L’Echo, le 8 décembre 2021. Michel Lauwers.
The Belgian fund has decided to invest in the future of cosmetics company Remanence alongside Polexandre Joly, a serial French investor.
After making its first investment in a scale-up (Pitagone) just over a month ago, Profinpar has just made its first investment in France. The fund set up by 45 Belgian investor-entrepreneurs to support growing SMEs has participated in the acquisition of Remanence, an SME based in Lille which develops and markets cosmetic products (skin and hair care) as well as food supplements.
This is the tenth investment by Profinpar, a fund which invests between €1 and €6 million in SMEs or family businesses using an entrepreneurial strategy: as well as providing capital, it offers expertise to each of its targets by drawing on the skills of the 45 investor-entrepreneurs who helped to set it up.
The Remanence deal differs from other deals carried out by the Belgian fund in that it intervened in support of, and at the request of, a French serial investor who bought the Lille-based company. Polexandre Joly has already built up quite a CV by launching or developing various businesses in fintech, sales outsourcing and SaaS software.
When he set his sights on Remanence earlier this year, he looked for a financial partner to support him. He really liked our entrepreneurial model,” explains Dimitri de Failly, one of Profinpar’s partners, who describes Polalexandre Joly as “a person bursting with energy and good ideas”. As for Polexandre Joly, he found at Profinpar “an entrepreneurial approach consolidated by proven field experience in various sectors”.
So together, Polexandre Joly, a few partners and Profinpar bought Beyond, the holding company controlling Remanence. The Belgian fund subscribed to just over 40% of the capital for just under €2 million.
Remanence operates a range of cosmetics under five of its own brands (Institut Claude Bell, Moea, Nayana, Imperial Beard and Etern’l) and also designs products for third parties (white labels). It develops its own formulations, but uses the services of a subcontractor based in the south of France for manufacturing. With sales approaching €10 million, the company is already marketing its brands internationally, in particular through e-commerce.
The new owners, who have strengthened the company’s management team, have high hopes for the company’s further international expansion, with a focus on digitalization.
