A growth fund dedicated to tech and supporting the digitalization of infrastructure and the economy
Leveraging its experience and capabilities in infrastructure investments, InfraVia Capital Partners (“InfraVia”) announces the launch of InfraVia Growth Fund. While digital transformation is impacting the whole economy, including infrastructure, and brings infrastructure closer to the services economy, InfraVia intends to support tech companies at scale-up stage.
Established in 2008, InfraVia currently manages 4 infrastructure funds totaling €4bn of AUM and has invested in over 30 companies across Europe. A pioneer in European infrastructure, InfraVia was amongst the first investors in digital infrastructure such as data centers, fiber networks or telecom towers. Thanks to its deep knowledge of the ecosystem, InfraVia is launching a second business line focusing on growth investments with the aim to support tech companies that experience strong growth. “Our experience and skills are great assets to identify, assess and accelerate scale-up companies”said Vincent LEVITA, founder and CEO of InfraVia.
Like it does in most sectors, digital is disrupting infrastructure business models and usage. Digital tools and big data help reduce costs, improve efficiency, reduce risks and enable infrastructure assets to optimize their performance and converge towards the services economy. “Combining physical assets that are key for the economy and new technologies will lead to unprecedented opportunities in terms of growth and performance”,added Vincent Levita.
In order to support and benefit from this structural shift, InfraVia announces the launch of a fund dedicated to leading tech companies operating in sectors in which it has historically invested, such as mobility, logistics, telecom, utility, health and energy. “The sesectors are all affected by deep changes linked notably to the rise of new digital players who need significant capital to remain competitive on a global basis. We intend to help them, not only with funding but also through long-term operational support”Guillaume Santamaria, Partner InfraVia, commented
Targeting a size of €300m, with capital expected to come mostly from its existing institu-tional investors, InfraVia has the ambition to become a leading growth investor with theaim to support, accelerate and internationalize European fast-growing tech companies.The fund will focus on companies that have high growth potential and that are either profitable or nearing profitability.
To achieve its ambition in growth capital, InfraVia is building a dedicated team of seasoned professionals with solid backgrounds in technology, investment and the industrial sector.This 10-strong team will be led by its 3 partners: Alban Wyniecki, Guillaume Santamaria and François Auque.
“Guillaume, François and I are excited to leverage our joint experience (more than 50 deals in the past 5 years) to support and back tomorrow’s tech leaders, and we are veryhappy to join InfraVia’s partnership to deliver on that ambition”Alban Wyniecki, Partner InfraVia, added.
As underpinned in the recent Tibi report, only few French tech companies grow global and make it to the IPO stage, often by lack of sufficient late-stage funding. The French government recently formally showed its support to growth companies and called for French institutional investors to pledge significant capital to start-ups and scale-ups.The InfraVia Growth fund is precisely looking to capture part of this market opportunity. “Institutional investors are ready to support our initiative to back emerging champions in the tech space” François Auque, Partner InfraVia, commented. It is vital for France’s and Europe’s technological sovereignty going forward”.
ABOUT INFRAVIA CAPITAL PARTNERS
InfraVia is an independent investment firm specialized in infrastructure. Founded in 2008by Vincent LEVITA, InfraVia focuses on European mid-market infrastructure and has done32 investments across 12 European countries since its creation. As at October 2019, the company employs 34 professionals and has €4bn of assets under management across 4 funds.
www.infraviacapital.com
ABOUT ALBAN WYNIECKI
• 13 years of experience in investment firms (Partech, Idinvest Partners) and tech (Dassault Système)• Leader on more than 25 investments and board member of several companies (Klaxoon, Lumapps, Platform.sh, Secret Escapes…)• Leader on more than 15 M&A transactions at 3DS (Gemqom, Accelrys, RTT…)• Graduated from ENS and HEC
ABOUT GUILLAUME SANTAMARIA
• 13 years of experience in tech investment and M&A (Quilvest, Apparius, Idinvest Partners)• Leader on more than 35 M&A and fund-raising transactions, in particular in digital health (BioSerenity, Mdoloris, H4D…). Board member of several companies (M2I, Adjust,SophiaGenetics…)• Graduated from Sciences Po Bordeaux and HEC
ABOUT FRANÇOIS AUQUE
• Former Chairman of the Investment Committee at Airbus Ventures• Former CEO of the Space Division at Airbus• Former CFO of Aerospatiale and Aerospatiale-Matra• 30 ans of experience in the industrial sector (Airbus, EADS, Aerospatiale-Matra,Aerospatiale …) and 8 years of experience in Finance (Credisuez, Banque La Henin,Cour des Comptes)• Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee of Rexel, Board Member of CyberArk• Graduated from HEC, Sciences Po and ENA
