France’s €36.3bn Fonds de Réserve pour les retraites (FRR) has put out to tender mandates for up to €200m in venture capital investment in French companies.

The pension reserve fund is looking to award as many as four mandates as part of its programme to invest in French private equity.

The call for tender is divided into two lots for up to two mandates each, with as much as €50m-100m earmarked for each lot.

Each mandate would be to create and manage a segregated venture capital fund, which would invest exclusively in companies with registered headquarters in France.

The investments should provide financing for companies in the early stages of development (early stage and later stage).

Up to 10% of a fund can be invested in seed financing.

Each mandate is for 12 years, with the possibility of three one-year renewals.

Interested parties have until 6 December to apply.

The procurement is another step in the implementation of FRR’s €2bn allocation to unlisted domestic assets.

It is reviewing proposals for two other tenders, one for private debt and another for private equity funds of funds.

It hopes to finalise these procurement processes by the end of the year.

A spokeswoman for FRR told IPE a fourth tender could still be launched, although the reserve fund has not yet decided for which market segment this should be.

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