Philippe BESNARD

President @Pentagram Ventures -- Entrepreneur & Investor -- Senior Advisor and Board Member

📍 France🔄 Updated September 2026💼 2 investments📅 12 years investing🗓 Last invested Jan 2023
VC🌍 France
2
Total investments
1
Early stage
0
Mid stage
0
Late stage
12y
Years active

Portfolio

1 investments · sorted by recency
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Seed Investor
Jan 2023
Unify orchestration for all engineers. Build, run and govern all your workflows — data, AI, infrastructure, and business — Everything-as-Code, from the UI and with AI. Kestra is the open-source orchestration platform built to help teams ship faster without losing control—making both scheduled and event-driven automation easy across your entire stack. Often described as the fastest-growing open-source orchestration platform, Kestra has seen 10x growth year-over-year in adoption and workflow volume. Everything-as-Code, from the UI: design workflows in the UI (including no-code forms) or in declarative YAML—both stay in sync so automation remains reviewable, auditable, and scalable. AI-native execution: • Production AI Copilot generates and refines flows from natural language prompts—while keeping YAML clean and reviewable. • Agentic orchestration with context: AI Agents combine an LLM with memory (context carried across steps/runs) and tools, so workflows can dynamically choose actions, loop until completion, and adapt to new information. Built for production teams: extensible integrations, strong execution primitives, and governance—plus automation via API and Terraform for CI/CD at scale.
Experience · 10 entries
All (10)
Investments (2)
Founder (2)
Board (1)
2024
Founding Partner
Mar 2024
OPRTRS is an operator-led investment platform backing founders at the very beginning. We’re powered by 170+ top tech operators who know how to ship, scale, and survive the early chaos. We believe operators build the best companies and support each other better than any boardroom ever could. So we’ve turned that conviction into a community: a network of current and former leaders from OpenAI, Palantir, Stripe, Mistral AI, Qonto, Revolut, Datadog, Doctolib, Hugging Face, Wiz, Rippling, Backmarket, and dozens more. We invest €200k in the first rounds and surround founders with hands-on operator support: GTM, product, hiring, internationalization, fundraising. No theatre, no fluff. Just people who’ve done the work. Our core team: Christophe Raynaud (Cofounder @ ISAI) Noé Gersanois (ex-Partner @ Raise) Younès Rharbaoui (ex-Partner @ The Family) Supported by Renaud Boutet (SVP Product @ Datadog) as Venture Partner. We’re backed by great partners: Leblon Capital, Kima Ventures, Motier Ventures, Financière Saint-James - who trust us to spot and support the next generation of breakout operators-turned-founders. Since launching in 2024, we’ve already backed 15 ambitious teams, from deep tech to AI to industrial innovation. What matters to us isn’t the sector it’s the ambition and the builders behind it. If you’re an operator making the leap, or a founder who values hands-on expertise over PowerPoints, we’d love to meet you: hello@oprtrs.club
2023
Founding Partner
Nov 2023
We are a unique Advisory and Venture Development Platform dedicated to transformative technologies. The Seerius team brings together, seasoned entrepreneurs, investors, and senior executives who have served in global corporations across the luxury, marketing, media, communication, financial services and automotive sectors, leading companies and teams through journeys of innovation and transformation. The team has been involved in hundreds of investments in the tech and platform spaces, demystifying technology and harnessing its potential for a faster and more sustainable growth. Our Advisory arm provides strategic and operational support in relation to the adoption of transformative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and soon Quantum Computing in key corporate functions and selected verticals. Our Venture Development Platform, cross-fertilized by Seerius Advisory, provides the incubation platform and funding for initiatives that materialize our vision: Making disruptive technologies meaningful for people and businesses.
Seed Investor
Jan 2023
Unify orchestration for all engineers. Build, run and govern all your workflows — data, AI, infrastructure, and business — Everything-as-Code, from the UI and with AI. Kestra is the open-source orchestration platform built to help teams ship faster without losing control—making both scheduled and event-driven automation easy across your entire stack. Often described as the fastest-growing open-source orchestration platform, Kestra has seen 10x growth year-over-year in adoption and workflow volume. Everything-as-Code, from the UI: design workflows in the UI (including no-code forms) or in declarative YAML—both stay in sync so automation remains reviewable, auditable, and scalable. AI-native execution: • Production AI Copilot generates and refines flows from natural language prompts—while keeping YAML clean and reviewable. • Agentic orchestration with context: AI Agents combine an LLM with memory (context carried across steps/runs) and tools, so workflows can dynamically choose actions, loop until completion, and adapt to new information. Built for production teams: extensible integrations, strong execution primitives, and governance—plus automation via API and Terraform for CI/CD at scale.
2018
Managing Partner
Dec 2018
Fast-Up Partners is a strategy consulting boutique based in Paris and NYC. We specialize in b2c (FMCG, fashion, retail, personal finance…) and work Internationally with corporate leaders and shareholders on organic growth and acquisition challenges. We dare clear-cut opinions based on our practitioner experience and align interests with our clients by co-investing in projects and assuming operational leadership if needed. This is why our clients call us “operating partners as a service”. We have realized over 100% IRR after 12 co-investments. With offices in Paris and New York, we have been ranked as part of the fastest-growing companies in France (Les Echos’ Top 50) and in Europe (Financial Times Top 500).
2014
Board Member
Jun 2014
Cosmo5 is a global marketing group on a mission to help the world’s most forward-looking brands stay ahead of the curve. Think Future First Marketing for the New Era of Intelligence. With 1,300 experts across 30 offices in 18 countries, 23 group companies, and 200+ partners and platforms, we transform complexity into clarity, true to the meaning of our name, from the Ancient Greek “κόσμος” (kósmos), meaning order, the opposite of chaos. We unite the power of 5 core capabilities: Media, Commerce, Creative, Data, and Technology within a connected Universe of Expertise, activated by our Transformation Solutions. Together, we craft future-proof, impact-driven strategies that enable brands to unlock meaningful growth, seize new opportunities, and thrive in the new era of intelligence, moved by passion and guided by purpose. At Cosmo5, we are powered by people, globally united in one mission yet tailoring every solution to local market needs. We are obsessed with client success, because their success is our success. We are digitally led, combining data, technology, and creativity to deliver measurable transformation. And we are focused on the future, using intelligence to anticipate trends, build ahead of disruption, and create meaningful progress. Our culture is strengthened by our values of Respect, Responsibility, Curiosity, Empathy, and Kindness, which shape how we collaborate, how we innovate, and how we create lasting impact for our clients and communities.
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