\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s always interesting<\/span> when a new VC firm with a fresh team of partners emerge. And with Yellow<\/a>, it\u2019s interesting in multiple ways. Founded by Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud, the founders of Glovo, as well as Adam Lasri, a former investor for VC giant Atomico, Yellow is a new \u20ac30 million pre-seed fund that wants to invest at the earliest stage possible (that\u2019s $32 million at today\u2019s exchange rate).<\/p>\n In addition to this unique founding team, the VC firm\u2019s focus is also quite different. While most VC firms operating in Europe focus on the U.K., France, Germany and the Nordics, Yellow wants to put more emphasis on Southern Europe \u2014\u00a0and especially some key markets in the area, such as Spain, Italy and Portugal.<\/p>\n Last week, I talked with Adam Lasri about the new fund and the team\u2019s investment thesis. Yellow is going to be an opportunistic tech fund, meaning that it doesn\u2019t plan to focus on a vertical in particular. The firm will invest in both B2B and B2C startups across different industries.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years, I\u2019ve had more and more access to early stage deal flow. Often, I would talk to companies while at Atomico that were in the ideation stage, in which we couldn\u2019t invest,\u201d Lasri told me. \u201cAnd I found that frustrating, because a few months later, you could have Index or others making investments, whereas it wasn\u2019t part of our thesis to invest at the seed level.\u201d<\/p>\n He also added later in the conversation that he doesn\u2019t have harsh feelings for his former team. He just wants to invest at the seed (or pre-seed) stage.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\u201cFounders love to talk to another founder who has successfully sold his company\u201d\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdam Lasri<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n And yet, Yellow isn\u2019t going to be the lead investor as it plans to invest \u20ac200,000 to \u20ac500,000 per deal. Instead, it thinks it can be the first believer, bring other investors and provide advice at scale. \u201cWe\u2019re never leaders, just collaborators,\u201d Lasri said. According to him, many early stage companies face the same issues \u2014 how to set up a team, how to format a pitch deck, how to navigate the VC ecosystem, etc.<\/p>\n And, of course, the founders of Glovo also know a thing or two about creating a startup. \u201cFounders love to talk to another founder who has successfully sold his company,\u201d Lasri said. This could be the reason why Atomico, which was founded by Skype founder Niklas Zennstr\u00f6m, has been so successful.<\/p>\n \u201cOscar, who is the CEO [of Glovo], spent a lot of his time with entrepreneurs. He didn\u2019t know how to scale that time he spent with them, but every time he invested in a company, he would talk about all these aspects \u2014 how to go from 0 to 1, how to scale your team, how to think about hiring, all that,\u201d Lasri said.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, they sold their company to Delivery Hero for a little over \u20ac2 billion at the time. And they were thinking about how to professionalize their investment business. I was already thinking about my next steps, and so we started talking a lot,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n While Yellow plans to invest in startups based in France and Southern Europe, it also plans to invest in companies that want to quickly expand to Spain, Italy and Portugal. In that case, Yellow can act as a strategic investor and unlock a bunch of problems that entrepreneurs could face in these new markets, such as talent support, regulatory hurdles and introductions with large enterprises.<\/p>\n Yellow\u2019s team will be split between Paris and Barcelona with Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud remaining in Barcelona. They will keep their executive roles at Glovo, the on-demand delivery company that was acquired by Delivery Hero<\/a>. But Pierre and Michaud have already been quite active as angel investors. Yellow is just a way to take this activity one step further.<\/p>\n Adam Lasri will be based primarily in Paris with another team member joining the fund soon. Victor Navarro, a VC investor that was working for K Fund, is also joining the Yellow team in Barcelona.<\/p>\n Interestingly, the Yellow founding team managed to close this initial fund in just a few months. They started their fundraising effort in June and managed to reach their goal in less than five months.<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, more than a dozen European unicorn founders are investing in Yellow as well as a dozen family offices from Spain, Italy and Portugal. Some of the richest individuals from Southern Europe are limited partners in Yellow\u2019s first fund. The firm didn\u2019t receive any public money for this fund.<\/p>\n It seems to indicate that there is some appetite for more VC funds in Southern Europe. Sure, in Spain alone there are plenty of funds, such as K Fund, Nauta Capital, Kibo Ventures, Seaya Ventures and Inveready \u2014 this list is not exhaustive.<\/p>\n But if we look at the numbers, a recent report from Dealroom<\/a> highlights the discrepancies between the top three European countries when it comes to startup funding \u2014 and the rest. During the first half of 2023, startups based in the U.K. raised a total of $11 billion. Germany and France followed suit with $6 billion and $5 billion respectively.<\/p>\n In Italy and Spain, startups \u201conly\u201d raised $1 billion and $744 million respectively during the same period. Portugal isn\u2019t even part of the top 15 countries.<\/p>\n Does it mean that there are fewer startups in Southern Europe? Or does it mean that there\u2019s still untapped potential in the region?<\/p>\nFrom \u20ac0 to \u20ac30 million in five months<\/h2>\n