On Tuesday night native time, Motier Ventures, an early stage tech funding agency primarily based in Paris, unveiled a startup hub known as La Maison. This comparatively new investor within the French tech ecosystem is the household workplace of the Houzé household — the house owners of upmarket trend retailer the Galeries Lafayette Group.
Because the Galeries Lafayette department shops’ fundamental property are its bodily retail shops in addition they imagine a bodily area for startups will give them an edge over different tech funding corporations.
Early stage startup founders primarily based in Paris have extra choices than ever with regards to elevating a seed spherical. Many unicorn founders have turn out to be angel traders on the facet. Household places of work have diversified their funding methods with a renewed urge for food for tech startups. And early stage VC corporations are nonetheless preventing for the very 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 method. 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 following step in that technique is a bodily area, known 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’s going to open in early 2025.
The fourth flooring will probably be a bit totally different as it’s going to act as an occasion/demo day/hackathon/cocktail reception area. “It’s an enormous mission, and I believe what drives us is not only Motier Ventures, however the entire entrepreneurial and household ecosystem that we’ve represented for 5 generations,” Motier Ventures companion Guillaume Houzé stated throughout an AI-focused occasion in Paris organized by Motier.
“With Galeries Lafayette, we’re in the end attempting to assist those that make the best manufacturers,” he added, saying the fund’s aim for La Maison is to assist “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 wish 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 a good looking 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 unsuitable causes as Oussama Ammar, considered one of The Household’s co-founder, is being sued for allegedly diverting tens of millions 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 exchange it. Whereas Station F is a powerful startup megacampus, it’s too huge for informal and casual occasions. Possibly La Maison will turn out to be the brand new default area to host small meetups.
“Our ambition is to domesticate an atmosphere the place the following era of tech entrepreneurs, in AI and past, can really feel supported, impressed, and linked daily,” Motier Ventures companion Nicolas Essayan stated in an announcement.
