Press release – Launch of Seed4Soft
Launch of Seed4Soft, a club of entrepreneur investors dedicated to early-stage software publishing projects.
Paris, 24 March 2011 – Early-stage funding for young innovative software companies with strong growth potential is a complex subject for entrepreneurs. At a time when the funding of software startups by institutional venture capital investors is falling, from 25% on average in 2004 to 15% in 2010 according to the Chausson Finances indicator, an active role must be played in structuring these projects very early on so as to improve their chances of raising money from venture capitalists on good terms.
Founded on the initiative of several board members of the French Software Publishers Association (AFDEL) and of software professionals, Seed4Soft is a club of business angels. Our mission is to fund, support and coach entrepreneurs whose core business is software publishing. Our added value: the availability, expertise and network of our members, who are all recognised software publishing professionals, entrepreneurs and managers of large international publishers.
Seed4Soft is made up of a maximum of 20 members. Seed4Soft members plan to invest around 1 million euros together each year, which will fund 3 to 4 deals a year. Each investment may be made independently or syndicated with seed funds or business angel networks. An investment will carry the "Seed4Soft" label as soon as at least a third of the club's members take part in funding a project.
Seed4Soft will invest in promising young startups in the software publishing sector, favouring the new economic models of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Open Source, without those criteria being exclusive. Funded deals will have to be French in origin, given how much the club's members are involved in supporting their development. The management team's experience and the potential to expand internationally will also be favoured in every investment.
Seed4Soft is an association under the French law of 1901 and a member of the France Angels network.
Download the press release as a PDF
Press contacts
Laurent Balayre – Seed4Soft – laurent.balayre@seed4soft.com – Tel: 06.88.82.93.33