KfW and French promotional bank Bpifrance invest in international venture capital fund

• First parallel investment for the two national promotional banks in the field of VC
• French fund Partech Growth focuses on young growth companies in Europe's digital economy

KfW and French promotional bank Bpifrance are investing together in the field of venture capital for the first time. At a Franco-German conference on the digital economy held in Paris on 27 October 2015, representatives of KfW, Bpifrance and the French venture capital firm Partech signed a corresponding contract. In accordance with the contract, KfW will invest EUR 25 million from its new promotional instrument "ERP Venture Capital Fund Investments" in the venture capital fund Partech Growth FPCI. The fund, which has a total volume of around EUR 350 million, is mainly financed by private French investors.

Partech Growth FPCI plans to invest sums of between EUR 10 million and EUR 50 million in 10 to 15 young, innovative and growth-oriented digital sector companies in Europe during the next few years. In this context, Partech will strengthen its Berlin office and significantly expand its activities on the German market.

CEO of KfW, Dr Ulrich Schröder, stated: "Our investment is part of a long history of diverse and successful cooperation with other national promotional banks in Europe. In the spring we already jointly declared to the European Commission our willingness to expand our joint activities in order to promote growth in Europe. The usefulness of our cooperation goes far beyond the provision of capital. The partners also benefit from easier access to markets and the other party's specific strengths in relation to certain financing instruments."

With the "ERP Venture Capital Fund Investments" promotional instrument, introduced in May 2015, KfW is improving the promotion of technology-based start-ups and young, innovative companies together with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). The plan is to invest up to EUR 400 million in private equity funds by 2019. This will enable the leveraging of capital amounting to around EUR 2 billion for the German VC market.