Emblem's French-Nordic seed fund at €50 million first close

Emblem has announced its first close of its new French-Nordic seed fund at €50 million. It's planning a second close of €75 million in Q3 of this year. 

The Paris-based VC fund, founded by serial entrepreneur Bénédicte de Raphélis Soissan and ex-banker Guillaume Durao, will be split between France, Sweden and Denmark in a 50/50 split (Nordics and France). 

Emblem will be lead or co-leads on investments and are aiming to invest in 25 to 30 start-ups with a purse of between €500,000 and €3 million.

Funds came from Denmark’s Vaekstfonden, Edenred, including some French and Nordic family offices and several entrepreneurs including the founders of 3shape, Dixa, Falcon, Kantox, Peakon, PeopleDoc, Planday, Pleo, Qonto, Silae, Spendesk, Swile and Zendesk.

With de Raphélis Soissan’s SaaS and HRTech background and Durao’s banking experience, the Emblem fund will be on the lookout for promising investments in the areas of B2B SaaS / marketplaces, AI, future of work, fintech, data & devops tools, digital health and insurtech – but we are told there are no limitations. 

“The first two years of a start-up are about hustling and craftsmanship, a pressure that rests heavily on founders’ shoulders who need to be supported. Building unique, non-replicable things like culture and product are critical, and we’re dedicated to helping founders tackle these challenges at the earliest stages of their journey. We have chosen to focus on France and the Nordics because it’s where we have the most presence and their tech scenes still offer an underserved opportunity at seed stage,” says Guillaume Durao, co-founder of Emblem.

Emblem’s partners will provide hands-on support to their portfolio companies – including assistance in areas such as recruitment, finding first customers, fundraising and founders’ coaching. The firm plans to hire a third partner outside of France and Denmark later this year.