Paris Business Angels

Deal flow is generated internally by the network’s membership and its dedicated sourcing group, led by board member Didier Boullery. The network evaluates roughly 70 startups per year through a structured selection process run by its investment experts. Selection emphasizes high-quality, analyzed opportunities, leveraging the diverse professional backgrounds of members across IT, finance, and engineering.

It operates as a structured angel network, not a pooled fund. Members invest their own capital on a deal-by-deal basis into rounds the network has collectively approved. The association provides the platform for deal analysis, governance, and post-investment monitoring, while individual members make their own final investment decisions.

The group focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage rounds. Its average first-round investment across 2021-2023 was approximately €183,000. For roughly 10% of supported startups, the network can coordinate total investments of €500,000 or more, and it has the capacity to support rounds up to €5 million alongside partner networks.

President Olivier Baroux leads the network, supported by Vice President Jean-Marc Tenenbaum and a board that includes specialists in sourcing, performance, and HR. The board oversees the association but does not dictate individual member investment choices. Final decisions rest with the members, who invest personally based on the network's curated pipeline.

Yes, it actively practices follow-on investing. The network reports that 50% of the companies it backed in a first round received reinvestment from its members. On average, it executes 3 to 5 refinancing rounds per year, with follow-on activity governed by its performance and exit group overseen by board member Patrick Mole.

Members are integrated through specialized expert groups ('DEX') covering sectors such as greentech, AI, and food retailtech, and through an 'Operating Partners Club' that trains and coordinates board members. Roughly 30% of the network's members have entrepreneurial backgrounds, and they take active board seats or observer roles to mentor portfolio companies.

The network invests across a broad range of sectors, with confirmed activity in digital health (Cardiawave), enterprise HR software (Combo), DNA data storage (Biomemory), neural sensing (Wisear), 3D commerce platforms (Popmii), logistics AI (DMS Logistics), and urban agriculture (Champerché). Its internal expert groups have a particular focus on greentech, cleantech, digital/AI, and food retailtech.