University Université PSL has joined venture capital firm Elaia Partners to launch a France-based investment vehicle called PSL Innovation Fund with backing from several corporates.
Financial services firm BNP Paribas, industrial manufacturer Naval Group and insurance provider MGEN are limited partners, as are KPN Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of telecommunications firm KPN, and FamilleC, part of cosmetics manufacturer Clarins Group.
The fund, which is targeting a €75m ($87.5m) close, will be managed by Elaia Partners. Additional LPs include Université PSL itself as well as Fonds National d’Amorçage 2, an early-stage vehicle managed by government-owned investment bank Bpifrance.
PSL Innovation Fund will invest in areas of expertise for Université PSL, focusing on deep tech subsectors such as artificial intelligence, cleantech, materials, biomedical engineering and digital applications.
The fund expects to build strong relationships with project teams and will facilitate their progress as they look to export their products overseas.
Elaia, which has more than $290m under management, recently agreed another deep tech-orientated strategic partnership with France’s National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control.
Eric Papin, Naval’s director of innovation and technological expertise, said: “This partnership will help to meet the technological superiority needs of our customers by guiding as early as possible the development of solutions proposed by strategic startups to which we did not have access.”
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.