VI Partners, the longest-established VC team in Switzerland, welcomes Olivier Laplace as new Partner. Olivier joins the Technology Investment team where he will work together with Joe Neale, Cyrill Osterwalder and Alain Nicod to select, invest in, and support promising Swiss and European start-ups in Software / SaaS, FinTech, Blockchain, AI, machine learning and IoT.
Olivier has 17 years’ experience as tech entrepreneur & intrapreneur, software developer, investment banker and venture capital investor. Prior to joining VI, Olivier was Investment Director at Swiss Post, where he built the corporate venture capital activity: recruiting a team, investing in 13 early-stage start-ups in Switzerland and abroad, counting two exits in the first four years.
Olivier is a computer and financial engineer and holds an MBA from IMD. Before joining Swiss Post, Olivier worked in Corporate development for the Kudelski Group where he initiated and led the data analytics practice and executed M&A transactions. Before, he founded a mobile tech start-up in France focusing on bringing people together around common cultural interests. Prior to that, Olivier worked in investment banking for JPMorgan in London and Citigroup in Paris. He started his career as a Software Developer.
Alain Nicod, Managing Partner Technology for VI Partners, commented: “We look forward to working with Olivier as a new partner within our firm where he will be working in tandem with Joe Neale and Cyrill Osterwalder. As a former tech entrepreneur, Olivier’s experience building the Corporate Venture Capital activity of Swiss Post will be a perfect addition to the team and very relevant to our LPs. With Olivier joining our firm, we now have an even stronger top-tier tech VC team”.
VI Partner’s team also includes Arnd Kaltofen and Diego Braguglia (Managing Partners, Healthcare), as well as Christoph Bieri (Partner Operations). The Managing Partners of VI Partners have worked together for 20 years and thus constitute the longest-standing and most experienced VC team in Switzerland. In June 2021, VI Partners announced the second closing of a new fund.