Demea Sustainable Investment | Investment Thesis & Preferences

01Investment Thesis

Demea Sustainable Investment backs startups, SMEs, mid-caps, and infrastructure projects driving the ecological and agricultural transition, across agriculture, agri-food, energy, environment, sustainable solutions, and green industry, with capital ranging from venture and growth equity through buyout, infrastructure, mezzanine, and private debt.

Exclusion Criteria

Excludes companies deriving more than 5% of revenue from fossil fuel exploration or production.

02Investment Team

JP

Julien Pourquery

Partner, Private Equity

HS

Holger Schragmann

Partner, Private Equity

OU

Olivier Usureau

Partner, Private Equity

AG

Assia Gaouar

Partner, Infrastructure

FG

Frédéric Gilbert

Partner, Infrastructure

OM

Olivier Masseran

Partner, Infrastructure

PD

Paz Diaz

Partner, Infrastructure

MH

Maya Hassa

Principal, Venture

MT

Marius Thébault

Principal, Venture

CC

Céline Charvin

Investment Director, Venture

SH

Stéphanie Hillard

Investment Director, Venture

AK

Adeline Kempf

Investment Director, Venture

TB

Thomas Beaugendre

Investment Manager, Venture

QM

Quentin Mulaton

Investment Manager, Venture

CR

Corinne Roussel

Chief Financial Officer, Middle & Back Office

JS

Jean-Charles Scatena

Head of AI and Operations, Middle & Back Office

SV

Stéphane Villecroze

Managing Partner, Direction

AT

Antoine Troesch

Managing Partner, Direction

SP

Sophie Paturle

Managing Partner, Direction

LC

Lionel Cormier

Managing Partner, Private Equity

EM

Eric Marty

Managing Partner, Venture

PD

Philippe Detours

Managing Partner, Infrastructure

BF

Benoît Forcier

Senior Partner, Direction

CB

Catherine Bérubé

Senior Partner, Venture

MG

Mathieu Goudot

Senior Partner, Venture

GB

Grégory Besson-Moreau

Partner, Private Equity

OB

Olivier Bordelanne

Partner, Venture

CC

Cyrille Cabaret

Partner, Venture

CD

Christophe Desrumaux

Partner, Venture

GD

Geoffroy Dubus

Partner, Venture

03F4 Research Brief

Demea Sustainable Investment Research

Investment Thesis

Demea Sustainable Investment (Demea Invest) is a Paris-headquartered private equity and venture capital platform dedicated exclusively to the ecological and agricultural transition. The firm was formed in early 2025 through the merger of two established French fund managers, Demeter Partners (venture and growth capital in agri-food, agtech, and cleantech since the early 2000s) and Cerea Partners (private equity, infrastructure, and private debt for the agricultural and food value chain). The combined platform backs startups, SMEs, mid-caps, and infrastructure projects across agriculture, agribusiness/agri-food, energy, environment, and the broader green industrial economy. Demea explicitly excludes companies that derive more than 5% of revenue from fossil fuel exploration or production, and frames every investment through an ESG and impact lens, publishing a regular ESG and Impact Report (17th edition released July 2026).

Sector Focus

The firm organizes its expertise around six thematic pillars: agriculture, agri-food, energy, environment, sustainable solutions, and green industry. Within these pillars, current portfolio activity spans agri-robotics, food and allergen-detection technology, water and desalination technology, EV charging infrastructure, battery and materials science (Verkor, Aledia, BEFC), building/real-estate decarbonization and ESG data (Deepki, checkDPE/Kardino), recycling, offshore and onshore renewable energy, insect protein and alternative agriculture (Ynsect), and mobility (Cityscoot).

Stage Focus

Demea is a multi-strategy platform rather than a single-stage fund. It deploys capital across the full company lifecycle: venture capital (pre-seed through Series A/B for startups), growth/expansion capital, buyout, infrastructure project finance, mezzanine, and private debt. The venture team, inherited largely from Demeter Partners, remains the most relevant entry point for early-stage founders, including a newly launched pre-seed vehicle (the AGIR fund, managed on behalf of AgroParisTech and Genopole) and the IAM (Innovation for Adaptation & Mitigation) early-stage fund, which made its first investment in Quideos in January 2026.

Check Size

Across its funds, Demea invests roughly €1 million to €30 million per transaction, scaling with company stage and financing type (equity vs. infrastructure/debt). Early venture checks via IAM and AGIR are on the smaller end of that range (recent rounds of €1.2M–€6M), while infrastructure and private-debt tickets run considerably larger.

Lead Tendency

Mixed. Demea frequently co-leads or leads early-stage rounds alongside specialist co-investors (e.g., co-leading Ilion Water Technologies' pre-seed with Critical Path Ventures), and also participates as a supporting investor in larger private-equity transactions led by other sponsors (e.g., Meanings Capital Partners' majority stake in Instant System, a company Demea's Paris Fonds Vert vehicle had backed).

Recent Activity

The firm has been highly active through 2025-2026: reinvestment to accelerate the FLASH EV-charging platform (Feb 2026), Demea Sustainable Investment's first Spanish infrastructure investment via its Climate Infrastructure Fund (Jan 2026), checkDPE's €1.2M raise (Jan 2026), Viti-Tunnel's €2M raise (Jan 2026), the IAM fund's debut investment in Quideos (Jan 2026), Onsen's €1.3M raise (Dec 2025), Ilion Water Technologies' €3.8M pre-seed co-led with the IAM fund (March 2026), and Amatera's €6M raise for climate-resilient crop varieties (March 2026). Demeter (the legacy venture brand) also backed Vulcan Energy's Phase One Lionheart lithium project in December 2025.

Portfolio Highlights

The combined portfolio spans 450+ companies and projects supported over 20+ years and 300+ transactions. Notable names include Verkor (EV battery gigafactory), Ynsect (insect protein), Deepki (ESG/real-estate data), Aledia (micro-LED semiconductor technology), Qarnot Computing (distributed computing/heat reuse), Foodvisor (nutrition/food tech), Cityscoot (electric scooter sharing), Istar Medical (medical devices), CarbonWorks (carbon capture), and Kardino, which merged with checkDPE in May 2026 to create a leading player in projected energy-performance diagnostics (DPE) for French real estate.

Team

Demea employs roughly 70 investment and operating professionals across six offices: Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Düsseldorf (Germany), Madrid (Spain), and Montreal (Canada). Leadership is organized around four practice lines (Venture, Private Equity, Infrastructure, and central Direction/back office), each led by Managing Partners: Stéphane Villecroze, Antoine Troesch, and Sophie Paturle head Direction; Eric Marty leads Venture; Lionel Cormier leads Private Equity; and Philippe Detours leads Infrastructure. Senior Partners include Benoît Forcier, Catherine Bérubé, and Mathieu Goudot.

Decision Process

As a multi-partner platform with distinct investment committees per practice line (Venture, Private Equity, Infrastructure), decisions run through a partnership/committee process rather than a solo GP model.

Founder Preferences

Demea favors technical and scientific founding teams building deeptech, agtech, and climate solutions with clear sustainability impact and a credible path to commercial scale, often partnering with public research institutions (INRAE, AgroParisTech, Genopole) to source and co-invest in translational science.

Geographic Focus

Primarily France and continental Europe (with a dedicated German office in Düsseldorf and a new Spanish infrastructure mandate via Madrid), plus North America through its Montreal office.

04Selected Portfolio