Novinvest Partners

Investment decisions are led by founder Alexandre Mars alongside Managing Partner François de Borchgrave. Mars has been the firm's principal since its 1993 founding and has simultaneously built adjacent platforms including blisce/ and the Epic Foundation. The firm operates with a lean investment team structure consistent with an early-stage specialist.

Novinvest Partners operates as an independent asset manager, not a single family office. While founder Alexandre Mars is the central figure across several related entities — including the Epic Foundation and the blisce/ venture platform — Novinvest Partners functions as a distinct private equity practice managing third-party or proprietary institutional capital.

The firm focuses on Seed and Start-up stage investing, typically entering at the earliest institutional rounds. Its strategy spans early-stage direct equity across Enterprise Software, AI/ML, Digital Health, and FinTech, with a geographic emphasis on Europe and North America.

Alexandre Mars founded all three entities in sequence — Novinvest Partners (1993), the Epic Foundation (2014), and blisce/ (subsequently). Each operates under separate governance and mandates. Novinvest is the private equity investment arm, blisce/ is a later-stage venture platform, and Epic Foundation is a philanthropic grant-making organization. Mars serves as the connective founder across all three structures.

Novinvest Partners primarily executes direct equity investments in early-stage companies, rather than operating as a fund-of-funds. The firm's investment model centers on direct Seed and Start-up rounds across its target sectors, though the firm has maintained a notably low public profile regarding specific deal structures.

The firm deploys across Europe and North America. Its Paris headquarters anchors a European origination network, while its US activity spans co-investment alongside American venture funds in the early-stage technology ecosystem. Specific country allocations beyond France and the United States are not publicly detailed.

Alexandre Mars began his career in technology and entrepreneurship before founding Novinvest Partners in 1993 at a relatively young age. He later built the Epic Foundation, a philanthropic platform that channels funding to high-impact social enterprises globally, and launched blisce/ as a later-stage venture vehicle. His professional identity spans private equity, venture capital, and structured philanthropy.