FondInvest hires Proventure founder as partner

Fondinvest Capital, a Paris-based fund of funds manager, has hired Catherine Lewis La Torre as a partner.

Lewis La Torre co-founded Proventure, a fund of funds that specialises in European mid-market investments. She helped raise two funds at the firm and managed separate accounts on behalf of major Nordic institutions with a total of €1 billion in assets under management.

Catherine Lewis La Torre

Prior to Proventure, Lewis La Torre worked as investment director for ABN AMRO Capital Investments and Sofipa, the private equity division of Unicredit, Italy’s largest bank.

Lewis La Torre has also been the marketing director for the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association in Brussels.

Fondinvest recently closed two funds, Fondinvest VII, a primary fund of funds vehicle, and Fondinvest VIII, which will focus on secondaries. The firm said it does not disclose the amounts of its funds.

Fondinvest is one of Europe’s oldest private equity investors, founded in 1994 as part of La Caisse des Depots et Consignations, a French financial institution. The firm spun out from La Caisse in 2006 in a management buyout, and has about €2 billion under management.

The firm focuses on investments in western Europe that range in size from €100 million to €1.5 billion. FondInvest is headed up by founder and managing partner Charles Soulignac.