Participated · Series D · Jun 2025

Wandercraft develops AI-powered, self-balancing exoskeletons and autonomous humanoid robots for rehabilitation, personal mobility, and industrial use. Its flagship rehabilitation system, Atalante X, is deployed in over 100 rehabilitation centres across four continents and helps users take more than a million steps each month. The company is commercializing Eve, a personal exoskeleton that enables wheelchair users to stand and walk, and is developing the Calvin line of humanoid robots for physically demanding tasks and caregiver support. Wandercraft refines its systems with a neural network trained on billions of steps, billions of simulations, and tens of millions of real-world steps, and holds more than 30 patents. The company says it will bring Eve to market as early as 2026, expand clinical adoption of Atalante X, and develop and deploy the Calvin-40 humanoid robot. A strategic partnership with Renault aims to scale production and positions Renault as a commercial partner and first customer for the Calvin-40. Wandercraft develops Atalante, a 12-degrees-of-freedom, self-balancing robotic exoskeleton that uses walking algorithms to restore gait for wheelchair users. The company was founded in 2012 and is Paris-based. Its product strategy focuses squarely on user mobility and rehabilitation care rather than industrial or military applications. Wandercraft partners with hospitals and healthcare providers to deploy its technology in clinical and therapeutic settings. The firm announced plans to expand Atalante’s reach into the United States following its latest financing. Financially, the company has been capital-intensive: prior to the round it had raised $30.5M to date, and it is now pursuing commercialization and development with new investor support.

Participated · Series C · Sep 2023

Verkor is building a Gigafactory in the Dunkirk area to produce low-carbon battery cells with an initial capacity of 16 GWh/year. The Dunkirk facility is slated to be operational in 2025 and is expected to create about 1,200 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs over the next two years. Verkor positions its product as having one of the smallest environmental footprints in the world and has received a “Dark Green” rating from Standard & Poor’s for the project financed by the green loan. The company aims to supply the European automotive industry and contribute to Europe’s industrial sovereignty in electric mobility and energy storage. Verkor has secured substantial project financing—bringing total financing for the first Gigafactory and the Verkor Innovation Centre to more than €3 billion—supporting construction, ramp-up and growth. Verkor is a French, Renault-backed battery manufacturer producing pouch and cylindrical battery modules for electric vehicles and energy-storage applications. The company is accelerating construction of a gigafactory in Dunkirk. To fund that expansion it secured more than €2 billion (roughly $2.1 billion). The financing package is intended to speed up the Dunkirk project and support Verkor’s industrialisation plans. Verkor framed the raise as a landmark equity event for a French startup. The company cited public support, including pending French subsidies, as part of the package. French President Emmanuel Macron was quoted by the company praising the deal as a sign of reindustrialisation ambition. Verkor develops battery cells and related technology, operating a technology and innovation centre (Verkor Innovation Center, VIC) in Grenoble. The VIC will host development work and pilot production with a reported pilot capacity of 150 MWh. Verkor plans series production of those cells at a cell factory in Dunkerque beginning in 2025. The company has secured more than €250 million in financing that will flow into the VIC and technology development. Financing sources include industrial partners in the battery sector, commercial banks, investment funds and public banks, with specific participation from the European Investment Bank and support from Bpifrance Assurance Export. Verkor is also issuing a convertible bond to be subscribed by financial partners and industrial partners, and employees will be able to participate. The company says its financing needs are not yet fully covered as it pursues funding for a planned 16 GWh/year gigafactory in the Port of Dunkirk. Verkor is a French start-up specialized in the development and production of high-performance batteries, particularly for electric vehicles. The company is building a Verkor Innovation Center near Grenoble, planned to be operational in 2022, to optimize industrial processes and develop next-generation batteries. Verkor plans to launch its first Gigafactory for battery production, with construction expected to start in 2023. The company recently completed a €100 million fundraising round, to which Arkema contributed several million euros. Verkor is working in close technological collaboration with partners including Renault Group, EQT Ventures, EIT InnoEnergy, Groupe IDEC, Schneider Electric, Capgemini, Tokai Cobex, and Demeter to establish an integrated industrial battery production chain in Europe.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2018

Prophesee develops event-based vision technologies—sensors, cameras and software—that detect and process motion as asynchronous events rather than conventional frames. The company has evolved its product set into integrated systems such as Mantara, an event-based drone detection and tracking system that the firm says has been validated in the field, and Hearth, a new software platform intended to replace OpenEB and the Metavision SDK for secure, updateable, event-based applications. Prophesee highlights roughly a hundred patents and more than ten years of technology development, and it sells into industry, security and defense markets with use cases spanning airports, critical infrastructure and counter-UAS. The firm has commercial partnerships (for example with IDS Imaging) and a memorandum of understanding with Exosens to extend sensing beyond visible wavelengths. Prophesee is based in Paris and maintains offices in Grenoble, Shanghai and Tokyo, and the company reports a strategic shift toward a full-stack, dual civil and military strategy following the recent funding round.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2016

Devialet produces high-end speaker systems and amplifiers and has broadened its lineup into personal audio (earbuds) and home soundbars such as the Dione. The company emphasizes engineering-led product development and unique audio technologies. It is pursuing global expansion with a particular focus on Asian markets and a licensing strategy. Devialet reports six retail locations in China and five in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia, and says Asia accounts for three of its five biggest countries by sales. The company recently secured new funding to support growth and product development. CEO Franck Lebouchard framed the new partnership as evidence of confidence in Devialet’s strategy and technologies. Devialet builds high-end sound technology and consumer audio products, anchored by its Phantom speaker and a portfolio of 107 patents and 61 international awards. The company is headquartered in Paris and was founded in 2007. It reports rapid growth—doubling its turnover every year—and employs about 230 people. Devialet plans to roll its technologies into automotive, television and IoT markets through strategic industrial partnerships. The company is expanding its retail footprint with additional immersive rooms and new flagship stores beyond Paris, London and Soho, New York. It will further invest in R&D to accelerate innovation and reinforce its patent portfolio while broadening adoption of Phantom across five continents. Devialet is a French audio-technology company with 88 patents and numerous awards for its amplifier engineering. Its headline product in this article is the Phantom, a spherical all-in-one wireless speaker offered as a 750-watt model and a 3,000-watt Silver Phantom. The standard Phantom is priced at $1,990 and the 3,000-watt Silver Phantom at $2,390. Devialet has sold amplifiers since 2010 and positions the Phantom to reproduce the soundstage and musicality of much larger speaker systems. The company has opened U.S. pre-orders and plans to begin shipping Phantom units to U.S. customers in July. Financially, Devialet announced a $20 million funding round, bringing its total capital raised to about $50 million.