Innovacom raises E120m

French venture capital firm Innovacom has exceeded the target for its fifth fund, successfully raising €120m for its oversubscribed fund. The firm held an initial closing for Innovacom 5 at €50m this June, when it announced that it hoped to raise a total of €100m.

New investors in this round were HarbourVest and GIC (Singapore) joining Access Capital Partners, AGF Private Equity, CIC Finance, the European Investment Fund, the FPCR (Caisse des Dépots Group) and France Telecom, along with leaders in the technology industry who invested earlier this year.

“Innovacom’s performance over 15 years makes it one of the top European venture capital teams,” said Peter Wilson, managing director of HarbourVest. “We’re impressed by the industry relationships the team has been able to build, as well as the added value it brings to the companies in which it invests.” Limited partners outside of France represent 60% of the fund’s commitments.

Innovacom, which was founded by France Telecom in 1988, focuses on early stage telecom and IT start-ups. Jean-Jacques Damlamian, executive vice-president for technology and innovation at France Telecom, said: “The new fund will fuel the development of start-ups that have a profound impact on telecommunications services, so France Telecom will take a close look at them.”

In 2000 Innovacom 4 raised €200m, five times more than 1998-vintage Innovacom 3. Although smaller than its predecessor the new fund will invest in the same core sectors as the previous Innovacom funds: materials & components, telecom hardware, telecom software, enterprise software and services & content. Innovacom invests in start-ups, usually with an initial commitment of €1m to €3m in new companies, increasing to €5m or €6m in subsequent rounds of financing.

The firm has offices in Paris, Stockholm and San Francisco and expects the distribution of investments from Innovacom 5 to be 75% in Europe and 25% in North America.