Paris, June 8, 2022 – NextStage AM announces the final closing of its “Champions” investment program dedicated to innovative unlisted SMEs in development capital, and holder of the Relance label. Launched at the end of 2020, the Championnes program – which brings together the FPCI NextStage Championnes III for institutional investors and the FPCI NextStage Capital Entrepreneur to broaden access to private equity and allow synergies between institutional investors and entrepreneurs or large private investors – exceeded its objective initial €100 million raised; and has already deployed more than half of its assets with already 8 investments made in beautiful French SMEs.
With this raising of €135m, the Championnes investment program has benefited from the renewed confidence of almost all of the NextStage Championnes II FPCI subscribers and the support of new major institutional and private investors – including more than 115 entrepreneur-investors – ; doubling the size of the vehicle compared to the previous vintage. The team was thus able to benefit from the trust of major partners such as AXA, BNP Paribas, Ardian, BPI, and Amundi; convinced by the team's ability to originate primary deals and its value creation strategy to build strategic assets in their market », explains Aloys de Fontaines, partner of NextStage AM.
With an investment strategy aimed at providing equity financing to French SMEs involved in one of the three technological disruptions (digital, smart health and environmental innovation), the team aims to support entrepreneurs in structuring their growth trajectory with average tickets invested between 5 and 10 million euros, most often in a minority approach.
At the end of May 2022, the Championnes investment program had already deployed nearly 55% of the funds raised to support the development of 8 innovative SMEs, including French nuggets such as Solstice (one-stop shop for energy and environmental transition in France), finacca (French leader in data engineering and customer risk management for financial services), WiiSmile (digital platform to improve the quality of life of employees), and Xerfi (French leader in sector economic analysis).
More recently, NextStage AM has also supported Infolegal (reference SaaS platform in commercial information and customer risk management), Mathematical (French specialist in the creation of special effects and 3D animation) and Mondial Pool, innovative designer and manufacturer of made-to-measure swimming pools. NextStage AM also reaffirmed its commitment toInnovates (SaaS partnering platform for the pharmaceutical industry in smart health).
Thanks to a dedicated and experienced team made up of Nicolas de Saint Etienne, Aloys de Fontaines, Julien Potier, Agathe Anquetil and Léa Boux, the program also benefited from the solid track-record of the previous Championnes vintage, with 20% gross IRR around of the 11 exits carried out mainly with industrial buyers. " We have been able to demonstrate our ability to support our entrepreneurs in their development strategy in France and abroad, in particular through external growth – on average 2,5 acquisitions per stake – and in enriching their model through innovation, in particular technological. We are also mobilizing for the integration of CSR at the heart of the strategy of selected entrepreneurs with dedicated support “, specifies Julien Potier, partner of NextStage AM.
“We have been convinced for nearly 20 years of the potential of technological innovation to accelerate the development of SMEs. Beyond investment opportunities, our objective is to promote the growth of SMEs and ETIs in our territory to create the French champions of tomorrow; and nurture a virtuous circle between entrepreneurs and investors. The appeal generated by the Champions program proves once again the relevance of supporting the innovative nuggets of our territories with equity », declares Nicolas de Saint Etienne, managing partner of NextStage AM.
Investor Relations :
Marc Mehanna – ms@nextstage.com - 01 44 29 99 01
Press contacts :
NextStage AM: Jonathan Boudin - jbo@nextstage.com - 01 44 29 99 04
Shan : Lola Gozlan – lola.gozlan@shan.fr - 06 24 76 83 40
Claire Hilbert- claire.hilbert@shan.fr - 06 15 80 91 30
