Elaia is a Paris-based venture capital firm co-founded in 2002 by Philippe Gire and Xavier Lazarus that invests in B2B technology companies from pre-seed and seed through Series B, with offices in Paris, Barcelona and Tel Aviv. Deep tech is run as a dedicated franchise built with academic partners: the firm manages seed vehicles created with Université PSL (Paris Sciences & Lettres), Inria and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, and closed its third-generation deep tech seed fund, Deep Tech Seed 3, at EUR 134 million in March 2026. Its digital practice covers enterprise software and SaaS, data and AI, fintech and digital health. In April 2024 Lazard took a minority stake in the management company and the two set up Lazard Elaia Capital, a separate Paris growth-equity manager owned 75% by Lazard and 25% by Elaia; Elaia continues to operate and raise funds under its own brand.
EUR 850M (assets under management, French press at the DTS3 final close, March 2026) AUM71/100 Power Score™2002 FoundedParis, France
Elaia Partners co-founded in Paris by Philippe Gire and Xavier Lazarus.
2006
Seed investment in Criteo; Elaia followed the company until a year after its IPO.
2013
Criteo goes public on Nasdaq at a USD 2bn valuation, Elaia's best-known exit.
2017
Anne-Sophie Carrese joins to build the deep tech seed activity; she structures the PSL Innovation fund with Université PSL and co-creates the Elaia Alpha 2 digital seed fund with Inria.
2017
Teads, an Elaia portfolio company, is sold to Altice.
2024
April: Lazard acquires a minority stake in Elaia and the two launch Lazard Elaia Capital, a Paris-based technology growth-equity management company owned 75% by Lazard and 25% by Elaia, led by Xavier Lazarus. The agreement gives Lazard an option to buy up to 100% of Elaia over time.
2025
January: Florian Denis and Clément Vanden Driessche appointed Partners.
2026
March: final close of Deep Tech Seed 3 (DTS3) at EUR 134 million, above its EUR 120 million target; firm reports approximately EUR 850 million under management.