Paris-based venture studio OSS Ventures has announced the first closing of €40 million for a new investment vehicle targeting a total fund size of €75 million. Unlike a conventional VC fund, the capital is earmarked exclusively as follow-on financing for startups built in-house by the studio — companies designed from day one around the realities of the factory floor.
Leading the round are Decathlon Pulse, the investment arm of the global sports retailer, and specialty polymer group Teknor Apex, joined by long-standing backers 1st Kind by Peugeot Family and Tikehau Capital.
Built in the workshop, not the boardroom
OSS Ventures operates a hybrid model that blends a venture studio with an investment fund. Since its founding in 2019, it has launched around 30 B2B industrial software companies, 22 of which remain active today, collectively deployed across more than 3,600 industrial sites worldwide and having raised over €100 million in total.
The studio’s philosophy is deliberately unglamorous. Founder Renan Devillières has been explicit about what sets OSS apart from traditional software investors: “We don’t finance ideas that are not grounded in reality. We build companies at the heart of factories, in contact with operators, managers and real industrial constraints. At OSS Ventures, our offices are in the workshops, and we hold our meetings in safety shoes.”
That hands-on approach shapes everything from product development to the fund’s structure itself. The new vehicle is described by the firm as an “amplification vehicle” — not a tool for backing external teams at ideation stage, but a mechanism to accelerate internally built companies that have already proven themselves in live industrial environments.
A portfolio built for reindustrialisation
The fund’s timing is deliberate. European and American governments have spent recent years confronting the fragility of manufacturing supply chains — from PPE shortages during the pandemic to semiconductor bottlenecks — and industrial software is increasingly seen as central to rebuilding competitive manufacturing capacity.
Devillières made the stakes clear: “The West is realising it needs to reindustrialise. But you won’t rebuild manufacturing with 1990s ERPs and Excel. You’ll rebuild it with software designed for the reality of a 2026 shop floor — by people who’ve actually been inside one. That’s exactly what we do. In Europe. In the United States. Factory by factory. Software by software.”
The current OSS portfolio illustrates the breadth of that thesis. Fabriq, an industrial performance management platform, raised €25 million in 2025. Kraaft, which builds field operations coordination tools for complex industrial projects, secured €13 million the same year. Bonx, a no-code ERP tailored to industrial environments, completed a €7.3 million seed round in 2025. And MyC, focused on medical services management for industrial companies, raised €10 million in 2026.
Strategic fit for Decathlon Pulse
The involvement of Decathlon Pulse as a lead investor is notable. Launched in 2024 to back sports and wellness startups, the fund’s participation here reflects Decathlon’s own exposure to complex global manufacturing networks and its interest in software that can make those networks more agile and resilient.
In a statement, Decathlon Pulse described the partnership as a natural fit: “As industrial value chains grow more complex, the ability to connect product design, industrialisation and production through practical digital tools has become a meaningful differentiator.”
A French fund in a busy European moment
OSS Ventures’ close arrives during a period of sustained institutional appetite for industrial and deep tech software across Europe. Fellow Paris-based firms SlateVC and Ventech have both recently closed significant funds targeting industrial and B2B software categories, underscoring continued momentum in the French venture ecosystem specifically.
With €40 million secured and teams operating from both Paris and Boston, OSS Ventures is now targeting the remaining €35 million to reach its €75 million goal — and positioning its portfolio companies to compete as global industrial software champions at a moment when that ambition has rarely felt more relevant.
Fast facts:
- First close: €40M
- Target fund size: €75M
- Lead investors: Decathlon Pulse, Teknor Apex
- Manager: OSS Ventures, Paris (founded 2019)
- Model: Venture studio + follow-on fund
- Active portfolio companies: 22, deployed across 3,600+ industrial sites
