How was Sonorcap’s portfolio built and what is the place for retail technology? What is the cumulative amount of assets under management?
Sonorcap, launched in April 2019, is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on retail and e-commerce technologies. We have 45 companies in our portfolio, with an average investment of 60,000 euros. Half of them are retail tech companies. Behind Sonorcap, there are two investors, my brother Guillaume and myself. As the owner or manager of around 20 supermarkets and hypermarkets, he has a very professional perspective on technology. Many people who graduated from business schools find this difficult to understand, but technology has to bring something of value to the consumer or to the stores, while also integrating easily into an IT system. When analysing applications, our duo, enriched by Guillaume’s very professional perspective, allows us to understand what will have the most impact. We consider ourselves more like business angels: we invest in the seed stage, with tickets between €30,000 and €50,000, in companies that have a finalised software offering and one or two active clients. Each year, Sonorcap supports 4 to 6 new retail tech companies.
What is the average investment period?
We are an evergreen fund with perpetual capital, which, unlike traditional funds, has no limited duration. This frees us from legal constraints. We support start-ups over the long term, for 5, 10 or 15 years.
