A brand new Paris-based multimillion euro fairness fund, devoted to serving to European impartial manufacturing corporations scale-up, has launched.
Bannered the Together Fund, the fund has an preliminary capitalization of €58M ($66M), with ambitions to develop to €100M ($113M), and is described as the primary fairness fund centered purely on Europe’s impartial movie and TV manufacturing corporations.
Today’s official kick-off follows the signing of an accord by representatives of the European Union’s European Investment Fund (EIF) in Paris on Friday committing €25M ($28.5M) to the fund. Details of the opposite traders are as a result of be introduced in May.
EIF is investing within the Together Fund underneath its MediaMake investments instrument which was created in 2022 as a part of the European Union’s post-pandemic €400M Media and Audiovisual Action Plan.
“It’s not only the 25 million, it’s the stamp of the EIF,” mentioned Vincent van Steensel, EIF’s Head of Portfolio Guarantees, including its involvement will safe and set off additional funding. “We are the biggest equity investor in Europe. We have a 30% market share, and we know that certain investors do not invest if EIF is not on board.”
The new fund has been designed to assist impartial manufacturing corporations scale and strengthen their market presence whereas sustaining their independence, within the face of the rising dominance of built-in audiovisual teams.
Together goals to alter this dynamic by appearing as a capital development fund, supporting corporations which have already demonstrated their capacity to ship high-quality content material.
Focusing totally on corporations producing scripted content material, the typical funding is predicted to be round €4M ($4.5M), which means a minimum of 25 corporations ought to be capable of faucet into the fund.
Running underneath the auspices of personal fairness agency Axio Capital, the fund is the brainchild of co-directors Alexandra Lebret and Antoine Bodet.
Lebret was managing director of the European Producers Club (EPC) for 23 years, representing the pursuits of round 185 outstanding producers from throughout Europe, earlier than stepping down earlier this 12 months. Her time on the EPC means she has an in depth community within the European manufacturing scene and information of its inside and outer workings.
Bodet is a companion at Axio Capital. He has suggested and invested in quite a few French movie and TV corporations throughout his profession together with MakingProd, Federation Entertainment and Echo Studio, and is at the moment a board member at Anton.
Prior to becoming a member of Axio Capital, he was govt director at Natixis funding bank-backed non-public fairness administration agency Alliance Entreprendre, the place his media and leisure sector investments included Federation and Paris-based worldwide gross sales firm Playtime.
The duo is already analyzing some 40 functions and count on to unveil Together Fund’s first investments as early as May.
Lebret mentioned funding selections could be primarily based on an organization’s total imaginative and prescient and marketing strategy for the longer term, somewhat than particular person tasks or acquisitions.
“The particularity of the fund is that it’s companies on a minority basis,” mentioned Lebret. “We are the independent solution for independent producers for independent growth. That’s our baseline,” she mentioned.
Bodet mentioned money the fund injected into corporations by taking a minority stake may very well be used for quite a lot of issues from hiring new employees, to growing IPs, and associated prices similar to shopping for e book rights or paying writers to develop new concepts.
Both co-directors emphasised the truth that whereas the fund is predicated in Paris, its focus can be pan-European, with Lebret noting her robust ties with producers in territories similar to Eastern Europe and the Baltics in addition to France.
Lebret mentioned the fund had been sparked by the truth that whereas the impartial European manufacturing sector is stabilizing within the wake of the disruption attributable to the pandemic and the top of the height TV period, it remained extremely fragmented, at a time when the pool of content material consumers was changing into more and more concentrated.
Another specificity of the fund is that in contrast to conventional fairness funds, Together will presents hands-on strategic assist from a devoted staff, led by Lebret and Bodet, to offer market insights and monetary steerage.
The long-term mission is to create a extra structured and resilient impartial manufacturing sector in Europe, able to competing on a worldwide scale. The fund has a 10-year lifespan, with a five-year funding interval adopted by a five-year exit technique.
“The idea is to try to develop the ecosystem because as you know… compared to other markets like the U.S., we are lagging behind a lot,” mentioned EIF’s van Steensel.
“The importance of keeping some sort of sovereignty in Europe, cultural sovereignty is more and more important,” he continued. “If you put this in the context of today with what is happening, sovereignty is not only a matter of defense, it’s also a cultural matter.”