The Leitmotiv of the Boss of Supernova Invest, a Fund Specialized in Deeptech
PODCAST – President and managing partner of Supernova Invest, Pierre-Emmanuel Struyven has established himself as one of the strong voices in European venture capital. The investor advocates for the emergence of technological champions, beyond fashion effects. He is the guest of DeepTechs, the Challenges podcast produced in partnership with Mascaret.
At 60 years old, Pierre-Emmanuel Struyven has already gone through several technological revolutions. A graduate of the Polytechnic School of Brussels, he began his career in telecommunications, at the time when the first mobile phones were about to disrupt our lives. “I had the chance to live the great telecom adventure, from nothing to the iPhone,” he recounts.
He then cut his teeth in a mobile software startup, then took the head of SFR Développement, the corporate venture fund of the SFR group. For six years, he familiarized himself with the role of investor. In 2019, he took the plunge and joined Supernova Invest, a fund specialized in deeptech, born under the auspices of the CEA. He quickly took over its management, with the mission to grow the structure.
Supernova, the Rise to Power
Under his leadership, Supernova Invest is scaling up. From 200 million euros under management at its creation, the company now manages more than 800 million, with a team that has grown from 10 to 35 people. Health, industry, digital, and energy transition make up the core of its portfolio. The funds are organized by maturity from seed to late stage — to support startups throughout their development. Among its investors, it counts Crédit Agricole, Bpifrance, Michelin, Vinci, Biomérieux or Orano.
This positioning has allowed Supernova to build a solid reputation outside of France: more than 60% of new investments now concern European startups. “To maintain strong selectivity and balance risks, we need to expand the playing field. Deeptech is international by nature,” he explains.
Bet on Breakthroughs
For this innovation veteran, deeptech is not a marketing slogan, but an industrial reality. “These are breakthrough technologies, coming from laboratories and protected by patents. They target global markets from the outset,” he insists.
Far from the model of digital startups of the 2000s, often focused on B2C, deeptech projects require time, capital, and a fine understanding of technological cycles. “We invest in what we understand, and we understand what we invest in,” summarizes the boss of Supernova.
Faced with the United States and China, he advocates strengthening technological sovereignty in Europe in sensitive sectors such as cyberdefense, microelectronics, or new energies: so many strategic areas that Europeans cannot let slip away. For him, one of the missing links is downstream: exits. Stock market introductions (IPOs) are rare, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) still too timid, and large European groups buy fewer startups than their American competitors. “We need more industrials ready to integrate these young companies, otherwise they will be bought elsewhere,” warns the investor.
