About Agila

Agila is a Paris-based private equity firm specializing in technology growth investments across Europe. With €250 million in assets under management, the firm operates across fund structures and deal-by-deal co-investment vehicles, serving approximately 200 investors — primarily high-net-worth individuals and family offices, alongside a selection of institutional partners.

Founded by Laurent Foata — who spent over 20 years at Ardian, Europe's largest private equity firm, where he built and led Ardian Growth — Agila was built on a clear thesis: the next wave of European tech founders needed a partner built around trusted governance, proprietary deal flow, and entrepreneur-investors directly involved in portfolio company development. The firm focuses on minority stakes in high-growth digital businesses, with tickets typically between €10M and €50M.

An entrepreneurial team with institutional-grade experience and deep roots across European private markets, Agila's partners bring complementary expertise across the full investment lifecycle. Nicolas Gendry brings over 15 years of finance experience as a Partner, Laurent Grimaldi contributes 30 years of TMT expertise, and Véronique Cayrol oversees fund management as CFO. Patrick Perez chairs the firm with over 30 years in private equity, ensuring Agila operates within the standards required by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers ("AMF") while maintaining the personalized experience their LP base expects.

Opportunity

As Agila prepared for significant growth, the team faced a challenge deeper than compliance: how to deliver a consistently premium experience to their LP base across every touchpoint — from initial onboarding to ongoing deal flow, reporting, and subscription documents — while managing the complexity of multiple fund structures and deal-by-deal vehicles.

For a firm built on close relationships with HNWIs and family offices, investor experience isn't a nice-to-have. LPs who regularly receive investment opportunities, capital call notices, and documents to sign need a seamless, professional environment that reflects the caliber of the firm. Friction — confusing portals, redundant document requests, disjointed communication — erodes exactly the trust Agila is built on.

Their previous platform made that standard difficult to meet. The KYC questionnaire was, as Nicolas described it, "totally over-dimensioned" — requiring investors to answer far more questions than their profile warranted, causing drop-offs mid-process. The compliance team needed a solution aligned with French and EU regulatory requirements — including GAFI anti-money laundering standards — that investors could complete in minutes, not hours.

Agila also faced a migration challenge: years of investor documentation, KYC records, and capital account statements needed to carry over without losing compliance continuity or forcing existing LPs to resubmit documentation already on file.

Solution

Agila partnered with Vessel in August 2025, beginning a five-month implementation that would transform their entire LP experience.

Customized digital KYC questionnaire

Working with Vessel's customer success team, Agila built a streamlined KYC process tailored to their investor profiles. The new flow focused on essentials only: investor type classification, basic identity verification, and the minimum documentation required for compliance. For individuals, a passport or ID plus proof of residence. For corporate entities, company statutes and UBO declaration. An upfront document checklist was embedded at the start, so investors arrived prepared and never got stuck mid-process.

Integrated identity verification

Vessel integrated Plaid-powered identity verification directly into the platform. Rather than redirecting investors to external links via email, LPs complete their entire verification within a single interface, with information pre-populated wherever possible.

Automated risk scoring matrix

Working with Patrick's compliance expertise, the team built Agila's custom risk classification system natively into Vessel — a weighted scoring matrix that automatically classifies investors based on type, country of residence, industry sector, and source of funds. The system handles 90% of classifications without manual intervention, flagging only edge cases for human review.

"We know our investors. We know they're qualified, we know their profile. The job of a good compliance process isn't to ask everything — it's to ask the right things. Vessel let us build exactly that."

— Patrick Perez, Head of Compliance, Agila

Reusable LP KYC passports

With 90% of Agila's incoming LPs being existing investors, Vessel's passport system was transformational. Once an LP completes their KYC for one Agila fund, their verified profile carries forward to every subsequent investment. "When an investor comes back for the next deal, they'll see that everything is already filled in," Nicolas explained. "They just confirm or update a few things — they don't need to upload their ID again, they don't need to re-enter their address. That's what I want: for existing investors to have a seamless experience."

Investor portal & data migration

Vessel became the central hub through which Agila's LP community accesses everything: investment opportunities, fund reporting, capital account statements, and subscription documents to sign. This required migrating multiple years of data for approximately 200 investors — KYC records, historical documentation, and capital account history — without losing compliance continuity. By go-live, every LP profile was populated and the portal was operational as a live investor relations tool from day one.

Weekly collaboration

Vessel and Agila held weekly working sessions throughout the implementation — full-team compliance reviews and focused technical discussions on document mapping and data extraction. This cadence enabled rapid iteration: when sector classifications needed simplification, changes were scoped and shipped within days. When Patrick flagged adjustments to FATCA documentation for French-language investors, translated documents were integrated into the next sprint.

Results

Streamlined compliance built for their investors

Agila's KYC questionnaire went from an over-engineered, 20+ question form to a focused flow that captures only what regulations require. Investor type classification now maps directly to the automated risk matrix, eliminating manual scoring and data entry — and a process that once caused LP drop-offs now completes in minutes.

Time savings at scale

"We're going to save enormous amounts of time," Patrick emphasized. Rather than asking 190+ existing investors to resubmit documentation already on file, Vessel's pre-population capabilities mean most returning LPs complete their commitment with a few confirmations. For a firm where relationships are everything, eliminating that friction matters.

A premium experience that reflects the firm

The platform delivers what Nicolas envisioned: a modern, intuitive experience that respects investors' time. Pre-filled forms, clear document checklists, in-platform identity verification, and a unified portal for deal flow, reporting, and subscription documents — the experience Agila presents to its LP community now matches the quality of the relationships they've built with them.

Foundation for growth

Agila now has infrastructure to support their next phase. The platform supports reporting, LP communications, content hubs for portfolio updates, and event management — capabilities the team plans to leverage as their investor community expands.

"Migrating years of data for 200 investors while preparing for a fund closing is not a small undertaking. The fact that we came out the other side with every profile intact, every document mapped, and a platform our LPs actually enjoy using — that says a lot about the partnership."

— Véronique Cayrol, CFO & Partner, Agila