Generalist · VC Firm
Serena
Paris generalist with one quantum bet: backed Quandela's €50M Series B (Nov 2023) through its €100M Data Ventures II infrastructure fund. Pre-seed/seed checks of €0.5M-€3.5M for data stack, open-source, blockchain and quantum.
Investment thesis
Paris-based VC founded in 2008 by Xavier Lorphelin, Marc Fournier and Philippe Hayat, now managing over €1B following the €200M first close of Serena IV (October 2025, applied AI and energy transition, €250M target).
Quantum sits in a single pocket: Serena Data Ventures II, a €100M pre-seed/seed infrastructure fund launched in November 2023 (modern data stack and AI, open-source, blockchain, quantum) led by Talend co-founder Bertrand Diard.
Its one quantum bet is Quandela, the French photonic full-stack company, which Serena joined as a new investor in the €50M Series B (November 2023) alongside Crédit Mutuel Innovation and the EIC.
First checks range from €100K to €15M firm-wide, but Data Ventures II writes €0.5M to €3.5M, which frames what a quantum founder can realistically expect. No quantum thesis published, no second quantum deal since.
Anti-thesis
The patterns that trigger a fast no with this fund.
- One quantum deal in 18 years, entered at Series B behind Omnes, Bpifrance and Quantonation; no lead position in any European quantum company
- No second quantum check since November 2023; Serena IV (the active flagship, Oct 2025) explicitly targets applied AI and energy transition and excludes pure deeptech
- Quantum capacity sits in a €100M pre-seed/seed pocket (Data Ventures II) with €0.5M-€3.5M tickets: limited firepower for capital-intensive quantum hardware
- The €1B program is real but spread across applied AI, energy transition, infrastructure, impact (Racine²) and consumer; quantum is one sub-theme of one fund
- The Quandela coverage team (Bertrand Diard, Floriane de Maupeou) is the Data Ventures duo, not a dedicated quantum practice