Participated · Equity · May 2010

Crocus Technology designs TMR sensor products with high magnetic sensitivity, stable temperature performance, and ultra-low power consumption, with sensors integrated within a CMOS process for monolithic, cost-effective solutions. Its MLU™ technology underpins products targeted at IoT, mobile, automotive, medical, industrial and other applications. The company says it will use newly raised capital to expand its commercial team, broaden its product portfolio, and extend its patent portfolio to solidify TMR leadership. Crocus is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and also has offices in Grenoble, France and Beijing and Shenzhen, China. Management cites a goal to accelerate revenue growth and reach profitability by the end of the year. The company referenced market research projecting the worldwide magnetic sensor market to grow to $5.37 billion by 2023 (8.77% CAGR) and TMR sensors to grow at about a 9.41% CAGR over the next five years. Crocus Technology is a supplier of magnetic sensors and embedded memory solutions built on Magnetic Logic Unit™ (MLU) technology. Its products target applications that require high sensitivity, high-temperature operation, low-noise and low-cost, including industrial, consumer electronics and automotive sectors. The company plans to deploy its sensor product strategy in key target markets including industrial, consumer electronics, automotive and IoT. It intends to strengthen commercial resources by finalizing a distribution network in Asia and reinforcing its support team. Crocus also plans to develop new designs to expand its portfolio with integrated sensor and smart sensor applications. The company raised $21M in this financing and has raised $194M (€180.3M) to date. Founded in 2004 and led by CEO Michel Desbard, Crocus is based in Santa Clara, California and maintains offices in Grenoble and Rousset, and co-owns a Russian manufacturing facility, Crocus Nano Electronics. Crocus Technology develops magnetically enhanced semiconductor technologies built around its Magnetic Logic Unit (MLU) for mobile security, embedded microcontrollers, harsh-environment electronics and magnetic sensors. Its MLU is a CMOS-based rugged magnetic technology that the company licenses to TowerJazz and other foundries for integration. Founded in 2004 and led by CEO Bertrand Cambou, Crocus has offices in Grenoble and Gardanne, France, and US operations in Santa Clara, California, and jointly owns a Russian manufacturing facility with Rusnano. Together with IBM it is developing Generation 3 technology targeting high-end smart cards. The company is expected to launch a magnetic sensor product line. It recently completed a financing round to support go-to-market, product qualification and manufacturing ramp at TowerJazz Semiconductors. The company develops Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) for dense, non-volatile, high-speed, scalable memory applications. MRAM is positioned as a replacement for SRAM and flash across telecommunications, networking, computing and handheld devices. Crocus completed an €8m financing round to support its production transfer and product development. The funds will be used to complete the production transfer of its 130nm MRAM technology to manufacturing partner Tower Semiconductor and to continue product development. Investors in the round include AGF Private Equity, CDC Innovation, CEA Investissement, Nanodimension, Sofinnova Ventures and Ventech. In conjunction with the funding the company appointed Dr. Bertrand F. Cambou as CEO and chairman; he brings more than 29 years of semiconductor industry experience to help commercialize the technology. Crocus Technology is a French semiconductor maker developing magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) chips that store information using magnetic fields. Its MRAM chips are described as less volatile, lower-power and generally faster than conventional flash memory used in most computers and handheld electronics. The company plans to commercialize the technology and expects MRAM to start replacing flash once it goes to market. Crocus faces competition from other firms racing toward similar products, including Austin, Tex.-based Freescale Semiconductor Inc., an offshoot of EverSpin Technologies Inc., and Silicon Valley’s Grandis Inc. Financially, Crocus completed a second-round financing of $15.8 million and also received $4.1 million from OSEO, France’s public agency for funding innovation. The new funding will be used for continued development of its MRAM chips.

Participated · Series D · Apr 2010

Talend is an open-source data integration vendor based in Los Altos with offices in Paris. It offers data integration, data management and business process management and its technology runs natively across Hadoop clusters, producing MapReduce code. The company reports tens of thousands of downloads every day from its free open-source distribution and plans to invest in inside sales and marketing to build incremental growth from that base. Talend will use the $40M investment to be more aggressive on its product roadmap with a particular focus on Hadoop technologies and to pursue an IPO. The $40M came from Bpifrance and Iris Capital with participation from existing investor Silver Lake Sumeru, bringing total capital raised to $101.6M. Bpifrance is described in the article as a French public investment house that specializes in helping companies do initial public offerings. Talend develops open source data integration, data quality, and master data management (MDM) solutions for the enterprise, publishing core modules under a GPL license. The company emphasizes an open approach that allows the developer community to improve and extend the product. Talend recently acquired Sopera, adding open source SOA and middleware capabilities to offer a unified middleware platform. The acquisition is positioned to deliver greater functionality, lower cost than proprietary technologies, and easier deployment and management; terms were not disclosed. Talend reported its flagship solutions have been downloaded more than seven million times and that its paying customer base grew 140% to well over 1,000 customers in 2009. Financially, the company has raised new funding and has total capital above $60 million. Talend provides open-source data integration, data quality and master data management (MDM) solutions. Its flagship open-source products have been downloaded more than seven million times, and its paying customer base grew 140% to well over 1,000 customers in 2009. The company publishes the code of its core and base modules under a GPL license to engage the developer community. Talend said it will use the new funding to further develop and extend its range of data integration, data quality and MDM offerings. The company characterized 2009 as a "killer year" for its growth. Investors view Talend’s open approach as disruptive to a market historically dominated by a handful of proprietary vendors. Talend builds Talend Open Studio, an open-source data integration product. The flagship product has seen over 3.3 million downloads and the company reports about 400 paying customers and more than 100 partners. Talend says its paying customer base grew by over 300% in the past 12 months. The company plans to use new funding to expand global operations into the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific and to introduce a number of new products during the year. Financially, Talend completed a $12 million Series C and has raised close to $20 million in total after two prior rounds. Balderton Capital and AGF Private Equity are lead investors in the latest round.

Led · Equity · Mar 2010

Genticel develops therapeutic vaccines against high‑risk HPV infections. The company’s lead candidate, ProCervix, completed a Phase I clinical study and is moving into Phase II to demonstrate proof of efficacy. Its pipeline also includes a CyaA‑based multivalent HPV vaccine designed to cover additional virus subtypes. Genticel plans to use newly raised funds to advance both HPV vaccine candidates through clinical development. The company is led by founder and CEO Benedikt Timmerman and is based in Paris and Toulouse, France. Genticel, formerly BT Pharma, is a Labège, France-based biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutic immunotherapies targeting HPV-caused cancers. Its proprietary platform is Adenylate Cyclase (CyaA) and its lead candidate is the therapeutic HPV vaccine ProCervix. The company aims to provide a curative vaccine solution that complements existing prophylactic HPV vaccines, with a focus on preventing cervical cancer in HPV-infected women. Genticel secured €13.1m in additional funding to advance clinical development. The proceeds are earmarked to support a "first-in-man" clinical trial of the CyaA platform and a Phase I clinical trial of ProCervix. As part of the financing, Dr Alain Munoz of AGF Private Equity joined the company’s supervisory board.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2010

Celsius X VI II is a Paris-based luxury mobile phone maker developing the Papillon. The Papillon replaces chips and electronics with moving mechanical parts. The company received €3.3m in equity funding from venture capital firms. The round was led by Sofinnova Partners, with participation from AGF Private Equity and other private investors. Celsius X VI II plans to commercialise the Papillon in roughly a dozen watch or jewellery stores globally, with the device expected to retail for around €20,000.

Led · Equity · Jan 2010

eRepublik Labs publishes eRepublik, a browser-based massive online social strategy game that mirrors the real world. In eRepublik, players (called citizens) participate in politics, set economic policy, start businesses, engage in wars and interact with one another. A year after its public launch the site reported one million registered users, 350,000 active users, and roughly 50% of users logging in daily. In December 2009 the game recorded 8.6 million visits and 206 million page views. The company was founded in 2007 and is backed to the tune of €2,750,000 from AGF Private Equity alongside various angel investors. The board recently added internet entrepreneur Toby Rowland, bringing experienced operational leadership to the startup.