Origine Partners

Origine Partners

Origine Partners launched in 2023 when co-founders François Noir and Maxime Boyer formalized a partnership that had executed close to 100 acquisitions and disposals over the prior 14 years. The firm operates from Lyon, France, and is authorized by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) as a portfolio management company under number GP-20230009. Their core thesis — that profitable French B2B SMEs with €10 million to €50 million in revenue require institutionalized buy-and-build execution to reach mid-market scale — shapes the entire mandate. The firm's debut vehicle, FPCI Origine PME I, targets nearly €100 million in commitments for majority-stake investments of €5 million to €15 million per company. Origine structures each deal as an externalized corporate-development arm, running intensive M&A sourcing, deal negotiation, and post-merger integration on behalf of portfolio companies. Asset classes include leveraged buyouts, owner buyouts, management buy-ins, and development capital. Six portfolio companies had been acquired by early 2026: DuRoure (fertilizer blending, acquired December 2023), Sodikart (leisure and competition karting, March 2024), Hexalean (metal transformation and treatment, December 2024), Edivert (landscaping, July 2025), Cup Service (vending distribution, November 2025), and BRC (non-chemical pest control, April 2026). The geographic focus is exclusively French, with expansion supported through internationalization strategies rather than foreign acquisitions. The investment team comprises six professionals, with Nicolas Chevalier and Eline Benoit-Pequignet serving as Investment Directors and Manon Jolivet leading ESG. Origine complements its internal resources with a pool of entrepreneur-investors who act as mentors to portfolio-company management. The FPCI Origine PME I fund is classified as an Article 8 product under the SFDR regulation, with a systematic pre-investment ESG diagnostic and a profit-sharing mechanism for employees at each holding. April 2026: Acquired BRC, a non-chemical disinfection and pest-control business in Loire-Atlantique. Origine's structure departs from standard French small-cap private equity through its self-described 'outsourced M&A director' model. Rather than providing only capital and board oversight, the firm embeds a full mergers-and-acquisitions capability inside each portfolio company, managing target identification, deal execution, and integration. This operating-partner function is bundled into the investment mandate itself, making the firm a direct competitor to larger PE platforms but sized for companies too small to attract traditional buyout funds.