115K Research
Investment Thesis
115K is the corporate venture capital fund of La Banque Postale, France's 11th-largest bankinsurance group in Europe. Launched in 2022 and headquartered in Paris, 115K is a next-generation CVC that combines tier-one VC investment discipline with the strategic strength, distribution, and balance sheet of a large diversified financial-services corporate. The fund's public positioning describes itself as "the European VC Fund Dedicated to Next-Gen Financial Services." Its core belief is that the future of financial services will be built by technical, product-driven founders solving embedded finance, risk, and trust problems for the banking, insurance, and payments value chain, and that 115K's access to La Banque Postale's ecosystem (CNP Assurances, Louvre Banque Privée, LFDE, La Poste, Docaposte, Geopost, and others) gives portfolio companies a uniquely valuable commercial and distribution partner.
Sector Focus
115K states its focus explicitly as "Fintech, InsurTech, AI & Cybersecurity." In practice the portfolio breaks into:
- Embedded fintech and payments infrastructure (B2B payments rails, SME financial tooling, savings and wealth platforms)
- InsurTech (AI-enabled risk carriers, digital guarantees, commercial P&C risk intelligence)
- Cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and enterprise (network detection and response, cryptography, cyber-physical systems protection)
- Applied AI for financial services and enterprise workflows (conversational AI, HR data infrastructure, formal-methods AI validation)
- One adjacent ClimateTech position (city-level net-zero planning and finance software), suggesting some opportunistic flexibility beyond the core four verticals
Stage Focus
115K invests from Seed through Series B, with a clear preference for being an early institutional partner. Portfolio evidence spans Seed (Skarlett, Numalis, ValueCometrics, Cashbee, Covalt, HelloCarbo, Cosmian) through Series A (Aria, Obat, ClimateView, Continuity, Jizo, Zaion, Seclab, HrFlow.ai) and Series B (Seyna, Garantme).
Check Size
Publicly stated ticket size is €0.5M-€5M ("Tickets from €1-5M, with strong follow-on capabilities" on-site; corroborated externally as "€500K-5M first tickets"). The fund reserves capital for follow-on rounds in existing portfolio companies.
Lead Tendency
115K explicitly positions itself as willing to "Lead or co-lead." Evidence from recent rounds shows a strong lead tendency: it led Seyna's €10M round (Sept 2025), was named lead investor in ValueCometrics' €1.5M round (Nov 2024), and led HrFlow.ai's $7M Pre-Series A (April 2026) and Zaion's €11M round (Jan 2025).
Recent Activity
115K has been actively deploying through 2025 and into 2026:
- April 2026: Led HrFlow.ai's $7M Pre-Series A (API-first AI infrastructure for HR data)
- September 2025: Led Seyna's €10M round (AI-enabled insurance carrier for brokers), bringing Seyna's total funding to €57M
- June 2025: Backed Skarlett's €8M round (financial-services marketplace for the over-60s)
- January 2025: Led Zaion's €11M round (conversational AI for banking/insurance customer service)
- November 2024: Lead investor in ValueCometrics' €1.5M round (real-time ESG scoring)
- June 2024: Backed Continuity's €10M round (AI risk intelligence for commercial P&C insurers)
The fund's AUM is reported at €150M across multiple third-party sources (LinkedIn, OpenVC, Tracxn, PitchBook), consistent with the fund's own site.
Portfolio Highlights
17 disclosed portfolio companies span the fund's core verticals, including Aria (€500M+ GMV embedded B2B payments), Seyna (€145M+ GWP insurance carrier), Garantme (€20M+ ARR digital rental guarantees), Zaion (+€10M ARR conversational AI, French category leader), HrFlow.ai (AI infrastructure for HR data), and Jizo (Gartner-recognized AI network detection and response for IT/OT). One notable exit: Cosmian, a data-protection/cryptography company, had its technology integrated into Eviden (Atos Group) in October 2025 following an April 2025 strategic partnership.
Team
115K's public team page lists five investors:
- Damien Launoy, Partner (also referenced externally as Managing Director)
- Armelle de Tinguy, Partner
- Benoît Descoqs, Principal
- Hugo Vallette Viallard, Associate
- Emilien Thomas, Associate
Armelle de Tinguy and Emilien Thomas joined in January 2025 as part of a team-strengthening hire alongside Nizar Dahmane (announced together in a recruitment post), reflecting the fund's build-out of operational and investment capacity.
Decision Process
115K operates as a small partnership-style investment team (five investors) rather than a solo-GP fund, consistent with a corporate VC structure backed by La Banque Postale's investment committee processes.
Founder Preferences
Given the fund's vertical focus and CVC structure, 115K appears to favor technical and domain-expert founders building regulated or trust-sensitive financial infrastructure (payments, insurance, cybersecurity) where a strategic corporate partner (bank, insurer, wealth manager) provides meaningful commercial distribution advantage.
Geographic Focus
115K is explicitly "European-based." Portfolio companies are concentrated in France (Aria, Obat, Skarlett, Garantme, Cashbee, Numalis, Zaion, Seclab, Cosmian, HelloCarbo) with additional European exposure (Seyna, Continuity, Jizo, Covalt, ValueCometrics, ClimateView in Sweden).