2021: Despite everything, we are more optimistic than ever.
2020 will be remembered as an extremely difficult year.
For many people, the past year will have been a year of health problems, loss of jobs, loneliness, anxiety. Many companies are struggling to survive and are trying to adapt to changes in their business.
For once, the Tech sector is on the right side of an economic crisis. We, VCs, are aware of the opportunity that is ours, and the responsibility that this gives us in such difficult times.
The good news is that we are in a good position to see that there is enormous hope for the future. Men and women are working tirelessly, every day, to try to reduce the digital gap in our societies.
We, at XAnge, are firmly convinced that it is our duty to support them. We have been doing it for a long time (hello Believe, Synapse, La Ruche Qui Dit Oui!, OuiHelp, 360Learning, Prestashop, …) but 2020 is the year of increased awareness.
Before digging in this abnormal year, here is what we plan for 2021.
New year, new fund, clear goals … let’s move on.
Humans (re)discovered that they are more vulnerable than ever, be it through a sanitary crisis or from the consequences of the spreading of disinformation and, at Xange, we are fiercely techno-optimist.
In the last 30 years, technology has made huge progress in many sectors impacting people’s personal life and work. As a VC, we actually have the opportunity to promote technology for positive purposes and for as many people as possible. This is why we are redirecting our investments towards projects that will serve as many people in their daily life.
- Better CARE : to contribute to the reduction of inequalities in health, food, housing and the environment ;
- More TRUST : to give as many people as possible back control over their essential digital tools and services ;
- Clear DATA : to bring about a world where artificial intelligence is used for the collective good, personal data is (finally) personal, where cybersecurity can prevent attacks and where the decentralisation of technologies via the Cloud promotes new virtuous and resilient networked business models with a high level of security.
So, in spite of everything, what did you look like 2020?
- We welcomed a bunch of super-promising newcomers to the XAnge family:
- Assoconnect : We led their €7M Serie A with our good friends ISAI. Assoconnect is the software toolkit of nonprofits: an all-in-one platform that allows teams and volunteers to create a website, manage payroll, accounting, CRM and of course donations.
- Sarus : We took part of their €2M seed round alongside SerenaCapital. Sarus helps organizations to safely share their data internally and externally using Synthetic data and Differential privacy.
- Core Biogenesis : we led their €2,6M seed round. They are cracking a method of bioproduction of growth factors at a very large scale.
2. 2020 is also for many startups the year of confirmation by attracting the trust of great new co-investors.
- Lydia : We are happy seed investors in a company that has raised €112M in 2020. Hello Accel, Tencent, …
- AB Tasty : Again, we are happy seed, Series A, B and C investors welcoming Credit Mutuel innovation in a superb $40M series C round.
- Gleamer that we backed two years ago raised a €7,5M Series A that we led along with MACSF, Majycc, Elaia, Bpifrance and a pool of eminent radiologists.
- Synapse : After leading their seed round, Synapse welcomed MACSF in a beautiful €7M series A round.
- Teeptrak : After leading their seed round, we are super happy to welcome EDF Pulse croissance in this €3M Series A.
3. Oh, and what about exits ? On this side too, things are starting to go faster and faster here. Good news for the ecosystem and entrepreneurs :
- Shine sold to Société générale : Those guys are fast. From summer 2018 to 2020, in two years, they built a great product !
- Sweagle sold to ServiceNow : Looking back on this venture, it was clear since day 1 that this team was tuned for success. Market fit, focus, talent and a global mindset… Sweagle is the model to follow for ambitious B2B software entrepreneurs.
- MicroDON sold to KissKissBankBank : When an XAnge alumni acquires one of our great impact startup, we feel very blessed ;)
- Somos Semiconductor acquired by STMicroelectronics : Somos offers leading edge RF Power Amplifier, RF Front End, and RF Switch products and designs for 4G & 5G IoT and Smartphone applications
4. Going one step further in the Impact game.
Launched at the end of 2020, our new €100M Impact fund in partnership with la Mutualité Française and Investir&+ will have a clear focus on care and prevention.
XAnge, through its various funds, invested very early in impact startups such as microDON, La Ruche qui dit Oui, Amoeba, or more recently OuiHelp, AssoConnect and Wandercraft. On the strength of this experience, XAnge has built up a know-how in supporting this type of company and has developed a rigorous methodology for measuring the impact thanks to the creation of a significant deal flow.
5. And last (but not least), we continued to produce content to help our startups grow, the ecosystem to grow, even in times of pandemic.
Come on, just a few links out there, because after all, it’s quite some work, isn’t it Pauline Paquet ? ;)
How to scale Customer Success Management
Everything on the Chief Revenue Officer
Secret recipe for crafting great B2B brands
How the XAnge family is mobilised during COVID
And more HERE.
To all of you, Have a great year ! Let’s be bold, everything will be fine…
