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Image credits: Alven

Alven, a Paris-based early-stage backer, announced on Wednesday that it has closed a €350M fund to back European entrepreneurs at Seed and Series A stages. 

The French VC’s sixth fund, Alven VI, has exceeded its initial target of €300M, making it the largest early-stage fund raised in France. Currently, the company has €2B in Assets Under Management (AUM).

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Besides the existing investors, Alven VI fund also attracted several new investors from European, North American, and other global institutions. With the latest fund, the company will invest between €100k to €15M and has a substantial reserve for follow-on investments. 

Guillaume Aubin and Charles Letourneur, co-founders of Alven, say, “We pride ourselves in building long-term relationships with entrepreneurs, and this also applies to investors in Alven. Not only our existing LPs have continually invested in us, but we’ve also welcomed a number of new investors that want to be part of the French Tech success story.” 

Alven: What you need to know

Founded in 2000 in Paris, Alven has made unicorn investments in companies like Qonto, Dataiku, Algolia, Stripe, and Ankorstore. Since its inception, the VC has invested in 160 teams across Europe and European teams in the US, and has realised more than 70 exits, including the recent sale of Sqreen to Datadog, Cardiologs to Philips, and Frichti to Gorillas.

The VC firm has recently opened an office in London and plans to hire across investment and portfolio support teams. 

Over the last few months, the company added portfolio companies in France and regions like the USA, UK, Finland, Sweden, Poland, and Switzerland. 

The company also launched Operation3, a talent programme to identify and train people in Web3. Also, the company announced numerous initiatives to foster and nurture a pool of female executives to promote diversity within its portfolio executive committees.

The Alven VI fund will continue to invest across fintech, marketplaces, enterprise software, social, and entertainment. The team will also focus on new sectors, including crypto and climate tech as well. 

Alven says that a portion of the new fund will be deployed across Europe and European founders in the US in sectors where it has built deep expertise.