Cathay Innovation announced today the final close of its latest venture capital fund at $1 billion, making it the largest AI-focused fund in the European Union.
The closing of this fund marks a significant shift in AI-era venture capital, where the success of startups and established industry players is becoming increasingly intertwined. And Fund III is backed by a diverse base of institutional investors as well as multinational corporations looking to access the latest AI startup technologies key to industry-wide transformation. This includes major organizations such as Sanofi, TotalEnergies, Valeo, BNP Paribas Cardif, Groupe SEB, and Groupe ADP (Paris Aéroport), which several international industry players, including Vale Ventures, Copec WIND Ventures, and others, have joined.
Beyond the investment, Cathay Innovation’s global platform connects startups with its corporate ecosystem, a broad network of 20+ Fortune 500 corporations to facilitate deeper industry collaboration. And this includes strategic partnerships, co-investments, or other business development opportunities like global biopharma Sanofi’s ongoing AI initiatives with Cathay Innovation portfolio companies Owkin, AQEMIA, or Inato. This not only helps startups scale earlier and faster, but it also helps corporations access cutting-edge technologies at a time when transformation is mission-critical.
Fund III mainly focuses on startups applying AI deeply tailored to specific sectors. Focusing on Series A, B and late-stage startups, Fund III invests between $5 million and $100 million, leading or co-leading rounds and reserving capital for follow-on support. To date, it has invested in 14 startups across the U.S., Europe and Asia including:
1.) Healthcare: Nabla (AI co-pilot for physicians), AQEMIA (AI + quantum physics drug discovery), Bioptimus (first universal foundation model for biology), Nelly (European fintech simplifying healthcare payments)
2.) Financial Services: Range (AI-driven wealth management), Flowdesk (full-stack market-making for digital assets), Ping++ (Open banking and payment infrastructure)
3.) Consumer: Ghost (B2B marketplace for excess inventory), Reebelo (marketplace for refurbished tech devices), Imagino (customer data platform for modern brands), Mogic (genAI-powered short-form video creation), Beatbot (intelligent robotic cleaning systems)
4.) Energy: David Energy (next-gen retail energy platform), Entalpic (foundation model-based materials discovery for low-carbon innovations)
The firm’s geographic diversity is a strategic advantage in today’s fragmented world, helping startups in the U.S., for example, operate successfully in Europe, Latam or other parts of the world and vice versa. Fund III is also classified as an Article 8 fund under the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), reflecting its commitment to environmental and social impact. It backs high-growth companies where AI is used to advance industries in ways that are locally grounded, globally scalable and socially positive.
KEY QUOTES:
“In one of the most challenging fundraising periods the venture industry has seen, Fund III illustrates the power of value-added capital. The benefits of the Cathay platform go far beyond capital, it’s rooted in providing solutions that are useful to our investors, corporate partners and founders. Regardless of macroeconomic uncertainties, the AI-driven transformation of industries will go on. Our mission is to support local champions and create ecosystem synergies that benefit all stakeholders while creating lasting economic and societal impact.”
Mingpo Cai, Founder and Chairman of Cathay Capital and Cathay Innovation
“Fund III represents a new kind of VC fund built for the AI era, with the capital and ecosystem needed for real industrial and societal change. AI is a general-purpose technology—like electricity— not offering incremental improvements, but with the potential to reinvent entire industries. This shift has redefined the role of startups from disruptors to transformation partners, with collaboration now the new currency for success. Over the past decade, we’ve built the world’s largest venture capital platform that can connect startups and corporate innovation under one roof to drive this transformation together.”
Denis Barrier, Co-founder of Cathay Innovation
