France-based venture capital firm Iris Capital reached the first close of its latest fund on Wednesday, having raised €250m ($280m) from limited partners including telecommunications firm Orange, advertising company Publicis and automotive parts supplier Valeo.
Bpifrance, the public investment bank of France, has also provided capital, as has financial services firm Bred Banque Populaire. Iris did not reveal a target size for the IrisNext fund, which was launched in 2015 with €75m supplied by each of Orange and Publicis.
IrisNext will invest in startups from seed to growth stage, providing between €1m and €30m per deal. It will focus on sectors including industry 4.0, the internet of things, cybersecurity and 5G mobile phone networks, as well as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and software design.
The fund will make the majority of its investments in Europe-based companies, with a particular focus on France and Germany.
Pierre de Fouquet, managing partner and co-founder at Iris Capital, said: “In the last five years, together with Orange and Publicis Groupe, we have successfully co-created what we call the multi-corporate VC model.
“We would like to thank Orange and Publicis Groupe for their renewed trust and we are looking forward to expanding the success of this model with our new corporate partners.”