A French investment firm is close to raising a €250 million European startup fund

Twitter/didierrappaport

LONDON — French investor Idinvest Partners is in the final stages of raising a €250 million (£211 million) venture capital fund that will be used to back startups across Europe.

Benoist Grossman and Matthieu Baret, two of the firm's partners, told Business Insider on Wednesday that they expect the fund to be closed by June.

"We are currently raising a new fund that will cover Europe," said Baret in London.

Grossman said that the money was coming from pension funds, insurance companies, and elsewhere.

"We've had a very successful strategy over the past 10 years and we have the deal flow," said Baret.

The fund will be used to invest between €5 million (£4 million) and €25 million (£21 million) into startups that have the potential to scale into billion dollar businesses.

Idinvest Partners was founded in 1997 and has more than €7 billion (£5.9 billion) at its disposal. The company's venture capital operation, which launched 10 years ago, has raised €1.5 billion (£1.3 billion) to date and backed more than 60 startups across Europe, including dating app Happn and travel website Secret Escapes.

There have been a flurry of European startup funds being announced this month.

Berlin-based venture capital fund Project A announced on Wednesday that it had closed a €180 million (£152 million) fund, while London-based Atomico announced a $765 million (£615 million) fund last week.

NOW WATCH: 7 amazing technologies we'll see by 2030

See Also:

• An investor in Twitter, Slack and Tumblr explains the power of 'goosebumps'

• A VC fund set up by Skype's cofounder has raised $765 million to invest in European startups

• These early Facebook and Twitter investors think Snapchat is on track for $14.8B in revenue by 2027

SEE ALSO: A VC fund set up by Skype's cofounder has raised $765 million to invest in European startups