Impact investor opens Paris office as it kicks off second fund

The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) has opened a Paris office as it looks to position itself closer to France's booming biotech and foodtech industries.

ECBF partner Stéphane Roussel will run the office alongside colleagues Guillaume Gras and Charlotte Rossignol, an analyst who joined in January. Three-quarters of the wider team remains in Bonn, with a further satellite in Amsterdam.

“Paris hosts one of Europe's best deeptech and bioeconomy ecosystems," Roussel tells Impact Loop in an interview. "President Macron... he has really sweat the shirt for promoting France as an investment destination."

Paris is pulling ahead

Paris overtook London as Europe's leading tech hub in 2025, according to Dealroom data.

Moreover, France has some of the largest capital pools for venture on the continent, and has been particularly successful at channeling institutional, pension, and insurance money into VC. It's also home to dozens of impact-focused family offices.

Roussel also points to the research base, which includes institutions such as INRAE, CNRS, AgroParisTech, Pasteur and the CEA, which he believes directly feed the bioeconomy pipeline.

All this creates a prime environment to find bioeconomy startups to invest in. But it makes France quite a good place to attract LPs – something which ECBF now has top of mind.

Raising new fund

After closing a €300m debut fund in 2022, the ECBF is now fundraising for a second.

"The second one is a similar size – we are targeting around €300m," Roussel says. "We think that's the right size for the strategy we had with the first fund.”

The Paris office may also serves a fundraising purpose. The first fund brought in French LPs including BNP Paribas and Allianz France. Roussel says the ECBF will look to leverage the French capital market, including France's wealthy families.

“The first fund was predominantly delivering impact at scale on climate with greenhouse gas reduction," Roussel says. "The second fund is going to be even more systemic by expanding into biodiversity, circularity and healthy nutrition systems – and that impact resonates most with family offices.”

The growing bioeconomy

Europe's bioeconomy generates an estimated €2.7 trillion annually and employs more than 17 million people – comparable in scale to automotive or chemicals industries.

In France, the ECBF has already made four investments in bioeconomy startups, including crop science company Elicit Plant, which raised a €45m Series B in 2024.

ECBF typically writes cheques at Series A to C, targeting companies with €2m to €20m in revenue that have proven themselves at home and are ready to go international.

"We are investing on the back of an international expansion plan," says Roussel. "That's the typical moment where we would enter."

Outside his own portfolio, Roussel is keeping an eye on Agriodor, a startup using pheromone cocktails instead of pesticides for insect control, currently backed by earlier-stage fund Capagro.

"Too early stage for us now," he says. "But one that we will look at."