[France] The Founders Club, a reverse venture capital fund, is opening its doors to VC-backed startups in France. The fund enables CEOs and founders of companies to “use their shares and stock options to become limited partner investors”, essentially betting a small percentage of their personal future equity through investing in a wider portfolio than just the startup that they are involved with.
The fund will target the areas of healthcare, technology and cleantech.
From the press release:
Members of The Founders Club agree to pay a small percentage of their personal cash exits from an IPO or M&A transaction into the fund which is then distributed to all the members in that specific fund. Each fund balances risks of 30 different VC-backed early and later stage companies to maximize returns and synergies among participating entrepreneurs and VCs.
All participants must be already funded by tier one VCs to qualify to apply to join and each fund closes when 30 members join.
The Founders Club includes 15 VCs and advisors from Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, London, Paris, Stockholm, Munich and Tel Aviv who “source deals, vote on the admissions committees and work with members to achieve exits.”
To launch the French offering, The Founders Club is hosting two free VC and entrepreneur events in Paris. This first is focused on technology and cleantech and will take place on January 26th, and the second – healthcare and life sciences – on January 28th.
The events will feature senior VC speakers from AGF Private Equity, Ventech, 360 Capital Partners, Demeter Partners, Innovacom, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Seventure and Auriga Partners.