Paris-based VC agency daphni has reached the ultimate closing of its newest fund, daphni Blue, at €260 million. The fund, which exceeded its preliminary goal, is designed to remodel Europe’s scientific energy into globally related startups tackling environmental and societal challenges.
The ultimate closing was achieved in below 9 months from the primary, and daphni Blue has already deployed capital into 9 early-stage science-based startups. These embrace OWLO, EverDye, and Karavela, with two extra TechBio investments within the pipeline — one in France and one within the UK.
“In a world the place expertise is more and more commoditized and AI is redefining how innovation is constructed, we’re satisfied the strongest long-term worth comes from deep scientific breakthroughs. This second and last closing confirms sturdy investor assist for a technique targeted on unlocking the potential of European science (biology, physics, chemistry, arithmetic, life sciences) to serve entrepreneurship and handle the foremost societal and environmental challenges of our time,” shared Pierre-Eric Leibovici, co-founder and managing accomplice of daphni, in a public assertion.
Throughout 2025 and 2026, sector evaluation to sustained capital deployment into European DeepTech, science-based and climate-oriented funding methods, offering context for daphni’s €260 million last shut.
In early 2026, Copenhagen-based VC Footprint Fund I introduced a €76 million fund focusing on round 30 early-stage local weather and DeepTech startups throughout Northern Europe, whereas Berlin’s b2venture reached a €150 million exhausting cap for its fifth fund.
On the finish of 2025, U2V, a spin-off from Earlybird-X, launched a €60 million car targeted particularly on pre-Seed and Seed DeepTech firms rising from European technical universities, reinforcing the lab-to-market theme additionally central to daphni Blue. In Southern Europe, Lisbon-based Armilar Venture Partners raised €120 million for its fourth fund to put money into DeepTech and digital transformation startups throughout Spain, Portugal and the broader area.
Taken along with daphni Blue’s €260 million fund, these bulletins signify roughly €666 million in disclosed capital flowing into adjoining DeepTech and science-driven methods over the 2025–2026 interval, highlighting continued institutional urge for food for long-horizon, research-intensive innovation in Europe, with France that includes prominently by daphni’s newest fundraise.
“We’re proud to announce the ultimate closing of daphni Blue at €260 million, above our preliminary goal and accomplished simply months after our first closing,” mentioned the daphni staff in a public assertion. “Our sturdy conviction is that long-term technological management will probably be constructed on scientific excellence.”
Based in 2015, daphni has made a reputation for itself by early investments in now-unicorns comparable to Again Market and Swile. However the thesis for daphni Blue alerts a shift in technique. In an setting the place software program and AI capabilities are more and more commoditised, the agency is betting on what can’t be simply replicated: deep scientific mental property rooted in Europe’s public analysis system.
The brand new fund focuses on early-stage investments in ‘scientist-entrepreneurs’ whose startups are primarily based on core analysis in biology, chemistry, physics, arithmetic, and life sciences.
Tickets vary from €500k to €10 million, with the potential for follow-ons as much as €20 million. Over the fund’s lifecycle, round 40–50 firms are anticipated to be supported.
“To create sustainable worth you want an extra component, which is mental property that comes from science,” famous Leibovici. “There’s going to be a brutal return to actuality for lots of the firms which raised money and weren’t in a position to create worth and achieve market shares.”
daphni is already working with main French establishments comparable to INRIA, INSERM, Institut Langevin, and Institut Curie, in addition to broader European analysis ecosystems. Their mannequin blends sturdy digital infrastructure with an lively investor and founder neighborhood – an strategy they imagine is important for accelerating lab-to-market transitions.
Among the many first portfolio firms below the Blue fund are:
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OWLO, spun out from Institut Langevin, which is growing real-time, non-invasive, label-free 3D microscopy for fertility and pharmaceutical analysis.
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EverDye, providing an eco-conscious dyeing course of utilizing patented inexperienced chemistry to scale back environmental impression without having new equipment.
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Karavela, a by-product from INRIA, constructing a mind basis mannequin utilizing purposeful MRI knowledge to unlock new digital biomarkers and mind–machine interfaces.
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Neotis, targeted on immunotherapies focusing on senescent cells to deal with age-related continual illnesses.
Though science-based investing stays area of interest in comparison with conventional VC fashions, daphni sees Europe’s 2.2 million researchers and public analysis infrastructure as a serious benefit. “Europe has the depth to guide this shift,” added the daphni staff.
As a part of its mission-driven technique, daphni Blue ties a part of its carried curiosity to ESG efficiency, aiming to align impression with monetary returns. This dual-goal strategy displays rising curiosity amongst LPs in each innovation and accountability.
With its newest fund, daphni is positioning itself not solely as a backer of the subsequent technology of startups, but in addition as a bridge between the scientific bench and the entrepreneurial world – and doing so at a scale that provides Europe’s finest minds a shot at constructing globally important firms.
