Corporate executive-backed early stage and small cap private equity fund, ISAI, based in France has participated alongside new investor XAnge Private Equity in a $6m series B round of funding for Evaneos. XAnge is the combined corporate venturing entity of France’s La Poste and ABNAmro.
The latest round brings the online travel service company’s total funding to $7m, having raised $1m from ISAI in 2012.
Founded by Eric La Bonnardière, Chief Executive Officer and Yvan Wibaux, Chief Technology Officer, Evaneos provides an online platform to bring travellers and local agencies together to create bespoke holidays. The company claims it is in direct competition with larger travel operators that charge much more for their adventure or packaged holidays.
Evaneos site users book a personalised trip by connecting with local agents in each destination country, who then offer advice and assistance, such as site seeing advice and airport pick-ups. The site also allows users to not only ‘design’ their trip, but also to see the estimated costs along the way. Evaneos makes its money by charging a fee to the ageny for each transaction completed. The fee, however, is not passed on to the end user, which then makes the service cost effective for travellers.
The funding was raised to launch their services in new markets in Europe, beyond its current markets of France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Funding will therefore go towards hiring new staff and offering new site options for users, such as an online forum for opinions, photos and information sharing among Evaneos users.
Investor ISAI was founded by Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet (PriceMinister), Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux (Virgin Mobile), Stéphane Treppoz (Sarenza) and Ouriel Ohayon (ex TechCrunch.fr) and it is managed by Jean-David Chamboredon (CEO of ISAI, ex- 3i), Christophe Raynaud (COO of ISAI, ex-Paris Business Angels) and Pierre Martini (ex- 3i).
ISAI invests through two investment vehicles: early-stage post-seed venture (leads rounds ranging from 500,000 to 1.5 million euros in young internet companies); and small cap private equity (leads transactions from €1m to €5m in profitable internet businesses). Alongside the founders ISAI includes more than 70 individual investors in the ISAI Fund, including founders, executives or former executives.
XAnge Private Equity is a portfolio management company focusing on private equity , created in July 2004 by La Poste and ABN AMRO in France. XAnge Capital is a venture capital firm focusing on industrial companies with €375m in assets under management, which invests in companies in postal-related businesses. XAnge Private Equity manages 11 FCPI-type innovation funds, with subscriptions of over €145m to date.