Cocorico in the country of the “start-up nation”. Tuesday, September 20, Innovafeed, a French company specializing in the production of insect-based ingredients, announced a mega fundraiser. The amount of the funding round is 250 million euros. This is the biggest operation since the summer, although well below those carried out in June by EcoVadis (480 million euros) or in January by Qonto (486 million) and Back Market (450 million euros). One thing is clear: after a triumphant start to the year, the pace and volume of fundraising in France is down sharply.
The barometer of the EY cabinet, published on Sunday July 17, had given hope for an era of euphoria. From January to June, the total funds raised by the young tricolor shoots were estimated at 8.4 billion euros, up 63% compared to the same period of 2021, which suggested that the record for fundraising established over the whole of 2021 (11.57 billion euros) was going to be pulverized.
“We had a very good first half, but that is deceptive, because these are transactions signed before the market drop”relativizes Yann du Rusquec, Managing Partner at Eurazeo, for whom “there is clearly [désormais] a slowdown in fundraising by start-ups”. “We have seen this movement since May. Today they take longer.also admits Paul-François Fournier, head of innovation at Bpifrance. “With the crisis [post-Covid-19], investors realized they had gone a bit too far in their enthusiasm for tech”he adds.
“A global phenomenon”
For his part, Xavier Lazarus, co-founder of the Elaia fund, points out that this cold snap « is not a French phenomenon, but a global one”. He wants proof of this that the number of new unicorns – these young shoots valued at more than a billion dollars (1 billion euros) – created at the international level “has been divided by almost ten” in just over a year, dropping from 147 to 18, according to data from CB Insights.
Another report, written by the specialized site Crunchbase and published on September 7, shows that fundraising has reached its lowest level globally in two years. Since the start of the decade, only August 2020 has seen a lower level than August 2022 ($22.4 billion vs. $25.2 billion).
From now on, the expectation of investors is no longer focused solely on the ability of young shoots to record impressive growth figures, even if it means suffering massive losses. They need to show results
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