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The new VC firm raised €30 million in less than five months
It ’s always interesting when a new VC firm with a fresh team of partners come forth . And withYellow , it ’s interesting in multiple means . Founded by Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud , the founding father of Glovo , as well as Adam Lasri , a former investor for VC giant Atomico , Yellow is a unexampled € 30 million pre - seed investment trust that wants to invest at the earliest stagecoach possible ( that ’s $ 32 million at today ’s interchange rate ) .
In addition to this unique founding squad , the VC firm ’s focus is also quite unlike . While most VC house operate in Europe sharpen on the U.K. , France , Germany and the Nordics , Yellow wants to put more accent on Southern Europe — and particularly some key market in the region , such as Spain , Italy and Portugal .
Last week , I mouth with Adam Lasri about the Modern fund and the team ’s investment dissertation . Yellow is going to be an timeserving tech investment company , meaning that it does n’t plan to focalise on a upright in finicky . The firm will induct in both B2B and B2C inauguration across different industries .
“ Over the geezerhood , I ’ve had more and more access to former - stage deal flow . Often , I would talk to companies while at Atomico that were in the ideation stage , in which we could n’t commit , ” Lasri told me . “ And I found that frustrating , because a few months later , you could have Index or others make investment , whereas it was n’t part of our thesis to place at the seed degree . ”
He also add together after in the conversation that he does n’t have rough opinion for his former team . He just wants to invest at the seed ( or pre - seed ) level .
And yet , Yellow is n’t going to be the lead investor as it plans to vest € 200,000 to € 500,000 per deal . rather , it thinks it can be the first believer , bring other investors and cater advice at scale . “ We ’re never drawing card , just collaborator , ” Lasri allege . consort to him , many early - stage company face the same result — how to set up a team , how to format a pitch deck , how to navigate the VC ecosystem , etc .
And , of line , the founder of Glovo also screw a matter or two about create a startup . “ founder lie with to talk to another founder who has successfully sold his company , ” Lasri allege . This could be the reason why Atomico , which was founded by Skype founder Niklas Zennström , has been so successful .
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“ Oscar , who is the CEO [ of Glovo ] , spend a mickle of his time with entrepreneurs . He did n’t sleep together how to descale that time he spend with them , but every fourth dimension he seat in a company , he would blab out about all these scene — how to go from 0 to 1 , how to descale your squad , how to think about hiring , all that , ” Lasri said .
“ Last year , they sold their company to Delivery Hero for a little over € 2 billion at the time . And they were consider about how to professionalize their investment business . I was already thinking about my next footstep , and so we start babble out a batch , ” he added .
While Yellow project to invest in startups ground in France and Southern Europe , it also plans to endow in company that want to quickly expand to Spain , Italy and Portugal . In that display case , Yellow can act as a strategic investor and unlock a bunch of trouble that entrepreneurs could face in these fresh market , such as talent funding , regulatory hurdles and initiation with large enterprise .
Yellow ’s squad will be split between Paris and Barcelona with Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud remaining in Barcelona . They will keep their executive roles at Glovo , the on - demand delivery company that wasacquired by Delivery Hero . But Pierre and Michaud have already been quite active as angel investors . Yellow is just a way to take this activity one footprint further .
Adam Lasri will be ground primarily in Paris with another squad member joining the investment firm before long . Victor Navarro , a VC investor that was working for K Fund , is also joining the Yellow squad in Barcelona .
From €0 to €30 million in five months
Interestingly , the sensationalistic innovation squad cope to close this initial fund in just a few months . They start their fundraising effort in June and deal to reach their goal in less than five month .
Behind the scenes , more than a dozen European unicorn founder are investing in Yellow as well as a dozen family offices from Spain , Italy and Portugal . Some of the richest individuals from Southern Europe are limited partners in Yellow ’s first investment firm . The house did n’t receive any public money for this investment trust .
It seems to signal that there is some appetite for more VC cash in hand in Southern Europe . Sure , in Spain alone there are plenty of fund , such as K Fund , Nauta Capital , Kibo Ventures , Seaya Ventures and Inveready — this list is not exhaustive .
But if we look at the number , a recentreport from Dealroomhighlights the discrepancies between the top three European res publica when it comes to startup funding — and the rest period . During the first half of 2023 , startup base in the U.K. bring up a amount of $ 11 billion . Germany and France follow suit with $ 6 billion and $ 5 billion respectively .
In Italy and Spain , startups “ only ” raised $ 1 billion and $ 744 million , respectively , during the same time period . Portugal is n’t even part of the top 15 countries .
Does it mean that there are fewer startup in Southern Europe ? Or does it entail that there ’s still untapped potential drop in the region ?
Spaincap ’s annual reportshows that international VC firms are progressively face at opportunities in Spain . In 2022 , Spanish funds invested a total of $ 430 million in local startups ( € 400 million ) while foreign investors poured $ 1.7 billion in Spanish fellowship ( € 1.6 billion ) .
Some foreign investors could be looking at opportunities in underserved securities industry as their local market might be overheat with too many VC firm fighting for the same deals . And this distortion between local investor and alien investors could explain why mob offices from Southern Europe are willing to back a fresh local fund .
This VC spread validates Yellow ’s positioning . Now , let ’s see if the VC business firm can deploy this capital into successful startups and turn a thesis into returns on investment .
Natasha Lomas contributed report .
