Venture capitalists like to say that they finance the best entrepreneurs. However, when we look at the profiles of the founders who raise funds, a more prosaic reality appears: they often come from the same schools, the same networks and the same cities. In other words, venture capital largely finances what it already knows.
This mechanism raises a simple question: how many entrepreneurs go under the radar of investors simply because they are not in the right circles?
It is precisely this question that attempts to answer Time4a new investment fund launched by Pierre‑Éric Leibovicimanaging partner of the fund Daphni. The vehicle has just announced a first closing of fifty million euros, with the ambition of reaching one hundred million euros for its first fund.
The initiative is based on an observation that gradually became apparent to the Daphni teams. For several years, the fund has met entrepreneurs from programs supported by The Determined And Live for Goodtwo organizations that support project leaders in different territories. As these meetings multiply, a paradox appears: the talents are there, the projects exist, but access to capital remains extremely limited.
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“We met incredible entrepreneurs who unfortunately did not always have the codes or the networks to access investors,” explains Pierre-Éric Leibovici.
The figures confirm this discrepancy, with barely one percent of venture capital today being directed towards this type of project, while around fifteen percent of public aid and subsidies are devoted to it. The imbalance is obvious; although public support exists, the switch to private financing remains difficult.
For investors, these entrepreneurs nevertheless present interesting characteristics; many have learned to develop their projects with limited resources. This constraint creates a form of frugality that can become a strategic advantage in the startup economy, where the ability to do a lot with a little is often a decisive factor.
But these profiles come up against a more structural obstacle: access to networks and the implicit codes of venture capital. In a market that Pierre-Éric Leibovici readily describes as “shepherd”, investors tend to follow trends and favor already identified profiles.
Time4 is therefore based on the simple conviction of expanding the entrepreneurial pool financed by French venture capital.
To structure this approach, the fund is particularly interested in entrepreneurs located in two types of territories often far from traditional financing circuits: priority districts of urban policy and rural revitalization zones. The objective is not only to support social or territorial diversity, but to anticipate the evolution of the entrepreneurial landscape.
Pierre-Éric Leibovici sees in this dynamic an extension of what happened in the early 2000s, when figures like Xavier Niel, Marc Simoncini, Pierre Kosciusko‑Morizet Or Jean‑Baptiste Rudelle have contributed to democratizing technological entrepreneurship in France. At the time, the idea of creating a technology startup remained marginal in many large schools. Twenty years later, entrepreneurship has established itself as a legitimate professional path.
According to him, a further extension of this dynamic is occurring. Entrepreneurial ambition is gradually extending to populations who are still poorly addressed by traditional financing channels.
From this perspective, Time4 is not designed as an additional support program, but as a real venture capital fund. The objective is to build a portfolio of around sixty startups, with investment tickets of between two hundred thousand and one million euros during the first round. As in any early stage fund, a significant portion of the capital is reserved for subsequent rounds in order to maintain a significant stake in the most promising companies.
The portfolio logic therefore remains classic, as Pierre-Éric Leibovici points out, the profitability of a venture fund is generally based on a minority of investments which outperform. Some of the investments simply return the capital and some fail. It is on the third of successful projects that the overall performance of the fund is built.
But Time4 is also distinguished by a specific support system. The fund plans to set up a structured coaching program intended to help entrepreneurs accelerate their development. This dimension responds to several obstacles frequently encountered by targeted founders: the absence of a network, the difficulty in understanding investors’ expectations and sometimes a lack of confidence or ambition.
For Pierre-Éric Leibovici, the role of the fund also consists of removing these inhibitions. This involves opening access to a network of experts and accelerating the trajectory of startups. In the economy of young companies, he points out, the rarest resource remains time.
The first closing of the fund brought together several institutional and private investors who agreed to support the initiative in a context where fundraising remains difficult for management companies. Among them are notably Bpifrance, MGEN, Covéa, BNP Paribas as well as the investor Philippe Oddo.
For the project leaders, these commitments are above all a matter of strong convictions. At this stage, the fund must still demonstrate that its investment thesis can produce performance.
Because despite its societal dimension, Time4 remains above all a venture capital fund. Its credibility will depend on its ability to generate a return comparable to, or even superior to, that of the market. In other words, inclusion will only be able to establish itself sustainably in venture capital if it also produces economic performance.
But Pierre-Éric Leibovici insists on another, more symbolic objective. The success of the fund will also depend on the emergence of new entrepreneurial role models.
In certain territories, he observes, the models of success still remain limited. Success is often associated with sporting or artistic careers. Time4 wants to add a new reference: that of the technological entrepreneur.
The ambition is to see the emergence, within the portfolio, of a few trajectories capable of inspiring an entire generation of business creators. Three or four success stories could be enough to permanently change representations.
But this process takes a long time. The value creation cycle in startups typically exceeds ten years from the inception of a company to its exit. Time4 could therefore experience several generations of funds before producing all its effects.
Ultimately, the real success of the project would perhaps lie elsewhere. The day when entrepreneurs from these territories are naturally financed by all venture capital funds, without a specific system, Time4 will have fulfilled its mission.
