The EURÊKA Foundation – the beneficiary – is an integral part of ARCHIMED’s mission to sustainably improve lives as an impact investor.

November 5, 2020 – Global private equity healthcare specialist ARCHIMED announces its latest contribution of several million euros to the EURÊKA Foundation, the philanthropy created by its partners when the firm was founded in 2014. Eurêka is committed to improving the lives of fragilized people, notably through projects focused on mental health and the environment. EURÊKA’s projects are especially relevant for well-being today, given heightened anxieties tied to Covid-19. The foundation is key to ARCHIMED’s impact-investing philosophy.

“One of our principal goals in launching ARCHIMED was to leverage our network and experience as business builders to improve people’s lives in sustainable ways” says managing partner Vincent Guillaumot, who chairs the Eurêka Foundation. “We do that initially by supporting companies operating in medical industries, both financially and strategically. Those companies help expand quality health care affordably to large numbers of people. Then through EURÊKA, we commit a significant portion of our capital gains to philanthropic projects and we encourage our network of contacts to do the same.”

ARCHIMED’s EURÊKA will use a portion of the fresh capital to support Clubhouse Lyon, which it established in 2017 as a principal founding donator. Clubhouse Lyon is run communally – without doctors – by men and women who have been discharged from full-time psychiatric care. It aims to give members the confidence they need to rejoin mainstream life and social activities. Some 26 percent of Clubhouse Lyon members find jobs. Only a tiny fraction of former full-time psychiatric patients not part of the Clubhouse or similar projects find work. In addition to providing financial support, ARCHIMED staff act as advisors to Clubhouse Lyon and mentor its members – some of whom are well known to the investment team since Clubhouse Lyon was incubated for almost a year in dedicated office space at the rapidly growing investment firm.

The ARCHIMED team plans to select and fund other projects focused on the protection of fragile people and their environment by the end of the year. A large number of ARCHIMED team members pledge a portion of their time and/or investment profits to philanthropy. “It’s core to our culture,” says Guillaumot. “It helps our team to remember that at the end of the healthcare value chain, there are always patients to serve.”

This year, ARCHIMED closed mid-cap-focused, €1 billion MED Platform I, the largest healthcare fund ever raised in Europe. ARCHIMED’s small-cap focused MED I fund, which raised €146 million in 2014, has returned more than five times the value of invested capital and is the top performing buyout fund on a global level for its vintage. “A significant portion of our funds’ carried interest has been and will continue to be committed to the EURÊKA Foundation,” says ARCHIMED chairman Denis Ribon. “It’s important that investment performance serve a broader purpose.”