The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, where The Family was founded. Image: Marcin Krzyzak/Shutterstock
The Family is aiming to unite entrepreneurs across Europe.
The Family states it is not an incubator, venture capitalist or an accelerator.
Now, it is raising €15m ($17.4m) on the premise that rather than cities in Europe being the next Silicon Valley, Europe needs to become a start-up continent.
‘Things can change for the better when you’re driven by customers, innovation and ambition’
– THE FAMILY
According to TechCrunch, the collective is raising the €15m in a round led by LGT Capital Partners along with Hummingbird Ventures, Project A and eVentures, to name a few.
What is The Family?
Led by CEO Alice Zagury and co-founded alongside Oussama Ammar and Nicolas Colin, The Family is an interesting organisation to watch.
It says it doesn’t have three offices, but one office in three locations: London, Paris and Berlin. It operates on the maxim that it is time to stop looking for which city will be the next Silicon Valley, but build a strong European ecosystem instead.
Its mission is to educate entrepreneurs and build an infrastructure to empower them and connect start-ups to smart investors. It is envisaged that every quarter, 20 start-ups will join The Family.
The Family’s manifesto suggests that it defends start-ups and entrepreneurs from toxicity and negativity by creating a system of “unfair advantages” including €500,000 worth of exclusive infrastructure deals with IBM, Facebook, Paypal and Github, as well as office hours with entrepreneurs in residence, access to successful founders and adherence to a pay-it-forward principle.
“In Europe, the start-up scene is full of people who are afraid of conflict, both culturally and because they are paid with public money,” The Family’s manifesto states.
“The Family is independent, free from institutional LPs and public money. We are ready to go to war and never surrender. We have fought and won high-profile battles in defence of our entrepreneurs, keeping start-ups alive and showing everyone in the ecosystem that things can change for the better when you’re driven by customers, innovation and ambition.”
