Elephants & Ventures / Hardware Club
Elephants & Ventures SAS is the legal entity behind Hardware Club (HCVC), a Paris-headquartered pre-seed and seed venture capital firm dedicated to hardtech and deep-tech founders building the physical layer of the future. Incorporated in 2013 with SIREN 791826837 and capital EUR 164,704, the firm launched the Hardware Club brand in 2015 under founder Alexis Houssou (Managing Partner) together with Jerry Yang and Aymerik Renard. Alex Flamant joined as Partner in 2023 from Singular and Notion Capital, and former Renault Sport F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul became Venture Partner in 2021. AMF-regulated since December 6 2016 (registration GP-16000031) as an AIFM, HCVC operates from a Paris HQ at 59 rue Beaubourg 75003 plus a San Francisco office and manages approximately USD 130M (EUR 120M) across two main vehicles. HCVC Fund I closed in 2018 at USD 50M (EUR 48M) backed by EIF Isomer Capital and Molten Ventures alongside angels John Elkann Toto Wolff and Albert Wenger. HCVC Fund II closed in 2023 at USD 75M (EUR 69M). Investment thesis focuses on clean energy advanced computing robotics biomanufacturing and defense across Europe and North America with tickets USD 0.5M to USD 3M at pre-seed and seed. The 35 plus portfolio includes Anello Photonics Renaissance Fusion Chiral Transmutex Sarcura Karman Industries Cosmic Robotics and Chef Robotics. Seven confirmed exits to date: Valispace 2023 to Altium ASX ALU Trade Sale USD 19.97M Augmenta 2023 to CNH Industrial NYSE CNHI Trade Sale USD 110M Caper AI 2021 to Instacart NASDAQ CART Trade Sale circa USD 350M Left Hand Robotics 2018 to Toro Company NYSE TTC Trade Sale Noke 2017 to Janus International Trade Sale and Prynt 2016 undisclosed Trade Sale. Brand site hcvc.co corporate domain elephantsandventures.com.
Key facts
Recent exits
Coverage notes
2 funds tracked, 43 portfolio companies (34 active · 9 realized). Verified weekly from public filings and deal announcements.
Funds & portfolio
Every fund Elephants & Ventures / Hardware Club has raised, with its portfolio companies. Hand-checked from public filings.
HCVC Hardware Club Fund IIVC2023 · 3yr€69M27 active
Unrealized
27 held| Company | Sector | Geo | Entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Eagle | Industrials | Germany | 2023 |
| Anello Photonics | TMT | US | 2020 |
| Antaris | TMT | US | 2022 |
| Ark Biotech | Healthcare | US | 2021 |
| Atmio | Energy | Germany | 2023 |
| Chef Robotics | Industrials | US | 2023 |
| Chiral | TMT | Switzerland | 2023 |
| Cosmic Robotics | Energy | US | 2024 |
| Delian | Industrials | Greece | 2023 |
| Dyna Robotics | Industrials | US | 2024 |
| Full Speed Automation | Industrials | US | 2021 |
| Fuse Vectors | Energy | Denmark | 2024 |
| Giraffe360 | TMT | Latvia | 2020 |
| Karavela | Healthcare | France | 2025 |
| Karman+ | TMT | US | 2024 |
| Kyron.bio | Healthcare | France | 2025 |
| Lendurai | Financials | Estonia | 2025 |
| Navier | Industrials | US | 2024 |
| Numi | Healthcare | France | 2023 |
| ORAKL | Healthcare | France | 2023 |
| Qashier | Financials | Singapore | 2020 |
| QUiCKR Bio | Healthcare | US | 2024 |
| Renaissance Fusion | Energy | France | 2022 |
| Sarcura | Healthcare | Austria | 2022 |
| Spectrohm | Industrials | US | 2021 |
| Surge | Healthcare | France | 2022 |
| Transmutex | Energy | Switzerland | 2022 |
HCVC Hardware Club Fund IVC2018 · 8yr€48M7 active · 9 realized
Unrealized
7 heldRealized
9 exits| Company | Sector | Geo | Entry | Exit | Type | Buyer | MOIC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augmenta | Industrials | Greece | 2019 | 2023 | Trade Sale | – | |
| Caper | TMT | US | 2018 | 2021 | Trade Sale | – | |
| Cowboy | Industrials | Belgium | 2017 | 2025 | Trade Sale | – | |
| Fieldvision | TMT | US | 2018 | 2019 | Trade Sale | – | |
| ISKN | TMT | France | 2018 | 2022 | Trade Sale | – | |
| Left Hand Robotics | Industrials | US | 2017 | 2018 | Trade Sale | – | |
| Noke | TMT | US | 2015 | 2017 | Trade Sale | – | |
| Prynt | TMT | France | 2014 | 2016 | Trade Sale | – | |
| Valispace | Software | Germany | 2017 | 2023 | Trade Sale | – |
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About Elephants & Ventures / Hardware Club
Elephants & Ventures / Hardware Club is a venture capital platform based in Paris with capital deployed across 3 active fund vehicles. The firm targets European and selectively global technology companies across TMT, software and consumer, with capital deployed across early-stage and Series A/B rounds alongside institutional limited partners.
Investment thesis
The platform deploys venture capital into TMT, software and consumer categories with a focus on technology-enabled businesses across France and selectively across Europe. Investment focus spans seed and growth stages with capital deployed across multiple rounds per portfolio company, supporting founder teams through international scaling and selective M&A activity. The fund structure enables longer holding periods than typical venture vehicles, supporting category-leadership outcomes in technology platforms with global ambitions.
Recent activity
Realised exits across the current platform vintages remain limited, with the portfolio in active deployment and value-creation phase. The platform tracks 3 fund vehicles, 29 active portfolio companies and 0 realised exits across the strategy's history. Detailed buyer names and multiple data available on Pro at €29/month.
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