Cerea Partners in negotiations with Seventure to acquire Polaris

Cerea Partners, an independent fund management company, has entered into negotiations with Seventure Partners to acquire a majority stake in Polaris.

Founded in 1994, Polaris is a French company that specialises in the purification and concentration of omega-3 oils from microalgae and fish sources. The company, which has a turnover of €30 million, serves the food supplement, nutraceutical and infant nutrition markets.

Seventure Partners – a Paris-based venture capital firm that finances biotech, foodtech and microbiome companies – invested in Polaris in 2009 through its FCPI Retails fund, then again in 2021 as a majority investor with its Health for Life Capital II fund. By doing so, Polaris was able to transition from a distributor to a manufacturer model.

With Cerea Partners as the new majority shareholder, Polaris will strengthen its knowledge in microalgae oils, pursue international development, particularly in North America and Asia, and develop new applications – specifically in infant nutrition and food – which could be accompanied by targeted external growth.

Dominique Taret, CEO of Polaris, said that “Cerea and Seventure share the same vision and strategy for Polaris,” adding that the unity of the investors’ thinking for Polaris is “extremely important for the company’s ambition to consolidate its leadership in the omega-3 microalgae bases processes market”.

Isabelle de Crémoux, CEO and managing partner of Seventure Partners, commented: “Polaris has all the ingredients for success: premium products recognised by hundreds of customers which allow us to preserve health capital and take advantage of a wide range of applications of the microbiota while having a positive environmental impact, as well as a new management team that has demonstrated it can deliver its vision”.

Antoine Peyronnet, managing partner at Cerea Partners, added: “The company has developed a distinctive know-how, recognised in its market while maintaining a sustainable development model throughout its value chain (sustainable sourcing, enzyme chemistry, waste recycling…). Omega-3 has become essential element for our health. The development of a sustainable omega-3 offer from microalgae is part of new consumption habits and is at the heart of the Cerea Capital III fund’s investment strategy as well as the firm’s social corporate responsibility approach.”

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.