Tag: fundraising

Eric Guigné is the President and Founder of POLARYS, a Digital Services Company specialized in DATA working with more than 300 companies among which, the Investment Funds. Entrepreneur but also Business Angel, he answers our questions during the 5th edition of the START-UP GOLF CHALLENGE in Paris

1/ Data for Investment Funds, is it a topic? 

Indeed, the stake in private equity is to be able to recover a maximum of Data, and to analyze a maximum of information to make the best decisions.

The best investment decisions, the best sales decisions, the best decisions for managing the companies they buy, for merging them or making them grow

POLARYS’ business is to have consultants, experts on all these DATA issues.

Data recovery, data analysis in order to implement data architectures for business decision makers in the private equity business. There is a lot of information that the Funds have on their own performance.  But there is even more information that can be found outside. The open data to the paid data through Data Providers.

There is a gold mine and it is a very important issue to find the best opportunities for growth.

Suivre ses investissements grâce à la data

2/ How POLARYS help Investment Funds

Polarys’ job is to provide consulting and integration services for data and decision making.

So consulting means analyzing our customers’ needs and recommending the best solutions, X, Y or Z, because there are many technological solutions on the market and it is difficult for our customers to see clearly.

POLARYS have experts who are able to do this independently. We are not a re-seller, we are not a player in a single technological solution. We assess all the possible solutions on the market for the mid-market, for very large international funds, for funds that do Mezzanine, for funds that do Fund of Funds or LBO.

Contact us for Fundraising? Apply on MY PITCH IS GOOD , we will get back to you and help you in your fundraising. MY PITCH IS GOOD makes the introduction to our Network of Investors.

My Pitch Is Good

All of these are relatively different. The needs are different, the fundraising processes are different. The due diligence processes are different and therefore there are different tool needs.

So our first activity is what we call “Think”.  An upstream consulting to recommend the right architectures.

We provide support.  We don’t just say “you should do this” but we help concretely with commitments on results.

Setting up these information systems until they have platforms that allow them to better see their investors, their clients, their portfolio, the performance of their entire ecosystem and also to compare themselves and do benchmarking, which is also very important.

3/ Who are the clients of POLARYS

We are talking about thirty clients who are divided between small management companies that manage 2 or 3 funds.

Generally you need to have at least 2 or 3 funds for it to become a little complicated and for it to be necessary to set up an information system, but our smallest clients manage less than a billion. they manage a few funds of a few hundred million.

But our smallest clients manage, I think, less than a billion, manage a few funds at a few hundred million. Up to very large funds such as ARDIAN or ADIA in the Emirates. These large funds which are obviously record-breaking funds that we know are the largest in Europe or the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world.

They have relatively different issues. It’s the same thing but it’s 10 times or 100 times much more.

The tools, methods and teams use different technologies. But we are fortunate to be able to serve this whole spectrum of clients. they sometimes only do fund of funds, sometimes only direct, sometimes Mezzanine, sometimes Real Estate, who do different asset classes.

4/ What do you think about MY PITCH IS GOOD ?

It’s a great platform that we are very happy to be associated with.

We like these meetings between project holders, inventors, start-ups and then obviously there is a need to finance them, and it’s really a great place to make them meet so bravo for this great initiative too.

POLARYS is a partner of the 5th edition of Paris of the  START-UP GOLF CHALLENGE at golf de l’isle Adam, the 17th September 2021.

START-UP  GOLF CHALLENGE ,& MY PITCH IS GOOD

Check out the Interview of Eric Guigné on our page Youtube MY PITCH IS GOOD

Interview made by Fabrice Clément –> #mytwitter / #mylinkedin

The funds raised by French Tech continue to grow from year to year. And we could set a new record in 2019. More than 1.1 billion euros were already raised in the first quarter, during 165 operations. The 4 billion euro mark could therefore be crossed.

1/A durable growth

The growth of French Tech has been sustainable for several years. Since 2016, the funds raised have steadily increased. In 2016, they were 2.20 billion euros, in 2017 of 2.56 billion, in 2018 of 3.62 billion.

To make a comparison, in 2018 Q1, 800 million euros had been raised against 1.1 billion this year, an increase of 30%.

Nombre de tours de table et montant des levées de fonds depuis 2017 en France

2/ Higher fundraising

Since the beginning of 2019, we observe the same phenomenon as in 2018. A number of rounds of almost stable table, but committed means which increase strongly.

Indeed, if the tickets of less than five million euros still represent the majority of rounds, we can note an increase of more than 25% tickets over 5 million euros. If 33 lifts were made in the first quarter of 2018, there was a 25% increase in the first quarter of 2019 with 43 lifts. Among these raised, 23 more than 10 million euros against 19 in 2018.

3/ More and more huge fundraising

If we take into account the beginning of April, France already has four mega levées, ie rounds of tables of more than 100 million euros. In February, Insect raised 110 million euros to increase the alternative protein model. Doctolib raised 150 million euros in March. This platform of E-health has thereby become the fifth French unicorn. In early April, the e-commerce platform specializing in gardening and DIY ManoMano raised 110 million euros. Finally, HR Path, which specializes in HR solutions for companies, has raised 100 million euros.

These mega lifts are becoming more important. In 2017, the biggest French mega-levy was 71 million euros (Activy), and 3 had crossed the 100 million mark in 2018. France already broke its record after four months in France. 2019 and seems to be gradually catching up with its European neighbors and competitors such as Germany and the United Kingdom.

The French Tech is doing well, and this is confirmed from year to year. 2019 is off to a flying start. The START-UP GOLF CHALLENGE is the opportunity to show, through a day dedicated to entrepreneurship, innovation and networking, the good health of this sector, by meeting entrepreneurs and investors on the land. golf but also during a pitch session, MY PITCH IS GOOD.

Don’t hesitate to follow us on our social networks!

Thomas Morant

This will be the year 2018 in terms of investments in Capital Risk. GOWEEZ and the START-UP GOLF CHALLENGE, the first golf competition between Investors and Entrepreneurs, explains why

1/ The Trends

Before that, we have to situate things, the year 2018 is not over yet so we must be vigilant. But all the indicators show that this year is unique. The first element that allows to demonstrate this is the number of Rounds made over the 3 quarters.

Indeed, each of these quarters has experienced a huge increase. Take for example Q3 which offers an increase in the number of Table Rounds by more than 34% compared to the same quarter in 2017

But if we talk concretely about the volumes of money raised we are overwhelming any kind of previous statements.

(see the graph below)

START-UP GOLF CHALLENGE – Money raised in France Quarter Timeline

2/ Money raised

Never have been such amounts invested in the french history of venture capital. Notably in Q2 2018 with a month of May which alone represents 46% of the volume of business issued this quarter.

This can be explained in particular by these great 51 million euro raised by OpenClassrooms among BPI France , General Atlantic, Citizen Capital as well as Alven Capital

OpenClassrooms was founded in July 2016 by Pierre Dubuc and Mathieu Nebra. The goal is to make education great again to all and thus to promote the employability of people.

OpenClassrooms offers hundreds of free Massive Online Open Classrooms (MOOCs) as well as career paths and mentoring via subscriptions under different offers.

It offers 100% online certifications and degree programs recognized by the state.

The Start-Up Comet, in the Human Resources sector, which was able to raise during this month of May 11 million euros from among Daphni and Otium Venture .

3/ Another sure sign

Record  broken ! The good news is that there will be no more doubt. Taking these first three quarters of 2018 and comparing them to the complete year 2017, we are already at 23% increase of volumes invested in Venture Capital.

A very favorable sign that is confirmed by many Tweets issued by the National Federation of Business Angels:

FRANCE ANGELS partner of the START-UP  GOLF CHALLENGE .

We wish you a good reading. We will be happy to meet you for the next Challenges in 2019 during the 3rd edition of PARIS. But also in Geneva with its 2nd edition…

Maybe more surprises ? 🙂

In the meantime, do not hesitate to follow us on social networks..

Fabrice Clément