Avolta is pleased to have acted as sole financial advisor to Buildrz.io on its strategic sales to One Click LCA.
Transaction rationale. One Click LCA is set to expand its offer through the acquisition of Buildrz, a move that will enhance its global life-cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental product declaration (EPD) solutions within the construction industry. This strategic addition will incorporate Buildrz’s advanced expertise in Artificial Intelligence, notably through their AI-driven SaaS solution for feasibility studies. This integration is expected to fortify One Click LCA’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge and sustainable construction solutions.
Buildrz. Buildrz is transforming the pre-construction process with a generative AI platform that streamlines design and ensures compliance and eco-friendliness. Providing architects and developers with tools for sustainable and profitable development, the platform stands out for its balanced focus on efficiency, regulatory and environmental considerations.
One Click LCA. One Click LCA is advancing the construction sector’s commitment to sustainability by providing comprehensive life-cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental product declaration (EPD) tools. Their software aids companies in minimizing their environmental footprint through data-driven decisions. As an essential resource for eco-conscious construction, One Click LCA is at the forefront of integrating green practices into the industry’s standard operations.
This transaction sets another landmark in B2B SaaS for Avolta after having recently advised Dartagnan on its sale to BID Equity, Fluid Topics on its €15m Series B with Kennet, Unifai on its sale to Akeneo, the €21m series B of Opendatasoft with Salesforce Ventures, Demeter, Eiffel and Odyssée Venture and the €10m series B of Deepomatic with EnBW, Orbia Ventures, Hi Inov, Swisscom and Alven.
Avolta is delighted to have acted as sole financial advisor to Seederal on its €11m financing.
Seederal, which develops medium-power electric tractors, is a key player in reducing GHG emissions and energy consumption in the agricultural sector (a farm tractor emits 15 to 20 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to 17 passenger cars).
Transaction structuration. This round mixes €3.7m subsidies from the French government (France 2030) and a €7.1m equity financing carried out by a pool of investors led by Supernova Invest (Seederal is the first investment of their new AgriFoodTech fund launched with the Crédit Agricole Group) along with Ankaa Ventures, Unilis, CA Morbihan Expansion, Kima Ventures and historical investors Xplore (Epopée Gestion) and Breizh Up.
Transaction rationale. Seederal has demonstrated the reliability of its electric powertrain by developing a first prototype electric tractor with 160hp, enough power for the most demanding application. The funds will enable the company to embark on the next phase of developing its innovations, strengthening its patent portfolio, and launching iterative prototypes with a view to presenting its definitive model in 2026. The team, which currently numbers 12 expert engineers, will be significantly strengthened over the next 18 months in both Rennes and Brest.
About Seederal. Founded in February 2021 by Arthur Rivoal and Antoine Venet, Seederal addresses the heart of agricultural machinery: medium horsepower (multi-purpose tractors between 100 and 200 hp), a segment which represents more than half of all tractors sold in Europe, with total sales of 9 billion euros per year. While most other electrification projects concern low-power tractors (up to 100 hp), with no real technological breakthrough, Seederal has made the ambitious choice, rather like Tesla, to completely rethink the architecture of its machine. This innovative design, based on an integrated battery-chassis, aims to achieve optimum energy density on the battery system.
Seederal’s transaction sets another landmark for Avolta in sustainability-related businesses, confirming our leadership in this space, having recently advised:
– Mecaware: €40m financing with Credit Mutuel Innovation and BPI-SPI
– Toopi: €16m fundraising led by Clay Capital
– BeFC: €16m Series A led by Otium Capital
– Woodoo: €31m fundraising led by Lowercarbon Capital
– Invers: €15m Serie A led by IDIA Capital Investissement and Agri Impact (Citizen Capital)
Avolta is delighted to have acted as sole financial advisor to Fluid Topics on its €15m investment from Kennet Partners.
Transaction rationale. Fluid Topics, the leading Content Delivery Platform for product information, announced today the successful completion of its Series B funding round. Kennet Partners, a growth equity investor focused on capital-efficient companies, has invested €15m in the company to reinforce Fluid Topics’ premier position on the market by scaling operations across the United States and leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence in customer support applications. Existing investors include Ventech, the pioneering pan-European early-stage VC, and Credit Mutuel Innovation.
Fluid Topics. Founded in 1999 by Fabrice Lacroix, Fluid Topics launched its Content Delivery Platform in 2014, reinventing how people search, read, and interact with product documentation. Specifically, Fluid Topics’ SaaS-based platform unifies all product knowledge from a company: technical documentation, datasheets, marketing material, multimedia and more. It then delivers it as actionable information tailored to the user in a contextualized, personalized, and secure way, via business applications and digital communication channels.
The company generates 60% of its sales in North America and 40% in Europe. This new round of funding will enable the company to establish a team in the US and leverage the potential of AI in customer support.
Kennet Partners. Kennet is a leading international growth equity firm that invests in high-growth companies in Europe and North America. The firm has approximately $1 billion of cumulative funds under management. Kennet supports entrepreneurial technology businesses with expansion capital to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value. Kennet Partners Limited is authorized and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority.
This transaction sets another landmark in B2B SaaS for Avolta after having recently advised Dartagnan on its sale to BID Equity, Unifai on its sale to Akeneo, the €21m series B of Opendatasoft with Salesforce Ventures, Demeter, Eiffel and Odyssée Venture and the €10m series B of Deepomatic with EnBW, Orbia Ventures, Hi Inov, Swisscom and Alven.
Avolta is proud to have acted as the sole financial advisor to Iceberg Data Lab on its $10m equity financing with Beringea, Maif Avenir and other existing investors.
Iceberg Data Lab (“IDL”) is a leading provider of climate and biodiversity data solutions for financial institutions.
Financial institutions are contending with a surge in environmental regulation including the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), as well as the recently published recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). These frameworks have strengthened rules and recommendations around environmental risk reporting, particularly the impact of investment portfolios on climate, nature, and biodiversity. Consequently, there is a heightened need for more accessible, more reliable, and higher quality environmental data.
IDL’s science-based datasets and products support the global financial community in responding to these regulatory frameworks: IDL’s differentiation lies in its unique calculation platform that models the footprint of corporate throughout their value chain, reconciling scalability and granularity.
The firm’s platform is already utilised by over 50 major financial institutions worldwide. Its biodiversity data solution is recognized as a market’s standard by the main financial institutions active in this thematic.
This round will enable Iceberg Data Lab to expand its presence globally, focusing on key strategic markets including the UK, developing the firm’s product pipeline, and investing in the latest technologies to enhance the data provider’s client solutions offering. The company is targeting a final close of its Series A at $11m.
Iceberg Data Lab’s transaction sets another landmark deal for Avolta in Fintech, having recently advised:
– Updraft: £272m Debt and Equity Funding with Jefferies, Santander, Quilam
– Raizers: sale to Empruntis (Groupe Mentor, Bridgepoint)
– Moneytrans: €11m equity round with Axio Capital
– Dejamobile: sale to MarketPay (Anacap)
– Clearnox: sale to Isabel Group
– Anytime: sale to Orange
Avolta has once again proven its leadership in the European DeepTech space by acting as sole financial advisor to Greenerwave on its €15m equity financing with BPI Fonds Innovation Defense, Safran Corporate Ventures, INTELSAT, BNP Paribas Développement and Plastic Omnium.
An offshoot of the ‘Institut Langevin’, (a deep physics Radio Frequency research institute created and led by the French National Scientific Research Center (CNRS) and the leading Physics and Chemistry Engineering school (ESPCI)), Greenerwave specializes in deep-wave physics, and has developed revolutionary solutions to meet the toughest connectivity and mobility challenges.
Greenerwave has developed unique software technology capable of guiding electromagnetic waves. Thanks to its low-cost, reconfigurable smart materials and physics-based algorithms, the company has shifted the intelligence from hardware to software.
Greenerwave develops real-time reconfigurable antennas with unrivalled simplicity, performance, and unique energy efficiency.
Greenerwave’s single wave control technology is adaptable to the needs of multiple applications – for mobile and static, terrestrial, non-terrestrial connectivity, automotive imaging radars, etc. Greenerwave now offers commercially the first smart antennas for mass deployment in mass markets with a minimal environmental footprint.
This round will enable Greenerwave to speed-up the sales development of its products, notably an electronically reconfigurable antenna for the massive deployment of satellite-based internet.
Greenerwave’s transaction sets another landmark deal for Avolta in the European DeepTech industry after Mecaware €40m round, Vulkam €34m round, Woodoo $31m round, Toopi €15m round, BeFC €16m round and Unseenlabs €20 million round.
Avolta is proud to have acted as sole financial advisor to Vulkam on its €34m financing round. Vulkam is about to revolutionize the metallurgy and advanced materials sector thanks to the construction of its first amorphous metals production plant.
Transaction structuration. This round of financing, including €14m in equity, was led by the SPI 2 fund (BPI France), as part of France 2030 initiative. Alongside Vulkam’s longstanding investors (Supernova Invest, UI Investissement, BNP Paribas Développement and Crédit Agricole Alpes Développement), other investors also include Inco Ventures and SEB Alliance, as well as a private equity investor, Vertech. This capital increase was supplemented by non-dilutive financing, such as the Première Usine call for projects supported by BPI France.
Transaction rationale. Through its Series A, Vulkam aims to become the leading European manufacturer of amorphous alloys, which have been modified in their atomic structure to give them radically improved properties. The funding will mainly be invested in the production facilities needed to industrialize amorphous metals. It will also be used to accelerate commercial and technological deployment.
About Vulkam. Vulkam is a French Deeptech company, aiming to revolutionize metallurgy by offering high-quality components made from amorphous alloys. xRelying upon 30 years of academic research, Vulkam has developed a unique and patented technological platform, enabling them to manufacture on an industrial scale these alloys with unrivalled properties. In addition to offering a more sustainable solution in the metallurgy sector, Vulkam also aims to meet the growing needs for high performances in cutting-edge industries (medical, watchmaking, space & aeronautic, leisure sectors).
About Avolta. Avolta is a leading Paris-based tech investment bank. Avolta advised more than €2bn in transaction volume over the past 10 years with a deep focus in the Deeptech industry.
This transaction sets another fundraising landmark in the industrial Deeptech expertise after raising €40m for Mecaware with Credit Mutuel Innovation & BPI-SPI, $31m for Woodoo with LowerCarbon, and €20m for Unseenlabs with 360 Capital, Omnes and Swen Blue Ocean.
Avolta is delighted to have acted as financial advisor to Updraft on the closing of a £272 million debt and equity round.
Updraft provides loan refinancing solutions, enabling its members to understand their financial profile, forge positive habits with their money, and make changes that pay off in the long term.
Combining smart algorithms, Open Banking and credit reference data, Updraft helps build a full picture of a user’s financial profile. It then serves bespoke recommendations to establish practical, beneficial habits and deliver routes to pay off borrowings in the most effective possible way.
Updraft has built a customer base of over 500,000 users and has successfully empowered individuals to take back control of their finances, by paying off more than £225 million in credit cards and overdraft debt.
The forward flow arrangement with Jefferies and Santander Corporate and Investment Banking, allowing the business to build on its mission to help UK households move away from expensive credit cards and overdrafts.
Updraft also announced a further £22M million Mezz and equity investment. Mezz capital is debt capital and ranks higher than equity. This will complete the buildout of a £200 million balance sheet facility and fuel growth in 2024 led by Quilam Capital, MoreThan Capital, LC Nueva AIF and Auluk Investments.
Updraft’s growth plans will see more value-added features to turn users from borrowers to savers, and test new channels to reach new customer segments while staying on course to be the leader in financial support and guidance.
Avolta Partners is proud to have acted as financial advisor to Susu on its growth financing round led by INCO Ventures.
Susu is a Franco-African start-up created in 2019 that offers innovative and affordable healthcare and insurance solutions for Africa, the continent where demographics are exploding and life expectancy is rising, and whose population will reach 2 billion by 2050, while chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension proliferate.
The Susu offer is aimed at both the healthy and the most vulnerable: local and international health insurance cover, and tailor-made healthcare packages for seniors, people suffering from chronic illnesses, and pregnant women. The offer is based on a 360° digital platform, a high-quality medical network and original financing, which relies on the African diaspora.
The round brings together INCO Ventures (lead investor), Al Mada Ventures, Janngo Capital, Health54 (CFAO Healthcare), Launch Africa Ventures, Five35 Ventures, Plug&Play Ventures, Open CNP and several business angels.
Thanks to this fundraising, Susu will be able to enhance its portfolio of services and continue to expand in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Cameroon, where the company has already attracted more than 7,000 customers.
This deal consolidates Avolta’s leadership in social impact transactions, having recently advised Posos on its €10m Series A led by Anaxago, Educlever on its sale to Vivendi, Webdental on its sale to SFP Expansion (backed by Naxicap), or Moneytrans on its fundraising led by Axio Capital.
Avolta is delighted to have acted as sole financial advisor to Mecaware on its €40m financing. Mecaware secures €40m to industrialize its CO2-sourced process and accelerate the production of critical metals by recycling batteries.
Transaction structuration. This round of financing is being carried out by a pool of investors including Crédit Mutuel Innovation, BPI France’s SPI2 fund, and Mecaware’s historical investors, who are strengthening their position: EIT InnoEnergy, UI Investissement, Kreaxi, BNP Paribas Développement and Crédit Agricole Création. This financing follows the receipt of subsidies from the French government (France 2030).
Transaction rationale. These funds are intended to support Mecaware’s ambition to position itself as the future leader in the battery and strategic metals recycling ecosystem in France and Europe. This funding will support the industrialization phase of the project to recycle scraps from battery production, with the first pilot plant in operation in 2025.
About Mecaware. Mecaware is a French DeepTech/GreenTech company that has developed a disruptive Eco efficient technology to recycle critical metals from technological waste. Since 2021, Mecaware has been developing a unique metal extraction process. This new patented breakthrough process enables the virtuous production of lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and other materials. It selectively extracts metals from production scrap and end-of-life batteries. Less polluting, less costly and less energy-consuming than current processes, this solution will benefit the “gigafactories” that manufacture batteries for electric vehicles.
About Avolta. Avolta is a leading Paris-based tech investment bank. Avolta advised more than €2bn in transaction volume over the past 10 years with a deep focus in the industrial Deeptech industry.
This transaction sets another fundraising landmark in the industrial Deeptech expertise after raising $31m for Woodoo with LowerCarbon, €15m for Toopi with IDIA and Agri Impact and €20m for Unseenlabs with 360 Capital, Omnes and Swen Blue Ocean.
Avolta is delighted to have acted as sole financial advisor to Dartagnan on its sale to BID Equity. The company will join a sound ecosystem including JustRelate, a leading European Digital Experience Platform provider.
Dartagnan is a leading email design software used by more than 400 prestigious customers. The company is based in Lille and Paris.
The company joins forces with an ecosystem made of 145 digital and marketing experts to scale its email design solution globally. The partnership with BID Equity and JustRelate will unlock both organic and external growth and support the company in meeting global ambitions.
BID Equity is an independent German investment advisor to funds investing in successful software companies in Europe. In July 2023, the third and largest fund advised by BID Equity has been closed with EUR 310 million.
JustRelate is a leading software provider helping its more than 250 medium and large-sized enterprise and government customers to build Digital Experience Platforms. The company consolidated its core business with the acquisition of software companies Infopark, PiSA sales and Planware since 2020 and is currently headquartered in Berlin with offices in Munich and Wrocław.
This transaction sets another M&A landmark in B2B SaaS for Avolta after having recently advised Unifai on its sale to Akeneo, MyFeelBack on its sale to PSG Equity/Skeepers, Nexylan on its sale to Your.online and the €21m series B of Opendatasoft with Salesforce Ventures, Demeter, Eiffel and Odyssée Venture.