AXA Venture Partners to Raise €1.5 Billion Fund for Investments in Tech Startups

AXA Venture Partners announced a new €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) late-stage fund to invest in European and North American technology startups, targeting companies that expect to go public within three to four years.

French insurance company AXA SA, AVP’s biggest source of capital, plans to make a €750 million anchor investment, the fund said in a statement on Wednesday. The first closing is expected in the first quarter of 2024, with the final closing expected next year, it said.

The funding comes as the market for initial public offerings in the US and Europe remains challenging as investors worry about inflation, the war in Ukraine and negotiations with Washington over the debt ceiling. Venture capital funding for startups has plummeted amid a slowdown in the tech industry.

“The strength of AXA’s balance sheet allows us to make such a commitment and to benefit from technological tailwinds, which are clear long-term trends,” said AXA Group Chief Investment Officer Jean-Baptiste Tricot in the statement. “We also believe that the recent valuation correction in the technology sector will provide opportunities in the coming years.”

The new fund will extend the range of existing AVP funds that include venture, growth and funding stages funds, and will likely remain invested after any IPO, the company said. This will continue AVP’s current focus on software, fintech, insurtech, digital health and consumer technologies.

AVP has made about 60 investments since it was launched in 2016. With this new fund, it aims to invest in about a dozen new startups, writing checks of up to €150 million, with two-thirds of the investments are planned in Europe.

Photo: A French national flag and a banner showing the AXA SA logo fly outside the insurance company’s headquarters in Paris, France, on Tuesday, March 6, 2018. Photo credit: Christophe Morin/Bloomberg

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