La Banque Postale announced on Thursday the creation of a fund dedicated to capital investment called 115K, as well as the financing of four start-ups, on the sidelines of the VivaTech trade show, a major digital event held until the end of the week in Paris.
This fund, with an initial tranche of 75 million euros, will eventually be increased to 150 million euros.
The first four investments, in the capital of the start-ups Carbo (carbon footprint measurement), Joe (split payment), Cashbee (savings solutions) and Cosmian (cybersecurity), total just over 4 million euros. To start gently, La Banque Postale has bet on companies it knows well since they are among the 41 that it hosts in its incubator in the center of Paris, platform58.
This new fund constitutes (…) a major asset for La Banque Postale, by giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to materialize their ideas, within the framework of a transition that is ethical, inclusive and sober, welcomes in a press release the president of the Executive Board Philippe Heim.
The investments, initially between 250,000 and 5 million euros, will be carried out by a team of four people at a rate of four or five per year. They will be made at a very early stage in the life of companies (start-up or first round), mainly in the banking and insurance sectors: fintechs and insurtechs. However, the Postal Bank does not map related sectors such as law, data processing or blockchain (technology which serves as the basis in particular for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin).
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The objective of the public bank, a 100% subsidiary of La Poste, is to promote collaboration with the business lines, departments and subsidiaries of the bank, its deputy general manager Olivier Levy-Barouch explains to AFP, both in terms of both technical and commercial.
La Banque Postale’s competitors are already well represented in the niche: Socit Gnrale says it has made 30 investments since 2015 and BNP Paribas, via around 30 funds, has advanced 120 million euros deployed since 2013.
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