DAPHNI secures 215 million dollars for its third fund

French VC company Dafni The first closure of his new box, Daphni Blue. The company raised 200 million euros (about $ 215 million at current exchange rates). It expects to collect up to 250 million euros ($ 270 million) by the end of the year.

Some of the previous investments in Daphne include the back market, Swile, Hubcycle and Pasqal. In general, the company has invested in 70 European companies since 2015.

Through its latest fund, DAPHNI plans to invest in 40 other starters. Among the limited partners in Daphni Blue Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, BPIFRANCE, The EuropEan Investment Fund, Pro BTP and Swen Capital Partners.

“We need to ask ourselves how we can distinguish between ourselves, support technologies or sustainable services when we invest in new projects,” the founding partner Leipvichi told me.

“Because at the end of the day, there are courses, and we can see that at a certain moment, either the market merges, or the American players dominated, or in the end, there was not enough penetration to start.”

While most VC companies mention artificial intelligence in each other sentence, Daphni wants to focus on science (in general) as the main factor of the next wave of innovation: life sciences, biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics.

“When you talk about quantum computing, well, quantum computing is basic physics with devices and programs,” said Libyovici. He also said that large language models are mathematical breakthroughs first and foremost.

As a result, DAPHNI uses different profiles to join the team. For example, a PhD graduate and a doctorate student in the investment team.

“There is another element that represents a new direction. The new generation of researchers is more open to marketing their basic and applied research, because they see all their friends around them who start companies,” said Leipovici.

While French universities lay aside Part of their budget for attracting American researchers, Dapni says he did not choose to re -focus on basic sciences because of this.

“It is a coincidence. We have shown this long before this direction,” said Leipovici. Of course, Daphni is open to investing in American researchers who started a startup in Europe.

After that, DAPHNI will have to spread the newly uploaded capital and prove that it has found an effective investment strategy. “The height is not an end in itself. What is in itself is the distribution of returns, and thus it comes out,” said Leipovici.