Demeter

Sophie Paturle was elected president of France Invest in June 2025, having been involved with the association for nearly 25 years, including chairing its "Industrie & Transition Écologique" commission. She co-founded Demeter, a private equity firm focused on ecological transition, in 2005, following earlier roles at BTP Capital, Crédit du Nord, and Société Générale. She also serves as a board member of the CNRS and IFP Énergies Nouvelles and has contributed to initiatives such as France 2030.

Stéphane Villecroze is cofounder and Managing Partner of Demeter. He also serves as a non-executive member of the boards of directors of several of the firm's portfolio companies.

Benoît Forcier is Senior Partner at Circular Innovation Fund and a member of the Board of Directors at Vartega. He has over 25 years of experience in operational and financial management, including corporate finance, venture capital, advisory roles, and board membership across companies ranging from start-ups to publicly traded firms. His recent work has included deal origination and structuring, capital formation for a new venture capital fund, and advising portfolio and technology companies on strategy, fundraising, and governance.

Catherine Bérubé is a Partner at Cycle Capital, an impact venture capital firm focused on climate technologies, and works with the Circular Innovation Fund's investment team. Since joining Cycle Capital in 2014, she has contributed to the development of the firm's impact investing practice and manages investor relations and public affairs functions. She also serves as chair of the Board of Directors for Cycle Momentum and leads Réseau Capital's Government Relations and Public Affairs committee.

Geoffroy Dubus is a Partner at Demeter. His areas of focus include venture capital, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions, with sector experience in technology, digital, AgTech, and FoodTech companies.

Julien Pourquery is the founder and CEO of BaseQamper, where he works with private equity firms and SME CEOs on business scaling and enterprise value creation as an investor, board member, operating partner, and executive coach. He previously co-founded renewable energy company Solairedirect, serving as its CFO from inception through its acquisition by ENGIE, and led over USD 1.5 billion in fundraising across Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Americas. He is an HEC-certified executive coach and is involved in his family's agricultural activities.

Olivier Usureau is Partner and Country Head for Spain at Demea Sustainable Investment, working in mid-market private equity across the Iberian region. His work covers deal origination, fundraising, and buy-and-build strategies, with a focus on sectors including sustainable agriculture, mobility, real estate, circular economy, renewable energies, and energy efficiency.

Paz Diaz is a Partner at Demeter Investment Managers and serves as a Board Observer at Greene. Demeter is a European venture capital, private equity, and infrastructure firm focused on the energy and ecological transition, investing between €1m and €30m across company stages. The firm employs 38 people across Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Madrid, Düsseldorf, and Montreal, manages €1.5bn, and has completed 240 investments since 2005.

Christophe Desrumaux is a Partner at Demeter, focused on high tech venture capital. He holds degrees in corporate finance from HEC and physics engineering from INSA Lyon, and has 25 years of international experience across high tech industries including cleantech and electronics. His career spans operational roles in business development and sales, financial work in M&A and fundraising covering more than 50 deals, and board membership at 30 start-up and scale-up companies.

Holger Schragmann is a Partner at Demeter, a private equity firm focused on ecological and energy transition with over €1 billion under management and more than 200 companies supported. He holds the role of Partner for Germany, where the firm invests between €500k and €40m across startups, SMEs, midcaps, and infrastructure projects in sectors including agriculture, renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, sustainable construction, and the circular economy.

Marius Thébault is a Principal at Circular Innovation Fund, where he focuses on growth equity investments. His background spans growth equity, venture capital, and venture debt financing, including due diligence, valuation modelling, transaction execution, term sheet negotiation, and portfolio company support. He holds dual US-French citizenship.

Maya Hassa is a Principal at the Circular Innovation Fund and a CELI Fellow. She serves as Board Observer at Evoco Ltd. and focuses on venture capital investment in circular economy technologies.

Stéphanie Hillard is an Investment Director within the Venture Capital team at Demea Sustainable Investment (formerly Demeter), where she manages VitiRev Innovation, a venture capital fund focused on start-ups developing solutions for the environmental transition of the vine-growing and winemaking sector. She has over ten years of experience in private equity, primarily in venture capital transactions, and has invested in and supported more than twenty technology companies across digital and industrial fields including cybersecurity, robotics, aerospace, industrial software, agtech, and greentech. Hillard holds a Master's degree in Finance from Paris Dauphine University and an MS in Corporate Finance and Financial Markets from ESCP Paris.

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Thomas Beaugendre is a venture capital investment manager at Demeter, where he sources and analyzes early-stage investment opportunities, leads negotiations, and serves on the boards of several portfolio companies. He also oversees internal transformation initiatives, including the implementation of digital tools such as Airtable, Notion, and Zapier, the development of an AI roadmap, and contributions to cybersecurity governance. He serves as a board member at ilion Water Technologies.