IdInvest hires first head of marketing

IdInvest has boosted its back office team with the hire of veteran marketer Stéphanie Courtadon, who will be responsible for the firm’s marketing and RFP processes.

Courtadon spent four years leading the marketing efforts for Siparex, a mid-market firm with offices throughout France, and the previous four years as head of investor relations and marketing at Crédit Agricole Private Equity. She will feed into ambitious fundraising plans for the firm, which is seeking to raise more than €1.5 billion across its various strategies in 2016 by tapping into more Middle Eastern and Asian sovereign wealth funds, as reported by sister publication Private Equity International.

The firm spun out of insurance business Allianz in 2010 and has since grown its AUM from €2.5 billion to €6.4 billion across fund of funds, private debt, growth capital and venture. It is currently on the road raising money for its third secondaries fund and its fourth private debt fund – focusing on mezzanine and unitranche – and expects to start marketing a fourth iteration of its senior secured debt fund “after the summer,” said Christophe Bavière, the firms' president in an interview.

Last year the firm raised a €500 million senior loan fund and a €150 million digital venture fund, as well as picking up two substantial separate accounts, said Bavière, including a €300 million mandate from French state institution Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations.

The firm hopes to close its third secondaries fund on its target of €400 million by the end of the summer, said Bavière, which will represent a significant uplift from its €250 million 2014 predecessor.

At the same time the firm is raising a €700 million private debt fund focusing on mezzanine and unitranche opportunities. Again, this will be substantially larger than its €400 million predecessor.

The firm is targeting a first close before the end of the summer and final close around the end of the year, said Bavière, who added that this was as large a fund as the firm has ever raised and it would be unlikely to go any larger, due to the nature of the European mid-market: “We have a large platform, but operate in a very fragmented market, so each vehicle is relatively limited in size.”

The senior secured debt fund, which Bavière said will launch later this year, will likely target €500 million, similar to its two predecessors.

Bavière stressed that asset growth is not the most important KPI to the firm: “Our real KPIs are the performance of our funds and on the amount of cash sent back to our investors”.