The G1J Ile-de-France seed fund

From Genopole 1er Jour to...

…G1J Ile-de-France.

In October 1999, Genopole® set up the €500,000 biotech-dedicated Genopole 1er Jour seed fund, notably thanks to investment by the Caisse des Depôts et Consignations state savings bank. Between 2000 and 2006, the fund raised a total of nearly €2 million.

Having committed almost all of its available funding capacities, G1J Ile-de-France (G1J IdF) closed a further round of financing in June 2008. Thanks to an additional €5 million investment by 4 founding shareholders and 3 new shareholders, G1J IdF is now able to respond more fully to the early-stage funding needs of innovative companies.

While retaining special links with Genopole®, G1J IdF’s geographical zone of action now extends to the whole Paris Ile-de-France region. The seed fund works in collaboration with the region’s company incubators to ensure that promising business projects can receive early-stage support and funding and thus attract investment at the various stages in their corporate development. The management of the portfolio is entrusted to CapDecisif Management since 2010.

The additional funds raised in 2008 will also enable G1J IdF to increase its investment ticket to an average of €300,000 per project, compared with the previous figure of €70,000.

By late 2011, the fund had invested €2.4 million, leveraging total investments (from seed funding through to Series C financing) of €163.8 million for 30 companies.

 The G1J IdF shareholders (20)

• CDC Entreprises/FFI-B and FPMEI
• Ile-de-France Regional Council (CRIF)
• MGEN
• Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault (GIMD)
• Banque Populaire Rives de Paris
• Société Générale/Franpart
• French Muscular Dystrophy Association (AFM-Telethon)
• Merck Serono Biodevelopment
• Crédit Agricole Ile-de-France
• Investissement Québec
• Fonds des Travailleurs Québécois (FTQ)
• Crédit Agricole Capital Investissement & Finance
• Essonne Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIE)
• Biogemma
• Matignon Développement 3
• Laboratoires Servier
• ACCOR
• IBM
• Safidi/Groupe EDF
• Agro Partners Participations 2

€5 million were contributed by four of the founding shareholders (CDC Companies, GIMD, Banque Populaire Rives de Paris, Crédit Agricole Ile-de-France) and three new shareholders (CRIF, MGEN and Société Générale).

 The G1J IdF Investment Committee

G1J IdF’s regional expansion has prompted the creation of an investment committee which evaluates and gives advice on preselected projects.

 The investment committee is formed by two groups of members:

• Members from the financial community :
  • Patrick Langlois (General Partner, PJL Conseils)
  • Bernard Majoie (Founder and president of the Foundation Fournier Majoie pour l’Innovation (FFMI))

• Members from the life science and business community :
  • Gilles Brisson (a pharmaceutical industry expert and a board member at several biotech companies)
  • Andre Choulika (Chief Executive Officer of Cellectis)
  • Jacques Kusmierek (Consultant)
  • Yves Champey (Expert)
    
    contact G1J-IDF genopole.fr

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