Podcast: Building An Evergreen Fund from Scratch

In this podcast episode, Luc Maruenda, Head of Wealth Solutions at Eurazeo, takes us through one of the most remarkable long-form success stories in European private wealth; a 26-year journey from raising €30 million venture capital funds for French retail investors to running what is arguably the largest Evergreen fund in Europe, with AUM surpassing €3 billion by the end of 2024.

Where it all started

Luc's story begins in 1999 when the team was operating as a captive company within a large insurance group, raising modest annual venture capital funds underpinned by French tax incentives for individual investors. Reaching €50 million in a single year was considered a major achievement. A pivotal moment came in 2010 when the firm became independent, a shift that gave the team the entrepreneurial freedom to engage distributors on their own terms and broaden the product offering. The launch of Eurazeo's first private debt fund for private clients followed in 2012, capitalising on the emergence of direct lending across Europe.

The First €100m Raise

The 2016 collaboration with BNP Paribas marked a step-change, delivering Eurazeo's first €100 million-plus raise in the private wealth channel. Eurazeo has always opened its private client strategies only after institutional investors have already committed. The logic is to establish institutional backing that builds the credibility and trust that wealth distributors require before committing their clients' capital.

Once we had large insurance companies already investing for their own balance sheet money into our institutional funds, when we came to see them [about wealth products], they said, well, it makes sense.

The Evergreen Idea — Turned Away, Then Realised

Eurazeo first explored the idea of an Evergreen fund as early as 2013, but the French regulator deemed it too operationally complex at the time.

Three years later the firm returned with a clearer proposition, spending 18 months working closely with regulators and with a key insurance partner to understand exactly what the product would need to deliver in order to integrate seamlessly into insurance company systems.

It was not the insurance company's job to adapt to private markets, it was Eurazeo's job to build a fund that worked within their operational infrastructure.

Regulatory approval came in March 2018, and the flagship fund, Eurazeo Private Value Europe 3 (EPV3), launched in July 2018.

Designing A Hybrid Strategy

EPV3 was structured as a hybrid evergreen, combining 60% private debt and 40% private equity secondaries. This was a deliberate design choice rooted in predictability. An Evergreen fund must survive multiple economic cycles; as Luc notes, EPV3 has already navigated COVID, an interest rate hiking cycle and ongoing geopolitical disruption. The target return was never sky-high: a consistent 6–8% per annum, delivered reliably, week on week.

"The objective of a fund is not to deliver 12–15%. We have an objective of performance between 6 and 8% year on year. And that's what we've been delivering. And this is plenty enough."

Private debt and secondaries were selected precisely because of their shorter investment cycles, both typically three to four years, which provides the structural liquidity needed to support investor redemptions without compromising portfolio integrity.

From €50 Million to €3 Billion

The fund's growth has been exceptional. Within four years of launch it had reached €450 million, driven by a small number of insurance companies that trusted both the investment strategy and the fund's structure. By the end of 2024, EPV3 had surpassed €3 billion, making it one of the largest Evergreen funds in Europe. Luc is quick to credit the team and highlights two operational foundations that made the difference: the weekly NAV, a non-negotiable requirement of the insurance companies that demanded significant IT investment, and the quality of the fund's reporting, which Luc describes as Eurazeo's best marketing tool.

"Our best marketing is basically our reporting — the transparency with which we communicate to distributors: what's in the fund, what exits we do, what investments we do."

Platform Expansion

Looking ahead, Eurazeo is preparing to launch two new evergreen funds in Luxembourg, each a pure-play vehicle: one focused entirely on private debt, the other on private equity secondaries.

Unlike EPV3, which cannot easily receive the ELTIF 2 passport due to its structure, the new funds will use UCI Part II structures designed for pan-European distribution, opening markets including Germany, Benelux, Italy, Switzerland and the UK.

Luc sees these Luxembourg-based structures as a potential game-changer for the next three to four years, and one that Eurazeo expects to significantly accelerate its European profile.

A Considered, Disciplined Expansion

Eurazeo currently leads the French market for private market evergreen products targeting mass affluent and high-net-worth individuals, and has a growing presence in Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy.

The approach to international expansion beyond France has been deliberately measured.

Private wealth already accounted for 22% of Eurazeo's total fundraising in 2024. The ambition is to grow that to 30% over the next five years — still well below the 35–50% targets declared by the largest US managers, but a meaningful milestone for a firm building presence across Europe.

"You have to be cost efficient and nimble. Our job is to build the name, build the brand, build the trust — and progress."

This podcast is essential listening for anyone early in their journey to build a private wealth offering, revealing how Eurazeo built a €3 billion evergreen fund.