Newsletter - March 2026

Welcome to the 25th edition of the AFI Ventures’ newsletter.

As a reminder, AFI Ventures (fund managed by Ventech) is an impact VC fund that invests in pre-seed/seed startups with a strong environmental and social ambition, producing a systemic change. We invest once a month in France & Europe tickets ranging from €250K to €500K.

Each month in this newsletter, you’ll find:

1. 🔍 A focus or key resources on an impact-related theme

2. 📰 Our Top must-read articles on the impact ecosystem

3. 🌱 Even more news from the AFI: portfolio updates, and (new) where we’ve been spotted (at events) & where you can catch us next, plus a job board featuring open roles at our amazing startups.

More insights, more opportunities, more ways to connect. Let’s dive in! 💚

🔍 Focus on… our last investment — Blify

We’re thrilled to spotlight Blify, our newest investment in a professional‑training sector undergoing a massive shift: the rise of AI‑native learning experiences and the transition from traditional corporate training to contextualized and user‑centric coaching.

Most managers today lack the skills, time, and support they need: 82% have insufficient management capabilities, while existing training solutions remain costly, under‑used, or disconnected from real‑world situations. Blify is building the infra to fix this.

The team gathers three exceptional early operators from Europe’s top HRTech scale‑ups:

• Tristan Vié (CEO) - former CSO at JobTeaser.

• Clément Lhommeau (COO) - former CMO at 360Learning.

• Minh Tu Hua (CTO) - former AI engineer at Alan.

A massive and fast‑growing market: corporate e‑learning is a $100B+ category, with management training alone representing ~30% of it and accelerating thanks to rising executive‑education demand. Blify enters the largest, highest‑willingness‑to‑pay segment in L&D.

Blify delivers AI‑powered, personalized micro‑training directly inside Slack/Teams, embedded in managers’ daily workflow. It provides contextual coaching, real‑time scenarios, and automated practice loops, deployable in under 15 minutes with no friction.

We are also actively working with the founders on Blify’s impact dimension. Today, only 26% of white‑collar employees report having good relationships with their peers, a direct consequence of insufficient management support and communication structures. By educating and training managers continuously, Blify can improve team dynamics, psychological safety, and workplace well‑being. This is an opportunity to generate measurable impact at the crossroads of education and employee well‑being.

Our conviction is driven by the combination of a top‑tier HRTech founding team, a clear unmet need in real‑time management coaching, a differentiated AI‑native product, and early paid traction gives us strong confidence that Blify can become the reference for AI‑powered managerial development in Europe.

📥 If you’re an entrepreneur and want to start a project, please send us an email at dealflow@afi.ventures.

📰 Top must-read articles — What Caught Our Eyes This Month

Climate Change

The UN is warning that the planet’s climate is now “more out of balance than at any time in observed history,” as record greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean heat, ice melt, and sea-level rise confirm that climate disruption is intensifying faster than adaptation efforts, said UN News.

Clean energy in the U.S. is facing renewed political headwinds, as the Trump administration pushes policies that favour fossil fuels and even compensates developers to abandon offshore wind—underscoring how quickly policy reversals can reshape renewable investment dynamics, said The New York Times.

Europe’s cleantech financing gap is becoming harder to ignore, as less than 1% of the EU Innovation Fund’s budget had reportedly been disbursed after five years—highlighting the mismatch between climate ambition and actual capital deployment for industrial scale-up, said Les Echos.

The war in Iran is reasserting energy security as a central pillar of Europe’s resilience agenda, reminding policymakers that electrification and infrastructure build-out remain deeply exposed to geopolitical shocks, said La Tribune.

Climate adaptation investments could generate returns up to seven times their cost, yet global spending remains far below what is needed to protect populations from rising climate hazards such as heat, drought, and flooding, said McKinsey.

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Sustainable production and consumption

Refining margins have surged to exceptional levels amid geopolitical turmoil, showing how quickly downstream energy markets can transmit conflict into fuel, jet kerosene, and fertilizer costs—with direct consequences for consumers and industry, said CNBC.

Researchers have developed a sodium-ion battery material that reportedly stores twice the energy while also enabling seawater desalination, pointing to a new class of multifunctional energy systems at the intersection of storage and water treatment, said ScienceDaily.

Europe is accelerating its push into nuclear fusion, with fresh Euratom and UK funding packages aimed at narrowing the gap with the U.S. and China and reinforcing fusion’s strategic role in the future energy mix, said SFEN.

A UK startup has ignited plasma inside a nuclear-fusion rocket prototype, marking an early but symbolic step toward fusion-based propulsion and illustrating how frontier energy technologies are increasingly spilling into space infrastructure ambitions, said Euronews.

Soil preservation is climbing the policy agenda, as debates around land artificialisation in France highlight that protecting fertile land is not anti-development, but a long-term condition for climate adaptation, food security, and territorial resilience, said Les Echos.

Water infrastructure is emerging as a critical strategic vulnerability in conflict zones, as attacks or threats targeting desalination plants in the Middle East expose how fragile potable water supply can become in highly water-stressed regions, said Franceinfo.

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Health & Social Changes

France’s new JEII status gives formal recognition to “young innovative impact companies,” extending tax and investment incentives to startups combining R&D intensity with measurable social or environmental impact—a notable policy shift for the impact ecosystem, said Impact France.

Le Monde profiles Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as one of AI’s defining paradoxes: deeply alarmed by existential and societal risks, yet convinced that AI could radically accelerate scientific and medical progress, said Le Monde.

The FDA is stepping up efforts to streamline biosimilar approvals, signalling a broader push to inject more competition into high-cost drug markets and make biologic treatments more affordable, said RealClearHealth.

🍃 AFI Ventures Highlights

Recent News from our Portfolio

DiappyMed partners with Sanofi to accelerate the deployment of its digital therapeutic EkiYou®, designed to support people living with insulin-treated diabetes. By helping patients calculate and adjust insulin doses while providing daily guidance, the collaboration aims to reduce the cognitive burden of diabetes management and improve long-term care outcomes. Learn more

Prolong launches its first AI agents and orchestration layer for retail after-sales operations, tackling one of the most under-digitised parts of the commerce stack. By diagnosing product issues, applying warranty rules, and orchestrating repair networks, the platform aims to transform post-purchase operations from a fragmented cost center into a data-driven operational layer. Learn more

ClimeFi joins the Advance Carbon Removal Coalition as a founding member, a public-private initiative aiming to mobilise up to $100M toward Canadian carbon removal projects by 2030. By helping coordinate demand and financial signals, the coalition seeks to accelerate the development of credible and investable carbon removal markets. Learn more

Estuaire joins forces with Advito (BCD Travel) to bring advanced non-CO₂ emissions modeling into corporate travel analysis. By integrating atmospheric and route-specific data into Advito’s methodology, the partnership enables organisations to better understand the full climate impact of aviation and make more informed travel decisions. Learn more

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Talent Wanted: Our Startups Are Building the Future

💼 New format!
Here is the Notion view giving you a clear overview of all open positions across our portfolio.

Special mentions to Stokelp, Ed.ai, Blify, Enrise and Moonwatt currently on a strong hiring ramp with multiple roles open. More than 50 open roles this month!

👉Accessible here

Don’t hesitate to reach out to the teams to unlock great opportunities.

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Events

We were at:

• Women’s Health, Closing the Gap with Deeptech – March 5, 2026, Paris 🪷
  A focused gathering on innovation in women’s health, bringing together founders, investors, and ecosystem players working to close persistent gaps in care. Axel attended to exchange on how deeptech can unlock better diagnosis, treatment, and prevention in women’s health.

• MedInTechs – March 9, 2026, Paris 🩺
  A major European event dedicated to medical innovation and digital health. Axel attended to meet founders and healthcare operators building the next generation of medical technologies and care platforms.

• JEC Investor Day – March 11, 2026, Paris 🧪
  Organised during JEC World, this event connects investors with startups developing advanced materials and industrial technologies. Constantin joined the discussion to explore innovations shaping the future of composites and manufacturing.

• Deeptech Forum – March 18, 2026, Paris 🔬
  Hosted by La French Tech, the forum gathered researchers, founders, investors, and policymakers around deeptech innovation for a sustainable future. Axel attended to exchange with startups emerging from France’s research ecosystem.

• Shaping the Future of Health & Nutrition – March 25, 2026, Paris 🥗
  Hosted at PariSanté Campus, this event brought together founders and investors working at the intersection of nutrition, food-as-medicine, and digital health. Sarah joined the morning of pitches and discussions exploring new approaches to preventive health.

• Supernova Festival – March 24–26, 2026, Antwerp 🚀
  One of Europe’s largest deeptech startup conferences, bringing together founders, investors, and corporates across frontier technologies. Constantin was there to meet emerging companies and ecosystem players.

• ChangeNOW Summit – March 30–April 1, 2026, Paris 🌍
  One of the world’s largest events dedicated to impact and climate innovation. Sarah, Charles, Constantin, and Axel attended to connect with founders, investors, and partners building solutions for the ecological transition.

Where to meet the AFI Ventures team next month:

• Demo Day – Incubateur 42 Paris – April 2, 2026, Paris 🚀
  The Incubateur 42 Paris will showcase startups from its latest cohort across AI, data, circular economy, healthtech, and blockchain. Constantin will be there to discover emerging projects from the 42 ecosystem and meet the founders behind them.

• Energy Tech Summit – April 15–16, 2026, Bilbao ⚡
  A major European event focused on energy innovation, bringing together startups, investors, and industry leaders shaping the future of the energy system. Charles and Constantin will attend to connect with founders building the next generation of energy technologies.

• 0100 Europe – April 21–23, 2026, Amsterdam 💼
  A key conference for private equity and venture capital professionals across Europe. Charles will be there to meet investors and discuss trends shaping the European venture landscape.

• Climate Hack Summit – April 22–23, 2026, Lausanne 🧠
  One of Europe’s leading gatherings for climate tech founders, investors, and operators working on breakthrough decarbonization solutions. Sarah will be there to meet early-stage companies and ecosystem partners.

🗣️ Feel free to reach out if you’d like to connect onsite!

🤝 Our Team

• Charles Fourault - charles@afi.ventures

• Constantin de Chaudenay - constantin@afi.ventures

• Sarah Laznowski - sarah@afi.ventures

• Axel Chaumel - axel@afi.ventures

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re an impact entrepreneur or just interested in any of these topics. 🍃