Strategic View: In a major win for France’s “Sovereignty” tech fund, a €200M club deal has been formed to back ‘Opti-Logic,’ a Paris-based AI logistics platform. The club, led by Bpifrance and Germany’s HV Capital, with participation from US-based Lightspeed, is a strategic cross-border move to build a European AI champion.
Full story: The race for European AI is heating up, and Paris just fired a major shot. Opti-Logic, a deep tech firm specializing in AI-driven supply chain optimization, has secured a €200 million Series C. This is not a standard venture round; it is a meticulously constructed club deal, blending national strategy with international validation.
The deal is anchored by Bpifrance, France’s powerful state-backed investment bank. This signals the deal’s strategic importance to the national “Fonds Souveraineté” (Sovereignty Fund). By leading the round, Bpifrance is ensuring this critical technology remains and scales within Europe. This is industrial policy being executed with the precision of a venture capitalist.
Crucially, the French did not go it alone. They brought in German giant HV Capital, creating a powerful Paris-Berlin axis. This broadens the company’s access to the entire EU industrial market. To finalize the club, US-based Lightspeed Ventures joined, providing the Silicon Valley network and the “exit” pathway to a global, NASDAQ-level scale.
This deal is the new template for European “deep tech” financing. It demonstrates how state-backed funds are using the club deal structure as a geo-strategic tool. They are building a “capital wall” to protect their most promising assets, while simultaneously using international partners to ensure those assets can conquer the global market.
Summary: This €200M Opti-Logic round is a state-sponsored, cross-border club deal in action. It matters because it shows how Europe is using this structure to finance its “AI sovereignty,” blending public capital with private VC expertise to build and protect its next generation of tech giants from foreign acquisition.
Source: Les Echos
