Betting on sports innovation: Seventure Partners launches venture fund with €80m final target

05 Jul 2019 --- Life sciences financer Seventure Partners has launched Sport & Performance Capital, a new fund dedicated to supporting innovation in the sport and wellness industries. With a final target of €80 million, the venture fund will invest in start-up companies and growing SMEs. The company has now settled the first close of the new fund, meaning investment can begin. Seventure Partners aims to invest in about 15 companies by the start of the Paris Olympic Games in July 2024 and has a 10-year investment horizon to support its portfolio companies through to 2029.

With an initial focus on France, the companies receiving investment will be selected for their innovative ideas or specific acumen in the fields of sports and wellness. The Seventure Partners investment team will identify and finance companies developing and providing products or services connected to these areas, such as: innovative clothing, new materials for sports practice, equipment, specific food or nutrition products, connected devices, performance tracking tools, physical parameters measurement devices, digital innovations, coaching, development of areas, equipment or events promoting the practice of sports.

Companies receiving investment will be selected for their innovative ideas or specific acumen in the fields of sports and wellness. “Since 1997, Seventure Partners has been actively funding innovative European companies, especially within the evolving fields of health, food and nutrition and digital technologies. The sports industry is being deeply disrupted by innovation and we will work side-by-side with entrepreneurs selected by the fund, providing them full access to our team of investors and their expertise, networks and know-how,” says Isabelle de Crémoux, Seventure Partners CEO and Managing Partner at the launch of the fund on July 3, at a press conference in Paris.

Increasingly, investors on the hunt for higher returns are turning to venture capital, which engages with start-ups and SMEs. Innova Market Insights pegged “Small Player Mindset” as its number nine top trend for the year, reflecting an industry where small players are shaking up the norm and taking on classic FMCG giants. A 2018 Innova Market Insights trends survey found that two in five US and UK consumers prefer small brands “because they are more dedicated to their products and have a personal story.” This is completely on trend as 20 percent growth has been reported in food and beverage launches with a social-ethical claim (Global, 2017 vs. 2016).

However, the start-up scene has not only proliferated with new entrants due to good timing or ease of launching but also because they are able to respond more quickly to popular consumer trends. 

With 20 years’ experience financing innovative companies, Seventure Partners notes that it has built strong relationships with entrepreneurs and industrial world leaders. Through its innovative Health for Life Capital microbiome focused-funds and AVF, its animal health, feed and nutrition fund, the Company has developed a worldwide network in the fields of health, food and nutrition, and digital technologies – which are key adjacent sectors for the economics of sport.

Health for life
Seventure Partners successfully launched Health for Life Capital which invests in life sciences, such as health, nutrition, digital/connected health, with a core focus on the microbiome revolution and its applications in human health, nutrition and food.  

The €160m first fund launched in 2014 has invested in 20 companies at the forefront of their fields, such as Enterome, Vedanta Biosciences, MaaT Pharma, Eligo Bioscience, LNC Therapeutics, TargEDys, A-Mansia Biotech, BiomX, Microbiotica, Anaeropharma, NeurIMM (renamed LiMM Therapeutics), Siolta Therapeutics, DayTwo, Zipongo, Mdoloris Medical Systems, MycoTechnology and more. 

In January 2019 it launched second fund Health for Life Capital II with a target fund size of over €200m. 

Health for Life Capital funds have attracted strategic investments from prestigious entrepreneurs, financial institutions and organizations including Danone, Novartis, Lesaffre, Bel, Tereos, Tornier, Unigrains and, more recently, a US-based global food ingredient provider (to be disclosed).

Edited by Laxmi Haigh