Université PSL has closed its deep tech-focused venture capital fund, PSL Innovation Fund, at €76m ($83.2m) with contributions from investors including several corporate backers.
The limited partners include Famille C, part of cosmetics manufacturer Clarins Group, as well as microscope technology producer FEI, telecommunications firm KPN, industrial processing technology provider Transvalor, seed supplier Vilmorin & Cie and insurance firms Vyv Group and Mgen.
Financial services firm BNP Paribas and its Opera Tech vehicle also committed capital, as did public investment bank BPIfrance, Institut Pasteur and Foundation of the School of Mines (also known as Mines ParisTech), an engineering school that forms part of Université PSL.
PSL Innovation Fund was publicly unveiled in March 2019 before an intermediary close of $72.3m two months later.
BPIfrance, FEI and BNP Paribas were described as the “main” investors for the fund, which has surpassed its original ceiling of $54.8m. It is being managed by venture capital firm Elaia Partners.
PSL Innovation Fund principally invests at seed-stage in deep technologies arising from PSL’s innovation ecosystem around industries such as IT, agriculture, biotechnology and life sciences.
The vehicle will back a total of 25 to 30 companies and has already made 10 investments, nine of which have been publicly disclosed, and negotiated term sheets with another two businesses.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.