France-based employee benefits services provider Edenred has committed €15m ($20m) to Franco-American venture capital firm Partech International’s sixth fund after a strings of exits this year and transition in its top management.
Partech made an initial close of its Fund VI at €100m and said it would now target €120m to €140m for the final aggregate amount.
Edenred, which provides restaurant vouchers among other services, said its commitment would help it meet its Invent 2016 strategy and "explore new opportunities in adjacent sectors" and track developments in the digital economy and web-based, e-commerce and e-marketing services as well as new payment media businesses.
The commitment represents its first step into corporate venturing after examining its strategy over the past year. Stéphanie Chretien at Edenred by email said: "We have finally chosen to partner with an existing and performing fund to benefit from their expertise and keep our managers focused on our core business. This is the start of our programme!"
Partech said Edenred would in turn help it with its business knowledge. The other investors in its sixth fund include the European Investment Fund and French investment groups CDC, Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance, CM-CIC, Idinvest, AG2R La Mondiale and non-profit employee benefits group Malakoff Médéric.
Partech’s fundraising follows eight exits this year, including the flotation of InvenSense and seven trade sales, such as Brands4Friends to eBay, Dailymotion to Orange, Inquira to Oracle, Digitick to Vivendi and JobPartners to Taleo.
Partech has promoted Germany-based principal Andreas Schlenker to partner to join Philippe Collombel and Jean-Marc Patouillaud in France and Nicolas El Baze in the US.
Partech said the promotion and fundraising also ended its generational transition with the firm’s founder in 1982, Vincent Worms, becoming partner emeritus.