THE TEAM
An unmatched combination of skills particularly suited for early-stage high-technology investing
The Valotoire Ventures team has developed an innovative evaluation methodology with proven success. The team has identified and worked with a number of early-stage French companies (many pre-revenue) who have experienced business successes shortly after working with members of the team.
Successes include: proof-of-concept funding from large multi-national corporations, venture funding, acceptance into Silicon Valley accelerators, expansive revenue growth, international expansion of their customer base, and other value-enhancing events.
The team takes pride in developing with all founders:
Credibility — based on skillset
Trust — based on conducting business with integrity
Alignment — based on a shared interest in the business success of the companies in which we invest.
Malcolm T. “Ty” Meeks is President Director General and General Partner of Valotoire Ventures
Prior to Valotoire Ventures, Malcolm was the Patent Director at a French sovereign wealth fund, based in Paris, focused on intellectual property investments and licensing. In this role, he was responsible for developing and managing – from concept to reality – a program designed to identify and aid start-ups, universities, and research institutions throughout France in protecting their innovations relevant to promising future markets.
Prior to this, Malcolm was Director, Corporate Patent at Infineon Technologies in Munich, Germany. While there, he managed patent licensing efforts, which generated double-digit millions USD in revenues for the company. He also advised executive management (business unit leaders, the COO, the CFO, and the CEO) on intellectual property issues impacting the company. Prior to Infineon, Malcolm launched an intellectual property investment fund. Before this, while at the Finnegan law firm in Washington, DC, he represented multi-national clients in all phases of complex intellectual property issues, including generating damages awards for clients in excess of $100 million USD.
Malcolm has an M.B.A. (with a finance concentration) from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a law degree (J.D.) from Cornell Law School, and a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Clemson University. Malcolm is registered to practice law in multiple jurisdictions in the US and is a registered US patent attorney.
Andrew Hackett is Director General and General Partner of Valotoire Ventures
Andrew has over 35 years of experience, working in the UK, Germany and France. He has managed international R&D projects and laboratories, including new product development, participation in international standards bodies and leading technical due diligence for M&A investment opportunities, including start-ups. He has also managed diverse multi-national teams.
Before Valotoire Ventures, Andrew was the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of a French sovereign wealth fund, based in Paris, focused on intellectual property investments and licensing. While there, he contributed to the development and growth of a program designed to aid French start-ups, universities, and research institutions in protecting their innovations. He did so by providing critical reviews of potential candidates and technologies.
Prior to this, Andrew served as the CTO of Thomson (now Technicolor) where he was responsible for worldwide R&D team leadership and project management. While at Thomson, he was also responsible for all technical aspects of due diligence for acquisition targets in M&A transactions valued in the aggregate at over $2 billion USD.
Andrew graduated with an M.A. in general engineering, specialising in electrical sciences (Electrical Sciences Tripos), from Cambridge University, followed by an M.Sc. in image processing from Essex University. He is the named inventor on 119 patents.
Romain Desplats is Director General and General Partner of Valotoire Ventures
Before joining Valotoire Ventures, Romain served as Deputy CTO then CTO at a French sovereign wealth fund, based in Paris, focused on intellectual property investments and licensing. He provided analysis of technologies and inventions as part of a program designed to aid French start-ups, universities, and research institutions in protecting their innovations. Romain helps start-ups and companies to extract the heart of their innovations and anticipate relevant priorities for future markets.
Prior to his position in Paris, Romain was Patent Portfolio Manager at the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency for 10 years. He worked with inventors from all technical fields at CNES, ranging from satellite navigation signals, optical advances and image processing to mechanical solutions. He oversaw the growth and management of the CNES patents, trademarks, software and know-how portfolio. In collaboration with CNES inventors, Romain developed an approach to make space related inventions applicable to other areas for transfer to start-ups and SMEs. Before specializing in intellectual property, he worked in research and development at CNES for ten years. He has contributed to 28 patent families and over 50 scientific publications which have enabled privileged partnerships with OEMs in the semiconductor industry.
Romain has a Ph.D. in microelectronics from the University of Bordeaux and French Space Agency and holds a French patent law diploma from the Center for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI), University of Strasbourg.
Alain le Loux is Advisor to Valotoire Ventures
Alain le Loux is a venture capitalist based in Europe and General Partner of an international venture capital firm having 121M USD under management with locations in the US and Europe. Alain has over 12 years of experience as both a successful early-stage VC investor and as a business angel investor. His investments have generated significant returns over his investment career. Having made investments in both the US and Europe, he has unique knowledge of valuations, exits, legal structures, and deal terms on both sides of the Atlantic. His investments span diverse technology sectors, such as nanotechnology, clean energy, advanced materials, robotics, photonics, semiconductors, chemicals, optics, and medtech. Alain’s investments include SciSports, SoundEnergy, LipoCoat, Eurekite, and OPNT, for example.
Alain has also served as a startup coach for 18 years coaching and advising over 250 European technology startups and scaleups. In this role he advised young companies on all phases of corporate management and growth, including marketing, business strategy, fundraising, finance and international expansion.
In 2010 Alain was one of the founders of the European Accelerator Program for the European Institute of Innovation & Technology.
Prior to his investing career, Alain enjoyed long career in the Netherlands at the corporate executive level and served as CEO of multiple technology startups, including Virobuster Technologies and DAC-Europe. Under his leadership as CEO, the companies increased revenues by 300% within 2 years.
Alain has a double Masters’ degree from the technical University of Twente (1994) and graduated in 2001 cum laude with his Executive MBA from Business School Netherlands.
