EQT Ventures has added deal partner Rania Belkahia to its team in the firm’s new Paris office.
With the opening of the new office in France, EQT Ventures now has teams on the ground in Paris, San Francisco, Berlin, Stockholm, London and Amsterdam. The firm’s current French portfolio companies include Tinyclues and Calldesk.
“The EQT Ventures team is delighted to have Rania on board to lead our search for exceptional founders in France and drive our ‘locals with locals’ approach from the new Paris office,” said Alastair Mitchell, partner and investment advisor at EQT Ventures.
Belkahia will be leading all investments in France and brings her experience in consumer, B2C e-commerce and marketplaces, international scaling and operational strategy to the EQT team.
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 and raised EUR20 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,” commented Belkahia.
She continued: “I’m excited to now be on the investment side, joining a team of former founders and operators, who have not only been on their own entrepreneurial journey but also are taking a data-driven approach to investment using proprietary AI platform Motherbrain.”
