Venture Capital,
by Omnes Capital
Investment strategy
- Establish minority shareholdings in innovative up-and-coming businesses with tremendous growth potential
- In France and the rest of Europe
- Two target sectors: tech and health sectors
digital (advanced software, marketplace/e-commerce, media), deep-tech (high-end sensors and semi-conductors, big data, new materials) and life sciences (biotech, medtech, diagnostics)
- Different investment stages: seed funds, Series A rounds, spin-offs, Series B rounds
Approach
- Support for international expansion (US, APAC, EMEA)
- Acquisition financing
- Implementation of strategic and financial best practices
- IPOs (New York, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan, Stockholm, Zurich) and cross-border M&As (US, Europe, Japan, South Korea)
Key strengths
- Over 85 man-years of venture capital experience
- Unique expertise spanning Life Sciences/web/hardware
- Substantial high-quality deal flow driven by the team’s personal network and close relationship with the Crédit Agricole group (LCL in particular)
- Balanced portfolio: diversification of risk, high-potential technology sectors
A long-term view
Alexia Perouse (Partner at Omnes Capital) and Bernard Gilly first discussed vision restoration systems in the early 2000s. "VRSs aim to enable blind people to perceive shapes and movements, a really tremendous project. But their design came up against two hurdles, systems miniaturisation and real-time image transmission", explains Bernard Gilly.
Pixium overcame these hurdles in 2011 when it launched IRIS (short for Intelligent Retinal Implant System), consisting of a pair of glasses with an integrated mini-camera linked to a pocket computer and a retinal implant that stimulates the brain cells.
"It met all our criteria for investment: disruptive technology, a seasoned management team and a promising medtech sector", says Alexia Perouse. So in 2012, Omnes Capital invested €5 million.