European VC firm Iris Capital closes $280 million fund for multi-stage startups in Europe and U.S.

Iris Capital, a European VC firm headquartered in Paris, has announced the first closing of a new €250 million ($280 million) fund aimed at seed-to-growth stage startups.

The fund, called IrisNext, was first announced back in 2015 and was originally scheduled to close in 2016. IrisNext investors include a number of corporate entities, such as Publicis, Valeo, and Orange, alongside institutions such as Bpifrance and BRED Banque Populaire.

Investments will range from €1 million ($1.1) to €30 million ($33 million) and will be aimed primarily at Europe, with a specific focus on France and Germany. However, the firm said that it will also include an “investment strategy” for U.S. startups. In terms of industries, well, it appears that Iris Capital is taking a somewhat holistic approach to its investment endeavours and will cover the Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, 5G networks, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and software design.

“Our mission at Iris Capital is to identify and fuel promising entrepreneurs to help them grow and scale their businesses across Europe and beyond, notably thanks to our corporates network,” explained Antoine Garrigues, cofounder and managing partner at Iris Capital.

Though the majority of Iris Capital’s historical investments have been in Europe, the company has made a number of notable cash injections into U.S.-based companies too, including San Francisco-based Lookout and MoPub, the latter of which was acquired by Twitter back in 2013.

A number of new European funds have come to fruition in recent months, including Atomico, which closed a $765 million pot, one of the biggest funds to emerge from the region, and 83North, which announced an oversubscribed $250 million fourth fund. At the lower end of the spectrum, earlier this month Firstminute Capital launched a new $60 million seed fund for European startups.