New defence fund from public investment bank Bpifrance aims to raise €450 million and could be made available throughout Europe in the future
Photo credits: Bpifrance
French public investment bank Bpifrance is calling on the general population to help efforts to increase defence spending and support innovative start-ups, after launching a specialised defence fund on October 14.
The Bpifrance Défense fund aims to raise €450 million and will start investing immediately thanks to a €300 million seed from Bpifrance, which will be repaid as investors sign up.
Around 30% of the new fund is expected to support start-ups via venture capital investments, with 10% of the total earmarked to flow into the Defence Innovation Fund launched by Bpifrance in 2021. This invests tickets of up to €30 million in innovative dual-use technologies and already has a dozen start-ups and scale-ups in its portfolio.
Other funds managed by Bpifrance that the new fund will support include Definvest, which invests primarily in SMEs in the military equipment…
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