Montefiore Investment

Investment decisions are made directly by the firm's managing partners, including co-founders Daniel Elalouf, Eric Bismuth, and Henri Topiol. The team emphasizes a flat, responsive structure where senior partners remain closely involved in portfolio company strategy without interfering in day-to-day operations, an approach frequently highlighted by portfolio company CEOs such as Vincent Klingbeil of European Digital Group.

Montefiore Investment is a private equity asset manager, not a family office. It raises capital from a mix of French and international institutional investors, alongside the personal commitments of its partners. The firm was initially backed by entrepreneurial and family investors but has since institutionalized, with 70% of its capital now sourced from outside France.

Montefiore executes direct majority and minority equity investments in mid-market services companies. It does not operate as a fund-of-funds. The firm manages dedicated vehicles — including its flagship buyout series, the €200 million state-sponsored Nov Tourisme recovery fund, and the impact-oriented Starquest unit — which invest directly into operating companies.

The core strategy focuses on profitable, growing small and medium-sized enterprises where Montefiore can take a majority position to accelerate organic and acquisitive growth. Through the Starquest platform, however, the firm also writes minority tickets of €1–10 million into earlier-stage greentech ventures, reflecting a more venture-like posture in that specific thematic sleeve.

Starquest, founded in 2008 by Arnaud Delattre and Emmanuel Gaudé, merged with Montefiore in 2022 to become its dedicated impact and ecological transition arm. Nov Tourisme is a €200 million tourism-sector vehicle created in 2020 at the request of public institutions Caisse des dépôts and France Assureurs, for which Montefiore was selected as the exclusive manager and deployment partner.

Montefiore explicitly focuses on services and has not deviated from this sector specialization since 2005. The firm avoids heavy industrial, pure-play manufacturing, and commodities-related businesses. Even its Starquest climate-tech strategy targets service-oriented greentech — such as clean energy production, energy efficiency, and waste valorization — rather than hardware or infrastructure.

Montefiore operates through traditional closed-end private equity fund structures, currently deploying its sixth vintage of flagship funds. It has not launched a permanent-capital vehicle. The Nov Tourisme and Starquest mandates also follow defined investment periods aligned with their specific institutional or impact objectives.