Eurazeo Biases AI and Tech Savvy, Gathering €650M Towards Forthcoming Billion Euro Growth Fund

Eurazeo, a prominent French investment firm, recently closed a substantial €650m portion of their new billion-euro growth fund. This follows a brief hiatus in fundraising that occurred two years prior, when four managing directors departed from the firm in quick succession, leaving previous fundraising efforts on hold for more than a year. Despite the setback, the firm remained resilient, projecting a final close of at least €1bn in the ensuing year. As a rare publicly traded European VC, the firm maintains an investment horizon straddling all private equity stages. The firm’s growth team, under the guidance of managing director Hala Fadel, has rallied since the departure of their predecessors, establishing a solid foundation that reassures Limited Partners of the team’s stability. The team now boosts of new recruits and five operating partners across France, the UK, Germany and Spain. It’s a ‘very different’ setup according to Fadel and it seems to have enticed new investors with the previous fund’s backers also keeping faith. The fund is expected to focus on AI applications for enterprises in diverse fields, from cybersecurity to climate - a nod toward AI’s omnipresence in tech. Investing in AI, Fadel shares, isn’t about takingrisks in product or market, but betting on the execution for the company’s future growth. They are looking to support businesses with a competitive edge, scalability in a vast market, and a robust, committed team. Six companies, including French climate tech unicorn Ecovadis and digital analytics unicorn ContentSquare, have already benefitted from the new fund.