Iris Capital

Investment thesis

Iris Capital, which now trades under the shortened brand IRIS at iris.vc, is a European venture capital firm created in 1986 inside Caisse des Depots and spun out as an independent manager in 2003. It runs from Paris with additional offices in Berlin and Munich, and has backed more than 350 companies since the early 1990s, deploying over EUR 1 billion. Since 2012 it has been sponsored by Orange and Publicis, which selected it to manage their joint multi-corporate venture fund; BRED Banque Populaire and Valeo joined the platform in 2017 and Bridgestone in 2019. Its latest early-stage vehicle, IRIS Venture IV, targets EUR 150 million and reached a EUR 110 million first close in December 2022 with Orange, Publicis and Bpifrance among the LPs. The fund writes cheques of EUR 1 million to EUR 8 million at seed and Series A across France, Germany and the wider European market, concentrating on software, fintech, AI, cybersecurity, logistics and robotics, while the firm also invests at growth stage. Portfolio companies and exits include Talend, Kyriba, Netatmo, Careem, Shift Technology, Exotec, Forto, Talon.One and LeanIX.

Past investments

Sesamers coverage