Epimède

The board of directors approves all investments. Chairman Marc Moles le Bailly leads a board whose members represent Epimède's five institutional investors: Ethias, Integrale, Noshaq, SFPI-FPIM, and BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity. A management team led by Marc Foidart, Philippe Degeer, and Bernard Surlemont prepares investment proposals and oversees portfolio company support. A separate scientific committee evaluates all life science deals.

Epimède's pipeline is structurally anchored in the University of Liège's technology-transfer network. The university's rector, Albert Corhay, sits on the investment board, and the fund collaborates with Noshaq Spin-Offs, the university's dedicated venture vehicle. This gives Epimède early access to spin-offs emerging from the GIGA research institute and other university labs. The management team's ties to Meusinvest and regional entrepreneurial networks provide an additional origination channel for non-academic technology companies.

Epimède functions as a private equity fund, not a family office. It is legally a PRICAF under Belgian law and pools capital from five institutional limited partners. The fund operates with the governance, investment committee processes, and portfolio-construction discipline of a PE firm, though its LP base includes public-interest institutions rather than purely commercial investors.

Epimède invests directly into companies and leads financing rounds. The firm describes itself as taking equity positions and playing an active role on portfolio company boards. There is no public indication that Epimède commits capital to third-party venture funds as a limited partner.

The fund targets companies in early-stage and growth phases. For life sciences companies, it does not require revenue or break-even, accepting pre-revenue biotech and medtech firms. For engineering sciences, companies must show recurrent turnover above €1 million and ideally break-even or positive cash flow. The firm explicitly states it invests in companies whose growth potential is already demonstrated or in effective growth.

The university's rector sits on Epimède's board of directors, and the fund sources spin-offs from the university's research pipeline. The firm also works alongside Noshaq Spin-Offs, the university's venture capital fund. Co-founder and management team member Bernard Surlemont is a long-time entrepreneurship professor at the university and helped create its VentureLab incubator. This creates a formal, multi-layered operating relationship that makes Epimède a preferred channel for commercializing university research.

Epimède's five investors are Ethias, a Belgian life and non-life insurer; Integrale, a mutual insurance company specializing in second- and third-pillar life insurance; Noshaq, the Liège region's public investment fund; SFPI-FPIM, the Belgian Federal State's holding company; and BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity, a subsidiary of the French banking group. This combines public-interest mandates and commercial capital.