Paris-based VC firm Blisce launches climate tech fund with a target of $160M

Blisce has grow to be the most recent VC agency to launch a fund devoted to local weather tech, for which it plans to boost as a lot as €150 million (about $162 million). The agency is hiring investor Pierre-Edouard Berion to steer the fund, and Lucie Basch, the co-founder of Too Good To Go, goes to help the fund as a enterprise associate.

If you happen to aren’t acquainted with Blisce, the VC agency relies in Paris, has an workplace in New York, and is healthier referred to as the funding car of Alexandre Mars (pictured above). Mars is an entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist who created a handful of tech firms through the early 2000s and offered them to huge names like Publicis and Blackberry. Blisce raised $240 million (about €225 million) for its last fund.

Extra just lately, Mars launched Blisce, a basic, for-profit VC agency, although it carries a B Corp label. He additionally began Epic, a non-profit basis that funds organizations that cut back childhood inequality in terms of schooling or well being, and helps organizations that struggle local weather change.

It’s onerous to speak about Blisce with out mentioning Epic, as a result of a portion of Blisce’s earnings are reinvested in Epic to cowl the muse’s operational prices. Equally, the Blisce workforce is committing 20% of its carried curiosity to Epic.

It seems to have been working nicely, particularly as a result of Blisce has invested in a number of unicorns comparable to Spotify, Pinterest and Headspace. Extra just lately, the agency invested in Brut, Sorare and Welcome to the Jungle. As you may see, the corporate’s portfolio is a mixture of client tech firms, and it hasn’t but centered on local weather tech.

With the agency’s new fund, Blisce needs to spend money on tech startups which have a constructive impression on local weather change, particularly in polluting industries like supplies, meals, development, mobility and power. The agency goes to place collectively a devoted workforce for this fund, and as talked about above, has employed Pierre-Edouard Berion to move it.

Berion is a well-recognized face in Paris’ VC circles. After working for a number of years as funding director at Eurazeo (he invested in Zenly, Withings and Vestiaire Collective), he joined Raise Ventures as a associate.

As for Lucie Basch, she already is aware of the Blisce workforce fairly nicely, because the agency is an investor in her firm, Too Good To Go. She’s going to grow to be a enterprise associate for the brand new local weather fund — in VC lingo, meaning she’ll stay at Too Good To Go and assist the fund on the facet. Blisce continues to be elevating cash for its new fund, so it’s going to be fascinating to see how a lot they handle to boost.