Our Team

Our team combines a unique experience in investment banking (JP Morgan, Calyon, Indosuez, Goldman Sachs), entrepreneurship (Wincap, Netvibes, Réservoir Jeunes...) as well as venture capital (Galileo, Inventmobile, Profinance, ...). Each of us has, at least, founded one company.

Main professionals include:

 

Christophe Chausson (Managing Partner)

Christophe founded Chausson Finance in 1992 and has over 20 years of venture capital experience. Prior to creating Chausson Finance, he was the head of venture capital firm Groupe 23 and was a General Partner at Profinance, a private equity fund. Christophe started his career in marketing with Publicis and Euro RSCG.

Founder and CEO of Chausson Finance, Christophe leverages an unmatched track-record with over 70 deals closed.

Alongside his position at Chausson Finance, Christophe is a business-angel in 20+ companies and sits at several companies' boards. He is also advisory board member of venture capital firms and co-founder of Green Recovery, a private equity fund investing in distressed companies.

Christophe graduated from Paris Dauphine.

Christophe Viet (Partner)

Christophe started his career at Indosuez as a trader  on the debt markets. After that, Christophe co-founded Wincap, a vendor of software mapping systems. When he left the company, Wincap had reached a €10m turnover with over 100 employees.

Afterwards, Christophe joined the venture capital firm Galileo as a partner. He orchestrated some of Galileo’s most prominent investments including the famous success-stories of Se Loger (real estate listing), Rue du Commerce (e-commerce), Alapage (e-commerce), Consodata (marketing data), Leguide (shopping guide) as well as other fast-growing companies such as Bi-Sam (banking software) and VirtuOz (conversational agent).

Christophe is a graduate of Paris Dauphine.

Marc Brandsma (Partner)

Marc is a telecom industry veteran with several years of experience in telematics with Havas, corporate data networks with Transpac, and mobiles both in France and in Europe with Orange.

He was instrumental in the launch of Mobipac, the first mobile data network in France, and co-founded Inventmobile, the early stage investment fund from Wanadoo and Orange.

Marc is also co-founder of Netvibes, the famous web 2.0 site, funded and managed by Tariq Krim.

Marc holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, a Master from Dauphine and a BA from Rouen Business School.

Thibault Lougnon (Partner)

Before joining Chausson Finance, Thibault worked in New York within the Mergers & Acquisitions group of Calyon Securities, the investment banking arm of Crédit Agricole-Crédit Lyonnais, focusing on cross-border transactions.

Prior to that, was the founder and Managing Director of Réservoir Jeunes, a local media company which he incorporated at the age of 19 and managed for three years, implementing it in three different cities while at business school.

At Chausson Finance, Thibault has advised numerous transactions in the software and Internet spaces inlcuding Vitec, SkyRecon, ExaProtect, Criston, Kyriba, Novalys, L4, Nexway, Tvtrip, PurePeople, Mixicom, Symphonie, Intrasense, aso.

Thibault is a graduate of ESSCA d'Angers with a major in finance.

Sabine Fillias (Associate)

Sabine is a graduate of the political science institute Sciences Po Paris and of the business school HEC. In final year, she specialised in NTICs in the Master “Management and New Technologies” powered by HEC and the engineer school Telecom Paris.

During her studies, Sabine cumulated several professional experiences at the French Trade Commission in Hong Kong, at the study of an Administrateur Judiciaire, at Chausson Finance and Mappy.

Sabine is also founder of Liberté Chérie and Founder and President of French Liberal party Alternative Libérale.

Gilles Macaigne (Venture Partner)

A graduate of Centrale de Lyon and of Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Pétrole et des Moteurs, Gilles spent most of his career in capital markets.

After starting his career with Elf Aquitaine as a reservoir modelling engineer, Gilles worked at Goldman Sachs for five years as an Executive Director focusing on debt capital markets in the UK. In 2000, he joined, still in London, the private wealth management division of Morgan Stanley, developing the ultra high net worth French clientele.