Newfund Management

François Véron and Patrick Malka co-founded the firm and serve as General Partners, joined by Henri Deshays, who runs the Palo Alto office. The three General Partners, alongside Partner Anne-Sophie Saint-Martin and Partner Salim Hassad, drive the deal pipeline. Deshays brings a Stanford MBA, a prior exit as founder of ModeWalk, and experience as VP Strategy at StartX.

Newfund positions itself as a 'first check fund,' meaning it frequently brings the first institutional capital into pre-seed and seed rounds. The firm writes initial checks of $250K to $2M in rounds typically capped at $4M, and it is comfortable co-investing alongside other early-stage managers or angels, particularly when the deal bridges its US-France footprint.

The firm maintains investment teams and partner presence in both Paris and Palo Alto. Portfolio companies gain exposure to two distinct networks: European talent and regulatory pathways on one side, and US go-to-market scaling, fundraising connections, and a Stanford-linked ecosystem on the other. The same fund invests across both geographies, meaning a French startup or a North American startup draws from the same capital pool and partner group.

Newfund maintains a notably open sector appetite: its portfolio spans AI/ML, health, fintech, cybersecurity, energy transition, foodtech, space-tech, enterprise SaaS, and consumer marketplaces. The firm has not published a formal exclusion list, but its deal flow concentrates on areas where transatlantic dynamics create an edge, and it has shown limited appetite for pure hardware or capital-intensive deep-tech outside its BrainTech fund.

Heka is Newfund's BrainTech fund, focused on startups at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence. It operates under the Newfund umbrella, with a dedicated team that includes Associate Constant Beroulle. Heka gives the firm a specialized vehicle to pursue neurotech and brain-computer interface deals that sit adjacent to the broader generalist seed strategy.

Newfund operates as a venture capital management company with multiple strategies. Beyond its core early-stage fund, which deploys capital across both the US and France, it runs Newfund NAEH, a regional fund investing in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine area of France, and Heka, the BrainTech fund. In 2024, it also formalized a dedicated SME-buyout practice that uses AI to transform traditional businesses, led by Investment Director Marjolaine Catil.

While Newfund emphasizes the 'first check' pre-seed and seed stage, the firm maintains reserves for follow-on investments. The career path of its team — with partners and associates supporting portfolio companies through Series A raises and M&A — suggests active engagement in later rounds, though the exact follow-on allocation is not publicly broken out.