French family office sets up subsidiary to back startups with early capital

Groupe Arnault, the holding and family investment group of the Arnault family, has set up a new entity to provide early capital for startups, according to a report in Les Echos. Billionaire Bernard Arnault is best known for his ownership of the biggest luxury goods group in the world in terms of sales, LVMH.

The new group, called Aglaé, wants to invest in startups in the “startup phase”, says the report. It has been given €40 million over a period of three years to target investments and plans to invest between €100,000 and €2 million per participant, according to Antoine Loison, who will co-direct the subsidiary. Aglaé will target French startups.

Aglaé has already backed a French startup called Black Market, which sells reconditioned electronic goods like mobile phones.

Groupe Arnault, which hit the news recently when it bought out the minority shareholders in Christian Dior, has backed some big tech and media companies in the past – but mostly at a later stage. These have included Airbnb, Spotify, Viagogo, and Netflix, according to Crunchbase data.