Founders Future Research
Investment Thesis
Founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Marc Menasé (Kelkoo, Epicery, Nextedia, Mensquare, Teads), Founders Future is a transatlantic tech investment platform backing a new generation of AI-first entrepreneurs and frontier-technology founders. The firm's core conviction is that artificial intelligence and technological breakthroughs are driving a major cycle of transformation, and that entrepreneurship is the force best positioned to turn that shift into concrete, global opportunities. Founders Future positions itself as an operator-led, founder-first partner rather than a passive capital allocator: the team invests the way founders operate, with hands-on expertise, empathy, and long-term conviction, and layers proprietary AI-powered tools on top of its process to surface high-signal deal insights. The firm invests across data, infrastructure, productivity, health, energy, and industry, with AI treated as the foundation layer of value creation rather than a trend.
Stage Focus
Founders Future runs two complementary strategies. Its early-stage strategy backs founders "from the first idea" with tickets of €500K to €1.5M across Applied AI, SaaS, ClimateTech, Fintech, and Health, primarily in France, Europe, and the US. Its growth strategy accelerates the firm's own champions and other transatlantic scale-ups with follow and follow-on tickets of €1M to €5M (and up to €15M through the newer FF Growth US vehicle), targeting Series B and later companies with strong revenue growth and a credible path to profitability. A dedicated co-investment vehicle, FF Conviction Entrepreneurs, gives wealth-management clients balanced exposure (50% early-stage, 50% growth) across the same sectors plus energy transition, B2B software, defense, and fintech.
Check Size
Early stage: €500,000–€1,500,000. Growth / follow-on: €1,000,000–€15,000,000 depending on vehicle (FF Expansion, FF US Growth).
Lead Tendency
Mixed. The firm has led and co-led early-stage rounds (e.g., Harmattan AI, AMI Labs, several FF II checks) but growth capital is explicitly described as "Follow, Follow-On," and many notable portfolio rounds (Lydia, Riot, Bon Vivant) show Founders Future as one of several co-investors alongside firms like Y Combinator, Accel, and Tencent.
Recent Activity
Founders Future is actively deploying across Founders Future II (early-stage, vintage 2023), FF Conviction Entrepreneurs (vintage 2025), and the newly launched FF Growth US (US growth strategy, vintage 2026, subscription open). In March 2025 the firm announced a US expansion, opening a San Francisco office and adding new long-term shareholders (MACSF, the Dassault family, CMA CGM Group) to fund its goal of reaching €1B AUM by 2030; AUM has since grown from roughly €300M (2025) to close to $400M (2026). LinkedIn reporting indicates the firm completed 23 new investments in a recent six-month window, 17 of them in the US, alongside two exits. Marquee 2025-2026 activity includes Harmattan AI's $200M Series B (led by Dassault Aviation, reaching unicorn status), AMI Labs' (Yann LeCun's world-model startup) $1B+ raise, and continued deployment into agentic AI, defense/autonomy, and health infrastructure.
Portfolio Highlights
With 150+ investments since 2018, the portfolio spans consumer, fintech, climate, and increasingly defense and applied AI. Headline names include Databricks, Perplexity, Yuka, Alma, Memo Bank, Waterdrop, and Function Health. Exits/consolidations include OMMAX merging with Singulier to form a leading European AI management-consulting platform. Recent additions reflect a sharp pivot toward applied-AI infrastructure (Parse, Conduktor, Pergamon, Hyperspell, ZeroEntropy) and defense/autonomy (Harmattan AI, Saronic Technologies, AxionOrbital Space, Constellation Space, Dispatcher, SafeWorld).
Team
- Marc Menasé — Founding Partner, Chief Investments Officer; serial entrepreneur (Kelkoo, Teads) and co-founder of France Digitale
- Louis Sautet — Partner
- Guillaume Simonaire — Partner
- Thibault Magnen — Senior Associate
- Timothée Allez — Analyst
- Dulcie fforde — Principal, US Team
- Jonathan Karlson — Senior Associate, US Team
- Sophie Duval — Partner, General Counsel
- Maxence Blanchy — Chief Financial Officer
- Amanda Wu — Chief of Staff
- Matthieu Benkerant — Partner, COO
- Alexis Loison — Investor Relations
- Gabrielle Fourey — Communication
- Violette Guilbert — Investor Relations
Decision Process
Partnership-driven investment committee spanning both the Paris and US teams (Marc Menasé, Louis Sautet, Guillaume Simonaire, plus the US principal/associate team), supported by a dedicated corporate and investor-relations group.
Founder Preferences
Founders Future looks for ambitious, execution-focused technical founders building scalable, AI-first or frontier-technology products with credible paths to global (not just domestic) scale. The firm explicitly favors founders who think in transatlantic terms — European teams ready to expand into the US, and ambitious American founders the firm can support via its Silicon Valley presence.
Geographic Focus
Transatlantic: primarily France and Western Europe (Paris HQ) and the United States (San Francisco office), positioning the corridor between the two as the strategic gateway for portfolio companies' global expansion.