Shabir Vasram, Daphni: “We are seeing valuation anomalies in certain AI cases due to investors’ pressure”

Shabir Vasram is a Partner at venture capital firm Daphni. Focusing on seed to Series A funding, Daphni backed companies such as Back Market, Stockly, Albatross and Prediko, and is rapidly expanding into retail tech. He revealed to mind Retail that investments in agentic AI will be announced soon.

Through Sophie Baqué. Published on 17 June 2025 à 13h16 - Update on 23 July 2025 à 18h33

What is the total amount of assets managed by Daphni?

Based in Paris with 25 employees (including around 10 investors), Daphni has €800 million in assets under management, with a strong focus on sustainability. We have stakes in around 60 companies in nine countries (France, Germany, Sweden, England, Switzerland, Spain, the U.S.A., Brazil and the U.A.E.). Daphni was founded in 2016 by Marie Ekeland (formerly of Elaia, the fund that first invested in Criteo), Willy Braun, Mathieu Daix (France Digitale), Pierre-Eric Leibovici and Pierre-Yves Meerschman (Orkos Capital). We have always had this focus on sustainability, but today we are combining it with an increased tech dimension, particularly through deep tech. At Daphni, our first pillar is this data-driven approach. We work with an internally developed platform, which serves as a tool for managing deal flow, sourcing, community engagement and reporting. This application manages data collected by investors, scrapes external databases (commercial traction, recruitment),…

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