Iris Capital opens Montreal office with $15M fund earmarked for tech entrepreneurs.

Quebec entrepreneurs who specialize in mobile phone applications, cloud computing and other information technologies can now benefit from a new $15-million venture capital fund managed by one of Europe’s biggest independent firms.

Iris Capital, a Paris-based investment company, announced Tuesday it has set up a small Montreal office under a deal with Montreal-based Teralys Capital, Canada’s largest investor in venture capital funds.

The office, on St. Laurent Blvd. next to Excentris, is inside the Montreal offices of French public-relations giant Publicis Groupe, one of Iris’s new strategic partners along with France Telecom’s Orange.

During the next four years, Iris will invest the $15 million it’s getting from Teralys, whose support comes mainly from Quebec’s Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the QFL Solidarity Fund and Investissement Québec.

Iris is not new to Quebec. Formed in 1986 and independent since 2003, it has been investing here since the 1990s. Clients have included Cinar (before it went public), Microcell (now Fido) and, more recently, Bluestreak Technology.

With more than $50 million invested in Quebec, the company wants to be closer to the North American market to take advantage of growth in the digital economy here and on the U.S. east coast.

The Montreal office is Iris’s first in North America; its next will be in San Francisco.

Since its creation, Iris has invested $1.2 billion in 210 companies, mostly in France and Germany. It sold its stake in 175 of them for a total of $1.6 billion — a $400-million profit.

Now it’s looking harder at companies here.

“We’re agnostic as far as a company’s state of development goes,” Pierre de Fouquet, managing partner at Iris, said. “When we invest, it might just be starting out or already have a developed product.”

In the U.S., Iris has started backing digital advertising firms like myThings and MoPub, enabling Orange and Publicis to profit from ads on mobile platforms.

“They’re one of the best funds in Europe and one of the best funds in France investing in information technology,” Jacques Bernier, managing partner at Teralys, said.

“They have deep roots in Quebec,” he added. “They’re not the flavour of the week; they’re not coming here saying, ‘Hey, there’s money in Quebec, let’s go there.’”

Opened in late August, the Iris office is staffed by Alexandre Wiedmer, a bilingual Quebecer who grew up in Valcourt in the Eastern Townships, whose wife is from Toronto and who was made a partner in Iris in 2000.

“We’re giving ourselves four years to invest the $15 million, but if we find a fabulous opportunity tomorrow, we’ll invest tomorrow, and if we find another one next year, we’ll do it again,” Wiedmer said.

“It’s very hard to predict when that special morsel that interests you will come across your plate.”