On Tuesday night native time, Motier Ventures, an early stage tech funding agency based mostly 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 vogue retailer the Galeries Lafayette Group.
Because the Galeries Lafayette department shops’ primary property are its bodily retail shops in addition they consider a bodily area for startups will give them an edge over different tech funding corporations.
Early stage startup founders based mostly in Paris have extra choices than ever in relation to elevating a seed spherical. Many unicorn founders have turn into angel buyers on the aspect. Household workplaces have diversified their funding methods with a renewed urge for food for tech startups. And early stage VC corporations are nonetheless combating for the very best offers.
Probably the most promising startups get to decide on who they need on their capitalization desk. Some buyers 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 strategy. Over the previous three years, the fund has deployed capital at a fast 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 buyers within the French tech ecosystem into the identical room. The subsequent step in that technique is a bodily area, known as La Maison (a phrase which interprets as home or dwelling).
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 is going to open in early 2025.
The fourth flooring will likely be a bit totally different as it is 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 associate Guillaume Houzé mentioned throughout an AI-focused occasion in Paris organized by Motier.
“With Galeries Lafayette, we’re finally 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 mirror collectively on the imaginative and prescient of society we need to construct”, as he put it.
In some ways, the pitch for La Maison is paying homage to the early days of native tech hub The Household. Round 10 years go, The Household opened as a startup accelerator with a ravishing occasion area that rapidly turned the city sq. of the French tech ecosystem.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, The Household had no alternative however to close down the area to chop prices. Extra just lately, it’s been again within the information for all of the improper causes as Oussama Ammar, certainly 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 at the moment are only a distant reminiscence. And nothing has actually stepped in to exchange it. Whereas Station F is a powerful startup megacampus, it’s too massive for informal and casual occasions. Possibly La Maison will turn into the brand new default area to host small meetups.
“Our ambition is to domesticate an surroundings the place the subsequent era of tech entrepreneurs, in AI and past, can really feel supported, impressed, and related every single day,” Motier Ventures associate Nicolas Essayan mentioned in a press release.
