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XAnge's Team
02.09.2021

€200 million for early stage startups

What a great time to build early stage startups. After several unicorns in our portfolio (Believe, Ledger, Odoo) and IPOs (Believe & Mister Spex), we are happy to announce the first closing of our new fund at €125M. This 4th generation (“XAnge 4”) is dedicated to early stage tech startups across France/Benelux and DACH, shooting for a final close at €200M in 6 months. We have already made two investments out of XAnge 4: two in Germany (Gitti & Workmotion).

XAnge 4 makes initial tickets from €300,000 to €10 million, at Seed/Pre-Seed and Series A.stages.

What makes XAnge 4 unique?

 

Early stage is our sweet spot.

We are early stage specialists with teams that tirelessly scout the land in France, Benelux, Germany. We take positions in massive market shifts and spot the founding teams best placed to take leadership in these segments. We help them grow, hire and prepare for the next fundraising with growth or PE funds.

Look at the Fintech sector where we are the first investors in stellar teams like Lydia, Ledger, or Shine, or look at the music industry where we believed in Believe as early as 2007. In healthcare, we have taken promising positions in Synapse, Gleamer and Implicity. In education, 360Learning is breaking new ground. In the Workspace, Welcome To The Jungle, Skello and Odoo all play major roles.

The major newcomer within XAnge 4 is the Deeptech segment. We’ve built a significant deeptech portfolio over the last 5 years with TreeFrog, Core Biogenesis, Wandercraft or even Ledger. It’s time for us to double down. With its €200M size, XAnge 4 makes the biggest tickets available to seed/early stage deeptech startups in France/Benelux/Germany.

 

Early stage and financial performance go hand in hand.

The best French venture funds are now delivering IRRs comparable to blueship LBO names. XAnge is at the top of the range. XAC2, our second fund – invested from 2012 to 2015 – has an IRR above 25%.

But performance is not enough. As everybody knows, liquidity has long been the Achilles heel of European Venture Capital. With a net DPI > 2x (ie net cash returned to investors), XAC2 is already in the top quartile of its generation. Another way to look at it: for the 6th consecutive year, XAnge will return more cash in 2021 than it has invested.

We believe this is only the beginning for European startups and VCs. Our successor funds (XAnge Digital 3 and XAnge 4) are following the same path. More to come on that topic.

 

Yes, the USA is an Eldorado

We want European startups to think about their US launch as early as possible. Until now, European VCs tended to advise their CEOs to first close a big Series B and then launch in the US. At XAnge, we believe the move should be considered earlier, at the Series A stage.

In the development of a startup, taking into consideration a future launch in the US as early as possible is key to avoid some common mistakes in product strategy or recruitment.

We help – we push ! – our startups to cross the Atlantic. Neolane, AB Tasty, 360 Learning, Dolead, Odoo have shown the way in our portfolio over the last 10 years. With this new fund, we  emphasise this trend with a specific support programme for US-oriented startups : XAnge’s “Bridge to the US”. Nicolas Rose is leading the charge here, with his US citizenship and DNA.

 

Startup success is not a buzz word

Our startup success team launched 2 years ago under the leadership of Pauline Paquet. She is here to deliver on the promise of  “added value”: in 2021 her team processes more than 500 requests from our portfolio with a success rate around 80%.

Typical requests include benchmarks on how COMEXs operate (organisation, remuneration, etc.), business introductions, workshops to improve efficiency, analyses on the structuring of internal teams, access to partnerships negotiated by our teams, etc.

We monitor this activity and see an astonishing growth in our country. The number of requests within the XAnge family grew more than 50% year on year and it’s probably the same in other top VC portfolios. It looks like start-ups expect more and more from their VCs.

 

In short

You run an early-stage ground-breaking business in the Care, Deeptech, Saas or Trusted brands segments?

Please contact us: https://www.xange.vc/send-your-pitch/

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