On Tuesday evening local time, Motier Ventures, an early stage tech investment firm based in Paris, unveiled a startup hub called La Maison. This relatively new investor in the French tech ecosystem is the family office of the Houzé family — the owners of upmarket fashion retailer the Galeries Lafayette Group.
As the Galeries Lafayette department stores’ main assets are its physical retail stores they also believe a physical space for startups will give them an edge over other tech investment firms.
Early stage startup founders based in Paris have more options than ever when it comes to raising a seed round. Many unicorn founders have become angel investors on the side. Family offices have diversified their investment strategies with a renewed appetite for tech startups. And early stage VC firms are still fighting for the best deals.
The most promising startups get to choose who they want on their capitalization table. Some investors like to promise introductions with potential clients and business partners. Others pledge a speedy, no frills financial transaction so that entrepreneurs can get back to work on their startup.
Motier Ventures is betting on an ecosystem-first approach. Over the past three years, the fund has deployed capital at a rapid pace as it is now an investor in 85 companies, including many promising AI companies — such as Dust, H and Mistral.
They’ve also organized several events that have put many founders and investors in the French tech ecosystem into the same room. The next step in that strategy is a physical space, called La Maison (a word which translates as house or home).
Spread across the top three floors of the Lafayette Gourmet building next to the Opéra Garnier, La Maison will host a dozen early stage startups in this Haussmannian building. It will open in early 2025.
The fourth floor will be a bit different as it will act as an event/demo day/hackathon/cocktail reception space. “It’s a big project, and I think what drives us is not just Motier Ventures, but the whole entrepreneurial and family ecosystem that we’ve represented for five generations,” Motier Ventures partner Guillaume Houzé said during an AI-focused event in Paris organized by Motier.
“With Galeries Lafayette, we’re ultimately trying to support those who make the finest brands,” he added, saying the fund’s goal for La Maison is to support “exceptional teams” by providing not just a work and meeting place but also inspiration for creativity — or “a space to reflect collectively on the vision of society we want to build”, as he put it.
In many ways, the pitch for La Maison is reminiscent of the early days of local tech hub The Family. Around 10 years go, The Family opened as a startup accelerator with a beautiful event space that quickly became the town square of the French tech ecosystem.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, The Family had no choice but to shut down the space to cut costs. More recently, it’s been back in the news for all the wrong reasons as Oussama Ammar, one of The Family’s co-founder, is being sued for allegedly diverting millions of euros.
For people who have been working in the French tech ecosystem for more than a few years, The Family’s meetups and dinners are now just a distant memory. And nothing has really stepped in to replace it. While Station F is a magnificent startup megacampus, it’s too big for casual and informal events. Maybe La Maison will become the new default space to host small meetups.
“Our ambition is to cultivate an environment where the next generation of tech entrepreneurs, in AI and beyond, can feel supported, inspired, and connected every day,” Motier Ventures partner Nicolas Essayan said in a statement.
