Pierre Antoine Cognard

Pierre-Antoine Cognard is an investment professional at Kreaxi, a French equity-financing management company he joined in 2018 as an Associate and where he now serves as a Senior Associate. Kreaxi was formed in 2016 from the merger of Rhône-Alpes Création and Banexi Ventures Partners, combining more than 30 years of experience financing innovative and technology startups. The firm operates from Lyon and Paris with a team of roughly 16 professionals, and over its history has backed more than 550 companies, with a number reaching IPO and notable trade-sale exits (e.g., Sentryo, acquired by Cisco).

Before joining Kreaxi, Cognard built his career at the intersection of large corporates and the startup ecosystem. He began in the Open Innovation department of SNCF (the French national railway group), where he was responsible for sourcing startups capable of addressing the group's strategic and operational challenges. He then participated in setting up a startup accelerator within Amaris (a consulting/technology group), and subsequently joined Kinov, a young company publishing SaaS software designed to help large corporations collaborate more effectively with startups.

Cognard is a graduate of Grenoble École de Management (Grenoble Business School), where he completed a dual specialization in entrepreneurship and finance. That combination — corporate open-innovation sourcing plus entrepreneurship-and-finance training — informs his hands-on, operationally minded approach to backing and supporting early-stage founders.

At Kreaxi he works as a deal lead and portfolio supporter, identifying innovative startups and staying involved post-investment. Kreaxi describes its model as "patient and value-added capital," providing not just financing but strategic guidance, sector expertise, and active board-level involvement to support entrepreneurs through the growth phases.

• Invests at seed and early development stages in innovative French startups, with the firm deploying roughly €100k–€2.5M in initial rounds and reserving capital for follow-ons.
• Strong bias toward deeptech and "lowtech" companies — businesses with a genuine technological, scientific, or engineering edge rather than pure consumer plays.
• Sector breadth spans cybersecurity (Tenacy), productivity/SaaS software (Gryzzly), medtech, industrial and materials tech, and cleantech — reflecting Kreaxi's generalist-but-tech-anchored mandate.
• Geographically concentrated on France, especially the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ecosystem around Lyon and Grenoble, while also participating in French and pan-European funds.
• Emphasizes "patient, value-added capital": expect board involvement, strategic support, and a long-term hold rather than purely financial participation — a founder should want an operationally engaged partner.