The investment is in Sistafund, a French venture capital fund backing early-stage tech companies led by women and where women hold at least 30% of the founder shares.
The European Investment Fund (EIF) has invested €30m into Paris-based Sistafund, a venture capital fund investing in pre-seed to Series A tech companies led by women entrepreneurs. The fund, which is aimed at addressing the significant financing gap faced by female startup founders across Europe, will only invest in companies where women hold at least 30% of the founder shares.
The fund has also received backing from corporates such as BNP Paribas, Française Des Jeux (FDJ) and L’Oréal, as well as a range of European entrepreneurs
The fund, which today operates through independent management company Sunshine, was founded in October 2022 by French tech entrepreneur Tatiana Jama, following the creation of the Sista NGO aimed at closing the funding gap for female entrepreneurs in the technology space. Jama leads the fund as the general manager alongside Isabelle Gallo who joined as managing partner in 2023.
Jama told Impact Investor that the Sista NGO supports Sistafund through its network, by hosting bootcamps for female entrepreneurs, and advocating for systemic change in the ecosystem.
Ghislain Terrier, investment manager in charge of the EIF investment in Sistafund, who also spoke with Impact Investor, said Sistafund “takes gender-lens investing to another level”.
“[This is] largely thanks to Tatiana’s background, particularly the work done by the Sista NGO she founded in France, which since 2018 has been promoting investment into female-led companies and providing support and mentoring to female entrepreneurs,” he said.
Sistafund could not disclose how much it has raised so far but it has set a fundraising target of €100m, which Terrier said would make it the largest gender-lens fund in continental Europe.
Investment focus
The fund will focus on investing into the four key sectors of health tech, sustainability (economic, social and environmental), frontier tech (artificial intelligence and deep tech), and inclusive fintech and insurtech and has already made eight investments. These include The Exploration Company, a Franco-German spacecraft manufacturer, Astran, a French cybersecurity firm, and Female Invest, a Danish financial e-learning platform.
The fund’s most recent investment was into Orakl Oncology, a French company which uses biology, patient data and AI-powered analysis to accelerate the development of cancer drugs.
“Orakl combines patient-derived organoids (PDOs) and AI for precision oncology, revolutionising cancer drug development,” explained Jama, who said the fund had participated in the company’s €11m seed funding round. PDOs are cultures of tumour cells derived from individual patients.
“What attracted us was their outstanding founding team and execution ability, the huge unmet need in oncology, [and] their revolutionary technology in precision medicine.”
The fund will have approximately 30 holdings once fully invested.
“We have an ownership strategy so our objective is to take high stakes from the onset and lead/co-lead rounds,” said Jama, explaining that beyond the investment capital, the team behind the fund provide investees with tailored resources, including operational expertise, strategic guidance and mentorship through a network of experienced entrepreneurs and industry leaders.
Closing the financing gap
According to Pitchbook data, startups founded solely by women raised just 1.8% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in Europe in 2023.
“Inequality starts at the very inception of a company and it’s not something that has been addressed by funds, especially in continental Europe. Funds in the UK and the US have been better at backing female entrepreneurs and that’s a trend the EIF wants to create in Europe by investing in gender-lens funds,” said Terrier.
“The investment in Sistafund demonstrates a sizeable commitment by the EIF to addressing the gender financing gap,” he added.
This is the EIF’s second investment into a gender lens fund this year, following a €17m investment into German investment fund Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund II in May. Terrier said that the EIF was also investing into a third gender lens fund and was actively looking to invest into others, but was not in a position to provide any names.
“The EIB Group, which the EIF is part of, is a signatory to the 2X Challenge and we already take ESG and diversity into account in our investments. As a fund of funds we also do a lot of market capacity building by, for example, encouraging best practice in investing among budding fund managers, which includes gender and diversity considerations,” said Terrier.
“Our aim is to accelerate the transition in gender equality to reach parity. In the short term, investing in gender lens funds is a great way to do that.”
Jama said that investing into female-led startups is crucial for unlocking untapped potential, fostering innovation, and driving economic growth.
“The EIF’s €30m investment is a validation of our mission. It strengthens our ability to create lasting impact and provides the resources necessary to back the next generation of founders,” she added.
