Marinus Oosterbeek and Vincent Baillin will lead the French bank's Opera Tech Ventures unit as it reorganises its venture activities.
French bank BNP Paribas has promoted Marinus Oosterbeek and Vincent Baillin to lead its strategic investment arm Opera Tech Ventures, as part of a reorganisation of its asset management activities.
BNP Paribas set up Opera in 2018 as its financial technology venture fund, under the umbrella of its BNP Paribas Asset Management division. It generally makes between three and five investments a year, providing up to €15m ($16.4m) per deal, between series A and C stage.
Opera will now be part of a newly formed Venture and Impact platform, alongside the bank’s ecological transition and impact activities and its renewables-focused Solar Impulse Venture Fund, which reached a final close at almost $180m in January this year.
Venture and Impact has approximately $880m under management and is led by Yann Lagalaye through BNP Paribas’s Private Assets’ division.
“By positioning Opera Tech Ventures within Private Assets’ Venture and Impact platform, we are committed to the growth of a dedicated innovation and venture capital team,” Lagalaye said in a statement announcing the move.
“Our ambition is to strengthen Opera Tech Ventures’ position as a leading investor in fintech, insurtech and adjacent sectors, while continuing to support entrepreneurs and innovation.”
Baillin and Oosterbeek will jointly head Opera as managing directors. Baillin had been an investment director at the unit for two years, having been promoted after two-and-a-half years as principal. He had originally come onboard as an analyst.
Oosterbeek is promoted directly from principal, but he arrived at Opera in February 2024 following three years at Dutch bank ABN Amro’s corporate venture arm, initially as a senior associate and then as associate director.
