Michel Deprez

Michel Deprez (born July 1965) is a graduate of ISC Paris (Class of 1989) and a French certified public accountant (expert-comptable). He began his career in audit, spending roughly five years at Mazars and then PricewaterhouseCoopers before earning his accounting qualification. He subsequently joined the Caisse des Dépôts, where he served as head of accounting and then managed investments in mixed-economy enterprises (sociétés d'économie mixte).

In 2000 he moved into private equity, joining the equity-investments department of Crédit Agricole. In 2004, together with several partners, he led a management buyout of Crédit Agricole's captive investment arm, creating the independent firm UI Gestion. He has run the firm as President/Associé Gérant ever since, alongside co-leader Olivier Jarrousse (Directeur Général), heading an investment team of more than 50 professionals.

In 2020 the firm rebranded from UI Gestion to UI Investissement, having by then crossed €1 billion in assets under management. Deprez framed the change as reflecting the firm's hands-on model: "This notion of investment allows us to display our level of involvement alongside leaders — with money, of course, but also with time, work, and support… Our DNA is unchanged." UI Investissement traces its roots to 1967 and today manages on the order of €1.5–1.7 billion, having backed more than 600 companies over its history and investing alongside 300+ business leaders.

Deprez credits his ISC Paris training with giving him "pragmatic vision, adaptation and anticipation abilities," adding that he "learned to forge new paths, not merely follow them" — a philosophy of continuous learning and accepting career change that he has spoken about publicly.

• Backs unlisted French companies across the growth spectrum — venture/risk capital, development capital, and transmission/buyout (LBO) — rather than pure seed-stage angel deals.
• Deploys roughly €1M–€5M per company through its regional platform and €5M–€15M through its national platform, targeting enterprises with values from <€20M up to ~€75M.
• Concentrates on three sectors where the firm has built dedicated expertise: health, agri-food/agri-business, and industry & services.
• Emphasizes long-term, hands-on partnership over passive capital: "involvement… with time, work, and support," delivered via a proprietary entrepreneurs' "academy," proprietary ESG-improvement programs, and a dense network of regional offices ("territorial proximity").
• Positions UI as "an independent pioneer of venture capital in France," favoring companies rooted in France's regions rather than a Paris-only deal flow.