A French VC firm with over €1 billion cancelled its London office as a result of Brexit

JMP Veste

Partech Ventures, a venture capital company with close to €1 billion (£880 million) at its disposal, decided to shelve its plans for a new London office as a result of Brexit.

The transatlantic VC firm, which has offices in San Francisco, Paris, and Berlin, was thinking about opening a London office until the UK voted to leave the European Union on June 23, 2016. Business Insider first spotted the news in a report by The Financial Times on Monday.

"We were considering our next office opening in London but the uncertainty created by the Brexit for the time being led us to go in a wait and see mode," Isabelle Tresson, a public relations employee at Partech Ventures, told Business Insider.

Tresson said Partech Ventures is concerned that UK startups operating in regulated industries like fintech might struggle to expand in Europe as a result of Brexit. The firm is also worried that Brexit could make it harder for UK startups to hire talent if visa policies change, Tresson said.

Partech Ventures, which has backed the likes of online furniture retailer Made and transportation company Hyperloop One, will reconsider the London office following Brexit discussions, Tresson said.

Although Partech Ventures doesn't have a London office at present, it is still making a number of investments in UK tech startups. "We are very active investing in the UK," said Tresson, adding that Partech Ventures isn't concerned that it will miss out on potentially lucrative deals by not having an office in the country. "We are just about to announce a new deal we a leading in venture this week," she said.

Partech announced on Monday that it has raised a new €400 million (£354 million) fund to invest in US and European startups.

The money came from the European Investment Fund — an EU organisation that has recently stopped funding UK VC firms as a result of Brexit — as well corporates like Nokia, Cisco, Accenture, and L'Oreal.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The inventor of Roomba has created a weed-slashing robot for your garden