Welcome to our 105th newsletter. It was written with 💛 by Saish Rane, Medina Sinani, Clarisse Barthou and Angèle Sahraoui
Fundraisings from last week with InnovaFeed, FINN and Zenchef
News from last week with Point Nine and a hot week for the French Tech
Our content of the week proposed by Eldorado with some tips to better understand (and navigate) this period of market contraction
The latest episode of “Dans la tête d’un CEO” with Gabriel Thierry (CEO @Karmen)
Internship & Job offers of the week
Wishing you a pleasant read 💛
🪳 InnovaFeed raises a $250M Series D
The biotech startup founded in France in 2016 and which focuses on developing insect-based food for animal and plant nutrition announced last week that it had raised a new round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. 💰
After having already built two insect farms in the north of France, this massive fundraising will enable the team to target the construction of 10+ additional farms by the end of this decade and to kickstart its U.S. expansion. In fact, the team announced that a new plant project had already been kickstarted in Decatur, Illinois. 🇺🇸
On the other hand, this capital will also enable the team to further expand it Nesle site in the north of France, a plant that InnovaFeed presents as the world’s largest vertical insect farm. 😳
Massive congrats to the team, and long live insects! 🐛
InnovaFeed nabs $250M to extend its vertical insect farms to the US
🚙 FINN raised $110M led by Korelya Capital and many more
Finn, a German startup that provides a car subscription platform, has raised $110M to expand in the US and Europe. The Series B round was led by Korelya Capital, Keen Venture Partners, Climb Ventures, Greentail Capital and Waterfall Asset Management. Some existing investors such as Picus Capital, HV Capital and others also participated in the round. 💵
When it comes to cars, more and more people prioritise usership over ownership. And Finn does not only fit perfectly in that evolution but also enables us to get access to an electric car — thus combining an innovative business model with our growing quest for sustainability. ♻️
At Finn, you can order a car online, which will be directly delivered to your home. The price does not include hidden fees or down payments, which makes the buying process more transparent. In fact, their USP relies in great part on their world-class e-commerce experience. 🙌
Now, Finn’s goal is to reach 30,000 vehicles globally by the end of the year. 🌎
Finn raises $110M to expand car subscription platform in US, Germany
🧑🍳 Zenchef raises €50M+, prepares to conquer Europe
Zenchef, leading French restaurant tech startup started in 2011 by Xavier Zeitoun, Thomas Zeitoun & Julien Balmont raised more than €50M from PSG Equity to consolidate its position as the European leader in the sector. 📈
In doing so, Zenchef will roll out several B2B & B2C products in order to tie in the users of the service to book tables to expand towards other products. This move comes just as Zenchef has started to show promising growth figures post-COVID and acquired payments startup Billee in 2021. 💳
Since their inception, they have onboarded 7,000 restaurants, 50 million reservations, 170 million seats of which 42 million came only in 2021. They also have onboarded Michelin-starred chefs cumulating 140+ stars in total. 😳
This transaction also buys out the shares of Zenchef’s historic investors including Elaia, Kima Ventures, etc. 😃
Zenchef announces an investment of over €50 million from PSG Equity
9️⃣ Point Nine raises their Fund VI
The creator of the SaaS napkin & backer of startups like Revolut, Typeform, Algolia and many more has raised its sixth fund of €180M. 🤑
Point Nine GP Christoph Janz promises more of the same by continuing to back stellar B2B marketplaces & SaaS startups. 🚀
Their strategy has almost always been the same but with a bigger ticket size this time round: invest between €500k-€5M into seed stage startups with a 70% European geographic focus. This dry powder comes right during a slump for B2B SaaS fundraising, valuation haircuts and a lack of IPOs. 📉
Let’s see how Point Nine can work their magic in a difficult yet promising vintage! 👀
📈 French Tech raised +1B€ last week for the first time in 9 months
Driven by 5 fundraisings above the 100M€ threshold, the French Tech ecosystem has indeed been much against current pessimistic market sentiments over the past few days. 😅
From a vertical/sector perspective, this booming week has been driven by a lot of green investments, with InnovaFeed (250M€) but also with Zeplug (240M€) and Bump (180M€), two startups in the mobility space that work on offering charging solutions for electric vehicles. Not to forget Phenix (15M€) which helps both private individuals and companies reducing waste, or Switch Energy (6M€) which produces a clean and competitive electricity from salt water. ⚡️
What all of this seems to confirm is that, although we’re very much in bear market territories, not all companies are treated equal. And those with an eye on the green transition seem to be part of those that are doing relatively well. ♻️
Our content of the week is brought to you by our partner Eldorado. Massive thanks to Clarisse for having written the piece below! 😉
💡 Some tips to better understand (and navigate!) this period of market contraction
Since the outbreak of the Covid crisis, the war in Ukraine and worrisome climate events, the global economy has rather entered troubled waters. Uncertainties are multiplying, food and energy supplies are becoming more and more complex, inflation is persisting, central banks are raising rates, growth is slowing down. In short: the current economic environment is not conducive to risk-taking for financiers. 😬
On VCs’ side, we noticed a drop in the fundraisings since April 2022. And the impact is even more important for late stage fundraisings rather than early stage as they offer long term exit. But, Seed and Series A are not spared with valuations that have decreased by 50% on average. 📉
This trend can be observed at a European level with a 10,6% decrease in fundraisings as well as at a French level which, after having its 6 months record (with 10B€ raised in six months versus 11.7B€ in 12 months for 2021), fundraising slowed to 0.03B€ in August (cf. graph just below). 😕
But how will investors' behavior change?
The focus will be on sales and profits,
Longer decision making and more demanding due diligence,
BtoB companies with a focus on Enterprise accounts will be considered safer than the ones targeting SME/VSE,
BtoC's future is difficult to determine as with the drop in the purchasing power of consumers, it will be a less attractive sector. However, companies incorporating a social or sustainable dimension will be considered more attractive.
Some advice to anticipate the situation from an operational point of view could include:
Not neglecting your teams, don’t forget to communicate,
Financially, reducing the burn to increase the runway,
Getting closer to your customers and suppliers to anticipate their needs and future problems,
If a fund raising must be prepared, it is necessary to be rigorous and precise in the constitution of the necessary documentation (Deck and BP);
Considering alternative financing (Crowdequity, Venture Debt, Revenue based financing...),
Getting support from experts such as incubators or consulting firms to avoid mistakes.
In this new episode, Yacine welcomed Gabriel Thierry, co-founder of Karmen, a startup offering revenue-based financial solutions for startups. 🤝
“We raised money so that you don’t have to!”
Among the topics that both of them cover in this episode: Gabriel’s lengthy experience in the US and how he started working in VC for free, the particular mindset that is so pervasive in the US (“yes, can do!”). They also discuss how Gabriel met his cofounders while studying (but also while using LinkedIn..), and many more! 👀
So, if you’re a French speaker (and listener), go check it out! 🎧
Internships
VC Analyst - IRIS (Paris)
VC Analyst - XAnge (Paris)
VC Analyst - INCO Ventures (Paris)
Jobs
CFO - Galion.exe (Paris)
👉 And if you’d like to discover more offers… you can check our job board just here!
Also, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at joinbabyvc@gmail.com. We’d be super happy to have you sharing job/internship offers, events or feedback with us! 🤝
You can also read about us on our website and follow what we do on LinkedIn.
Take care, and see you next week,
The whole baby vc crew 💛
Super édition, en particulier les quelques lignes sur comment naviguer et comprendre le marché dans cette période de contraction ou énormément d’attentes de la part des investisseurs ont été changées. Je serais super intéressé de voir un deep dive sur ce sujet :)