European Investment Fund contributes EUR 20m to Fonds d’Amorçage Quadrivium 1

Seventure Partners and the European Investment Fund (EIF), the EIB Group subsidiary specialising in financing businesses, announced a EUR 20m financing agreement raising the investment capacity of Fonds d’Amorçage Quadrivium 1 to more than EUR 56m, making it one of the largest French seed capital funds financed by the French national priming fund Fonds National d’Amorçage (FNA). This operation is receiving support from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the cornerstone of the Investment Plan for Europe.

Launched in December 2013 and managed by a dedicated team at Seventure Partners, Fonds d’Amorçage Quadrivium 1 finances innovative French companies emanating from or linked to academic institutions such as the Sorbonne Universities and the Pierre and Marie Curie University and renowned research centres and their partners. The initial EUR 35.5m contribution was provided by prominent institutional partners, led by Bpifrance via FNA and Natixis, together with CNP Assurances, AG2R-la Mondiale, Malakoff Mederic and Revital’Emploi. The new closing has enabled a European benchmark financier, the European Investment Fund (EIF), to participate and increased the fund's overall investment capacity to EUR 56.1m.

European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici commented: "The financial agreement announced today by the European Investment Fund and Seventure Partners is proof that the 'Juncker Plan' is gaining momentum on the ground and many French businesses are already benefiting from it. The European Fund for Strategic Investments is not only financing major infrastructure projects but also start-ups and innovative SMEs so that the EU economy remains at the forefront of technological development in preparation for future growth. This is the real key to the competitiveness of our economies."

"This financing operation for France's first academic seed capital fund is of symbolic importance," remarked EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle. "This new investment under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), a crucial component of the Investment Plan for Europe, or 'Juncker Plan', demonstrates once again the EIB Group's determination to finance innovative projects and to support the development initiatives of French start-ups. The EIF has already selected and approved 19 projects aimed at supporting businesses with the EFSI guarantee. This means that the EIB Group is now contributing to a total of 28 projects in France, which are expected to mobilise EUR 9.4bn of new investment."

"We are proud to welcome the EIF among the investors of Fonds d’Amorçage Quadrivium 1," stated Isabelle de Cremoux, President and CEO of Seventure Partners. "This commitment reaffirms the relevance of our investment strategy, based in particular on close collaboration between renowned academic and university partners and a management company such as Seventure specialising in the financing of innovation.”

Fonds d’Amorçage Quadrivium 1 is a multi-sector fund. It assists and finances at the seed stage French start-ups which, in the management team's view, demonstrate a large development potential, with amounts ranging from a few hundred thousand to several million euros, in the areas of digital technologies (software, innovative services, etc.), life sciences (biotechnologies, healthcare, etc.) and in the sectors at the crossroads of these major fields (clean technology, the environment, digital technologies applied to healthcare, etc.). Since its launch in December 2013, Fonds d’Amorçage Quadrivium 1 has already financed eight companies originating from the academic hub brought together by the fund (Praditus, Aenitis Technologies, Pep-Therapy, Open Ocean, Intento Design, HorseCom, MilliDrop and Actronika).

Seventure Partners, the innovation capital management subsidiary of Natixis Global Asset Management, is tasked with the administration of the fund. To generate a deal flow, it relies on Quadrivium Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of the partner academic institutions which identifies within the institutions investment opportunities emanating from the researchers who are developing projects.

The Investment Plan for Europe or Juncker Plan: an EIB Group priority

Since 2015, the EIB Group has been the operator of the Investment Plan for Europe. The projects financed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) have a higher risk profile, since the aim is to support investment in certain sectors of activity of vital importance for the future of the European economy. The EIB Group has now approved more than 200 EFSI-guaranteed operations, which are expected to mobilise a total of EUR 82bn of investment, i.e. a quarter of the overall target of EUR 315bn, in 25 EU countries.

Background information:

About the European Investment Bank (EIB)

Created by the Treaty of Rome in 1958, the EIB is the European Union's bank, which, together with its dedicated SME support subsidiary the European Investment Fund (EIF), forms the EIB Group. As the world’s largest multilateral lender in terms of volume, it provides finance (EUR 80bn in 2015) and expertise for sound and sustainable investment projects, mostly in the EU. It is owned by the 28 EU Member States and its support contributes to furthering EU objectives. The Group's activity focuses on five key sectors: small and medium-sized enterprises, which create 80% of new jobs; environmental protection and climate action; human capital and innovation to promote skills and innovative projects in all sectors of the economy; trans-European networks particularly in the transport sector, but also in the areas of energy and digital networks; and energy for a secure and competitive supply.

www.eib.org/press

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About the European Investment Fund (EIF)

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the EIB Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by helping them to access finance.  The EIF designs and develops venture capital, guarantee and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment.

In this role, the EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment.

www.eif.org

About the Investment Plan for Europe

The Investment Plan focuses mainly on removing obstacles to investment, increasing the visibility of investment projects while providing them with technical assistance, and making smarter use of new and existing financial resources. It is already showing results. So far, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved 57 projects for financing under EFSI, representing a financing volume of EUR 7.8bn. The European Investment Fund (EIF) has approved 165 SME financing agreements, with total financing under EFSI of EUR 3.4bn. Around 136 000 SMEs and midcaps are expected to benefit. Together, these operations are expected to trigger total investment of EUR 82bn.

About Fonds d'Amorçage Quadrivium 1

Fonds d'Amorçage Quadrivium 1 is one of the innovation capital funds managed by Seventure Partners. This fund finances French businesses at the seed stage (FNA - "Investments for the Future" Programme) in the areas of life sciences and digital technologies, emanating from or linked to the academic hub that brings together the Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC), Paris University II, Paris University IV, the National Natural History Museum, the Institute for Acoustics/Music Research and Coordination (IRCAM), the French National School for Advanced Studies in Design (ENSCI), Compiègne Technological University, the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Curie Institute, the Pierre Gilles de Gennes Foundation, the Vision and Hearing Foundation (Fondation Voir et Entendre) and Paris "Sciences et Lettres" Research University (PSL).

About Seventure Partners

As an active partner of innovative businesses with strong growth potential, Seventure Partners has been investing since 1997 in two main areas: digital technologies, especially financial technology (fintech) and assurance technology (assurtech), in France and Germany, and life sciences throughout Europe and North America. With over EUR 600m in assets under management at 31 December 2015, Seventure Partners is one of Europe's leading innovation capital firms. Seventure Partners supports the development of businesses from the first round and even the seed stage to the technological development capital financing rounds, with investments ranging from EUR 0.5m to EUR 10m per round, or up to EUR 20m per company. In December 2013, Seventure Partners successfully launched Health for Life Capital™, a new vehicle which attracted major strategic investors such as Danone, Tereos, Tornier, Lesaffre, Bel and Novartis Pharma, as well as entrepreneurs and financial institutions.

Seventure Partners is a subsidiary of Natixis Global Asset Management. Natixis is the corporate finance, investment management and financial services bank of the BPCE Group.

For additional information, go to www.seventure.fr

About Fonds National d’Amorçage (FNA)

Fonds National d’Amorçage (National Priming Fund - FNA) has received EUR 600m through the "Investments for the Future" programme (PIA) and is managed by Bpifrance Investissement which carries out the own resources investments of Bpifrance, a subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts. FNA does not finance businesses directly but through seed capital funds. 20 to 30 national and inter-regional seed capital funds, managed by specialist professional teams investing in innovative young companies at the seed and start-up stage, are backed by FNA.

This public equity-investment support scheme for innovative start-ups was approved by the European Commission on 20 April 2011, followed by a EUR 200m increase in the FNA envelope which had initially been set at EUR 400m (favourable EC opinion of 26 April 2012).  The funds subscribed by FNA are aimed in particular at businesses in the tech sectors defined under the national research and innovation strategy: healthcare, nutrition and biotechnologies, information and communications technologies, nano-technologies and eco-technologies.

Press contacts:

Seventure Partners: Raïssa Brian - raissa.brian@seventure.fr - 01 58 19 33 56 / 06 11 83 12 55

The EIB Group: Anne-Cécile Auguin – a.auguin@eib.org - +352 621 36 19 48

EIF: David Yormesor - d.yormesor@eif.org - +352 42 66 88 346

Agence Yucatan: Caroline Prince & Céline Bernard – cprince@yucatan.fr - +33 1 53 63 27 27