White Star Capital, a multi-stage global technology investment platform, announced it has secured $360 million* for its third flagship fund, above its original target of $300 million, to invest in exceptional entrepreneurs building ambitious, global businesses. The firm has successfully raised in excess of $500 million over the last 18 months, and now manages $750 million of assets, including $50 million from its recently announced Digital Asset Fund and more than $90 million raised from co-investment vehicles. The firm also announced it will open an office in Singapore.
Following two funds of $70 million and $180 million, announced in 2015 and 2018 respectively, White Star Capital plans to deploy initial investments between $5 million and $15 million in 15 to 20 startups across North America, Europe and Asia seeking financing at Series A and beyond. The firm has already made several investments from Fund III, including finn.auto (Germany), Percent (U.S.A.), Flash Coffee (Singapore), Novisto (Canada), 900.care (France) and Numan (U.K.), and seeks to invest in emerging technology companies in the A.I., Digital Health, Fintech, Foodtech, Future of Work, Industrial Technologies, Mobility and Wellbeing sectors.
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The founders, Eric Martineau-Fortin and Jean-Francois Marcoux, met as two fellow ski instructors working at a ski resort in Canada. This initial connection developed into a friendship, a working relationship and a first investment by Eric into the video game developer Ludia, co-founded in 2007 and fully exited in 2013 by Jean-Francois, which was eventually to lead them to the founding with their team of global firm White Star Capital in 2014.
The two founded the firm on the belief that entrepreneurialism is borderless and that innovation will lead to a brighter, healthier and more inclusive future. Through local investment teams and a unique international platform, White Star Capital is well positioned to partner with exceptional founders to create new companies and business models that will lead the industries and markets of tomorrow. The firm is also committed to investing in emerging technology companies building transformative global businesses at every stage of their growth.
Today the firm is made up of a multinational team of investors and operational professionals including General and Venture Partners: Sep Alavi, Christophe Bourque, Matthieu Lattes, Shun Nagao, Julie Plouffe, Patrick Recasens Morente, Nick Stocks, Joe Quinn Wei, and Nicolas Zylberstein.
Multi-Stage Global Platform Expands Reach
Now with more than 30 team members in nine locations around the globe, White Star Capital supports investors by taking a platform approach to investing. This not only includes providing direct investment through dedicated and specialized funds, but also offering Limited Partners opportunities to directly co-invest in the firm’s fastest growing portfolio companies.
Limited partners in the new fund include both new and previous institutional and sovereign investors, which reflects the international footprint of the firm. These include LP’s from Canada, France, Germany, Guernsey, Japan, Monaco, Poland, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. Also, participating in Fund III, were many of White Star Capital’s current and previous entrepreneurs including; Andy Tian (Co-Founder and CEO; Asia Innovations Group), Andrew Graham (Co-Founder and CEO; Borrowell), Kevin Glynn and David Nolan (Co-Founders and Co-CEOs; Butternut Box), Dr. Christopher Oster (Founder and CEO; Clark), Cherif Habib (Co-Founder and CEO; Dialogue), Max-Josef Meier (Co-Founder and CEO; finn.auto), Roger Hassan (former CEO; Echo, and former COO; TIER Mobility), Michael Wystrach and Carter Comstock (CEO and Co-Founder, and Co-Founder respectively; Freshly, sold to Nestle), Frederic Bastien and Aditya Pendyala (CEO and Co-Founder, respectively; mnubo, sold to Aspen Tech), Alex Gayer (CFO; TIER Mobility), Julien Bonneville (Founder and CEO; TheGuarantors) and Etienne Lacroix (Founder and CEO; Vention)
Proven Track Record
The announcement of Fund III builds upon the firm’s significant momentum since starting seven years ago. This includes the recent IPO of Dialogue Health Technologies (TSX: CARE), the sale of Freshly to Nestle for $1.5 billion, the recent close of its $50 million Digital Asset Fund with the support of the French public investment bank bpifrance, and receiving CVCA’s 2021 VC Global Dealmaker Award.
Since its inception, White Star Capital has had 10 exits and two IPOs, backed five unicorns and has invested in more than 55 companies that have gone on to collectively raise over $2 billion, employ more than 7,300 people and are generating close to $1.5 billion in yearly revenue. This includes backing rapidly growing companies such as; Butternut Box (U.K.), Clark (Germany), Dollar Shave Club (U.S.A), Drop (Canada), The Guarantors (U.S.A), KeyMe (U.S.A.), Meero (France), Mnubo (Canada), Parsley Health (U.S.A.), Red Sift (U.K.), TIER Mobility (Germany), Uncapped (U.K.), and Vention (Canada).
“Our philosophy has always been to partner with founders who have global ambitions and support them through our deep networks and regional expertise across nine locations in North America, Europe and Asia,” said Eric Martineau-Fortin, Founder and Managing Partner of White Star Capital. “With the opening of an office in Singapore, the firm has cemented its position as the partner of choice for founders building truly global businesses. Our funds are top-decile performers and our growing global team looks forward to building upon our proven global platform model.”
Chairman of the Board, Chief Catalyst Officer and Chief Technology Officer Appointed to Expand Expertise
White Star Capital also announced the appointment of Patricia Barbizet as Chairman of the Board, Cristina Ventura as Chief Catalyst Officer and Alberto Lopez Toledo as Chief Technology Officer.
Based in Paris, Patricia Barbizet served as the first female Chief Executive Officer of Christie’s, Executive Director of Groupe Artémis from 1992 until 2017; and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Kering SA and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Christie’s. She is now her own investment and advisory firm, Temaris & Associes.
Singapore-based, Cristina Ventura has worked in retail and technology roles for over 20 years helping brands like Prada, Gucci, LVMH, and Apple. NY-based Alberto Lopez Toledo is the CTO and Technical Co-Founder of Freshly. Both will also serve as Venture Partners and together bring years of experience in strategic planning, leadership, creativity, and innovation to the firm’s partners and ecosystem.