracxn acquired by for an undisclosed amount

1 €306m converted to USD

23
 TOP 30 MOST FUNDED FRENCH STARTUPS
Companies which received funding over the last 10 years

Total funding $m

449 442

311
268

161 147 147

131 122 122
113 108 105 104 99
93 90 87 86 83
71 71 70 68 66 59 57
56 56 55

White Star Capital portfolio companies

Source: CBInsights as of Mar-2019
24
Note: Excludes funds raised during an IPO
 STILL NON-EXISTENT IPO MARKET
VC-Backed IPO’s in the French market primarily exit on domestic stock exchanges

French VC-Backed IPOs have seen continuous activity over the more mature French startups are starting to exit. Most of the
last few years, with a peak in 2015 and 2018 gearing up to be domestic IPO’s are not as large as typical NASDAQ IPO’s
another record year. There seems to be an increasing number however with the median IPO proceeds being $35m and the
of recent IPO’s coming out of the ICT sector as some of the average proceeds being $47m in the last 5 years.

French VC-Backed IPOs from 2014 to 2018

$69m $260m $17m $15m $59m

$10m $54m $13m $9m $51m

$10m $46m $12m $8m $35m

6 8 3 4 9

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Legend: Domestic Stock Exchange Foreign Stock Exchange Number of IPO’s

Source: CBInsights
25
 LARGEST FUNDING ROUNDS OVER LAST 4 YEARS
France experienced record VC funding in 2017 and the momentum continued in 2018 and 2019

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Series D Series E Series D Series F

Series E
$200m $160m $75m $185m
$170m
2006 2009 2010 2006
2013
Long Distance Ride Cellular Network Platform for IOT On-Demand Music
Booking platform to help
Sharing Operator deployments Streaming
find doctors
Paris Labege Paris Paris
Paris

Series C Series C
Series D
Series E $72m $101m Series C
$115m
$109m 2013 2012 $125m
2009
2006 Online marketplace for End to end machine 2011
Cellular Network
On-Demand Music craft and gardening learning based data Innovative products
Operator
Streaming products science platform operating in the agrofood
Labege
Paris Paris Paris Paris

Series D
Series C Series A Series F
$80m
$35m $70m $92m
2009
2010 2000 2013
Marketplace for
LEGEND Peer-to-peer car rental Cloud-based file Digitalization for points
personalized holiday
marketplace management system of sale worldwide
packages
Paris Paris Paris
<$100m Paris

>$100m
Series A Series E Series C
$32m $62m Series B $62m
2007 2009 $75m 2012
Rating platform for Luxury Resale 2014 Provide technology to
global supply chain Marketplace Bitcoin Security launch marketplace
Source: CBInsights Paris Paris Paris Paris 26
PUBLIC SECTOR IS PUSHING HARD
TO SUPPORT THE TECH ECOSYSTEM
 FRENCH PROGRAMS UNIQUE TO FRANCE
More than €80bn spent to promote innovation and attract & develop talent

Promoting a Friendlier Tax Environment for Startups

• A 20% innovation tax credit has been created for startups and will apply to innovation expenses up to
€400,000 per year and per company
• President Macron announced the removal of the highest 20% rate of the salaries’ social charges and
that compensation and bonus schemes would no longer be included in the severance pay’s
calculations
Innovation Funding
• France took measures to enhance the link between fundamental research and business application
• The 2018 budget for the ministry of higher education, research and innovation rose by more than 6%,
to $9.9B (with an extra $2.8B to research over the next 5 years)
• French National Research Agency, which funds individual projects on a competitive basis, rose its
budget by 5% to $818m. France is Europe’s second country by gross R&D expenditure ($63bn) (2018)

Creating Talent
• France has a huge pool of skilled talent with 100,000 engineers and 70,000 PhD students every year
• France’s universities offer high-quality cross-disciplinary programs, resulting in more complete future
workers in terms of skills
Environment-focused innovation
• Bpifrance will invest €4B for the Energy and Ecological Transition (TEE), a law enhancing energy savings
and the development of renewable energies. In this context, Bpifrance has already supported 1,400
energy companies for a total amount of €1.4B
• In July 2017, Bpifrance launched France Investissement Energie Environnement (FIEE), a €100m fund
that will strengthen its offer dedicated to the TEE
28
CHANGE IN MINDSET TOWARDS FRENCH TECH
Select quotes from the news and media in France that embody the country’s change in mindset
Macron is willing to transform France into a “startup nation” and
wants entrepreneurship to be well on the up - Business France,
2018. Before launching all the new projects as a President,
Macron was already initiating this change in mindset back at the
time when he used to be Minister of Economy. Indeed, he
launched the Growth, Economic Activity and Equal Economic
Opportunity Act (aka the “Macron Law”) promoting liberalization,
investment and labor market reform - Business France, 2017.
Since Macron’s elections, 60% of CEO’s from foreign companies
say that the country is more attractive. According to Brice
Teinturier, Executive Director at polling studies firm IPSOS,
“international investors view France positively for the first time”.
Interesting fact: the French Digital Agency managed by the
Minsitry of Economy and Finance, and stimulating and supporting
actions preparing the French society for digital revolutions has an
average team age of 31 years old - Business France, 2018.
Half a million companies are created every year in France. It is
quicker to create a business in France (3.5 days on average) than
in the UK (4.5 days) or in Germany (10.5 days). Between 2012 and
2015, the number of startups created in France increased by 30%.
Also, more than 300 private accelerators are present in the
country. As far as business is concerned, France’s future has rarely
looked brighter - Business France, 2018.
In the 2017 Top 100 Global Innovators ranking (Derwent World
Patents Index, 2017) by Clarivate Analytics, France is ranked third
behind Japan and the US. Still in the same report, France accounts
for 37% of all European Innovations (Germany: 21%, Switzerland:
16%). In the Bloomberg 2018 Innovation Index, France is ranked
second for high-tech intensity, calculated with the number of
domestically domiciled high-tech public companies.
52% of French People would be interested in creating startups.
Moreover, 68% of the French population say that the government
adds new momentum to entrepreneurship and enterprise
creation - Business France, 2018. According to a EY report about
France’s attractiveness, it is shown that 56% of people find the
support policies for startups effective . Finally, since end 2016, the
media mentioning the words “France” and “startup” altogether
skyrocket - EY, 2018.
The French Government Investment Fund (CDC) plans to support
the Arc of Innovation project by creating over 150,000 sq. m. of
tertiary real estate (for incubators, co-working spaces…) in Paris
and neighboring municipalities. €600m were already invested for
Paris alone – Business France Tech Book, 2017.
29
RECENT GOVERNMENT EQUITY PROGRAMS
The French state invests more than €10B in equity programs

Date Program Name Amount Purpose

• This fund will be operated by Bpifrance, through a network
of business finders made of incubator and laboratories.
June-18 French Tech Seed Fund €400m • Focus on deep tech startups coming from laboratories or
incubators/accelerators
• Bpifrance manages this Major Innovation Program fund
• It intervenes exclusively with the 12 winners of the Global
June-17 PSIM Fund €200m Innovation Competition (CMI) (Snips, Wandercraft…) by
investing check sizes between €2 and €20 million
• Managed by Bpifrance, it invests in the key stages of
startup growth
• The fund is evergreen, investing the returns (≈€250m) of
Innovation and Industry
June-17 €10,000m its €10bn in assets on an annual basis
Fund (FII) • €150m will finance big technological challenges
• €70m will support deep tech companies
• €25m will be dedicated to nanotechnologies
• Managed by Bpifrance, it invests (check sizes between
French Tech
Dec-15 €200m €1m and €20m) in French accelerators and investment
Acceleration Fund funds providing acceleration programs to startups
• Managed by Bpifrance, it is investing in fast-growing
innovative startups with high capital requirements (check
Dec-13 Large Venture Fund €1,000m sizes between €10m and €30m)
• The fund size increased to €1bn in 2017, with an
estimated €500m in dry powder

30
 REGIONAL PROGRAMS
Promoting Startup initiatives beyond Paris

DeepTech Aids French Tech Loire

Provides European Up to €8K in financial Valley
loans only aids for robotic From €150K to €500K
projects in financial aids for
Hauts- startups Regional loans
de- Up to €30K for the
Breizh’up France startup’s birth and
€10M investment Normandie up to to €100K for
fund to support Grand Est R&D development
innovative startups Bretagne Pays
de la
Loire Bourgogne- Regional loans
Centre-Val
Franche- From €20K to €200K
Prime Création de Loire
Comté in regional loans for
A €5K to €20K grant startups
for startups
Nouvelle- Auvergne-
Aquitaine Rhône-Alpes The Honor Loan
Startup Investment From €2K to €25K
Up to €3M in loan facilitating
financial aid or loan startups’ access to
for startups Occitanie PACA bank loans

JEREMIE Provence-
Start’Oc Alpes-Côte d’Azur
From €5K to €2M in €121M fund for the
financial aids for development of
startups startups

31
DIVERSITY & TALENT IN FRANCE
 EDUCATION IN FRANCE
2
EUROPEAN COUNTRY IN TERMS OF France’s World Class Universities
#1 THE NUMBER OF UNIVERSITIES
OFFERING AN EXECUTIVE MBA1
Masters in Management5 Masters in Finance6

1 2
Education of the Future: Ecole 42 was
founded in 2013 by Xaviel Niel in order to
provide a 3-year top-notch zero tuition
fee program to learn coding.2
44 9

#1 EUROPEAN COUNTRY IN TERMS OF THE

NUMBER OF UNIVERSITIES OFFERING A
MASTER IN MANAGEMENT3
9 12

500 admitted students out of the 53 848

students preparing entrance program
Second largest
mathematics First MBA
institution in the program in
world after
Founding school of:
Europe
Princeton

France is the second country

The budget for education rose in 2018 but it is with the highest number of
expected to rise in 2019 as well.4 Fields medals after the USA.

1 Financial Times, 2 Ecole 42, 3 Financial Times, 4 International Journal of Science,5 QS World University Rankings, 6 QS World University Rankings 33
 ATTRACTING FOREIGN TALENT
The attraction of foreign talent now constitutes a key to create France-born global champions
41%
of the PhD’s in France come from outside France
• An innovative public initiative led by the Ministry of
the Economy which aims to boost a collective
dynamic in order to place France among the greatest
startup nations.
• The French Tech Visa established in June 2017 in order
to facilitate the reception and set up of tech
international talents, gives access to a 4-year
residence and work permit
• In October 2018, this Visa was softened and widened
by targeting any innovative company but not only
digital companies anymore
30%
Target % of foreign startups aimed for Paris Based
Incubators by 2020
• The program Reviens Léon (“Come back, Léon”)
initiated by iconic startups (BlaBlaCar, Chauffeur Privé,
showroomprivé.com, Sigfox…)
• First launched to attract French expatriates is now
called “WONDERLEON” and is being opened up to
international talent as well.
• This program offers a 12-month accelerator program for
international entrepreneurs who want to build up in
France
• The startups joining this program have access to a fast-
track procedure to obtain a residence permit. Also,
each team receives €45K and will be part of one of the
41 selected partner incubators.
34
 WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP
A few of France’s most inspiring women

Julie Rachel Marie Hélène Clara

Chapon Delacour Ekeland Falchier Gaymard

Co-founder of
Co-founder Bime and Co- Co-founder Partner at Co-founder
President at of Daphni Portag3 of Raise
of Yuka
France Digital Ventures Ventures

Stéphanie Mathilde Géraldine Marie-Christine Fany

Hospital Lacombe Le Meur Levet Péchiodat

Founding
Founder Co-founder Co-founder Co-founder
Partner and
of One of Aime of Educapital of Seasonly,
GP Fund I of
Ragtime
The Refiners

Fleur Roxanne Sophie Agathe Alice

Pellerin Varza Viger Wautier Zagury

Founder Director of Director of Co-founder Founder of

of Korelya Station F 42 of the Galion The Family
Project

Source: News run 35

 WOMEN-LED TECH INITIATIVES
On top of the respective 20% and 30% of the French startups and companies founded by women, several funds
and incubators are taking a meaningful stance on tackling gender diversity

Funds Accelerators/Programs

Femmes Business
Angels Fédérations
Pionnières
“We are a network of
female business angels “We represent all the
financing with an Pionnières incubators
average check size of Women Equity supporting female tech AFIC avec ELLES
€10K innovative entrepreneurs in France
startups run by both ”We are the first and abroad.” 5 “The French Association
men and women.” 1 European research, of Investors for Growth
promotional, financial, aims to promote the
operational and importance of women’s
ESG strategy by supportive program for
Social Builder
role in private equity
Bpifrance women-led growth “We are a social startup
that builds gender and venture capital.” 6
companies.” 2
“Our ESG investment diversity and equality in
strategy is based on the the digital business and
Girls in Tech entrepreneurship. We Initiative France
quality of governance
and management by “With the launch of do so by providing engage with
promoting the three offices (Paris, support and training for Femmes Chefs
integration of women.”3 Marseille and La women, networks and
Reunion) in our French
d’Entreprises
businesses.” 7
“By signing a national
regional chapter, we
convention (Feb 2018)
want to help eradicate
we reaffirm our mutual
the gender disparity in
desire to support
French high-tech
female entrepreneurs.”
industries.” 4
8

1 Femmes Business Angels, 2 Women Equity , 3 Bpifrance, 4 Girls in Tech, 5 Fédérations Pionnières, 6 AFIC avec ELLES, 7 Social Builder, 8 IF & FCE
36
DEEP DIVE ON FRENCH VCS
LARGEST SEED FUNDS
Throughout the years, top seed funds have emerged in France

Most active seed funds per number of direct seed investments over the last 2 years

59 Recently featured as
top quartile Seed VC
fund by Dealroom1

25
22

12 12 11 10 10 9
7 6 5 4 4

Source: CBInsights, Serena Capital; 1 Dealroom Report , Traxcn and Crunchbase 38

 FRENCH INCUBATORS AND ACCELERATORS
Most incubators / accelerators that are running today were started in the last 5 to 10 years

Founded Total number of

Incubators/Accelerators Description Location Portfolio Companies
Year portfolio companies

Public incubator facilitating start-up creation

2012 Paris 290
in the field of public research.

Service infrastructure for start-ups in Europe.

Paris, Berlin,
Takes 5% equity for free in exchange of long- 2013 200+
London
term support.

Provides start-ups with mentoring, financing,

2012 Paris 41
and office space.

Supports start-ups, entrepreneurs and

Paris, San
innovative projects of companies through 2005 450
Francisco
various programs.

Start-up studio located in Paris and Brussels,

focusing on enterprise software startups. 2011 Paris, Bruxelles 16

Full service innovation hub for the digital age 8 cities including
that operates worldwide and builds future- 2015 Berlin, Moscow, 134
proof organizations and tech start-ups. NYC and Paris

Economic development and innovation

agency of Paris 2015 Paris 1000+

Start-up campus designed for tech

companies from all over the world. 2014 Paris -

Start-up studio focused on companies based

on technologies, research and deeptech 2014 Paris -
work.

The American incubator opened a structure

in Paris partnering with Partech shaker. Start-
2017 Paris 21
ups give 6% in equity in exchange of
$120,000.

International talent investor, which supports London, Paris,

individuals to build globally technology Berlin, 1 1
2018 230+
companies. First Paris-based edition Singapour, HK,
launched in October 2018 Bangalore

1
39
Companies from the London-based edition as the Paris-based one launched in October 2018
STATION F: THE LARGEST STARTUP CAMPUS IN THE WORLD
Based in Paris and Inaugurated in June 2017, The 34,000 square meters incubator was created by mogul Xavier
Niel who invested €250M in the project

• A hub with more than 3,000 desk stations, housing 1,000 startups and
offering 30 startup programs.
• Director: Roxanne Varza (ex-Microsoft and ex-Editor in Chief of
TechCrunch).
Some of the 30 startup programs available at Station F
Open to early-stage startups which will get full-time desk in Station F
campus and join the community of entrepreneurs.
Facebook Startup Garage: 6-month acceleration program targeting
all startups involved in personal data.
Microsoft France launches its first worldwide program focused on
artificial intelligence in partnership with INRIA at Station F.
Accelerator Fashion / Tech / Retail, which aims to generate growth
for its start-ups for 9 months by testing their solution on vente-
privee and by linking them to partner brands.
The Gaming & Entertainment program is designed by Ubisoft to
foster the creation of original contents.

Some VCs Partners:

40
 ANGEL INVESTOR LANDSCAPE
Ile-de-France, Bretagne and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes as the top 3 regions for angel activity

Top 5 Angel Groups by:

Percentage of total investments per region in 2017
Dollar Amount # of deals

4.2% 1
3.8%
26.1% 6.6%
13.2% 2
9.6% 2.4%
0.8%
3
7.6%
12.6%
4
4.8% 8.3%
5

Total Deal Amount Total Deal Volume

€ 48.0M 509
€ 41.2M € 42.7M
415
€ 36.5M 386
356
+12.4%

+23%
+3.6%
+12.9%

+8.4%

+8%

2014 2015 2016 2017 2014 2015 2016 2017

41
Source: France Angels
 SOME OF THE MOST ACTIVE FRENCH BUSINESS
ANGELS
In 2017, individual business angels invested over €15M

Michaël Thibault Jacques-Antoine Fabrice Denis

Benabou Elzière Granjon Grinda Fayolle

Co-founder Founder of CEO of CEO of Co-founder of

of Vente- eFounders Vente- OLX La Fourchette
Privee Privee

Frédéric Xavier Thierry Marc Thierry

Montagnon Niel Petit Simoncini Vandewalle

Co-founder of Co-founder of Founder of

Founder of showroomprive.com Meetic and CEO of Wind
Teads.tv Iliad Capital
Sensee
+12.4%

+23%
+12.9%

+8%

Source: Challenges, Franceangels 42

 INTERNATIONAL VCS INVESTING IN FRANCE
VCs with Foreign Head Quarters which participated in the most VC deals in France over the last 10 years

Investor Country

Investor State
1 Investor Country

Investor State
2

43
Source: CBInsights 1: CA; 2:NY; 3:NJ
 FRENCH INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS
Most Active French Financial institutions; per direct VC investments over the last 2 years

Number of investments
Public institutions

192 Private institutions

38

29

17
15 14 13
10
7 6 6 5 4 3 3

Source: CBInsights 44
MOST ACTIVE CORPORATE VCS
Most Active Corporate venture capital groups in France in the last 18 months

Investment in
Corporate VC Sectors
Direct Investment VC funds Select French Investments
Enterprise software, Fintech,
x x
Consumer Tech and Digital Health

Mobility, Robotics, Smart Cities,

x x
and IoT

Smart Cities, Distributed Energy

x
and Green Mobility

Collaborative Economy, Mobile Apps,

x x
Insurtech and Fintech

Mobility, Data, IoT, and

x x
Smart Cities

Electronics, Software and

x
Telecommunications

New Mobility and Smart Cities x x

New Mobility, Autonomous Driving

x
and Connected Services
IoT, Robotics, Smart Cities, New
x x
Energies
Mobility, E-Services, Data, Saas, Paas
x
and IoT
Water Management, Recycling and
x
Recovery of Waste

Source: CBInsights & CFNews

45
 INTRODUCTION TO WHITE STAR CAPITAL

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We invest in ambitious entrepreneurs on both sides of the Atlantic. We have founded, scaled and sold
many successful technology businesses. We leverage our collective experience, expertise and global
network to help our startups succeed.

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