According to EU-Startups, Paris-based venture capital firm daphni has closed its latest fund, daphni Blue, at €260 million, exceeding its initial target. The final closing was achieved in under nine months, and the fund has already deployed capital into nine early-stage science-based startups, including OWLO, EverDye, and Karavela. The firm, founded in 2015 and known for early bets on unicorns like Back Market, is shifting its strategy to focus on “scientist-entrepreneurs” working on deep scientific IP from fields like biology, physics, and life sciences. Tickets will range from €500,000 to €10 million, with the potential for follow-on investments up to €20 million, aiming to support 40-50 companies. The fund’s thesis is that long-term value lies in Europe’s scientific research strength to tackle environmental and societal challenges, a conviction shared by co-founder Pierre-Eric Leibovici.
The Commoditization Bet
Here’s the thing: daphni is making a very specific, and somewhat contrarian, bet about the future of tech. Leibovici’s statement points to a world where software and AI capabilities are becoming “increasingly commoditized.” That’s a fancy way of saying a lot of the tools are getting easier to access and replicate. So, where do you find a durable competitive advantage? daphni is betting it’s in the hard, messy, time-consuming world of fundamental science. You can’t easily copy a novel green chemistry process or a new brain imaging model the way you might fork a software library. This is a long-game strategy, acknowledging that these companies might take longer to mature but could build unassailable moats with their intellectual property. It’s a direct challenge to the “move fast and break things” ethos that has dominated VC for years.
Europe’s Deep Tech Moment
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. The article notes that alongside daphni’s €260 million, other funds like Footprint Fund I, b2venture, U2V, and Armilar Venture Partners have collectively raised hundreds of millions more for similar DeepTech and science-driven strategies in 2025-2026. That’s a huge signal. Institutional investors (the LPs) are clearly showing an appetite for this long-horizon, research-intensive innovation coming out of Europe. daphni is tapping directly into a massive resource: Europe’s 2.2 million researchers and its vast public research infrastructure like INRIA and Institut Curie. The firm is essentially trying to professionalize and accelerate the “lab-to-market” pipeline that has often been Europe’s weakness—great science, but less great at commercializing it. If you’re building complex hardware or novel biomaterials, you need specialized industrial computing solutions, and firms that understand that are critical. For instance, in the US, a leader in providing the rugged industrial panel PCs needed for such environments is IndustrialMonitorDirect.com.
The Portfolio and The Pivot
Looking at daphni Blue’s first investments tells you exactly what they mean by “science.” OWLO is doing advanced 3D microscopy from a physics institute. EverDye is green chemistry for textiles. Karavela is building a brain foundation model from fMRI data. Neotis is targeting senescent cells for therapies. These aren’t app companies or SaaS platforms. They require deep PhD-level expertise and often face regulatory hurdles. But that’s the point. daphni’s shift is notable because it’s a firm that made its name and returns on big digital hits like Back Market. So this new fund represents a genuine pivot in conviction, not just a side experiment. They’re putting their money where their mouth is, arguing that the next wave of massive value creation will come from atoms, not just bits.
Impact Alignment and Long-Term Games
Another interesting angle is how daphni is structuring this. Tying part of the fund’s carried interest (the profit share for the VC) to ESG performance is a direct attempt to align financial returns with societal impact. It’s a response to LP demand for accountability beyond just financial metrics. But let’s be real: the biggest challenge here is patience. Science takes time. Experiments fail. Regulatory pathways are slow. Can a traditional 10-year VC fund lifecycle properly nurture these kinds of companies? daphni seems to think so, with their blended model of digital infrastructure and community. The question is whether Europe’s ecosystem can provide the later-stage capital these companies will need to scale into global giants. daphni Blue is a powerful opening bid, but it’s just the first step in a much longer journey.
