Axa Venture Partners (AVP), a corporate venture capital subsidiary of France-based insurer Axa, has reached a €250m ($295m) first close for its latest growth equity vehicle, AVP Growth Fund II.
Formed in 2015 as Axa Strategic Ventures prior to its name change three years later, AVP currently has $1bn under management. It invests in seed and early-stage startups through its AVP Early Stage Fund II while growth equity investments are conducted with AVP Capital’s Growth Funds.
AVP secured €150m from Axa for its early growth-focused AVP Growth Fund I in 2016 that has now been fully deployed, leading to exits such as One, a developer of insurance claim management software.
AVP Growth Fund II will target growth equity deals from early to late growth stage in areas such as enterprise software, financial, insurance, consumer and digital healthcare technologies, and Axa intends to close it at $590m later this year.
Axa also has a fund-of-funds strategy in place, having made limited partner (LP) commitments to venture capital funds including those run by Fly Ventures, Novastar Ventures and Université catholique de Louvain.
Francois Robinet, a managing partner for AVP, told EU-Startups: “We are convinced Europe needs now global investment players to support global technology leaders.
“To be part of it, we have in less than five years created a unique global investment platform, investing in North America and in Europe, dedicated to entrepreneurs in the tech space with privileged access to our LPs to accelerate growth and generate business development opportunities.”
