Charles Pontvianne

The VC secondary market is on fire. But many LPs are rushing in without fully appreciating the risks. VenCap International plc has been active in VC secondaries (LP positions only) since 1987 — and this is one of the hottest markets we’ve seen. In the first half of 2025 we reviewed $6.5bn of secondary VC deals — a 41% jump from the $4.6bn we saw in the same period last year. This includes both GP-led and LP-led deals. Here are 4 lessons we've learned from nearly 40 years of buying secondaries: 1️⃣ Power law still rules – a few companies will drive most returns. 2️⃣ Quality over discount – our best deal was bought at a premium to NAV. 3️⃣ Know the valuation policy – different VCs can value the same company very differently. 4️⃣ Factor in manager behavior – holding winners vs. selling early can make or break returns. VC secondaries ≠ PE secondaries. The risks are different — but for LPs who can access the right deal, at the right price, the rewards can be exceptional.

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It’s no longer enough to just buy well and hope for multiple expansion. Time to roll up your sleeves. GPs have been hearing this from LPs for years — especially during fundraising. #Operational value creation has become the main act in private equity, not the footnote. Why? - Because with rising competition, more dry powder, and tighter exit markets, helping your portfolio companies actually improve is the only real edge left. I’ve kicked off a short YouTube series on how experienced funds approach value creation — where it starts, what works, and what LPs are now asking about in diligence. We started with a fireside chat featuring Anne Arlinghaus from KKR Capstone (link below in comments). In Part 1, I cover: • Why the real work begins long before the ink is dry • The go-to value levers (and why overhead reduction is just the start) • How firms are building internal ops teams — and tracking impact If you’re curious what “hands-on” really means — or what it takes to become an Operating Partner — this one’s for you. 🎥 Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/drfgcsMV Next up: Buy & Build — and yes, it’s as messy as it sounds. #PrivateEquity #ValueCreation #OperationalExcellence #PortfolioCompanies #GPstrategy #LPperspective #INSEAD Arnaud Bonzom Bowen White Michael Prahl Harsh Temurnikar @

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Why I Don't Sign NDAs for Early-Stage Founders — And Why Founders Shouldn't Ask Your idea is your baby. I get it. But for VC, asking for an NDA before sharing that idea isn't protecting your future - it's limiting it. In my latest article, I break down why NDAs create more problems than they solve for founders seeking early-stage funding. I explain why VCs structurally cannot sign them (reviewing 1,500+ decks annually makes this impossible), why they signal inexperience rather than caution, and most importantly - why your execution matters infinitely more than your idea. If you're a founder worried about idea theft, this perspective might change how you approach investor conversations forever. I explain why trust is the real compounding currency in venture capital - not legal protection.

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Margin Expansion: How Big a Driver For Value Creation? Margin expansion accounts for just 14% of private equity value creation — the smallest of the three key levers. Its impact is highly concentrated in specific deal types and situations. The PE playbook has evolved over the years. Today's private equity strategy focuses primarily on acquiring best-in-class businesses and scaling them, rather than the traditional turnaround model. Top-quartile businesses offer limited operational improvement opportunities, which explains margin expansion's smaller overall role. The real margin expansion opportunity lies with underperforming assets. The data clearly shows this. Among deals with negative EBITDA margins, 78% achieved meaningful margin expansion with a median improvement of 1,250 basis points. Public-to-private transactions show the highest margin expansion potential. Sponsors often identify inefficiencies as part of their investment thesis that they can address away from public market scrutiny and quarterly earnings pressure. Similarly, carve-out transactions also outperform other deal structures in margin improvement. By sector, Energy & Materials, Industrials, TMT, and Healthcare show the highest margin expansion, with asset-heavy sectors such as Energy and Industrials particularly benefiting from scale advantages and operational optimization opportunities.

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Defining moment for #EuropeanVenture #EuropeanBiotech —and a proud one for us at Truffle Capital. Last week, Abivax—a company founded, incubated, and backed by Truffle Capital under the leadership of Dr Philippe Pouletty —announced outstanding Phase III results for its lead drug Obefazimod in ulcerative colitis. The outcome was historic: 📈 Nasdaq share price surged from $10 to nearly $70 💰 Valuation jumped from ~$665M to over $4.2B in a single session 💸 $747.5M raised in an upsized U.S. offering, ~5× oversubscribed 📊 Analysts now forecast >$4B in peak annual sales We’re proud to have taken Abivax from lab bench to global capital markets—founding the company, leading its Euronext IPO, supporting its Nasdaq listing, and helping steer it through clinical development. The same week, our medtech portfolio company Caranx Medical earned FDA approval for its #AI-driven live #imaging #guidancesoftware for TAVI procedures—a breakthrough in #interventionalrobotics and real-time image-based navigation. This is the blueprint we build from: scientific conviction, operational excellence, and long-term ownership. And we’re not stopping here. We're applying the same model in medtech—through CarvOlympics, our next-generation platform uniting breakthrough technologies in #interventionalrobotics, #cardiovascular, and #neurovascular care. The playbook works. And we’re just getting started. #TruffleCapital #Abivax #PhilippePouletty #Obefazimod #ulcerativecolitis #biotech #venturecapital #lifesciences #CarvOlympics #Medtech #scalinginnovation #valuecreation

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For all fresh European tech/AI/infra investors – a friendly (/mandatory) reading list Getting started in VC can really be overwhelming, especially when you now have to understand (and be able to explain to your colleagues) AI, coding, back-end infrastructure, and all things tech. Over the years, I’ve curated a set of newsletters/podcasts I turn to regularly and would blindly recommend, or even mandate, to every new investor who is keen to get how software development works, or just wants to sound smart (no shade). We can all copy what the large funds say, but do you even know what you are really talking about when dealing with a technical founder? Follow these newsletters and writers to save yourself (and the VC ecosystem) the potential embarrassment (or don’t! I applaud you for the hubris) :)  Must-read newsletters for investors in tech: Want to know how the best SW engineers work and solve problems? The Pragmatic Engineer. Gergely Orosz writes one of the best weekly newsletters for those who actually bother to get the nuts and bolts of it all – reports on engineering culture, best practices for SDLC, hiring, and how the greatest SW teams ship software. Prepare to learn. A lot! Like practical advice and hands-on examples on shipping product and AI? Every Inc., a great publication authored by a collective of writers ft. voices like Dan Shipper gives you just that – and also releases their own AI tools worth the price of admittance. If you really want to learn how people are building, using, and experimenting with AI, this one's for you. Can’t read, need pictures and numbers? Clouded Judgement. If a SaaS/Cloud investor tells me a deal is cheap/expensive, but isn’t aware of public market comps for listed tech companies, I wonder if they even know how to do their job. Jamin Ball makes it easy by serving up all key SaaS metrics weekly. If you need to know what great, good, and mediocre at scale look like, and how much your startup could exit for, go here. Ever wonder what keeps your tech teams up at night? Software Lead Weekly. Curated by Oren Ellenbogen from Forter, this newsletter provides a roundup of the best engineering and leadership reads of the week. Learn the best practices of scaling engineering orgs, how to ship code, how your SW eng thinks, with a dose of wry SW humor thrown in every time. Always has a few gems! Too much tech talk, need to see things through the lens of finance? The Diff. This daily (paid) newsletter by Byrne Hobart, CFA explores where technology, finance, and economics collide, and why it matters. Understand tech and businesses from a financial perspective, a lesson that most early-stage VCs think they understand, but really never learnt! Get gud, subscribe to The Diff. Am I missing anyone? Drop your favourites in the comments! PS: tl;dr not a fan of reading? I’ve got you covered, check the comments for two of the very best podcasts on companies there are.

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Excited to announce Antares Ventures' investment in enaDyne’s €7 million seed round, co-led by Amadeus APEX Technology Fund (APEX Ventures, Amadeus Capital Partners) and my friends Victor Pascucci III and Stefano Galiasso of Energy Capital Ventures®️, alongside Possible Ventures and returning angels Germany-based enaDyne, led by Philipp Hahn and Christian Koch, has developed modular non-thermal plasma reactors that cut industrial emissions like CF₄, PFAS, NOX, and VOCs while turning them into basic chemicals such as ethylene and methanol, essential feedstocks for industries like packaging, textiles, and electronics. For Asia, with fast-growing manufacturing, large semiconductor footprints, and a heavy reliance on imported petrochemicals, the impact is clear: cleaner air and more local production. At Antares, we see industrial decarbonisation not only as an environmental imperative but also as a defining opportunity for Asia’s next growth chapter. enaDyne’s technology can scale into semiconductor fabs, petrochemical plants, and renewable energy facilities, creating cleaner air and greater resource independence for the region. Full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/gXNNTNpf #AntaresVentures #AsiaGrowthMarkets #ScalingInnovation #VentureCapital #Investment #AntaresPortfolio #IndustrialDecarbonisation Michael Gryseels Louis Christian Volk Murayama Milena Nikolova

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