Cathay Innovation closes vertical AI fund at USD 1 billion

Paris, France — Cathay Inno­va­tion has closed its latest venture capi­tal fund at USD 1 billion. This makes it the largest AI-dedi­­ca­­ted fund in the Euro­pean Union. To date, the company has deployed €235 million from Fund III across 14 invest­ments, 50 percent of which are based in Europe. The focus is on four key sectors: consu­mer, health­care, finan­cial services and energy/mobility.

With the support of 20+ leading inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies, Cathay Inno­va­tion has deve­lo­ped the worl­d’s largest VC plat­form, inves­t­ing in emer­ging start­ups and connec­ting them with indus­try leaders around the world looking to trans­form through cutting-edge innovation.

Cathay Inno­va­tion was recently named Fran­ce’s largest private VC inves­tor per capi­tal, inves­t­ing in local start­ups and making a rele­vant contri­bu­tion to Fran­ce’s rise as one of Euro­pe’s top AI and tech hubs.

Fund III is backed by a diverse base of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors as well as multi­na­tio­nal compa­nies looking to access the latest AI startup tech­no­lo­gies that are criti­cal to indus­­try-wide trans­for­ma­tion. These include French indus­try leaders such as Sanofi, Total­Ener­gies, Valeo, BNP Pari­bas Cardif, Groupe SEB and Groupe ADP since the first closing, along with seve­ral inter­na­tio­nal indus­try play­ers such as Latams Vale Ventures, Copec WIND Ventures and others. 

“Our fund is dedi­ca­ted to helping entre­pre­neurs scale and bring forth new pioneers who put inno­va­tion at the service of the common good. We believe we can acce­le­rate the trans­for­ma­tion of Euro­pean indus­try and create lasting econo­mic and social impact,” said Mingpo Cai, Foun­der and Chair­man of Cathay Capi­tal and Cathay Innovation. ”

Where AI meets indus­try: the largest plat­form for colla­bo­ra­tive transformation

Beyond invest­ment, Cathay Inno­va­ti­on’s global plat­form and ecosys­tem connects start­ups to a broad network of compa­nies to enable deeper indus­try colla­bo­ra­tion. This includes stra­te­gic part­ner­ships, co-inves­t­­ments or other busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment opportunities. 

Cathay Inno­va­ti­on’s vision revol­ves around the belief that Euro­pean VCs cannot thrive in the long run by dupli­ca­ting the Ameri­can approach based on merging robust finan­cial markets with the Sili­con Valley ecosys­tem. Taking into account the Euro­pean context and needs, Cathay Inno­va­tion bridges the gap between start­ups and indus­try leaders, unlo­cking access to key inno­va­tion hubs. 

“At a time when Europe is approa­ching AI with the aim of prio­ri­tiz­ing respon­si­ble inno­va­tion, stra­te­gic auto­nomy and resi­li­ence, Fund III reflects a unique Euro­pean model with global scale: not only for growth, but also for indus­trial trans­for­ma­tion and socie­tal bene­fit,” said Denis Barrier, Co-Foun­­der of Cathay Inno­va­tion. “AI is a gene­ral-purpose tech­no­logy — like elec­tri­city — with the poten­tial to reinvent entire indus­tries while shif­ting the role of start­ups from disrup­t­ors to trans­for­ma­tion part­ners. Over the past decade, we have built the worl­d’s largest venture capi­tal plat­form to connect start­ups and corpo­ra­tes under one roof — combi­ning capi­tal with indus­trial inno­va­tion to jointly drive this trans­for­ma­tion and create the jobs of tomorrow. ” 

Cathay Inno­va­tion Fund III: Equip­ped for the new indus­trial age

Fund III focu­ses prima­rily on start­ups using AI that are deeply tail­o­red to speci­fic sectors. Fund III targets foun­ders at each stage and can invest up to 100 million in a single startup. To date, the company has inves­ted in 14 start­ups in Europe, the US and Asia, including

Health­care: Nabla (AI co-pilot for doctors), AQEMIA (AI + disco­very of quan­tum physics drug), Biop­ti­mus (first univer­sal basic model for biology), Nelly (Euro­pean fintech simpli­fies health­care payments)
Finan­cial services: Reach (AI-driven asset manage­ment), Flow­desk (full-stack market-making for digi­tal assets), Ping ++ (open banking and payments infrastructure)
Consu­mers: Geist (B2B market­place for excess inven­tory), Reebelo (market­place for refur­bis­hed tech devices), Imagino (custo­mer data plat­form for modern brands), Mogic (genAI-driven short-form video crea­tion), Beat­bot (intel­li­gent robo­tic clea­ning systems)
Energy: David Energy (energy plat­form for next-gene­ra­­tion retail), Ental­pisch (funda­men­tal model-based mate­rial disco­very for low-carbon innovations)

The company’s geogra­phic diver­sity is a stra­te­gic advan­tage in today’s frag­men­ted world, helping Euro­pean start­ups to learn from and operate in Sili­con Valley, Latam or other parts of the world, for exam­ple, and vice versa. Fund III is also clas­si­fied as an Article 8 fund under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclo­sure Regu­la­tion (SF DR), reflec­ting its commit­ment to envi­ron­men­tal and social impact. It supports high-growth compa­nies where AI is being used to drive indus­tries forward in a locally groun­ded, globally scalable and soci­ally posi­tive way. 

About Cathay Innovation

Cathay Inno­va­tion is a multi-stage venture capi­tal firm affi­lia­ted with Cathay Capi­tal that invests in foun­ders buil­ding trans­for­ma­tive compa­nies in Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America and Africa. The plat­form connects foun­ders with inves­tors and the ecosys­tem of leading Fortune 500 compa­nies to help start­ups scale and trans­form indus­tries with consu­­mer-to-enter­­prise and AI solu­ti­ons in retail, fintech, digi­tal health and mobility/energy. Cathay Inno­va­tion was foun­ded in Paris in 2015 and now mana­ges over €2.5 billion AUM with addi­tio­nal offices in San Fran­cisco, Berlin, Madrid, Shang­hai and Singa­pore. It has inves­ted in over 120 start­ups inclu­ding Chime, Pinduo­duo (NASDAQ: PDD), Glovo, Wall­box (NYSE: WBX), Owkin, Getaround, Ledger, ZenBusi­ness. — www.cathayinnovation.com.