UI Investissement, a France-based venture capital firm, has raised more than €60 million for its Pertinence Invest 3 (PI3) fund that will focus on industrial deep tech spinouts in Europe.
The firm is targeting a €100 million close for the PI3 Fund. Limited partners include public investment bank Bpifrance (through the National Seed Fund 3), financial services provider Crédit Agricole, and insurer L’Auxiliaire.
The fund’s pipeline will come from partnerships with more than 25 universities and research institutions across Europe, such as KU Leuven, Université libre de Bruxelles, and the University of Antwerp.
PI3 will also tap into startups emerging from more than 10 industrial partners.
The PI3 Fund will focus on three distinct areas: the future of industry; sustainability and the environment; and health and life sciences.
It will initially invest €400,000 to €2 million in early-stage companies and will be able to provide follow-on funding.
The fund has already made three investments. Eclore Acuators (incubated at IMT Atlantique) is working on polymer-based folding solutions based on a unique technology inspired by origami.
Bobine (spun out of the University of Strasbourg and the CNRS) is developing a chemical recycling technology for the processing of plastics, including those that cannot currently be processed.
Dionymer is commercialising a bacterial fermentation technology that transforms food biowaste into a biodegradable polymer material called PHA.
