Paris-based Atlantic Vantage Point (AVP), previously known as AXA Venture Partners, is launching a first-time €1.5bn growth fund set to be one of the largest late-stage VC funds in Europe.
The firm says that it is on track to secure €1bn by the end of the year and anticipates reaching its final close by mid-2026.
Few other investors have crossed the billion-euro threshold in Europe. In 2022, Swedish VC EQT launched a €2.4bn growth fund; France’s Eurazeo announced a €1.6bn fund in 2021; and last year UK-based Index Ventures closed $1.5bn (€1.3bn) for its growth fund.
AVP launched in 2016 as the corporate venture arm of French insurer AXA, and in 2020 started opening to external LPs. Last year, the firm completed a management buyout — following AXA’s decision to sell its asset management arm to French bank BNP Paribas — and is now independent.
AXA has committed to invest €750m in the new fund.
It is AVP’s first growth fund, with the firm also currently deploying a €200m early-stage fund and a €450m ‘early growth’ fund.
The new fund will back up to 18 late-stage companies with tickets ranging from €50m-150m. It’ll target businesses with about €100m in annual recurring revenues (ARR) that are looking to IPO in the next three to five years.
Backing European champions
The European Investment Fund (EIF) joined AXA as an anchor investor in AVP’s growth fund as part of the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI) — a fund-of-funds programme launched in 2023 to back European VCs raising funds of €1bn or more.
The ETCI’s objective is to enable the emergence of European VCs capable of writing big cheques for late-stage scaleups in the region, instead of relying on foreign investors.
“The growth market is emerging in Europe, with several operations of such size and nature,” says AVP managing partner François Robinet. “But all these operations are done thanks to American funds and sovereign wealth funds.”
This creates a risk of “stop and go” in growth funding, says Robinet, with European companies dependent on the willingness of foreign firms to invest in the region. It also means startups are more likely to relocate abroad.
“We thought it’d be good to position ourselves as a funding alternative for European entrepreneurs,” says Robinet.
AVP did not disclose how much funding it received from the EIF, but tickets for the ETCI are €200m on average.
Investing in the US
Most investment opportunities are likely to be in Europe due to the lack of other large-scale growth funds, says Robinet, but AVP also plans to back companies in the US.
“If you want to compete against US funds, you have to compete in their own market,” he says. “The US is where the growth segment is developed, where IPOs happen, we need this experience.
“You can’t be a good tech investor in Europe without being in the US.”
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/avp-growth-fund/
