Welcome Rania Belkahia, our new deal partner based in Paris

At EQT Ventures, we’re continually looking for the most ambitious and determined founders across Europe and the US to partner with and help build the next wave of global success stories. One European ecosystem that has been steadily gathering pace is France, with its tech startups attracting $5.2 billion in investment in 2019. This is a 37% increase over 2018 and more than fourfold the investment received in 2015.

While it’s still early days, it’s clear that France has become one of Europe’s hottest tech hubs and there are some world leaders in the making. Today we’re delighted to welcome Rania Belkahia to the team to scout out great investments across the French ecosystem and launch our ‘locals with locals’ approach in our new Paris office.

Joining our team of former founders and operators, Rania will lead EQT Ventures’ investments in France while bringing her first-hand experience in consumer, B2C e-commerce and marketplaces, international scaling, and operational strategy to the next generation of founders. Prior to joining EQT Ventures, Rania co-founded and led Afrimarket, an e-commerce platform for French-speaking West Africa. Rania scaled the company to more than 250 employees, five subsidiaries, and raised €20 million.

“Having built my own business, I know only too well the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, and that it takes more than just access to capital to create a success story. You need to have people around you who have been on the journey before and are ready to support you with advice and experience,” said Rania. “I’m excited to now be on the investment side, with colleagues who have not only been on their own entrepreneurial journey but are also taking a data-driven approach to investment using proprietary AI platform Motherbrain. The French tech ecosystem is full of ambitious founders who are building great companies; I’m looking forward to working with them and finding the global winners!”

“The EQT Ventures team is delighted to have Rania on board to lead our search for exceptional founders in France and drive ours ‘locals with locals’ approach from the new Paris office,” said Alastair Mitchell, Partner and investment advisor at EQT Ventures. “Rania’s experiences as a founder and knowledge of the French tech ecosystem will be invaluable to our portfolio companies, no doubt fuelling the next wave of success stories.”

With the opening of the new office in France, EQT Ventures now has teams on the ground in six cities worldwide: Paris, San Francisco, Berlin, Stockholm, London and Amsterdam. This ‘locals with locals’ approach enables EQT Ventures to provide founders with the local support and advice needed throughout all stages of growth.

Welcome to the team, Rania!