Christophe Cervasel

Christophe Cervasel is a French entrepreneur and angel investor best known as the co-founder of Atelier Cologne, the niche fragrance house created with Sylvie Ganter-Cervasel in 2009. Before Atelier Cologne, he worked at L'Oréal as France Area Sales Manager and Junior Product Manager from 1995 to 1996, then at LVMH as Kenzo Parfums Europe Area Director from 1997 to 2000. He studied at ESCP Europe from 1993 to 1997.

In 2000, Cervasel founded Selective Beauty, a fragrance business that Le Point says grew from zero to €170 million in seven years; a 2026 Wind podcast description and LinkedIn post say the business reached €180 million in revenue in six years before he sold his shares for a symbolic €1 in 2010. He later described that failure as a major learning period that shaped how he built Atelier Cologne.

Atelier Cologne was founded in 2009 by Sylvie Ganter and Christophe Cervasel as a Maison de Parfum focused on "Colognes Absolues." By 2015, Bpifrance reported more than 500,000 bottles sold in over 30 countries with owned boutiques in Paris and New York; by the time L'Oréal announced its acquisition agreement in June 2016, L'Oréal said the brand was present in more than 800 points of sale across 40 countries and had six stand-alone stores.

Since 2013, Cervasel has been associated with Camélias, the family office / investment vehicle of Sylvie Ganter-Cervasel and Christophe Cervasel. His current investor identity is impact-focused: in 2025 he described himself as an entrepreneur in beauty since 2000 who now invests in committed startups, and Le Point reported that he had invested in more than 50 companies.

• Invests as an angel / family-office investor through Camélias, mostly around seed and early-stage impact companies.
• His stated decision style is founder-led and intuitive: "À chaque fois, c'est un coup de cœur," he told Le Point about startup investing.
• Looks for founders he can trust under pressure; he told Le Point he needs to "feel" the founders and understand whether they can solve problems when things go wrong.
• Focuses on impact and useful products. In his own LinkedIn positioning, "L'impact est mon moteur"; in Le Point, he said impact is central and argued that today there is no reason not to make ecological products.
• Favors niche, meaningful consumer propositions over mass-market plays; Le Point quotes him recommending ecological products that are niche rather than necessarily luxury or mass-market.
• Brings operating help, not only capital: he frames himself as an entrepreneur-partner who founders can call when they are doubting or stressed.