Philippe Pouletty

Philippe Pouletty is a physician-scientist turned serial entrepreneur and venture investor with more than 30 years of experience building and scaling life-science companies across Europe and the United States. He earned a medical doctorate from the University of Paris VI, completed advanced degrees in immunology (as valedictorian) and virology at the Institut Pasteur, trained as a Paris hospital resident ("Interne des Hôpitaux de Paris") in immunology and hematology, and spent roughly 13 years as a postdoctoral researcher and scientist at Stanford University. He holds 39 patents and is a member of Stanford University's Hall of Fame of Inventors.

Before venture capital, Pouletty founded and led operating companies. In 1988 he founded SangStat, an organ-transplantation therapeutics company that IPO'd on NASDAQ (1993) and was acquired by Genzyme for roughly $600M in 2002. He also founded Conjuchem (1993), which listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2000. These operating exits established the "business builder" model he would later institutionalize at his fund.

In 2001–2002 he co-founded Truffle Capital in Paris alongside Bernard-Louis Roques and Henri Moulard, where he serves as Co-Founder, CEO and General Partner leading the BioMedTech practice. Rather than a passive minority investor, Truffle under Pouletty systematically acts "as a founder" — creating companies, recruiting management, and serving as lead investor through multiple rounds and up to IPO. The firm reports ~€500M in AUM, over €1.2Bn raised since inception, 46 exits and 15 IPOs.

Beyond investing, Pouletty has been an influential figure in the European innovation ecosystem, serving multiple terms (roughly nine years) as Chairman of France Biotech and about five years as Vice-Chairman of EuropaBio. He is a recipient of France's Légion d'Honneur and the American Liver Foundation Award (1999).

• "Business builder," not passive VC: Truffle creates companies and acts as founder and lead investor — Pouletty personally co-founds, chairs, and operates portfolio companies rather than simply writing checks.
• Build world leaders, not just startups: "The goal should be to develop world leaders similar to those in the United States, not become the startup nation."
• Consolidation as strategy: "What we like to do at Abivax and Carvolix is build businesses by merging two or three of our biotech companies when much of the R&D is completed." (Carvolix was formed by combining Affluent Medical, Caranx Medical and Artedrone.)
• Patient impact over quick exits: "If you have a positive impact on patients, you will increase shareholder value; however, you should not always focus on doing an IPO or selling the company as soon as possible."
• Focus and resilience: "You must stay focused on your mission. Disappointment can occur during pre-clinical R&D and clinical development."
• Sector concentration: deep, science-first bets in biotech and medtech (therapeutics, cardiovascular/interventional devices, AI-driven and robotic medtech), plus a separate fintech/insurtech practice within the firm.