Cathay Innovation

📍Today, we’re celebrating a huge milestone with the official launch of Cathay Innovation Fund III. This €1B global venture capital fund will be one of the largest multi-stage venture funds which we’ve dedicated to the transformation of industries & society 💫  Cathay’s Denis Barrier digs in to the vision behind Fund III, our evolution as a global firm and what we see as the next-gen VC playbook. Highlights: 💥 $2B+ AUM, 5 continents, 120+ startups, 19 unicorns — since starting in 2015 ⚙️ Activating the sustainable transformation flywheel with: - A global team & platform - A corporate ecosystem as investors & strategic partners - A sustainable investment framework 🚀 The next-gen VC playbook incorporates purpose & returns in a new phase that takes us from open innovation to transformation More here: https://lnkd.in/g2h-MJjX  CC: Cathay Capital Ming-Po Cai Sanofi TotalEnergies Valeo BNP Paribas Cardif Groupe SEB Groupe ADP #venturecapital #digitaltransformation #technology #startups #globaleconomy #investing #frenchtech

🐓 €102M, that's the amount raised by French digital health startups just this quarter! At #1 with 39% of the total raised funds is Bioptimus, a one-of-a-kind AI foundation model company at the origin of the "GPT of biology", combining the power of AI with a truly integrated view of biology to help researchers and multiple industries solve some of the most complex challenges in medicine, biotechnology, and beyond. 🔬 After our initial backing of its seed round, we led Bioptimus' €39,5M Series B back in January, an important step toward the development of a new multi-scale, multi-modal foundation model for biology set to launch this year—a promising sequel to its H-Optimus-0, the world's largest foundation model for pathology. A well-rounded team of experts, access to exclusive data sets, and the potential to revolutionize the whole field of medical research, Bioptimus has it all—a perfect example of the companies we seek to support as part of our AI-powered digital health vertical here at Cathay. Congrats to the whole team, this is just the beginning👏 More details below: https://lnkd.in/eSgiVjNF

👏 News from our portfolio! Our porfolio company Shiro Games has released its newest video game — Frostrail !   We couldn’t be happier to see them continue to push creative and technical boundaries in the gaming world. At Cathay, we believe in empowering bold, visionary teams — and the launch of Frostrail is yet another milestone in Shiro’s journey of innovation and excellence. Congratulations to Nicolas Cannasse and the entire Shiro Games team on this exciting release!   Read more about it : https://lnkd.in/eW_8wK5h   #GamingInnovation #Frostrail

Am I a walking LLM at this point? Maybe. Am I deep training myself to be better tomorrow? Absolutely. Ended the enterprise AI panel with that question — still thinking about it. A little meta to talk about how enterprises are buying AI — especially in a room full of people actively building, selling, and investing in it. Thanks to Grace for moderating a sharp discussion with Jake (Wing Venture Capital), Nikhil (Insight Partners), Eugene (OMERS Ventures), and Arnav (Peak XV Partners). From our work at Cathay Innovation and across our enterprise ecosystem, I shared thoughts on adoption hurdles, signs of differentiation, why incumbents still lag, breakout categories, and red flags to watch for. Amazing to see Grace’s inaugural conference flourish — huge kudos for pulling it all together. And thank you to SVB (John) for hosting! Always a blast to panel with friends: Brandon (Convivialité Ventures), Dan (Decibel Partners), Casber (Sapphire Ventures), Eylul (Gradient), and Phil (Crosslink Capital) — and meet new ones like Samantha (CMO, Eventbrite) and Megh (Head of Product, Crunchbase).

👏 Paris #AWSSummit down! Our very own Joy Boublil (李悦) represented the Cathay team as a member of the Fintech jury where she had the pleasure to hear some up-and-coming innovators pitch their ideas 💡 We're always humbled to get the opportunity to interact with a rich ecosystem of founders and fellow investors who make meaningful change every single day. 👀 See you next year!

✅ Augmented productivity rates across the board, upgraded customer relations services... are but a few perks we rave about — rightfully so! — when we mention AI as a driver of performance and operational efficiency. For startups however, this new age also brings about new issues to consider, particularly for those whose activity involves dealing with personal and private components. And for fintechs specifically, remaining competitive in the long run means addressing those emerging concerns, mainly regarding: ⚠️ Cybersecurity 🔒 Data protection ❗ Technology dependency 👀 Next-gen fintech, what else to expect? Per Denis Barrier, another major revolution will be the combination of AI and Blockchain — while the latter might still be very much linked to cryptocurrencies in the collective mind, it is in reality a game-changing tool for financial engineering; and automated, certified mechanisms are set to gradually take over (and supercharge!) the whole system 💥 Read Finyear's story ⤵️

AI has been all the rage, reinventing virtually every facet of our lives, including healthcare. However, the technicalities and lack of a reliable ecosystem can often make it difficult to truly grasp its current (and future) developments.   Curious about the impact of AI on healthcare through the lens of tangible use cases and experiences? Join us to connect with established industry leaders and promising innovators for an evening of thought-provoking conversations, followed by a networking cocktail hour:   📅 Tuesday, April 29 ⏰ From 7:00 PM 📍 Cathay Paris office   Take part in an exclusive gathering hosted by Cathay in tandem with AWS and Sanofi, reuniting a wide range of players from all over the healthcare sector!   What to expect: 7:00 - 7:40 PM: Networking & 1:1 Meetings 7:40 - 8:10 PM: Welcome & Panel Discussion 8:10 - 8:40 PM: Networking & 1:1 Meetings Meet our panelists: Guy Spigelman - EMEA Lead Healthcare and Life Sciences Startups AWS Healthcare (Moderator) Véronique Bruhat - Head of Strategy Innovation and Operations Digital GBUs Sanofi Dorothée Moisy-Gouarin - Director of Innovation ELSAN joel Belafa - Co-Founder & CEO Biolevate Franck Le Ouay - Co-founder & CEO Lifen   See you there 💫 Cc : Denis Barrier Jacky Abitbol Emanuele De Leonardis Joy Boublil (李悦) Romain Dufourcq Paul Pouyanne Louis Conchon

⚡️ The future of gridtech and energy innovation is here — and we’re bringing the key players together. Whether you're a founder building breakthrough energy solutions, a regulator shaping tomorrow’s grid policy, a customer rethinking your energy procurement strategy, or a venture investor looking for what's next — this event is built for you. Join founders and leaders from Splight, ThinkLabs AI, Inc., Verse, and Texture on April 23rd, where Maeve Allsup of Latitude Media will unpack how these cutting edge companies are bridging the electrical divide. 💡 This is more than a conversation — it’s a culmination of the gridtech and energy markets movement. 👉 Link to register: https://lu.ma/y6u0w40c CC: Simon Wu, Daniela Caserotto-Leibert, Brian Schwarzbach, Elijah Yi, Jaclyn Hartnett, Matthieu Soulé, Arnaud Auger, Cathay Innovation #EnergyInnovation #GridTech #ClimateTech #VC #PolicyAndInnovation

Did anyone say 🇫🇷 tech? 📈 The ecosystem might have been going through a challenging phase, reflected in fewer 🦄 and a far more competitive quest for funding and scalability, but local startups have remained resilient, and several positive signs are pointing to a thriving future. 🤝 That's precisely what Denis Barrier highlighted in a sit-down interview with Virginie Deneuville: the milieu needs to quickly adapt to stay in the race—think stronger collaboration between startups and corporations, a position that has been at the core of our strategy here at Cathay. 💡 Furthermore, AI marks the beginning of a new tech era, particularly for the SaaS sector: "There are two ways to approach this cycle, and we lean toward the optimistic side: truly, this is the perfect time to support local entrepreneurs, and we have a real chance to become the third-leading nation in this revolution". Read the whole story on L'AGEFI ⤵️

👏 Big news for Cathay portfolio company USHOPAL: PAYOT, the iconic French skincare brand founded over a 100 years ago, is now part of Ushopal’s journey to reshape the high-end beauty sector in Asia. ✨ This acquisition marks a new chapter in Payot’s story — one of growth and worldwide reach, reflecting the long-term vision Ushopal has pursued since the completion of its $100M funding round back in 2021, which Cathay supported. 💄 Since then, Ushopal has built a curated portfolio of premium brands such as Natura Bissé, Parfums Juliette has a Gun, and Chantecaille Beauté — all part of a vision reflecting deep local expertise and global ambition. Read more ⤵️