Aster is a

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

company specialised in the

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

, and mobility sectors. Founded in 2010, it has operations in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, and

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

. Aster manages more than €500 million in assets and investments in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The company is headed by Jean-Marc Bally.

History

Origin

Aster was born out of

Schneider Electric Schneider Electric SE is a French multinational company that specializes in digital automation and energy management. It addresses homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries, by combining energy technologies, real-time automation ...

Ventures, created in 2000. In January 2010,

joined forces with

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

to launch a Paris-based Aster fund. Initially funded with €70 million (including €40 million contributed by

and €30 million by

), the fund focuses on supporting the development of innovative start-ups in the fields of

green tech Environmental technology (envirotech) or green technology (greentech), also known as ''clean technology'' (''cleantech''), is the application of one or more of environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic device ...

, innovative materials, intelligent transport systems, and the

Internet of Things The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other comm ...

. The formation of Aster responds to

and

's desire to detect resources and talent beyond the two groups, from an open innovation standpoint, in order to identify future markets. It's one of the first "multi-corporate" funds (with multiple companies as investors) on a global scale. Among the investments by

Ventures are CPower, offering solutions to optimise energy consumption, purchased in September 2010 by the US energy company Constellation Energy; Netasq, specialising in network security software, purchased in October 2012 by

EADS Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

; ConnectBlue, a wireless technology provider, purchased by the Swiss company

U-blox u-blox is a Swiss company that creates wireless semiconductors and modules for consumer, automotive and industrial markets. They operate as a fabless IC and design house. They acquired a dozen companies after their IPO in 2007, after acquiring ...

in 2014; and Solaire Direct, a solar energy producer, purchased by

Engie Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...

in July 2015.

2010

In November 2010, Aster made its first investment, as part of a €500,000 round of funding, in the start-up Optiréno, which specialises in the energy renovation of

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fun ...

2011

In February 2011, the chemical industry group Rhodia, which became a subsidiary of Solvay Group in September 2011, joined Aster, and the fund reached €85 million. In June 2011, Aster invested $3 million in Ioxus, a company specialising in high-end supercapacitors for the automotive

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

. Also in June 2011, Aster invested €2.5 million in Avantium, which manufactures plant-based plastics. The 2011 rankings by the Observatoire des PME Finance ranked Aster as 3rd place among investment capital groups.

2012

In 2012, Aster invested €4 million in SolarFuel, which specialises in the conversion of carbon dioxide into HyGas "green" methane gas. In July 2012, Aster increased the capital of Lucibel, which specialises in LEDs (a Li-Fi solution), by injecting €1.5 million. In October 2012, Aster invested €2 million in EcoFactor, a California start-up specialising in energy-saving software. In November 2012, the

European Investment Fund The European Investment Fund (EIF), established in 1994, is a financial institution for the provision of finance to SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), headquartered in Luxembourg. It is part of the European Investment Bank Group. It ...

(EIF) contributed €20 million to the Aster fund. This investment gave Aster a total of €105 million. According to the business newspaper '' Les Echos'', this was the first investment by an institutional player in France's risk capital market . According to an assessment by the AFIC Cleantech Club fundraising barometer, Aster was the third largest French investment fund investing in cleantech companies in 2012.

2013

In January 2013, Aster invested in Building IQ, which specialises in energy efficiency software. In November 2013, after already being invested in EcoFactor's capital, Aster took part in a second round of

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

with $10 million. In 2013, Aster invested $3 million in Atlantium, an Israeli start-up specialising in

water treatment Water treatment is any process that improves the Water quality, quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking water, drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recrea ...

. Ioxus raised a $15 million C from investors including Aster, the Westly Group, Northwater Capital Management, Braemar Energy Ventures and Energy Technology Ventures. According to Jean-Marc Bally, Aster evaluated 1,500 start-up files in 2013.

2014

Lucibel raised €15 million in January 2014, with €3.5 million contributed by Aster. The purpose of this new round of funds was to develop the

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

's external growth. In January 2014, the Lyon start-up The CosMo Company, which specialises in modeling and simulating complex systems, raised €3.8 million, allowing it to export to

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In March 2014, Aster took part in raising $10 million for Iceotope. On 15 July 2014, Lucibel was listed on the stock market, with Aster's support. In November 2014, Aster invested in Digital Lumens, which specialises in smart

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

lights, for a fourth round of funding, for a total of €23 million. Finally, in September 2014, Easybike raised €6.5 million through Aster, Sigma Gestion, and Business Angels, in order to accelerate its development.

2015

In March 2015,

and five partners (AFD, Proparco, BEI, OFID, and CDC K launched the Energy Access Ventures fund with a budget of €54.5 million. The fund, managed by Aster, was created to finance small- and medium-sized enterprises in order to accelerate access to electricity in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

2016

In January 2016, Aster and Alter Equity 3P partners with ECO GTB to raise €2.3 million to boost the growth of the

, which specialises in outsourced management services for building facilities. Alongside HSBC Ventures, Aster invested in the capital of Customer Matrix, which specialises in data analysis. Alongside HSBC Ventures, Aster invested in the capital of Customer Matrix, which specialises in data analysis. In February 2016, Aster took part in the third round of funding, raising €8 million for the US start-up EnTouch Controls, which specialises in energy management for buildings. In September 2016, FINALCAD raised €20 million through Aster, Serena Capital, and CapHorn Invest. The goal of the combined funds was to accelerate the growth of the leader in construction digital transformation. In October 2016, OpenDataSoft raised €5,4 million through a second round of funding through Aster and Salesforce Venture. The start-up, which specialises in data harvesting and analysis, opened offices in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

in 2016 to accelerate its development in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

2017

In January 2017, ekWateur, a collaborative energy supplier in France, wrapped up a first round of funding with €2 million from Aster,

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas is a French international banking group, founded in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP, "National Bank of Paris") and Paribas, formerly known as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The full name of the grou ...

Développement, and

Bouygues Telecom Bouygues Telecom () is a French mobile phone, Internet service provider and IPTV company, part of the Bouygues group. It is the third oldest mobile network operator in France, after Orange and SFR, and before Free Mobile. Its headquarters, desig ...

Initiatives. EkWateur aims to have 500,000 customers in 2022. In November 2017, Aster raises 240 million euros, bringing all its funds to 500 million euros to support startups in the fields of energy, mobility and industry.

2018

Aster participates in Habiteo's €6 million fundraising in November 2017, a French startup that supplies real estate developers with a 3D visualization tool. In January 2018, Aster invests in Element Analytics, specialized in industrial data analysis. In February 2018, Aster led the EUR 1.5 million fundraising round of DCbrain, which develops network optimization solutions.

References

{{Venture capital firms French companies established in 2010 Financial services companies established in 2010