Margin Ventures

Margin Ventures is a Paris-based venture capital firm that launched in 2025 with a clear and unusual mandate: back founders who have been systematically overlooked by the European investment establishment. Cofounded by Mehdi Belkahla, a former investment banker at Rothschild & Co, and Anas Jaballah, an engineer who spent time at EDP and Boston Consulting Group, the firm raised a €50 million seed fund with a hard cap that could push it to €80 million if investor demand warrants.

The firm's thesis is straightforward but countercultural in an industry that has long favored founders from elite backgrounds and prestigious networks. Margin Ventures looks for founders operating from what they call "the margins" — entrepreneurs who are socially, geographically, or academically outside the mainstream. Their goal is to turn talent and hard work into success, not privilege.

The fund focuses on three core themes: Sustainability (with climate change solutions a particular priority), Health & Education (improving access and outcomes), and Deeptech & AI (grounded in real utility rather than hype). Margin Ventures invests from Pre-Seed through Series A across France and the broader European ecosystem, typically writing checks between €50,000 and €2 million.

What makes Margin Ventures distinct is the founders' own outsider perspective. Belkahla grew frustrated at Citizen Capital, where he served as investment director, noting the "strong uniformity of founder profiles" the firm was backing. Jaballah, a second-generation French citizen, worked on startup ecosystem development in Tunisia. The two met via a cold LinkedIn message in 2022 and began angel investing before formally launching the fund.

For founders who have been passed over by Sand Hill Road lookalikes or London VC firms that chase Stanford alumni, Margin Ventures represents a genuine alternative. This guide covers their investment thesis, portfolio companies, check sizing, and practical advice for getting on their radar.

Margin Ventures operates from a conviction that the best founders often come from unexpected places. Europe's venture industry has long skewed toward founders from elite engineering schools, prestigious banking backgrounds, and well-connected networks. Margin Ventures explicitly rejects that pattern, seeking entrepreneurs whose advantage is insight and execution rather than pedigree.

The fund concentrates on three thematic verticals. Sustainability covers climate-focused businesses, including energy transition, circular economy, and carbon reduction technologies. Health & Education encompasses companies improving access to healthcare and educational resources, with a particular interest in solutions that reach underserved populations. Deeptech & AI is interpreted practically rather than speculatively — Margin Ventures wants to see AI applied to concrete problems, not buzzword-heavy pitch decks.

Geographically, the firm is France-first but Europe-wide. The founders have ties to Tunisia and broader North African startup ecosystems, which gives them visibility into founders who might otherwise be invisible to Parisian investors. The fund's structure leveraged Citizen Capital's existing GP legal framework and regulatory license, allowing Margin Ventures to bypass many of the administrative hurdles that typically delay first-time fund launches.

Margin Ventures prefers to lead or co-lead rounds but is pragmatic about follow-on capital. The firm aims to be the first institutional check in a founder's journey, betting on conviction at the earliest stages rather than waiting for traction to become obvious.

The fund spent late 2024 laying groundwork while Belkahla remained at Citizen Capital, then launched fundraising in Q2 2025 with a target of €30 million for first close and €50 million as the full target. If limited partner demand exceeds expectations, the hard cap sits at €75-80 million.

Initial capital deployment has started with investments in two companies. Before the fund formally closed, the founders made angel investments and identified over 100 potential deals — a pipeline that validated the thesis that underserved founders were actively looking for capital. The formal fund structure now allows them to write the checks that angel rounds could not.

The firm has built relationships with family offices and high net worth individuals as anchor investors, with ongoing conversations with larger institutional allocators. This mixed LP base reflects the fund's positioning: institutional enough to write meaningful checks, but flexible enough to move fast on founder-friendly terms.

Margin Ventures is explicitly not trying to be the fastest deployer in the market. The founders have been selective, using their network to surface founders who have been systematically passed over, not just those who have been pitched to every other fund in Paris.

Margin Ventures has publicly disclosed two portfolio companies that illustrate the fund's thematic focus.

MASTEUR is an AI-powered, gamified live tutoring platform that makes education more engaging and accessible. The company fits squarely in the Health & Education vertical and reflects the fund's thesis of using technology to improve access for populations historically underserved by traditional educational institutions. The gamification angle suggests a product built for engagement and completion rates, key metrics in edtech.

FASTEN is developing a digital and nutritional therapy platform designed to support cancer treatment. This sits at the intersection of Health & Education and reflects the fund's interest in life sciences applications that combine digital tooling with clinical outcomes. The nutritional therapy component suggests a holistic, preventative approach rather than purely pharmaceutical intervention.

Both companies demonstrate the Margin Ventures thesis: real-world problems, AI-enabled solutions, and founders who are approaching large markets from non-obvious angles. The fund's conviction-driven approach means they are willing to back companies earlier than traditional VCs might, before every metric is polished.

The core screening criterion at Margin Ventures is founder background. They are explicitly looking for entrepreneurs who have been systematically underrepresented in venture capital — whether due to geographic origin, educational background, immigration status, or social context. This is not a diversity checkbox; it is the core of the investment thesis.

Within that framework, the firm evaluates standard venture metrics: market size, product differentiation, business model, and path to revenue. But the evaluation is calibrated for earlier-stage companies than most seed funds will touch. A Pre-Seed founder with strong domain expertise and a clear problem statement can get a meeting even if the metrics are nascent.

Margin Ventures has a particular interest in founders who have personal proximity to the problem they are solving. A founder who grew up in an underserved region and is building a solution for that market will get more credit than a founder who is adjacent to the problem academically. The fund believes experiential insight produces better long-term execution.

Thematic alignment matters. A company in fintech or consumer SaaS is less likely to get a meeting than one in climate tech, health access, or applied AI. The fund is not sector-agnostic — it is conviction-driven on its three verticals and expects founders to demonstrate clear alignment with at least one.

The team composition should show complementary skills. Margin Ventures values technical depth alongside commercial acumen. A solo founder needs to demonstrate why they do not need a cofounder; a two-person team needs to show that the skills are genuinely additive, not overlapping.

The most effective way into Margin Ventures is through warm introductions from the European startup ecosystem. The founders have built relationships with other VCs, accelerators, and angel investors who surface deal flow. If you have worked with any fund or investor who has sent deal flow to Margin Ventures, that referral will carry significant weight.

Cold outreach is not hopeless but is less efficient. The firm receives fewer cold submissions than a Sand Hill Road fund because European VC culture is more network-dependent overall. If you cold outreach, the bar is thematic specificity: show that you have read their thesis, understand what they invest in, and can articulate exactly why your company fits. Generic pitch decks that could have been sent to any VC in Europe will not land.

The founders are active on LinkedIn, which is how they found each other and how they surface deal flow. Engaging authentically with their content — thoughtful comments, genuine questions — is more effective than a cold pitch via LinkedIn DM. The goal is to be known to them before you pitch them.

Once you have a meeting, prepare for a direct conversation. The founders are not interested in polished pitch theater. They will ask about your background, why you are building this specific company, and what access you have to the customers you are targeting. Be ready to explain the insight that other investors missed.

Follow-up discipline matters. Margin Ventures does not have a rigid decision timeline, but they are a small team deploying a focused fund. If you have a meaningful milestone between initial meeting and close — a pilot signed, a key hire made, a regulatory win — send a brief update. These signals carry more weight than a polite check-in.

Margin Ventures invests at early stages where financial track records are often thin. But this does not mean founders should skip financial preparation. The fund will ask about SaaS unit economics, burn trajectory, and path to revenue — not to apply metrics unsuitable for early companies, but to understand whether the founder has thought rigorously about the business.

A common mistake at the Pre-Seed and Seed stage is presenting projections without the underlying logic. If you say your SaaS business will reach 40% net revenue retention by year three, be ready to explain what drives that number in your specific context. Investors who have seen hundreds of pitch decks can spot copied metrics immediately.

Working with a fractional CFO is particularly valuable for founders from non-financial backgrounds. The Margin Ventures founders are financially sophisticated; they will probe assumptions. A founder who can walk through a dynamic financial model — not a static pitch deck projection — signals the kind of rigor that earns follow-on trust.

Key metrics vary by vertical. In Health & Education, think about customer acquisition cost relative to lifetime value and how quickly you can reach positive contribution margin. In Sustainability, prepare to discuss regulatory tailwinds and carbon credit pathways if relevant. In Deeptech, be ready to explain your data moat and how your training approach creates defensibility.

Financial preparedness also extends to your cap table. Margin Ventures will want to know who else is in your round, what the liquidation preferences are, and how the option pool is structured. First-time founders who have not thought through these details signal execution risk beyond the product.

Founders building in Europe's underserved markets face a unique challenge: the fundraising process itself is optimized for a specific profile of entrepreneur. Margin Ventures is trying to change that. Whether or not they are the right fund for your company, the principles that make you fundable for their thesis — clear problem insight, authentic founder motivation, rigorous financial thinking — will serve you across every investor conversation.

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Finding the right investor is a founder-specific problem. The best VC for your company is the one whose thesis maps to your insight, whose portfolio demonstrates genuine interest in your space, and whose team can actually add value beyond a check.