On 7 June, at the launch of the Euronext Tech Leaders initiative, Euronext, Bpifrance, CDC Croissance, Mission French Tech and the Cliff unveiled complementary initiatives to support the IPO of French and European high-growth technology companies.
Euronext Tech Leaders brings together more than 100 high-growth listed European tech companies, of which 41 are listed in Paris - the latter including 11 Clean Tech companies, 7 Life Sciences companies and 23 Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) companies. Their total capitalisation reaches €258bn and they have raised over €7bn within 3 years on the Euronext markets.
The Caisse des Dépôts Group is mobilising in favour of this initiative:
- Caisse des Dépôts Asset Management, the leading institutional investor in French listed SMEs via CDC Croissance, is preparing to set up an investment fund to support the listing of French unicorns1 on the Paris stock exchange. It will be endowed with €300m by Caisse des Dépôts from 2022, with a target of €1.5bn over 5 years;
- Bpifrance will mobilise a €500m budget to play an active part in future IPOs2 of French scale-up3 ;
- Bpifrance is creating a Corner stone4 Investor's Club to encourage meetings between private equity funds and institutional asset managers specialising in Tech.
With the launch of a dedicated fund, we are strengthening our support for the strategic technology sector in order to ensure a continuum of financing for French unicorns and to promote a better balance in the valuations of French technology stocks at the time of listing.
Olivier Mareuse, Director of Asset Managements at Caisse des Dépôts and Chairman of CDC Croissance
To find out more, read the press release (in French)
(1) A unicorn is an unlisted start-up valued at at least $1bn.
(2) Initial Public Offering
(3) A company that has passed the start-up stage but is not yet a unicorn.
(4) A corner stone investor will significantly help the realisation of an IPO by his notoriety and his capital contribution.