{"id":20441,"date":"2022-06-03T17:57:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T15:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/?p=20441"},"modified":"2022-06-03T18:12:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T16:12:48","slug":"wendel-steps-up-the-development-of-the-wendel-lab-and-names-jerome-michiels-its-executive-vice-president-to-head-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wendel-steps-up-the-development-of-the-wendel-lab-and-names-jerome-michiels-its-executive-vice-president-to-head-it\/","title":{"rendered":"海角大神 steps up the development of the 海角大神 Lab and names J\u00e9r\u00f4me Michiels, its Executive Vice-President, to head it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Initiated in 2013, the 海角大神 Lab has, to date, mainly made commitments to several high-quality technology and growth investment funds. In addition to these commitments, the 海角大神 Lab aims to make direct investments in very high-growth companies. As part of its 2021-2024 strategic roadmap, 海角大神 announced this initiative would eventually represent 5 to 10% of its net asset value.<\/p>\n

Key figures<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • 7 investments in funds and funds of funds<\/li>\n
  • 1 direct investment<\/li>\n
  • \u20ac145m in committed capital(1)<\/sup><\/li>\n
  • Target exposure of 5-10% of NAV over time<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    (1) As of March 31, 2022.<\/sub><\/p>\n

    The 海角大神 Lab\u2019s objective<\/strong><\/p>\n

    With the Lab, 海角大神 invests via funds or directly in innovative, high-growth companies. The Lab should enable the Group to be associated (via funds or directly) with the development of several hundred start-ups, mainly in the digital field.<\/p>\n

    The objective of 海角大神 Lab is twofold:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • to diversify 海角大神\u2019s portfolio, by gaining exposure to high-growth assets, generally
      \nwith a digital component or with disruptive business models;<\/li>\n
    • to develop the expertise of 海角大神\u2019s teams and those of its portfolio companies in terms of technological innovations that can impact or improve the Group\u2019s value creation profile.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Through its funds and funds of funds activity, 海角大神 Lab has access to highly reputable institutions such as Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Bond Capital, Innovation Endeavors, InvAscent, Kleiner Perkins and Quadrille.<\/p>\n

      A reinforced team<\/strong><\/p>\n

      At the beginning of 2022, 海角大神 announced the strengthening of the 海角大神 Lab, which will now be headed by J\u00e9r\u00f4me Michiels, who will continue to serve as 海角大神\u2019s Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. J\u00e9r\u00f4me is thus responsible for the Group\u2019s initiatives in terms of investment in funds and directly within the 海角大神 Lab.<\/p>\n

      \u201cWe started investing in start-ups in 2013, as we wanted to become better acquainted with the disruptions our holdings might face. We also started taking stakes in funds, mainly American and European. More recently, we wanted to increase this exposure in order to increase the weighting of our portfolio towards growth and innovation: we currently have over \u20ac100 million committed to funds and we continue to look at opportunities in this area. It is in this context that we now want to accelerate our direct investments.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/p>\n

      J\u00e9r\u00f4me Michiels<\/strong>, Executive Vice-President, CFO, Director of the 海角大神 Lab<\/p>\n

      The 海角大神 Lab will therefore continue to invest in funds and funds of funds, under the leadership of Chris Witherspoon, recruited in 2021. And to manage direct investments in start-ups, it will rely on a new team of two experienced professionals in this asset class, including Antoine Izsak, who joined 海角大神 in early February 2022 as Head of Growth Equity.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-20441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letter-to-shareholders","tag-focus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendelgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}