French investor Axeleo Capital announced the final closing of AXC2, up to €73 million. A fund devoted to funding the next gen of B2B software, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, new use of data, blockchain and fintech early-stage startups. With an initial seed investment of between €0.2 to €2 million, this vehicle invests in promising companies in France, and Western Europe.
Launched in July 2022, AXC2 has already 14 portfolio companies and a first successful exit. These results are possible thanks to the support of more than 150 investors including Axeleo Capital’s historical LPs.
More than 95% of them have renewed their trust in the managing team, including the Fonds National d’Amorçage 2, managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French government as part of the France 2030 plan, a very large pool of tech entrepreneurs. New investors have joined this second vintage such as Tikehau Capital, several leading family offices, founders involved in various French unicorns, and corporates.
“With this final closing, above our €60M initial target, we are doubling our size compared to our first vintage and we are confirming the relevance of our early-stage strategy, which combines investment from the seed stage, support in direct contact with our network of entrepreneurs/LPs and, for our most promising teams, significant amounts in reinvestments in Series A and B. In this challenging market context, our positioning proves its worth, enabling today’s talent to emerge,” explained Eric Burdier, founding partner.
Ranked in the French top 5 most active VC firms in first half of 2023 and €160 million under management, Axeleo Capital is reinforcing its position on the European early-stage tech landscape, positioning and itself not only as a long-term partner but also as a growth catalyst for founders of B2B tech startups supporting them from seed funding to Series B.
This second vintage follows in the footsteps of the Axeleo Capital 1 fund (July 2017), whose momentum has been confirmed: 34 investments, a default rate kept below 10% and 16 exits in the last 24 months, including Alsid (sold to Tenable), Ifollow (sold to the Stow group), Cloudskiff (sold to Snyk), Jenji (sold to Silae), Hyperlex (sold to Dilitrust) and Kadiska (sold to Netskope). Axeleo Capital 1 boasts a number of active and fast-growing start-ups, including some with international operations such as Trustpair, Aplo (ex-Sheeldmarket), 365Talents, Luzmo (ex-Cumul.io), Glopal, Joko and Citalid.
AXC2 is investing in B2B tech startups aiming to revolutionize tomorrow’s business: more resilient, more sustainable, more agile, and ever more performing.
Among the first companies in their portfolio are Kestra, which offers to corporate data teams an innovative solution for orchestrating and automating data flows; Zygon, an automated solution for managing the security challenges associated with the growing use of SaaS; Cohort, a new collaborative customer engagement platform for brands; Sopht, Green Ops platform for decarbonizing corporate IT; Formance, open source solution for managing complex payments; Triver, embedded working capital solution for SMBs; or Husprey (acquired in September 2023 by Collibra), which provides a cloud tool for creating and structuring SQL notebooks for data analysts.
“The future of technology lies in the boldness of each startup. At Axeleo Capital, we are delighted to be able to support these revolutions and their mutations. It is also in difficult economic contexts that the most resilient and visionary startups are born. The areas we are targeting, notably data, fintech and cybersecurity in B2B markets, are acyclical segments that will shape the landscape of tomorrow,” added Mathieu Viallard, founding partner.
