Vates raises €30 million from IRIS and Bpifrance to become a global leader in virtualization
Vates raises €30 million from IRIS and Bpifrance to become a global leader in virtualization
Strengthen its position among the global players in the virtualization industry.
Paris, France October 9, 2026 – Vates announces a €30 million funding round from IRIS’ Growth fund and Bpifrance, through its Large Venture fund, against the backdrop of a profound reshaping of the global virtualization market.
As organizations increasingly seek more open, sovereign and reversible technology solutions, this investment will enable Vates to accelerate its development and strengthen its position among the global players in the virtualization industry.
A reshaping market creating a strategic opportunity
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware hasaccelerated a transformation that was already underway across thevirtualization market. Faced with evolving licensing models, risinginfrastructure costs and increasingly complex architectures, organizations arereassessing their technology choices. They are looking for platforms thatcombine performance, cost control, interoperability, sovereignty andreversibility.
Vates aims to play a major role in this newmarket landscape with an open-source platform that enables organizations toretain control over their infrastructure, reduce technological dependency andpreserve their freedom of architecture.
In 2025, the company recorded growth of more than 65%, demonstrating the strength of its model even before this funding round.Vates now has customers in 100 countries and generates 90% of its revenueoutside France. North America alone accounts for close to 50% of its business.
In 2026, Vates was also included for the first time in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for virtualization, one the few European vendor represented alngside the world’s major virtualization players.
« We are not raising funds to change our strategy, but to accelerate the one we have pursued from the beginning. Today, we have the technology, the teams, an international presence and recognition from the market. This funding gives us the resources to execute much faster and operate at an entirely different scale, without compromising our independence or the open-source principles that have driven our success.» Olivier Lambert, CEO and co-founder of Vates.
€30 million to accelerate three strategic priorities
This funding will enable Vates to focus itsinvestments on three key priorities:
- Accelerating technology investments, particularly in the next generation of the Vates platform, with a strong focus on performance, storage, security, automation and the management of large-scale virtualization infrastructures, including to support evolving workloads and new requirements driven by AI;
- Accelerating the company’s international expansion, particularly in North America and its key European markets, by strengthening its sales and marketing capabilities to expand Vates’ presence among large enterprises, public-sector organizations and service providers;
- Scaling its partner ecosystem, bystrengthening its network of distributors, integrators, service providers andtechnology partners in order to accelerate platform adoption and supportincreasingly large transformation and migration projects internationally.
Vates’ founders retain control of the company
Following the transaction, the co-founders willremain majority shareholders.
The arrival of IRIS and Bpifrance will support Vates as it scales its organization while preserving its strategic independence and the technological principles on which the company was built.
Open source also remains at the heart of the Vatesmodel. The company will continue to invest in opentechnologies and in the principles that have shaped its platform since itsinception: interoperability, reversibility and customer freedom of choice.
European capital supporting global ambitions
With IRIS and Bpifrance, Vates ispartnering with investors with proven international expertise and experiencesupporting companies through high-growth phases, in line with its Europeanroots and its commitment to strategic independence.
Beyond the post-VMware market context, Vates aims to establish itself as one of the key players shaping the global virtualization market. The company intends to build a global virtualization leader from Europe, turning openness, reversibility and technological control into genuine competitive advantages.
« Vates demonstrates that open source can meetthe highest requirements of the market. Its virtualization platform is now adopted by organizations of all sizes around the world, including large enterprises operating critical environments where security requirements are particularly demanding. We are proud to support Olivier and his team in this new stage of their development and to actively contribute to making Vates a global reference in virtualization», Nicolas Herschtel, Partner at IRIS
« We are delighted to support Vates in this new stage of its development and to back its ambition to scale internationally. We we're impressed by the quality of its teams, the relevance of its open-source model and the strategic importance of its technology in a key segment of digital infrastructure. At a time of profound transformation in the virtualization market, Vates has the strengths required to establish itself as a leading global player. This investment fully reflects Bpifrance’s commitment to supporting the emergence of a French and European technology champion capable of strengthening the continent’s digital sovereignty, securing critical infrastructure and contributing to the development of a European industrial ecosystem around strategic technologies.» Cindy Ung, InvestmentDirector, Large Venture, Bpifrance
About Vates
Founded in Grenoble,France, in 2012, Vates is a French technology company specializing in open-source virtualization and infrastructure management solutions for hybrid cloud environments.
Its flagship products,XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra, enable public and private organizationsaround the world to gain greater autonomy and sustainably optimize their ITenvironments.
Fully open source and developed in France, Vates’ solutions offer broad compatibility, easeof integration and capabilities designed to meet the needs of critical environments. They enable customers to preserve their technological independence while benefiting from enterprise-grade professional support.
With more than 10years of expertise, a proven profitable business model and the trust ofmore than 1,000 customers worldwide, Vates aims to establish itself as a keyplayer in the virtualization market.
Key facts
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: Grenoble, France
- Downloads: 2M+
- Employees: 150
About IRIS
IRIS is a European venture capital and growth equity firm specializing in technology, investing from seed and Series A through late stage and growth.
With teams in Berlin, Munich and Paris, IRIS combinesin-depth knowledge of its markets with a powerful international network. Thefirm partners with promising scale-ups and future technology leaders,supporting them in expanding their visibility, commercial development andimpact worldwide.
IRIS has notably invested in Adjust, Braincube, Escape, Exotec, Kyriba,Jedox, Implicity, LeanIX, LumApps, Open-Xchange, pyck, Shift Technology,Spinergie, SurePay, Talend, Talon.one and Zeta Global.
For more information, visit www.iris.vc.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance’s equity investments are operated by Bpifrance Investissement.
Bpifrance finances companies at every stage of their development throughloans, guarantees and equity investments. It supports companies in theirinnovation and international expansion projects and also provides exportfinancing through a broad range of solutions.
Advisory services, training, networking and acceleration programs forstartups, SMEs and mid-sized companies are also part of Bpifrance’s offering.Through Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from alocal, single and effective point of contact to help them address theirbusiness challenges.
More information: www.bpifrance.fr
Press: https://presse.bpifrance.fr
With €2.5 billion under management, Large Venture is Bpifrance’s venturegrowth fund dedicated to high-potential technology companies, with theobjective of supporting the emergence of French champions capable of becomingglobal leaders in their markets.
Since its creation in 2013, the fund has invested in more than 80companies across healthcare and life sciences, digital technologies andgreentech.
Paris, France October 9, 2026 – Vates announces a €30 million funding round from IRIS’ Growth fund and Bpifrance, through its Large Venture fund, against the backdrop of a profound reshaping of the global virtualization market.
As organizations increasingly seek more open, sovereign and reversible technology solutions, this investment will enable Vates to accelerate its development and strengthen its position among the global players in the virtualization industry.
A reshaping market creating a strategic opportunity
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware hasaccelerated a transformation that was already underway across thevirtualization market. Faced with evolving licensing models, risinginfrastructure costs and increasingly complex architectures, organizations arereassessing their technology choices. They are looking for platforms thatcombine performance, cost control, interoperability, sovereignty andreversibility.
Vates aims to play a major role in this newmarket landscape with an open-source platform that enables organizations toretain control over their infrastructure, reduce technological dependency andpreserve their freedom of architecture.
In 2025, the company recorded growth of more than 65%, demonstrating the strength of its model even before this funding round.Vates now has customers in 100 countries and generates 90% of its revenueoutside France. North America alone accounts for close to 50% of its business.
In 2026, Vates was also included for the first time in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for virtualization, one the few European vendor represented alngside the world’s major virtualization players.
« We are not raising funds to change our strategy, but to accelerate the one we have pursued from the beginning. Today, we have the technology, the teams, an international presence and recognition from the market. This funding gives us the resources to execute much faster and operate at an entirely different scale, without compromising our independence or the open-source principles that have driven our success.» Olivier Lambert, CEO and co-founder of Vates.
€30 million to accelerate three strategic priorities
This funding will enable Vates to focus itsinvestments on three key priorities:
- Accelerating technology investments, particularly in the next generation of the Vates platform, with a strong focus on performance, storage, security, automation and the management of large-scale virtualization infrastructures, including to support evolving workloads and new requirements driven by AI;
- Accelerating the company’s international expansion, particularly in North America and its key European markets, by strengthening its sales and marketing capabilities to expand Vates’ presence among large enterprises, public-sector organizations and service providers;
- Scaling its partner ecosystem, bystrengthening its network of distributors, integrators, service providers andtechnology partners in order to accelerate platform adoption and supportincreasingly large transformation and migration projects internationally.
Vates’ founders retain control of the company
Following the transaction, the co-founders willremain majority shareholders.
The arrival of IRIS and Bpifrance will support Vates as it scales its organization while preserving its strategic independence and the technological principles on which the company was built.
Open source also remains at the heart of the Vatesmodel. The company will continue to invest in opentechnologies and in the principles that have shaped its platform since itsinception: interoperability, reversibility and customer freedom of choice.
European capital supporting global ambitions
With IRIS and Bpifrance, Vates ispartnering with investors with proven international expertise and experiencesupporting companies through high-growth phases, in line with its Europeanroots and its commitment to strategic independence.
Beyond the post-VMware market context, Vates aims to establish itself as one of the key players shaping the global virtualization market. The company intends to build a global virtualization leader from Europe, turning openness, reversibility and technological control into genuine competitive advantages.
« Vates demonstrates that open source can meetthe highest requirements of the market. Its virtualization platform is now adopted by organizations of all sizes around the world, including large enterprises operating critical environments where security requirements are particularly demanding. We are proud to support Olivier and his team in this new stage of their development and to actively contribute to making Vates a global reference in virtualization», Nicolas Herschtel, Partner at IRIS
« We are delighted to support Vates in this new stage of its development and to back its ambition to scale internationally. We we're impressed by the quality of its teams, the relevance of its open-source model and the strategic importance of its technology in a key segment of digital infrastructure. At a time of profound transformation in the virtualization market, Vates has the strengths required to establish itself as a leading global player. This investment fully reflects Bpifrance’s commitment to supporting the emergence of a French and European technology champion capable of strengthening the continent’s digital sovereignty, securing critical infrastructure and contributing to the development of a European industrial ecosystem around strategic technologies.» Cindy Ung, InvestmentDirector, Large Venture, Bpifrance
About Vates
Founded in Grenoble,France, in 2012, Vates is a French technology company specializing in open-source virtualization and infrastructure management solutions for hybrid cloud environments.
Its flagship products,XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra, enable public and private organizationsaround the world to gain greater autonomy and sustainably optimize their ITenvironments.
Fully open source and developed in France, Vates’ solutions offer broad compatibility, easeof integration and capabilities designed to meet the needs of critical environments. They enable customers to preserve their technological independence while benefiting from enterprise-grade professional support.
With more than 10years of expertise, a proven profitable business model and the trust ofmore than 1,000 customers worldwide, Vates aims to establish itself as a keyplayer in the virtualization market.
Key facts
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: Grenoble, France
- Downloads: 2M+
- Employees: 150
About IRIS
IRIS is a European venture capital and growth equity firm specializing in technology, investing from seed and Series A through late stage and growth.
With teams in Berlin, Munich and Paris, IRIS combinesin-depth knowledge of its markets with a powerful international network. Thefirm partners with promising scale-ups and future technology leaders,supporting them in expanding their visibility, commercial development andimpact worldwide.
IRIS has notably invested in Adjust, Braincube, Escape, Exotec, Kyriba,Jedox, Implicity, LeanIX, LumApps, Open-Xchange, pyck, Shift Technology,Spinergie, SurePay, Talend, Talon.one and Zeta Global.
For more information, visit www.iris.vc.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance’s equity investments are operated by Bpifrance Investissement.
Bpifrance finances companies at every stage of their development throughloans, guarantees and equity investments. It supports companies in theirinnovation and international expansion projects and also provides exportfinancing through a broad range of solutions.
Advisory services, training, networking and acceleration programs forstartups, SMEs and mid-sized companies are also part of Bpifrance’s offering.Through Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from alocal, single and effective point of contact to help them address theirbusiness challenges.
More information: www.bpifrance.fr
Press: https://presse.bpifrance.fr
With €2.5 billion under management, Large Venture is Bpifrance’s venturegrowth fund dedicated to high-potential technology companies, with theobjective of supporting the emergence of French champions capable of becomingglobal leaders in their markets.
Since its creation in 2013, the fund has invested in more than 80companies across healthcare and life sciences, digital technologies andgreentech.
Paris, France October 9, 2026 – Vates announces a €30 million funding round from IRIS’ Growth fund and Bpifrance, through its Large Venture fund, against the backdrop of a profound reshaping of the global virtualization market.
As organizations increasingly seek more open, sovereign and reversible technology solutions, this investment will enable Vates to accelerate its development and strengthen its position among the global players in the virtualization industry.
A reshaping market creating a strategic opportunity
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware hasaccelerated a transformation that was already underway across thevirtualization market. Faced with evolving licensing models, risinginfrastructure costs and increasingly complex architectures, organizations arereassessing their technology choices. They are looking for platforms thatcombine performance, cost control, interoperability, sovereignty andreversibility.
Vates aims to play a major role in this newmarket landscape with an open-source platform that enables organizations toretain control over their infrastructure, reduce technological dependency andpreserve their freedom of architecture.
In 2025, the company recorded growth of more than 65%, demonstrating the strength of its model even before this funding round.Vates now has customers in 100 countries and generates 90% of its revenueoutside France. North America alone accounts for close to 50% of its business.
In 2026, Vates was also included for the first time in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for virtualization, one the few European vendor represented alngside the world’s major virtualization players.
« We are not raising funds to change our strategy, but to accelerate the one we have pursued from the beginning. Today, we have the technology, the teams, an international presence and recognition from the market. This funding gives us the resources to execute much faster and operate at an entirely different scale, without compromising our independence or the open-source principles that have driven our success.» Olivier Lambert, CEO and co-founder of Vates.
€30 million to accelerate three strategic priorities
This funding will enable Vates to focus itsinvestments on three key priorities:
- Accelerating technology investments, particularly in the next generation of the Vates platform, with a strong focus on performance, storage, security, automation and the management of large-scale virtualization infrastructures, including to support evolving workloads and new requirements driven by AI;
- Accelerating the company’s international expansion, particularly in North America and its key European markets, by strengthening its sales and marketing capabilities to expand Vates’ presence among large enterprises, public-sector organizations and service providers;
- Scaling its partner ecosystem, bystrengthening its network of distributors, integrators, service providers andtechnology partners in order to accelerate platform adoption and supportincreasingly large transformation and migration projects internationally.
Vates’ founders retain control of the company
Following the transaction, the co-founders willremain majority shareholders.
The arrival of IRIS and Bpifrance will support Vates as it scales its organization while preserving its strategic independence and the technological principles on which the company was built.
Open source also remains at the heart of the Vatesmodel. The company will continue to invest in opentechnologies and in the principles that have shaped its platform since itsinception: interoperability, reversibility and customer freedom of choice.
European capital supporting global ambitions
With IRIS and Bpifrance, Vates ispartnering with investors with proven international expertise and experiencesupporting companies through high-growth phases, in line with its Europeanroots and its commitment to strategic independence.
Beyond the post-VMware market context, Vates aims to establish itself as one of the key players shaping the global virtualization market. The company intends to build a global virtualization leader from Europe, turning openness, reversibility and technological control into genuine competitive advantages.
« Vates demonstrates that open source can meetthe highest requirements of the market. Its virtualization platform is now adopted by organizations of all sizes around the world, including large enterprises operating critical environments where security requirements are particularly demanding. We are proud to support Olivier and his team in this new stage of their development and to actively contribute to making Vates a global reference in virtualization», Nicolas Herschtel, Partner at IRIS
« We are delighted to support Vates in this new stage of its development and to back its ambition to scale internationally. We we're impressed by the quality of its teams, the relevance of its open-source model and the strategic importance of its technology in a key segment of digital infrastructure. At a time of profound transformation in the virtualization market, Vates has the strengths required to establish itself as a leading global player. This investment fully reflects Bpifrance’s commitment to supporting the emergence of a French and European technology champion capable of strengthening the continent’s digital sovereignty, securing critical infrastructure and contributing to the development of a European industrial ecosystem around strategic technologies.» Cindy Ung, InvestmentDirector, Large Venture, Bpifrance
About Vates
Founded in Grenoble,France, in 2012, Vates is a French technology company specializing in open-source virtualization and infrastructure management solutions for hybrid cloud environments.
Its flagship products,XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra, enable public and private organizationsaround the world to gain greater autonomy and sustainably optimize their ITenvironments.
Fully open source and developed in France, Vates’ solutions offer broad compatibility, easeof integration and capabilities designed to meet the needs of critical environments. They enable customers to preserve their technological independence while benefiting from enterprise-grade professional support.
With more than 10years of expertise, a proven profitable business model and the trust ofmore than 1,000 customers worldwide, Vates aims to establish itself as a keyplayer in the virtualization market.
Key facts
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: Grenoble, France
- Downloads: 2M+
- Employees: 150
About IRIS
IRIS is a European venture capital and growth equity firm specializing in technology, investing from seed and Series A through late stage and growth.
With teams in Berlin, Munich and Paris, IRIS combinesin-depth knowledge of its markets with a powerful international network. Thefirm partners with promising scale-ups and future technology leaders,supporting them in expanding their visibility, commercial development andimpact worldwide.
IRIS has notably invested in Adjust, Braincube, Escape, Exotec, Kyriba,Jedox, Implicity, LeanIX, LumApps, Open-Xchange, pyck, Shift Technology,Spinergie, SurePay, Talend, Talon.one and Zeta Global.
For more information, visit www.iris.vc.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance’s equity investments are operated by Bpifrance Investissement.
Bpifrance finances companies at every stage of their development throughloans, guarantees and equity investments. It supports companies in theirinnovation and international expansion projects and also provides exportfinancing through a broad range of solutions.
Advisory services, training, networking and acceleration programs forstartups, SMEs and mid-sized companies are also part of Bpifrance’s offering.Through Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from alocal, single and effective point of contact to help them address theirbusiness challenges.
More information: www.bpifrance.fr
Press: https://presse.bpifrance.fr
With €2.5 billion under management, Large Venture is Bpifrance’s venturegrowth fund dedicated to high-potential technology companies, with theobjective of supporting the emergence of French champions capable of becomingglobal leaders in their markets.
Since its creation in 2013, the fund has invested in more than 80companies across healthcare and life sciences, digital technologies andgreentech.
Vates raises €30 million from IRIS and Bpifrance to become a global leader in virtualization
Strengthen its position among the global players in the virtualization industry.
Paris, France October 9, 2026 – Vates announces a €30 million funding round from IRIS’ Growth fund and Bpifrance, through its Large Venture fund, against the backdrop of a profound reshaping of the global virtualization market.
As organizations increasingly seek more open, sovereign and reversible technology solutions, this investment will enable Vates to accelerate its development and strengthen its position among the global players in the virtualization industry.
A reshaping market creating a strategic opportunity
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware hasaccelerated a transformation that was already underway across thevirtualization market. Faced with evolving licensing models, risinginfrastructure costs and increasingly complex architectures, organizations arereassessing their technology choices. They are looking for platforms thatcombine performance, cost control, interoperability, sovereignty andreversibility.
Vates aims to play a major role in this newmarket landscape with an open-source platform that enables organizations toretain control over their infrastructure, reduce technological dependency andpreserve their freedom of architecture.
In 2025, the company recorded growth of more than 65%, demonstrating the strength of its model even before this funding round.Vates now has customers in 100 countries and generates 90% of its revenueoutside France. North America alone accounts for close to 50% of its business.
In 2026, Vates was also included for the first time in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for virtualization, one the few European vendor represented alngside the world’s major virtualization players.
« We are not raising funds to change our strategy, but to accelerate the one we have pursued from the beginning. Today, we have the technology, the teams, an international presence and recognition from the market. This funding gives us the resources to execute much faster and operate at an entirely different scale, without compromising our independence or the open-source principles that have driven our success.» Olivier Lambert, CEO and co-founder of Vates.
€30 million to accelerate three strategic priorities
This funding will enable Vates to focus itsinvestments on three key priorities:
- Accelerating technology investments, particularly in the next generation of the Vates platform, with a strong focus on performance, storage, security, automation and the management of large-scale virtualization infrastructures, including to support evolving workloads and new requirements driven by AI;
- Accelerating the company’s international expansion, particularly in North America and its key European markets, by strengthening its sales and marketing capabilities to expand Vates’ presence among large enterprises, public-sector organizations and service providers;
- Scaling its partner ecosystem, bystrengthening its network of distributors, integrators, service providers andtechnology partners in order to accelerate platform adoption and supportincreasingly large transformation and migration projects internationally.
Vates’ founders retain control of the company
Following the transaction, the co-founders willremain majority shareholders.
The arrival of IRIS and Bpifrance will support Vates as it scales its organization while preserving its strategic independence and the technological principles on which the company was built.
Open source also remains at the heart of the Vatesmodel. The company will continue to invest in opentechnologies and in the principles that have shaped its platform since itsinception: interoperability, reversibility and customer freedom of choice.
European capital supporting global ambitions
With IRIS and Bpifrance, Vates ispartnering with investors with proven international expertise and experiencesupporting companies through high-growth phases, in line with its Europeanroots and its commitment to strategic independence.
Beyond the post-VMware market context, Vates aims to establish itself as one of the key players shaping the global virtualization market. The company intends to build a global virtualization leader from Europe, turning openness, reversibility and technological control into genuine competitive advantages.
« Vates demonstrates that open source can meetthe highest requirements of the market. Its virtualization platform is now adopted by organizations of all sizes around the world, including large enterprises operating critical environments where security requirements are particularly demanding. We are proud to support Olivier and his team in this new stage of their development and to actively contribute to making Vates a global reference in virtualization», Nicolas Herschtel, Partner at IRIS
« We are delighted to support Vates in this new stage of its development and to back its ambition to scale internationally. We we're impressed by the quality of its teams, the relevance of its open-source model and the strategic importance of its technology in a key segment of digital infrastructure. At a time of profound transformation in the virtualization market, Vates has the strengths required to establish itself as a leading global player. This investment fully reflects Bpifrance’s commitment to supporting the emergence of a French and European technology champion capable of strengthening the continent’s digital sovereignty, securing critical infrastructure and contributing to the development of a European industrial ecosystem around strategic technologies.» Cindy Ung, InvestmentDirector, Large Venture, Bpifrance
About Vates
Founded in Grenoble,France, in 2012, Vates is a French technology company specializing in open-source virtualization and infrastructure management solutions for hybrid cloud environments.
Its flagship products,XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra, enable public and private organizationsaround the world to gain greater autonomy and sustainably optimize their ITenvironments.
Fully open source and developed in France, Vates’ solutions offer broad compatibility, easeof integration and capabilities designed to meet the needs of critical environments. They enable customers to preserve their technological independence while benefiting from enterprise-grade professional support.
With more than 10years of expertise, a proven profitable business model and the trust ofmore than 1,000 customers worldwide, Vates aims to establish itself as a keyplayer in the virtualization market.
Key facts
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: Grenoble, France
- Downloads: 2M+
- Employees: 150
About IRIS
IRIS is a European venture capital and growth equity firm specializing in technology, investing from seed and Series A through late stage and growth.
With teams in Berlin, Munich and Paris, IRIS combinesin-depth knowledge of its markets with a powerful international network. Thefirm partners with promising scale-ups and future technology leaders,supporting them in expanding their visibility, commercial development andimpact worldwide.
IRIS has notably invested in Adjust, Braincube, Escape, Exotec, Kyriba,Jedox, Implicity, LeanIX, LumApps, Open-Xchange, pyck, Shift Technology,Spinergie, SurePay, Talend, Talon.one and Zeta Global.
For more information, visit www.iris.vc.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance’s equity investments are operated by Bpifrance Investissement.
Bpifrance finances companies at every stage of their development throughloans, guarantees and equity investments. It supports companies in theirinnovation and international expansion projects and also provides exportfinancing through a broad range of solutions.
Advisory services, training, networking and acceleration programs forstartups, SMEs and mid-sized companies are also part of Bpifrance’s offering.Through Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from alocal, single and effective point of contact to help them address theirbusiness challenges.
More information: www.bpifrance.fr
Press: https://presse.bpifrance.fr
With €2.5 billion under management, Large Venture is Bpifrance’s venturegrowth fund dedicated to high-potential technology companies, with theobjective of supporting the emergence of French champions capable of becomingglobal leaders in their markets.
Since its creation in 2013, the fund has invested in more than 80companies across healthcare and life sciences, digital technologies andgreentech.
Paris, France October 9, 2026 – Vates announces a €30 million funding round from IRIS’ Growth fund and Bpifrance, through its Large Venture fund, against the backdrop of a profound reshaping of the global virtualization market.
As organizations increasingly seek more open, sovereign and reversible technology solutions, this investment will enable Vates to accelerate its development and strengthen its position among the global players in the virtualization industry.
A reshaping market creating a strategic opportunity
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware hasaccelerated a transformation that was already underway across thevirtualization market. Faced with evolving licensing models, risinginfrastructure costs and increasingly complex architectures, organizations arereassessing their technology choices. They are looking for platforms thatcombine performance, cost control, interoperability, sovereignty andreversibility.
Vates aims to play a major role in this newmarket landscape with an open-source platform that enables organizations toretain control over their infrastructure, reduce technological dependency andpreserve their freedom of architecture.
In 2025, the company recorded growth of more than 65%, demonstrating the strength of its model even before this funding round.Vates now has customers in 100 countries and generates 90% of its revenueoutside France. North America alone accounts for close to 50% of its business.
In 2026, Vates was also included for the first time in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for virtualization, one the few European vendor represented alngside the world’s major virtualization players.
« We are not raising funds to change our strategy, but to accelerate the one we have pursued from the beginning. Today, we have the technology, the teams, an international presence and recognition from the market. This funding gives us the resources to execute much faster and operate at an entirely different scale, without compromising our independence or the open-source principles that have driven our success.» Olivier Lambert, CEO and co-founder of Vates.
€30 million to accelerate three strategic priorities
This funding will enable Vates to focus itsinvestments on three key priorities:
- Accelerating technology investments, particularly in the next generation of the Vates platform, with a strong focus on performance, storage, security, automation and the management of large-scale virtualization infrastructures, including to support evolving workloads and new requirements driven by AI;
- Accelerating the company’s international expansion, particularly in North America and its key European markets, by strengthening its sales and marketing capabilities to expand Vates’ presence among large enterprises, public-sector organizations and service providers;
- Scaling its partner ecosystem, bystrengthening its network of distributors, integrators, service providers andtechnology partners in order to accelerate platform adoption and supportincreasingly large transformation and migration projects internationally.
Vates’ founders retain control of the company
Following the transaction, the co-founders willremain majority shareholders.
The arrival of IRIS and Bpifrance will support Vates as it scales its organization while preserving its strategic independence and the technological principles on which the company was built.
Open source also remains at the heart of the Vatesmodel. The company will continue to invest in opentechnologies and in the principles that have shaped its platform since itsinception: interoperability, reversibility and customer freedom of choice.
European capital supporting global ambitions
With IRIS and Bpifrance, Vates ispartnering with investors with proven international expertise and experiencesupporting companies through high-growth phases, in line with its Europeanroots and its commitment to strategic independence.
Beyond the post-VMware market context, Vates aims to establish itself as one of the key players shaping the global virtualization market. The company intends to build a global virtualization leader from Europe, turning openness, reversibility and technological control into genuine competitive advantages.
« Vates demonstrates that open source can meetthe highest requirements of the market. Its virtualization platform is now adopted by organizations of all sizes around the world, including large enterprises operating critical environments where security requirements are particularly demanding. We are proud to support Olivier and his team in this new stage of their development and to actively contribute to making Vates a global reference in virtualization», Nicolas Herschtel, Partner at IRIS
« We are delighted to support Vates in this new stage of its development and to back its ambition to scale internationally. We we're impressed by the quality of its teams, the relevance of its open-source model and the strategic importance of its technology in a key segment of digital infrastructure. At a time of profound transformation in the virtualization market, Vates has the strengths required to establish itself as a leading global player. This investment fully reflects Bpifrance’s commitment to supporting the emergence of a French and European technology champion capable of strengthening the continent’s digital sovereignty, securing critical infrastructure and contributing to the development of a European industrial ecosystem around strategic technologies.» Cindy Ung, InvestmentDirector, Large Venture, Bpifrance
About Vates
Founded in Grenoble,France, in 2012, Vates is a French technology company specializing in open-source virtualization and infrastructure management solutions for hybrid cloud environments.
Its flagship products,XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra, enable public and private organizationsaround the world to gain greater autonomy and sustainably optimize their ITenvironments.
Fully open source and developed in France, Vates’ solutions offer broad compatibility, easeof integration and capabilities designed to meet the needs of critical environments. They enable customers to preserve their technological independence while benefiting from enterprise-grade professional support.
With more than 10years of expertise, a proven profitable business model and the trust ofmore than 1,000 customers worldwide, Vates aims to establish itself as a keyplayer in the virtualization market.
Key facts
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: Grenoble, France
- Downloads: 2M+
- Employees: 150
About IRIS
IRIS is a European venture capital and growth equity firm specializing in technology, investing from seed and Series A through late stage and growth.
With teams in Berlin, Munich and Paris, IRIS combinesin-depth knowledge of its markets with a powerful international network. Thefirm partners with promising scale-ups and future technology leaders,supporting them in expanding their visibility, commercial development andimpact worldwide.
IRIS has notably invested in Adjust, Braincube, Escape, Exotec, Kyriba,Jedox, Implicity, LeanIX, LumApps, Open-Xchange, pyck, Shift Technology,Spinergie, SurePay, Talend, Talon.one and Zeta Global.
For more information, visit www.iris.vc.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance’s equity investments are operated by Bpifrance Investissement.
Bpifrance finances companies at every stage of their development throughloans, guarantees and equity investments. It supports companies in theirinnovation and international expansion projects and also provides exportfinancing through a broad range of solutions.
Advisory services, training, networking and acceleration programs forstartups, SMEs and mid-sized companies are also part of Bpifrance’s offering.Through Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from alocal, single and effective point of contact to help them address theirbusiness challenges.
More information: www.bpifrance.fr
Press: https://presse.bpifrance.fr
With €2.5 billion under management, Large Venture is Bpifrance’s venturegrowth fund dedicated to high-potential technology companies, with theobjective of supporting the emergence of French champions capable of becomingglobal leaders in their markets.
Since its creation in 2013, the fund has invested in more than 80companies across healthcare and life sciences, digital technologies andgreentech.
Paris, France October 9, 2026 – Vates announces a €30 million funding round from IRIS’ Growth fund and Bpifrance, through its Large Venture fund, against the backdrop of a profound reshaping of the global virtualization market.
As organizations increasingly seek more open, sovereign and reversible technology solutions, this investment will enable Vates to accelerate its development and strengthen its position among the global players in the virtualization industry.
A reshaping market creating a strategic opportunity
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware hasaccelerated a transformation that was already underway across thevirtualization market. Faced with evolving licensing models, risinginfrastructure costs and increasingly complex architectures, organizations arereassessing their technology choices. They are looking for platforms thatcombine performance, cost control, interoperability, sovereignty andreversibility.
Vates aims to play a major role in this newmarket landscape with an open-source platform that enables organizations toretain control over their infrastructure, reduce technological dependency andpreserve their freedom of architecture.
In 2025, the company recorded growth of more than 65%, demonstrating the strength of its model even before this funding round.Vates now has customers in 100 countries and generates 90% of its revenueoutside France. North America alone accounts for close to 50% of its business.
In 2026, Vates was also included for the first time in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for virtualization, one the few European vendor represented alngside the world’s major virtualization players.
« We are not raising funds to change our strategy, but to accelerate the one we have pursued from the beginning. Today, we have the technology, the teams, an international presence and recognition from the market. This funding gives us the resources to execute much faster and operate at an entirely different scale, without compromising our independence or the open-source principles that have driven our success.» Olivier Lambert, CEO and co-founder of Vates.
€30 million to accelerate three strategic priorities
This funding will enable Vates to focus itsinvestments on three key priorities:
- Accelerating technology investments, particularly in the next generation of the Vates platform, with a strong focus on performance, storage, security, automation and the management of large-scale virtualization infrastructures, including to support evolving workloads and new requirements driven by AI;
- Accelerating the company’s international expansion, particularly in North America and its key European markets, by strengthening its sales and marketing capabilities to expand Vates’ presence among large enterprises, public-sector organizations and service providers;
- Scaling its partner ecosystem, bystrengthening its network of distributors, integrators, service providers andtechnology partners in order to accelerate platform adoption and supportincreasingly large transformation and migration projects internationally.
Vates’ founders retain control of the company
Following the transaction, the co-founders willremain majority shareholders.
The arrival of IRIS and Bpifrance will support Vates as it scales its organization while preserving its strategic independence and the technological principles on which the company was built.
Open source also remains at the heart of the Vatesmodel. The company will continue to invest in opentechnologies and in the principles that have shaped its platform since itsinception: interoperability, reversibility and customer freedom of choice.
European capital supporting global ambitions
With IRIS and Bpifrance, Vates ispartnering with investors with proven international expertise and experiencesupporting companies through high-growth phases, in line with its Europeanroots and its commitment to strategic independence.
Beyond the post-VMware market context, Vates aims to establish itself as one of the key players shaping the global virtualization market. The company intends to build a global virtualization leader from Europe, turning openness, reversibility and technological control into genuine competitive advantages.
« Vates demonstrates that open source can meetthe highest requirements of the market. Its virtualization platform is now adopted by organizations of all sizes around the world, including large enterprises operating critical environments where security requirements are particularly demanding. We are proud to support Olivier and his team in this new stage of their development and to actively contribute to making Vates a global reference in virtualization», Nicolas Herschtel, Partner at IRIS
« We are delighted to support Vates in this new stage of its development and to back its ambition to scale internationally. We we're impressed by the quality of its teams, the relevance of its open-source model and the strategic importance of its technology in a key segment of digital infrastructure. At a time of profound transformation in the virtualization market, Vates has the strengths required to establish itself as a leading global player. This investment fully reflects Bpifrance’s commitment to supporting the emergence of a French and European technology champion capable of strengthening the continent’s digital sovereignty, securing critical infrastructure and contributing to the development of a European industrial ecosystem around strategic technologies.» Cindy Ung, InvestmentDirector, Large Venture, Bpifrance
About Vates
Founded in Grenoble,France, in 2012, Vates is a French technology company specializing in open-source virtualization and infrastructure management solutions for hybrid cloud environments.
Its flagship products,XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra, enable public and private organizationsaround the world to gain greater autonomy and sustainably optimize their ITenvironments.
Fully open source and developed in France, Vates’ solutions offer broad compatibility, easeof integration and capabilities designed to meet the needs of critical environments. They enable customers to preserve their technological independence while benefiting from enterprise-grade professional support.
With more than 10years of expertise, a proven profitable business model and the trust ofmore than 1,000 customers worldwide, Vates aims to establish itself as a keyplayer in the virtualization market.
Key facts
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: Grenoble, France
- Downloads: 2M+
- Employees: 150
About IRIS
IRIS is a European venture capital and growth equity firm specializing in technology, investing from seed and Series A through late stage and growth.
With teams in Berlin, Munich and Paris, IRIS combinesin-depth knowledge of its markets with a powerful international network. Thefirm partners with promising scale-ups and future technology leaders,supporting them in expanding their visibility, commercial development andimpact worldwide.
IRIS has notably invested in Adjust, Braincube, Escape, Exotec, Kyriba,Jedox, Implicity, LeanIX, LumApps, Open-Xchange, pyck, Shift Technology,Spinergie, SurePay, Talend, Talon.one and Zeta Global.
For more information, visit www.iris.vc.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance’s equity investments are operated by Bpifrance Investissement.
Bpifrance finances companies at every stage of their development throughloans, guarantees and equity investments. It supports companies in theirinnovation and international expansion projects and also provides exportfinancing through a broad range of solutions.
Advisory services, training, networking and acceleration programs forstartups, SMEs and mid-sized companies are also part of Bpifrance’s offering.Through Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from alocal, single and effective point of contact to help them address theirbusiness challenges.
More information: www.bpifrance.fr
Press: https://presse.bpifrance.fr
With €2.5 billion under management, Large Venture is Bpifrance’s venturegrowth fund dedicated to high-potential technology companies, with theobjective of supporting the emergence of French champions capable of becomingglobal leaders in their markets.
Since its creation in 2013, the fund has invested in more than 80companies across healthcare and life sciences, digital technologies andgreentech.
