Vi Partners

Investment decisions are led by Managing Partner Olivier Laplace and Partner Bruno Tripet. The partnership structure is flat, with both partners serving on the investment committee alongside senior investment directors. All final capital-allocation calls require consensus among the partnership.

Vi Partners accesses deal flow through embedded relationships with ETH Zurich and EPFL technology-transfer offices, giving it early visibility into federally funded research spin-offs. This university-centric origination model produces opportunities that rarely reach broader European venture-auction processes. The firm also leverages its McKinsey and Swiss Re founding relationships for enterprise-referral channels.

The firm invests from seed through late-stage growth, with a primary emphasis on leading or co-leading early-stage rounds in Swiss academic spin-offs. It reserves capital for follow-on investments into existing portfolio companies through expansion stages. The firm does not participate in pure pre-revenue research projects without a commercial entity already formed.

Vi Partners concentrates on enterprise software, digital health, industrial technology, and artificial intelligence. The firm has not historically invested in consumer internet, pure-play gaming, real estate technology, or crypto/web3 infrastructure. Its mandate is deliberately tilted toward technologies that can trace lineage to Swiss federal research institutes.

Vi Partners invests exclusively through direct equity and convertible-instrument deals into operating companies. The firm does not operate as a fund-of-funds, nor does it allocate capital to external venture managers. Co-investors in Vi Partners' rounds have historically included other European early-stage specialists and Swiss family offices.