CapHorn Invest, a venture capital firm, has joined the Anaxago Group to create a leading player in alternative investment in France. The monetary terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Anaxago is a multifaceted online investment platform that offers securities crowdfunding for early-stage firms, real estate investing, private equity funds, wealth management, and more. The firm accepts both institutional and individual investor money.
- This merger allows the two leaders, Joachim Dupont and Guillaume Dupont, to be in a unique position in the private equity market to offer a complete range of investments from real estate to venture capital via private debt.
- In a booming venture capital market, the new group will develop a wide range of investment solutions: from investment funds to club deals; from €1 million to €15 million.
- To support the strong growth of the group, Sofiouest, the investment and holding company subsidiary of the Sipa Ouest-France Group, takes a stake in Anaxago.
The acquisition has been approved by the financial markets’ regulator the Autorité des marchés financiers, with Anaxago Group receiving 100% of the company CapHorn Invest and the merger of the latter with its management company, Anaxago Capital. CapHorn’s management takes over the management of the group’s venture activities.
CapHorn Invest, which manages €180 M, is a seasoned player in the French venture capital market, a specialist in early-stage investment, and a shareholder in companies such as Ledger, Critizr, and Powell Software. Established as one of the first entrepreneur funds 10 years ago, the management company brings together 150 LPs, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and institutional investors such as the BPI and the European Investment Fund.
The discussions that began in 2021 quickly brought to light the complementarity of the two structures which allow the Anaxago group to continue its very strong growth. The group thus strengths its historical presence in venture capital and its offering addressed to professional investors.
A common ambition to be a leader in alternative investment
“This transaction allows us to create a unique offering in the alternative investment market in France by combining the historical know-how of CapHorn’s teams in venture capital with Anaxago’s large network of professional and private investors and its expertise in club deals, real estate, and private debt,” said Joachim Dupont, cofounder of Anaxago.
Following the transaction, Guillaume Dupont, cofounder of CapHorn, was appointed to the board of directors of Anaxago and took over the general management of the private equity firm.
Anaxago Capital will develop three investment strategies:
- private debt,
- real estate private equity
- venture capital
- deployed in investment funds and club deals open to professional and/or private investors.
The new entity, which has 65 employees at the group level, will have a large team of 25 investment professionals specializing in innovation and real estate.
Restructuring the shareholding of the Anaxago group
As part of this operation, the Anaxago group welcomes Sofiouest as a shareholder with a seat on the board.
“As an historical investor in club deals and funds managed by Anaxago Capital, the growth of the group and its commitment to financing the real economy in accordance with responsible investment principles that we share convinced us to become a shareholder,” commented Patrice Hutin, Managing Director of Sofiouest.
Unique positioning in the venture capital landscape
The venture capital activity of the Anaxago group will now be carried out under the CapHorn brand and will integrate Anaxago’s historical activity in this sector.
“The merger with Anaxago starts a new chapter in the history of CapHorn: the acceleration of our investments and the ambition to enter the capital of exceptional companies in industries in transformation, this in a booming venture market,” underlined Guillaume Dupont, Managing Director of CapHorn Invest.
The new entity, bringing together the know-how and experience of the Anaxago group and CapHorn, will focus its investments on 4 priority themes driven by major changes in society:
(1) Health Technology
(2) The zero-carbon city: technology and uses at the service of a low-carbon city
(3) The circular economy and the preservation of resources: from production to consumption
(4) The digital revolution of industries: from APIzation to Web3.
Within these sectors, the company will have an opportunistic positioning, participating in early-stage as well as in later-stage financing.
Recent events in the online capital formation sector have indicated a trend to offer a growing number of services in different markets. As rules have recently changed in the European Union that should improve the securities crowdfunding sector the joining of these two firms should better position the combined entity to compete across Europe.
Therese Torris, Ph.D., is a Senior Contributing Editor to Crowdfund Insider. She is an entrepreneur and consultant in eFinance and eCommerce based in Paris. She has covered crowdfunding and P2P lending since the early days when Zopa was created in the United Kingdom. She was a director of research and consulting at Gartner Group Europe, Senior VP at Forrester Research and Content VP at Twenga. She publishes a French personal finance blog, Le Blog Finance Pratique. Torris is also a graduate of INSEAD.