After four years as deputy director of corporate venture capital at energy group Engie, Eric Vincent has moved to a partner position at France-based venture capital firm Demeter Partners.
Earlier this year the city of Paris choose Demeter to manage its €200m ($245m) Paris Green Fund (Paris Fonds Vert), making minority investments in six sectors – buildings, mobility, energy, air, waste and digital technologies – for sustainable cities.
Demeter had recently sold stakes in five portfolio companies – Fondasol, Quadran, Delta Recycling, Suaval and Contenur – in a five-month period, generating a more than 2.5-times return.
Vincent had been deputy director of Engie unit Engie New Ventures, investing in decentralised power generation, alternative fuels, energy management, smart grids, energy efficiency, home comfort, mobility and smart cities technologies.
Founded in 2014, under managing directors Grzegorz Gorski and Hendrik Van Asbroeck, the €165m fund has invested €65m in 16 companies worldwide. It co-develops a blueprint collaboration plan with each portfolio company covering a 12-to-36 month horizon.
The unit’s portfolio companies include Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Airware, Apix Analytics, Connected Energy, Connit, Gogoro, Heliatek, Kiwi Power, Kwh Analytics, Opus One Solutions, Powerdale, Serviz, Streetlight Data, Sigfox, Symbio and Tendril.
Engie New Ventures is the group’s second corporate venturing initiative. Under Engie’s former name of GDF Suez, Vincent had been director general of Suez Nov Invest between 2000 and late 2004. He transferred into Engie’s renewable energy and then its strategy department after it was shuttered.
The corporate has been building up its New Ventures unit this cycle, having moved Nigel Purcell and Bernardo Bluhm to be investment directors of corporate venturing.