On Tuesday night native time, Motier Ventures, an early stage tech funding agency based mostly in Paris, unveiled a startup hub referred to as La Maison. This comparatively new investor within the French tech ecosystem is the household workplace of the Houzé household — the homeowners of upmarket trend retailer the Galeries Lafayette Group.
Because the Galeries Lafayette malls’ fundamental property are its bodily retail shops additionally they imagine a bodily area for startups will give them an edge over different tech funding companies.
Early stage startup founders based mostly in Paris have extra choices than ever relating to elevating a seed spherical. Many unicorn founders have turn into angel traders on the aspect. Household places of work have diversified their funding methods with a renewed urge for food for tech startups. And early stage VC companies are nonetheless combating for one of the best offers.
Probably the most promising startups get to decide on who they need on their capitalization desk. Some traders like to vow introductions with potential shoppers and enterprise companions. Others pledge a speedy, no frills monetary transaction in order that entrepreneurs can get again to work on their startup.
Motier Ventures is betting on an ecosystem-first strategy. Over the previous three years, the fund has deployed capital at a speedy tempo as it’s now an investor in 85 firms, together with many promising AI firms — similar to Mud, H and Mistral.
They’ve additionally organized a number of occasions which have put many founders and traders within the French tech ecosystem into the identical room. The subsequent step in that technique is a bodily area, referred to as La Maison (a phrase which interprets as home or house).
Unfold throughout the highest three flooring of the Lafayette Connoisseur constructing subsequent to the Opéra Garnier, La Maison will host a dozen early stage startups on this Haussmannian constructing. It should open in early 2025.
The fourth flooring might be a bit completely different as it should act as an occasion/demo day/hackathon/cocktail reception area. “It’s an enormous undertaking, and I feel what drives us is not only Motier Ventures, however the entire entrepreneurial and household ecosystem that we’ve represented for 5 generations,” Motier Ventures accomplice Guillaume Houzé stated throughout an AI-focused occasion in Paris organized by Motier.
“With Galeries Lafayette, we’re in the end making an attempt to help those that make the best manufacturers,” he added, saying the fund’s aim for La Maison is to help “distinctive groups” by offering not only a work and assembly place but additionally inspiration for creativity — or “an area to replicate collectively on the imaginative and prescient of society we need to construct”, as he put it.
In some ways, the pitch for La Maison is harking back to the early days of native tech hub The Household. Round 10 years go, The Household opened as a startup accelerator with an exquisite occasion area that rapidly turned the city sq. of the French tech ecosystem.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, The Household had no selection however to close down the area to chop prices. Extra lately, it’s been again within the information for all of the mistaken causes as Oussama Ammar, one in every of The Household’s co-founder, is being sued for allegedly diverting hundreds of thousands of euros.
For individuals who have been working within the French tech ecosystem for quite a lot of years, The Household’s meetups and dinners are actually only a distant reminiscence. And nothing has actually stepped in to interchange it. Whereas Station F is an impressive startup megacampus, it’s too huge for informal and casual occasions. Perhaps La Maison will turn into the brand new default area to host small meetups.
“Our ambition is to domesticate an atmosphere the place the following technology of tech entrepreneurs, in AI and past, can really feel supported, impressed, and related each day,” Motier Ventures accomplice Nicolas Essayan stated in a press release.
