Welcome back to another episode of the EUVC Podcast, where we gather Europe’s venture family to share the stories, insights, and lessons that drive our ecosystem forward.
Today’s guest is Omri Benayoun, General Partner at Partech, one of Europe’s premier investment platforms. Since 2014, Omri has co-led Partech’s growth equity strategy, raising more than €1B across two funds and backing some of Europe’s most capital-efficient champions. With a career spanning government, corporate strategy, e-commerce, M&A, and growth investing, Omri brings a rare lens on what it takes to build resilient global tech leaders from Europe.
From rock climbing as a metaphor for measured risk-taking to the structural advantage of Europe’s “do more with less” DNA, this conversation covers Partech’s contrarian bet on bootstrapped scale-ups, the role of elite LPs, and why Europe’s complexity might be its greatest strength.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered:
01:34 Rock Climbing & Investing: Risk, fear, and why falling is part of the journey.
04:00 Omri’s Background: From government to e-commerce (Cdiscount), retail (Casino), and software (Dassault Systèmes).
10:00 Lessons from Dassault: Product roadmaps, customer listening, and why big M&A requires years of courtship.
14:00 Government Experience: Why investors and founders can’t afford to ignore policy anymore.
20:00 Launching Partech Growth: Filling the gap for European growth capital in 2014.
22:00 Fund II Strategy: Betting on bootstrapped, capital-efficient companies during the 2020 frenzy.
25:00 Defining Capital Efficiency: Rule of 40, ARPU per employee, and Europe’s structural advantage.
29:00 Case Study – EcoVadis: From bootstrapped ESG ratings leader to global scale.
33:00 Inside Partech: The “Greek city-states” model of seed, venture, growth, Africa, and impact strategies.
39:00 Efficiency vs. Profitability: Why founders must avoid the “dead zone” of low growth + breakeven.
41:00 Elite LPs Enter the Game: How Cambridge Associates, StepStone, and sovereigns now back European growth.
46:00 Europe on the Map: From founders settling early to chasing world-class scale.
50:00 Complexity as a Feature: Why regulatory fragmentation creates stronger survivors.
52:00 Partech’s Cohesion: A culture of numbers, engineers, and price sensitivity across geographies.
You can watch it here or add it to your episodes on Apple or Spotify 🎧 chapters for easy navigation are available on the Spotify/Apple episode.
✍️ Show Notes
Capital Efficiency as Europe’s Advantage
Efficiency ≠ profitability. It’s about deploying every euro of opex (R&D, sales, marketing) at high ROI.
Europe’s founders historically had less access to capital → ingrained “do more with less.”
Developers are half the cost of US peers, with equal or better output.
Benchmark: ~€120K ARR per employee often breakeven in Europe vs. ~€250K in the US.
Bootstrapped Bets in Fund II
Partech Growth Fund II doubled down on companies reaching €10–20M ARR without VC.
Omri: “If you can compound at 35–40% growth for a long time, you make a lot of money.”
Case: EcoVadis — ESG ratings leader, bootstrapped to €20M ARR, now ~€200M ARR global champion.
Europe’s LP Awakening
In 2015, LPs laughed at “European growth equity.”
Now Cambridge Associates, StepStone, M&G, sovereigns, insurers, and endowments are backing Partech.
Shift driven by:
Founders refusing early exits (e.g., Prolific, Brevo).
Capital efficiency → stronger returns with less dilution.
China de-risking → Europe as diversification.
Complexity as a Feature
Fragmented markets + regulation force resilience.
Companies that scale despite Europe’s hurdles emerge stronger and globally competitive.
Survivor bias → higher quality founders and businesses at growth stage.
Takeaways for Founders & VCs
Falling is part of the climb. Controlled risk-taking is essential.
Capital efficiency > growth at all costs. Efficiency compounds.
Bootstrapped doesn’t mean small. Bootstrap DNA + growth capital = massive outcomes.
Policy matters. Founders & investors must engage with governments.
Europe is on the map. LPs now see world-class scale and efficiency as unique advantages.
💡 One-liner takeaway:
Partech’s Omri Benayoun shows how Europe’s capital-efficient DNA, combined with ambitious founders and engaged LPs, is reshaping growth equity — and why complexity might be the ultimate competitive edge.
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