C4 Ventures, a French VC firm, announces the launch of its third fund, with a target fund size of €100 million to focus on early-stage investments in AI and DeepTech startups across Europe, reinforcing the continent’s ability to create global contenders in the field.
“The AI revolution is bigger than any previous technological shift we’ve seen since the Internet,” comments C4 Ventures Founder & CEO Pascal Cagni. “We are at the forefront of a massive transformation that will redefine industries. With C4 Ventures III , we are doubling down on this moment, backing talented founders in AI, robotics, quantum computing and beyond.”
Founded in 2014, C4 Ventures is a Venture firm led by former Apple and Microsoft executives Pascal Cagni and Eric Boustouller. Moreover, C4 Ventures draws on a global network of over 30 operating partners from the world’s leading tech companies.
Since inception, C4 Ventures has backed 54 startups of which 12 became unicorns. Its most recent fund stands out for allegedly having delivered liquidity to investors faster than most of its peers, earning a top-decile ranking within its vintage.
The firm has now seen a full investment cycle, with over 20 exits, 2 IPOs on NYSE (Riskified and Via) and 7 corporate M&A deals. C4 Ventures II, launched in 2020, already ranks in the top quartile for value creation and nearly top decile for liquidity, just five years after inception.
“C4 Ventures was built on a vision of Operators backing Entrepreneurs with global ambition and strong involvement,” says C4 Ventures Co-founder and Managing Director Boris Bakech. “Fund III will extend this vision into the AI era, combining our operating and investing experience with the determination of founders to build Europe’s next champions.”
C4 Ventures’ operates on the belief that Europe has a vast market, the talent, research base, and entrepreneurial drive to compete in AI and DeepTech and build a sovereign European ecosystem. C4 Ventures believes this shift will drive a major reallocation of capital toward regional startups and create the conditions for Europe to compete in AI over the coming decades.
They see AI as the defining technological shift of our time, one that will transform both software applications, where most of the industry is focused, and Physical AI (robotics and autonomous systems).
C4 Ventures is recognized for its hardware expertise, with 5 hardware unicorns and leading portfolio companies such as NEURA Robotics (cognitive robots), Graphcore (AI processors), Alice & Bob and PsiQuantum (quantum computing), and more recently Arago (AI semiconductors).
“The success of C4 Ventures II has strengthened our conviction to launch C4 Ventures III to seize the defining technological shift of our time: artificial intelligence,” concludes C4 Ventures Partner Eric Boustouller. “Technology’s next chapter is unfolding right now, in Europe as much as anywhere else, and we are committed to supporting the founders who will shape it.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/09/this-vc-firm-out-of-paris-just-launched-a-e100-million-fund-to-back-european-ai-soveriegnity/
