Frst Research
Investment Thesis
Frst (formerly Otium Venture, rebranded in 2019) is a Paris- and San Francisco-based seed-stage venture capital firm built around a single organizing idea, stated on their site as "All you need is a Unique Insight." The firm positions itself as "the first believers" — the earliest institutional capital a founder raises, often before incorporation, a finished product, or a formal team exists. Co-founders Pierre Entremont and Bruno Raillard started investing together in 2015 under the Otium Venture banner before formally launching Frst in 2019, and the firm evaluates opportunities through a three-part framework: Ambition, Vision, and Execution.
Stage Focus
Frst's core focus is Day One and Seed investing, with selective participation in follow-on rounds (Series A through Series B+) for existing portfolio companies as they scale. The firm is explicit that it will back founders pre-product and pre-incorporation, and that speed is a competitive differentiator: it says most decisions are made "in 2 meetings and 48 hours" when a company is still in its earliest form.
Check Size
The firm states an average first check of $2 million with "significant variance," while external sources (Crunchbase/FintechVCList) describe a typical range of roughly €1M–€3M per deal. Combined with follow-on reserves for winners, this puts Frst in the standard seed-lead range for the European market.
Lead Tendency
Frst frequently leads or co-leads seed rounds for the companies it backs at the earliest stage, consistent with its "first believers" positioning and its emphasis on being the initial institutional check. For later-stage follow-ons in breakout portfolio companies (e.g., Pigment, Poolside, Owkin), it is more often a participating investor alongside larger growth funds.
Recent Activity
Frst is actively deploying out of Frst 3, a fund that reached a first close of roughly $80M (€72M) in June 2023 and ultimately closed near $100M (€100M), backed by the European Investment Fund, Bpifrance's Fonds National d'Amorçage 2, Axa Venture Partners, and Isomer. Over its ~10-year history (including the Otium Venture years), the firm has deployed roughly $200M across some 70 companies that have collectively raised $3.5B in follow-on capital. The most recent confirmed new investment is Monogram, a stealth AI visual-interface startup founded by Udemy co-founder Eren Bali, which emerged from stealth on July 7, 2026 with a $40M seed round led by DST Global and Lux Capital. Frst also participated in Spiko's $22M Series A (July 2025, led by Index Ventures) for its tokenized money-market-fund platform.
Portfolio Highlights
The current portfolio spans roughly 36 active companies visible on the firm's site, with concentrations in AI-native software (Poolside, an AI foundation-model company for coding; Comand; Helical; Flexion; Uncovr), enterprise SaaS (Pigment, a business-planning platform; Maki, an AI recruiting platform; Polar Analytics), biotech AI (Bioptimus and Owkin, both applying AI to biology/drug discovery), fintech and insurtech (Spiko, Orus, Dalma, PayFit), cybersecurity (Bastion, founded by ex-Palantir engineers; Escape), climate/mobility (Electra, an EV charging network; Condor; Pelikan Mobility), logistics (Shippeo, Tryriot), and legal tech (Doctrine). The firm counts 4 unicorns, 1 IPO, and 7 acquisitions among its portfolio companies to date, per third-party trackers.
Team
- Pierre Entremont — Co-Founder & Partner. Started as a seed investor in 2015 alongside Bruno Raillard. Prior background spans ecommerce entrepreneurship, company-building at eFounders/Hexa and Rocket Internet, private equity at IK Investment Partners, and management consulting at McKinsey. Co-founded the "Les Pigeons" entrepreneur movement in France in 2012.
- Bruno Raillard — Co-Founder & Partner. Launched Otium Venture with Entremont in 2015 to bring a "high-conviction mindset" to French seed investing, then co-launched Frst in 2019. Prior roles in financial consulting (EY, Eight Advisory), private equity (Otium Capital), and general management (Gault&Millau).
- Samuel Fitoussi — Associate. Joined Frst in 2025. Previously built an education consultancy and contributed essays to French media and think-tanks on ideological bias and the spread of ideas.
Decision Process
Frst operates as a small, partnership-led team (two founding partners plus one associate at the time of this research), consistent with a partnership decision process rather than a solo-GP or full investment-committee structure. The firm's own messaging emphasizes unusually fast decision cycles for early-stage deals.
Founder Preferences
Frst's stated philosophy leans toward backing exceptional, ambitious founders early, even before there is a company to diligence in the traditional sense — the firm explicitly underwrites people and unique insight over traction. Recent portfolio additions skew toward technical founders building AI-native products and repeat/experienced founders (e.g., Eren Bali of Monogram, previously of Udemy and Carbon Health; the ex-Palantir team at Bastion).
Geographic Focus
Frst is headquartered in Paris (354 rue Saint-Honoré) with a San Francisco office (595 Pacific Avenue), reflecting its stated mission of backing French and European entrepreneurs with global — particularly US — ambitions. The bulk of the visible portfolio is French/European, with the firm using its SF presence to help portfolio companies expand into the US market.