Tuesday, June 22, 2010

INVESTORS

(Avril 2010)
  • Patrick Robin (LeGuide.com, Attractive World) historical French e-business investor. Very active in the years 1990 – 2000, Patrick Robin no longer holds a lot of participations. However, he is still a historic shareholder of “LeGuide.com, of “JeChange.fr” and of “Virtuadz”. In 1995 he founds “Imaginet”, one of first internet access providers. At present, he is head of “24:00.fr”. Still active as a business angel, he is expected to soon invest into the VIP dating service “Attractive World”. In addition, he holds a junior participation in the entrepreneur fund “ISAI”, alongside with Pierre Kosciusko – Morizet (Priceminister), Stéphane Treppoz (Sarenza), Geoffray Roux de Bézieux (Virgen Mobile) and Ouriel Oahyon (Appsfire).
  • Jérémie Berrebi (Freshplanet, Leetchi, Verteego) co-founder of “Kima Ventures”. He is a pioneer of Internet in France, after having created the broadcasted news service on push “Net20ne” in 1997, he creates the online shop platform “Zlio” en 2006. In addition to the Fund “Kima Venture”, that he manages with
  • Xavier Niel, he has invested personally in “Freshplanet” (online game on FaceBook), Leetchi (cash back site), Kwaga (messaging assistant), Wiconcept (web site creation), Architurn (online architecture firm), Verteego (software dedicated to the environment), OLX (free classifieds service, created by Fabrice Grinda), Inspirationnal Stores (created by Michael de Guilhermier) and Treepodia (e-commerce). He is also a shareholder of the fund “CD Innovation 2000”.
  • Pierre Chappaz (Fon, Netvibes, Priceminister) blooger, entrepreneur and business angel. Co-founder of “Kelkoo, that he managed until 2004, he started the blog adventure with “Wikio” (of which he is CEO), and “E-buzzing”, the relationship platform for bloggers-advertisers, recently merged with “Wikio”. His other investments include Netvibes, Photoways, Princeminister, Regioneo, Hellotipi and Fon. He has distinguished himself recently by supporting financially the association “La quadrature du Net” in order to support him in developing his the community action.
  • Xavier Niel (Deezer, Square, Leetchi) is the founder and principal shareholder of “Iliad”, of which he holds 66%. His principally invests small tickets in start-ups. He is probably today the most actif French business angel (he is said to have invested in 150 start-ups world wide). Among them are Deezer, Square, Ateme, Appsfire, Leetchi, Architurn, Tokup, iAdvice, OpenERP, but also the newspapers Bakchich and Mediapart. To navigate in his portfolio he created the fund “Kima Ventures”, managed by Jérémie Berrébi, with the objective to invest in a maximum number of start-ups (mobile, video games and internet) with tickets ranging from 5.000 to 150.000 €.
  • Jean-David Blanc (Appsfire, Tokup.fr) became a business angel after leaving in mid-2001 Allociné, that he had co-founded in 1993 with Patrick Holzman. He shows himself particularly active as business angel in the recent months, investing alongside Marc Simoncini, Xavier Niel and Jacques-Antoine Granjon in several start-ups, such as for example Appsfire, a mobile service identifying the best applications and Tokup.fr, a site allowing to find or offer services.
  • Jean-Emile and Steve Rosenblum (Deezer “My things, Interplay”) are co-founders of Pixmania (75% sold to DSG for 266 million € in 2006), and are French business angels. Set up in the beginning of 2007, their fund “DotCorp Asset Management” had a budget of 16 million €. They recently invested in particular in Interplay Entertainment, a Californian developing and video game publishing company. Previously, they participated as partners in Deezer, Primavista, Guidespromos, My Things. Dependig on the project, their investments may go from 500.000 to 5 million €.
  • Marc Simoncini (Winamax, AppsFire, Made.com) is mainly known for creating Meetic. As a business angel, his most mediatised participation has been in Winamax (online poker site) with Patrick Bruel. But his investment portfolio is important: it includes Appsfire (iPhone application), Zilok (peer-to-peer property rentals), Prestigium (site dedicated to luxury), Malinea (cash back site), Made.com (direct manufacturer selling site for design furniture), Cofitel (MVNO) and Tokup (service exchange platform). He just created a personal investment fund, “Jaina Capital”, that takes its name from a Mexican island he loves. He plans to invest 100 millions € in 2 years.
  •  Jacques-Antoine Grajon (Appsfire, Fresh Planet) CEO and co-founder of the site “Vente-Privee.com”, became business angel in spite of himself, along with his encounters. This collector of contemporary art is a young business angel, but he invests now regularly mainly along with Marc Simoncini and Xavier Niel. He participated with them in the fund raising of “Appsfire” and he plans to invest in a company whose business model is based on VAT reimbursement, as well as in Fresh Planet, the New York publisher of games on FaceBook.
  • Michael de Guilhermier (“Delamaison and “Plus de bulles”, a company he invested in), is the founder of “Photoways” and “Inspirational Stores”, specialized in upscale e-commerce shopping. As a business angel, he has invested in over twenty young companies, four of which are successful. Today his investments are more rare. Among them is “Plusdebulles.com”, an online selling site for champagne. At present, he positions himself on three projects, one in rental vehicles, and two others in niche sectors (clothing and furniture), of which he holds between 30% and 50% of capital once the operations finalized.
  • Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet (AiderDonner, Allomatch, Novapost), co-founder of Priceminister in 2000. He discretely became a business angel before his participation in the launch of ISAI, an investment fund set-up by French web-entrepreneurs. Personally, he holds stakes in AiderDonner.com (platform for collecting online donations), Allomatch.com (sport bars site), E-Sidor.fr (a project “computers for everyone”), Limonetik (electronic online payment solutions), Notrefamille.com (site dedicated to the family), Novapost.com (paperless salary slips) and Pearltrees and Yellowkorner (artistic photography development).
  • Gilles Babinet (Eyeka, MXP4, Cogating) a business angel and founder of Musiwave (resold 139 million $ in 2006 to Openwave), multiplies investments in young companies. His portfolio comprises Eyeka (a community of creators), MXP4 (a musical standard) that he creates with Philippe Ulrich (Cryo Interactive), Digicompanion, CaptainDash, Awdio and Cogating. He is specialized in start-ups that touch more or less closely the entertainment and media world. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Mobile Entertainment Forum, an association that promotes leisure services on mobile phones.

No comments :