Elaia closes its third deep-tech seed fund at €134M

The Paris-based VC backed by Bpifrance and Université PSL has exceeded the €120M goal it set at first close in March 2024.

When Elaia first raised its third deep-tech seed fund in March 2024, the target was €120 million. The final figure has come in higher. The Paris-based venture capital firm has closed its DTS3 fund at €134 million, a 12 per cent overshoot that reflects both strong LP appetite for European deep tech and the firm’s long-cultivated position as the preferred backer of research-born startups.

DTS3, the third generation of Elaia’s dedicated deep-tech seed vehicle, is designed to back B2B startups at the earliest stages of company formation, writing tickets as small as €300,000. The strategy focuses on three broad technology pillars: computing (including generative AI, quantum, and cybersecurity), future of industry (energy, climate technology, and advanced materials), and life sciences.

Elaia plans to make approximately 40 initial investments from the fund, then follow on in 25 to 30 of the most promising companies as they scale toward seed.

The distinctive feature of DTS3, as with its predecessors, is its deep integration with European academic and scientific institutions. The fund was developed in partnership with Université PSL, one of France’s leading research universities, building on a model Elaia first established with PSL for its debut deep-tech seed fund and continued with the national computer science research institute Inria for its second.

These partnerships give Elaia privileged access to spinouts and founding teams before they reach the open market.

That pipeline has produced notable results. Among the companies Elaia has backed through this academic channel are Aqemia, the AI-driven drug discovery platform; Alice & Bob, the quantum computing startup that secured its first fault-tolerant cat-qubit computers and raised substantial international capital; and Mablink Bioscience, a biotech focused on antibody-drug conjugates for cancer treatment, which was subsequently acquired by Eli Lilly.

Elaia was founded in 2002 by Xavier Lazarus, who has described Europe’s deep-tech momentum in recent years as a structural shift rather than a cyclical moment, driven by a combination of academic excellence, patient capital, and growing institutional support from bodies like Bpifrance, France’s public investment bank, which participated as a major backer in DTS3.

The DTS3 close adds to a busy period of fundraising for Elaia. In February 2026, the firm announced a €120 million first close for its fifth generalist Digital Venture Fund (DV5), targeting €300 million in total.

That vehicle will back European B2B technology startups from pre-seed to Series B, with ticket sizes of €1 million to €15 million. Together, the two funds reflect Elaia’s ambition to operate as a full-stack investor, entering at the earliest research stage through DTS3, then continuing to back the best performers through the DV series into growth.

France’s Tibi 2 initiative, designed to channel institutional capital toward venture and deep-tech funds, has been a meaningful structural enabler for DTS3. Elaia has cited the programme as providing access, in larger amounts than before, to institutional investors who are now long-term LP partners.

With the DTS3 final close, Elaia’s total assets under management now exceed €850 million, a figure that situates the firm comfortably among Europe’s top-tier early-stage investors in technology and deep science.