Jean Schmitt (pictured), a managing partner at Sofinnova Ventures, an independent venture capital firm based in France, has left ahead of its next fundraising to set up a new firm and before the expected flotation of a portfolio comapny also backed by corporate venturing units.
Schmitt worked at Sofinnova for nearly a decade and was promoted to the top rank in 2005 but late last month said on his LinkedIn page he had set up JoltTech Capital as a private equity investment firm targeting technology companies in Europe with between €10m ($14m) and €100m in revenues.
Sofinnova had been expanding its team with the hire of Josko Bobanovic in October to head up a planned seed fund and partners in the firm said its next fund would start later this year or in 2012. They added the next fund would avoid healthcare deals as that would be covered in a separate vehicle.
Sofinnova has traditionally had equal teams covering healthcare and information and clean-technology.
In May, clean-tech firm BioAmber raised $45m in its series B round, which was led by venture capital firms Naxos Capital Partners and Sofinnova Partners, and included Japan-based Mitsui and Canada-based Cliffton Group. Previous investors from the October 2009 A round included South Korea-based corporate venturing unit Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and Agro-Industrie Recherches et Développements (ARD), the research and development centre of a large agro-industrial consortium based in France with Siclaé as the principal shareholder.
ARD had been in a joint venture with DNP Green Technology but in November sold its shares in the collaboration and took equity in DNP which was renamed BioAmber.