Cambon Partners — Fundraising team — Overview 2019

Cambon Partners and the Fundraising team wish you a happy New Year, all the best for 2020! Thank you all for your continued support.

Cambon Partners has completed more than 120 deals in venture with rounds of 5 to 50 millions euros.

11 deals over the last 12 months

• Jenji — fintech SaaS — Idinvest
• UpTime — elevator maintenance SaaS — Serena
• Araxxe — telecom SaaS — Crédit Mutuel Innovations & Société Générale Capital Partenaires
• Eldotravo — martech SaaS — Irdi & M Capital
• Komgo — blockchain solution for commodity trading — ABN AMRO, ING, Société Générale, BNP Paribas, CA Indosuez, Citibank, Macquarie, Natixis, Koch, Gunvor, ConsenSys
• Legalplace — legaltech- Afir & Day One
• Onatera — e-Commerce health & Beauty — Capital Croissance
• Wizaplace — marketplace editor SaaS- BPI France, CM-CIC, Omnes Capital
• 3 deals not yet announced… stay tuned!

Key learning outcomes from 2019

• The number of investors interested in the French market is booming. As a result of the decreasing number of deals, once you have a TS or a commitment, many VCs want to get “in” on the deal. VCs should not only be seen as competitors but also as partners willing to share the best deals.Just like in the series, House of cards, you have to know and be part of the dynamics between the different VCs to ensure the most advantageous outcome.
• US investors are more and more active on our home turf. They are now able to join as early as Series A, especially as co-investors working alongside reputable local VCs, and also for leading Series B rounds. Many of these players already have or plan to open offices in Europe.
• Growth quality: growth is becoming the most important topic in the fundraising process, even though “growths” are not necessarily comparable between companies. Underlying factors explaining this growth are sometimes forgotten by some VCs at first sight: What is the ratio of rev. / sales person, is it really replicable at scale…? Valuation is strongly related to growth pace. Entrepreneurs have to keep it in mind to maximize their chances to close a great deal
• It happens more and more frequently that startups buy smaller ones (generally after chapter 11) in order to add new tech capacities and/or add new clients. VCs will have to gain more experience internally to add value on this topic.

What we wrote about in 2019

• First edition of survey about the last 50 startups that raised +10m€. B2B or B2C, business-model, background of the founders, number of founders, financing strategy and many more valuable data points. You can find the study here: (link)
• Article about the rise in power of the advisors in the fund raising game (link — in French)

What we did in 2019 (beside deals!)

• Startup Party in July — More than 150 startupers gathered together to drink a beer (or far more) in one of the places to be in Paris (Buttes Chaumont)
• Proptech Meetup in September. With 40–50 startupers and corporates in the proptech business.
• Travel Meetup in November. Same as below in the travel business. :)
• Breakfast with Jean-Louis Gassé. This man is literally a legend. He used to work with Steve Jobs at Apple during the first years of Apple.
• Breakfast with Gautier Machelon. Gautier is a serial-entrepreneur, cofounder of Multiposting (sold to SAP), Work4, MyTraffic, Javelo and ShareWork.

People with whom we like to work :

We work with partners from different sectors such as HR, Audit, Tech. Amongst others Avizio and Officy (feel free to contact them on our behalf) :

• Avizio developed a network of top-notch executives in the tech sector, available on demand to perform skill assessment, candidate interviews, provide experienced insight, minimizing recruitment risks.
• Officy is a safe bet for startups and SMEs when it comes to part-time office management. With its team of 25 office managers and automation experts, Officy orchestrates and automates administrative management (accounting, ADV, HR).

Would you like to be our next selected partner? Please, ping us.

What to expect in 2020?

• We already have 6 deals under termsheet or soon to be announced. We will keep you posted.
• Our next meetup? About HRtech. It will happen on the 5th of February. Want to join? Ping us.
• We will soon release a survey about foreign VCs investing in France and a report on the fundraising ecosystem. Interested? Again, ping us.