France-based venture capital firm Iris Capital is completing its global expansion after expanding from Europe to North America and Asia to meet the needs of its corporate strategic limited partners.
Last month, Iris opened an office in San Francisco, California, headed by Denis Barrier (pictured) and joined a consortium investing in local start-up MoPub.
Barrier had joined Iris in May after a year running France-based mobile phone operator Orange’s corporate venturing unit. He had previously spent three years as a managing director at Innovacom, France Telecom’s corporate venturing unit that spun out earlier this year. France Telecom owns Orange.
In March, Orange and advertising agency Publicis had committed to a €300m ($400m) global venture fund managed by Iris.
As part of the Orange-Publicis mandate, Iris has been expanding its team and, as well as the US office, has been opening offices in Canada, Beijing, China, and Tokyo, Japan, by leveraging its corporate limited partners. Iris also manages a $50m commitment made in November by Saudi Telecom Group’s to set up a corporate venturing unit, STC ventures, which has offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Antoine Garrigues, co-managing partner at Iris, said it was leveraging Orange’s resources in Beijing and Tokyo.
Charles Pan is head of France Telecom’s Greater China corporate venture programme as managing director of Orange Capital, while Nicolas du Cray is an investment director for the team in Orange Capital’s Beijing office.
Garrigues said Iris had no more immediate plans to open in other countries until its next fund was raised.
He added that Iris had spent the past 25 years investing in what is now called the digital economy – telecoms, media and internet sectors – from its French and German offices but had won the STC and Orange-Publicis mandates “because they liked our international image and global ambition”.
However, he said Europe would remain Iris’s main focus with the regional offices helping its portfolio companies expand abroad as well as sourcing deals. But Garrigues said its corporate limited partners gave the VC firm a “competitive advantage” over peers when it came to global expansion.
He said: “It is a competitive advantage to have Publicis, Orange [and STC] because the relationship helps us to win deals, such as MoPub.”
Barrier said Accel had invited Iris in MoPub’s $12m series B round last month because of the strategic relationship with Publicis and Orange.
And last week, Iris joined the the consortium backing ProwebClub, a local provider of communication and management services for French works councils, its third deal since the Orange-Publicis fund was announced after investing in MyThings in March.