Philippe Gire, Xavier Lazarus, co-founders of venture capital Elaia Partners, manager of the PSL Innovation Fund

Xavier Lazarus and Philippe Gire are co-founders of venture capital Elaia Partners, which manages the €75m ($87m) PSL Innovation Fund on behalf of Université PSL.

PSL Innovation Fund was launched in July to focus on sectors such as artificial intelligence, cleantech, materials, biomedical engineering and digital applications. Among its limited partners are KPN Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of telecoms firm KPN, and financial services firm BNP Paribas.

Prior to setting up Elaia, Lazarus built and sold educational software developer Cred-M before moving to asset manager CPR, where he helped develop its venturing businesses before CPR was acquired by financial services group Crédit Agricole.

Gire launched consultancy Accenture’s corporate venturing fund Accenture Ventures, and, in 2000, became president of Valeo Ventures, the investment arm of automotive manufacturer Valeo.

Elaia has more than $335m of assets under management. It recently agreed a strategic partnership with France’s National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control.