French Entrepreneur Samuel Tual has today launched Clover, a €30 million early-stage evergreen fund to back startups reshaping the future of work and education. Tual is an entrepreneur, Vice-President of the MEDEF and Chairman & CEO of Actual Group, a major player in employment and labour in France and Europe.
Clover aims to become the “VC for Work”, an indispensable reference in support of work and education, acting both as an investment fund and as a structuring actor of the ecosystem.
Designed and structured like a startup, Clover positions itself as agile, fast and scalable, with a simple ambition: to become the go-to platform offering far more than capital to entrepreneurs.
Clover plans to deploy €100,000 to €200,000 checks in 20 to 30 investments per year at Pre-Seed and Seed stages, with the ambition of becoming the leading investor in the work & education verticals.
The fund supports top founders across Europe and the United States, where it is already firmly established with strong ties to the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Since May of this year, Clover has already invested approximately €1 million, one-third of which has been committed in the US, in areas such as AI, productivity tools, workflow automation, and workplace health.
The investment thesis of Clover rests on two core pillars: becoming the reference “VC for Work” and rethinking the traditional venture-capital model together with founders. On one side, the world of work is undergoing a radical transformation driven by AI, new modes of collaboration, increasing demands for productivity, flexibility, inclusivity and sustainability. In France, the national AI initiative aims for 100 per cent of large corporations to adopt artificial intelligence by 2030, while global potential productivity gains via AI are estimated at US $4,400 billion over the long term.
Meanwhile, as France itself faces economic and political uncertainty, marked by budgetary tensions and a tighter investment climate, many hesitate to invest or innovate.
“I believe in the future of work globally, and I believe that it is precisely in times of uncertainty that one must be daring and innovative. It is imperative to accelerate so we do not fall behind and to safeguard the longevity of our businesses. If the environment is fragile, the future of work is being written now, invented globally, and the rest of the world doesn’t wait”, declares Samuel Tual.
Hugo Mendes, Managing Partner, former entrepreneur and investor with Origins, will lead the fund’s construction and management.
“Investing is like recruiting: you must recognise talent before everyone else does. With Clover, our goal is to be a true partner beyond the check, because founders don’t just look for capital, they look for teammates who care, who respond quickly, and who show up again and again.
I’m proud to lead this initiative alongside the Tual family, with whom I share strong entrepreneurial values.”
Lead image: Samuel Tual and Hugo Mendes. Photo: uncredited.
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments