1,80%Aperam Ventures
Strategic Investor, focusing on Decarbonization, Circular Economy, New Materials, Digitization, and Disruptive Business Models.
Overview
Aperam Ventures is the venture capital fund of Aperam group. We invest at pre-seed/seed stage with a ticket size ranging from €200k to €2m.
We can also do follow-on investments.
Our investment thesis is predicated on long term value creation with disruptive companies that will enable Aperam to build a strong and sustainable competitive advantage in the future. In pursuing this goal, we are interested in identifying and assessing synergies between technology companies and Aperam’s core operations.
These synergies predominantly pertain to:
- Efficiency improvement,
- Productivity enhancement,
- Capital expenditure reduction,
- Energy savings,
- Maintenance cost reduction,
- Quality improvement,
- New product / new business model development.
Our main investment criteria are:
- Bold Founders and high performing teams,
- Attractive market opportunity embedded in a secular trend,
- Full stack solution with high level of differentiation,
- Economically viable and defensible Technology,
- ESG is a core value,
- USP represents a strategic value for Aperam.
Aperam Ventures is committed to create long term value for its portfolio companies by combining access to unmatched technological and commercial expertise of Aperam group and the agility, flexibility of a dedicated investment team to facilitate effective managerial decisions.
As a strategic investor, we are looking for companies that can support our growth journey and ESG commitments. We have a global mandate.
Investment Thesis
Our investment thesis encompasses the whole value chain of Stainless Steel/Alloys/Electrical Steel production & distribution. As a result, we focus on 4 areas:
(i) Advanced materials, (ii) Industry 4.0, (iii) Distribution, (iv) ESG.
Superior and Added Value Products |  | Advanced Materials for Stainless Steel | High Corrosion Resistance, High Heat Resistance, Surface Coating | |
Factory of the Future |  | Industry 4.0 | Big Data / Industrial, Analytics, IoT, Advanced Automation | Computer Vision (Surface inspection), Additive Manufacturing, Health & Safety Digital tools |
Smart and Agile Distribution |  | Customer Centric | Ecommerce, Dynamic Pricing (Artificial Intelligence), CRM, Marketing Analytics | |
Best-in-Class in ESG |  | CO2, Energy & Waste | CCUS, Energy Efficiency / Energy Storage, Fuel cells, Charging Stations | EV Vehicles, Biogas, Anaerobic digesters, Recycling, water/waste management |
Why Aperam Ventures ?
Our mandate is to build meaningful and impactful relationships with amazing entrepreneurs. In doing so, we believe that we will ensure long term value creation both to our portfolio companies and to Aperam Group. It is more than an intent, it is a strong commitment that we will honor on daily basis by focusing on tangible results, frugality, integrity and creative thinking. Aperam Ventures has also the opportunity to leverage a large panel of resources from Aperam group (e.g. CTO, R&D, Business Development, Innovation, Health & Safety, Legal, IT, HR, etc.) to support the development of its portfolio companies.Our Values & Beliefs
- Innovation & Entrepreneurship as driving forces for a better future
- Integrity in everything that we do
- Responsible and Sustainable stainless steel producer
- Health, Safety and Learning are key for development
Our Commitments
- We are value creation driven
- We are with the Founders for the long haul
- Straight talking to Founders
- Founder Friendly & Founder First
Our Resources
- Global Brand & Multi award winning Stainless Steel Firm
- Best-in-Class Technical Expertise (Material Science, Engineering, Process)
- Acess to Machinery & Equipments
- Acess to Markets and Financial Resources
The Team
Our Investment and Portfolio Development team bring domain expertise and decades of experience to help companies scale and grow successfully and sustainably.
Benoît SCHOLTISSEN
Head of Group Corporate Finance, M&A, Venture Capital – Luxembourg
Benoît joined Aperam in 2011 as Group Treasurer. Since 2025, he also leads the M&A function including Aperam Ventures. Benoît has more than 25 years of experience in the Metals and Mining industry. Prior to this, he was a senior Manager at Dexia Bank. Earlier, Benoît held various finance senior roles during his 8 years spent at ArcelorMittal based in Luxembourg and Paris, and during his 4 years spent at Umicore in Belgium and the USA. Benoît holds a Bachelor and a Master in Business Administration from HEC Management School at the University of Liège. He is a Belgian citizen and speaks French and English.
Aurélie VAN HOUTE
Senior Manager M&A and Ventures – Luxembourg
Aurélie joined Aperam’s M&A team in 2022, following 17 years work experience at ArcelorMittal in M&A, Corporate Finance, Restructuring and Project Management. Since 2023, she took additional responsibility for Ventures investments. Prior to this, she was in charge of M&A for the Flat Carbon Europe perimeter. Earlier, she was CFO for the export-arm of the group, leading finance platforms in Dubai, Singapore, Chicago and Luxembourg, and CFO & Restructuring Manager in France. Aurélie also worked as greenfield project manager in the Africa CIS region. Aurélie holds a Master in Business Engineering from Louvain School of Management, in Louvain-la-Neuve. Aurélie is Belgian-Luxembourgish and speaks French and English.
Portfolio
Since 2021, we have invested in 6 companies
