Alexandre

Venture Investor, Strategist, M&A and Board member

I would be keen to do some consulting work on a part-time basis. I’m available remotely or on-site in Paris or London for longer-term agreements.

I have engaged in consulting arrangements in the past, helping, amongst other things, with

• Start-ups or medium enterprises: structuring decks, designing them, and supporting the outreach strategy for investors. I have also negotiated, syndicated and led deals and am highly trained in reviewing term sheets or structuring equity, convertible debt, SAFEs, etc.
• Larger corporates: performing sector reviews (e.g. how AI will affect various verticals), monitoring competitors, internal venture building, identifying potential targets for acquisition, or even building internal corporate venture arms from scratch.
• Family Offices: I have supported multiple family offices, including the Branson family, to diversify their asset base and have experience in sectors ranging from real estate (PropCo, OpCo), hotel business buildups, consumer, fintech, franchising (built the turnaround strategy for McDonald’s Nordic), transport and logistics although my core speciality has shifted to more deep tech and machine learning, I remain open to diving into other projects as needed.
• M&A and Private Equity: I have been part of M&A (Barclays, Edmond de Rothschild) and Private Equity (Terra Firma) from small VC to large LBO deals and have extensive financial modelling and valuation experience.
• Board Advisory: I have sat on 12 boards and can provide strategic advice as an external advisor if helpful and connect the right senior stakeholders in my network, which is extensive thanks to the communities I built (next point)
• Community builder: In addition to building Europe’s largest and most active VC network (the Young VCs in 2017 with over 1,100 VCs across Europe’s leading funds, which is now renamed the Not-so-young VCs, which are all partners or principals), I also initiated and negotiated the Creative Destruction Labs AI Stream for HEC Paris, together with Polytechnique and Oxford. It is the first pan-European of its kind, bringing together leading universities, and will launch in September. I am very well connected to the VC industry and have a point of contact in most funds

--
Alexandre is a seasoned Venture Investor and has advised over 50 start-ups as a board member, consultant or investor on corporate strategy, fundraising, pitching and product development.

He has 10+ years of PE, VC and M&A experience, including 8-year Late Seed-Series A VC, of which 5-year deep tech investing globally.

As the former Head of Ventures at XTX Markets, Alexandre led the venture arm of the leading algorithmic market maker. He focused on Seed to Series A companies using ML as a core technology across all verticals (incl. healthcare, self-driving cars, architecture…). Over 24 months, he led 36 deals.

Iconic investments include Anthropic (ranked CB Insights 2023 Top 100 most promising AI companies), Wayve, BIOS, BlueSkeye AI, SWAPP, Terray Therapeutics, IOMED (CB Insights 2023 Digital Health Top 50).

He served on the boards of over 12 AI/ML startups, including DiA Imaging Analysis (prior to Philips sale), TraceAir, Turbine, Logically, Xihelm, and BlueSkeye AI.

His previous roles include being a Venture Investment Associate at Virgin Management (the Holding company of the Virgin Group and Family Office of the Branson family). He supported the execution of investments into Upside Foods (fka Memphis Meats), the first lab-grown meat company also backed by Bill Gates and follow-on investments in Slack (productivity tool), Blockchain.com (crypto wallet), Capsule Pharmacy (pharmacy delivery in NYC), the exit of Ring (connected doorbell) to Amazon. Monitored portfolio of 40 investments, including Transferwise, Slack, and Pinterest.

While at Terra Firma Capital Partners (LBO fund), he was part of the team which acquired the largest European McDonald’s Master franchise, with 435 restaurants across the Nordic region.

Alexandre is an alumnus of Imperial College and HEC Paris and holds an MSc in Finance and Strategy. He successfully completed the two first levels of the CFA Charter.

XTX Ventures is the VC arm of XTX Markets, the leading algorithmic market maker leveraging machine learning to trade 18% of European equities and 7% of global FX (top 3 global) and focuses on Seed to Series A companies using ML as a core technology across all verticals (incl. healthcare, self-driving cars, agriculture, architecture…).

As sole full-time venture employee (Head of Ventures) over 24 months: led 17 initial investments, 13 follow-ons and 3 highly strategic partnerships. Served on the boards of over 12 ML startups, including DiA Imaging Analysis, TraceAir, Turbine, Logically, Xihelm, BlueSkeye AI.

Iconic initial investments include Anthropic (ranked in the CB Insights 2023 Top 100 most promising AI companies globally, achieved 5x unrealised in 8 months), Wayve, BIOS, BlueSkeye AI, SWAPP, Terray Therapeutics (since partnered with Calico, an Alphabet company), IOMED (CB Insights 2023 Digital Health Top 50), and Voiceitt (now Cisco/Webex partner). Led highly successful follow-on rounds in Traceair, Logically (both CB Insights 2023 Top 100 most promising AI companies), Turbine (CB Insights 2023 Digital Health Top 50) and oversaw the exit of Dia Imaging to Philips.

Initiated partnerships with accelerators & venture builders such as Conception X and Creative Destruction Labs HEC Paris, Post-Urban Ventures, securing XTX Ventures’ role at the centre of the Deep Tech ecosystem. Awarded £100k-£200k CLN funding to the most promising UK PhDs, pre-seed entrepreneurs, venture builders from the programmes.

- Launched an Investment Club enabling high net worth and institutional investors to co-invest in late Seed and Series A investments in Europe (target size: €500k-€1m) by pooling their investments. Cleverton structures an investment vehicle (UK-based Limited Partnership SPV) and coordinates investments through an online platform. Processes are coordinated by Alex, who conducts due diligence, market research, financial projections, founder interviews and term sheet negotiations.
- Built a pipeline of proprietary deals and competitive co-investment opportunities alongside leading European funds.
- Cleverton Ventures was put on hold when Alex joined XTX Markets in July 2021, on the company’s specific request.


Built a pipeline of proprietary deals and competitive co-investment opportunities alongside leading European funds.

Cleverton Ventures was put on hold when Alex joined XTX Markets in July 2021, on the company’s specific request and has been reactivated since December 2023.

- He worked on projects for Sir Richard Branson directly and served as the Associate covering venture capital for Richard Branson & the Virgin Group in a team of two, sourcing companies from Series A to Series C.
- Drafted IC documents for the investment in Upside Foods (fka Memphis Meats, first lab-grown meat company also backed by Bill Gates) and follow-on investments in Slack (productivity tool), Blockchain.com (crypto wallet), Capsule Pharmacy (pharmacy delivery in NYC), DoctorOnDemand (telemedicine), Loansnap (smart mortgage lending); the exit of Ring (connected doorbell) to Amazon. Monitored portfolio of 40 investments, including Transferwise, Slack, and Pinterest.
- Managed Richard Branson’s crypto asset portfolio and identified strategic opportunities in the blockchain space for the Virgin Group; spoke on several blockchain panels and conferences, including SVK Crypto and family office conference DC Finance .
- Part of a small team working directly with the CIO of the Group that led to closing a brand licensing deal and creating Virgin Trains USA to build a railway between Miami and Orlando. Determined valuation and built LBO model for acquisition.
- Explored possibilities for Richard Branson to dive into the Marianna Trench (deepest point on earth (11km)), with a submarine.
- Originated investment opportunities for rebranding into Virgin companies, which were presented to the investment committee in sectors including hospitality (Virgin Hotels), out-of-home entertainment, transport and financial services.

- Formulated the investment thesis that led to the acquisition of the largest European franchise of McDonald’s with 435 restaurants across the Nordic region (Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden) by Guy Hands, the chairman of one of Europe’s leading LBO funds (at the time, retiring 2023 passing on to his son Richard), incl. a detailed analysis of leases and consumer behaviours and a turnaround strategy recommendation. The investment proved highly successful and is one of Guy and Richard Hands’ main focuses and cash cows today.

- Won the bid for Welcome Hotels, a chain of 12 German hotels in a team of three; drafted due diligence and investment thesis, market consolidation strategy, management compensation package mechanism and LBO model.

- Lead analyst on Cleor, a jewellery retail sector deal: structured €15m support capital transaction including hybrid debt/equity instruments and warrants; negotiated with current company sponsor 21 Centrale Partners; drafted investment thesis & presented to CIO of Terra Firma.