At IPEM Paris 2025, the Value Creation Summit brought together investors, operating partners, and technology leaders to address one shared question: how do you turn strategy into measurable performance in a tougher market?

At IPEM Paris 2025, the focus was clear. Growth is no longer assumed; it is earned through precision and execution. The Value Creation Summit, co-led and co-sponsored by Singulier, reflected an industry shifting from broad ambition to measurable outcomes. Across sessions, private equity leaders discussed what it now takes to create value in a market defined by scrutiny and speed.

Value creation becomes measurable

The opening keynote, moderated by Rémi Pesseguier, CEO of Singulier, set the tone for the Summit. Leaders from THL, Bridgepoint, Serena, and InfraVia agreed that private equity’s success now depends less on financial engineering and more on execution. Value creation has become a measurable capability, not a narrative.

InfraVia’s recent investment in an Italian renewable energy company showed how that works in practice. The firm embedded its own digital, AI, and recruitment teams from day one, doubling the company’s size in under a year. THL shared how integrating operating partners into the deal process — from sourcing to exit — has lifted growth and margins across its portfolio. Bridgepoint reinforced that governance is the make-or-break factor: when ownership and accountability are clear, operating teams deliver faster.

From the venture side, Serena Capital added that execution speed matters just as much as governance. Its model, built on a network of 500 senior operators, helps founders make better decisions earlier and sustain momentum.

Across the panel, one message stood out: firms that plan for execution before closing, measure what matters, and hold teams accountable for delivery are setting a new benchmark for operational excellence in private equity.

(L-R) Rémi Pesseguier CEO of Singulier moderates the keynote panel with Olivier Laroche (InfraVia), Jim Carlisle (THL), Marc Fournier (Serena) and Bjorn Ruwald (Bridgepoint)

Operating partners move upstream

Operating partners are now central to how private equity delivers returns. Opening the Summit, Kitson Symes, Partner at Singulier, shared findings from the firm’s latest Operating Partner Benchmark, which tracks how leading European buyout funds are evolving their value-creation teams.

The data points to a clear shift. Operating teams are becoming larger, more specialised, and embedded earlier in the deal cycle. Funds are moving from broad generalists to targeted experts in areas such as data, digital, technology, and ESG. The average tenure in value-creation roles now sits just under five years and nearly half of new hires come from consulting or operating leadership backgrounds, demonstrating a sign of rapid professionalisation.

This evolution is changing how funds compete. The most advanced firms integrate operating partners from origination through to exit, aligning investment and execution from day one. Value creation has become an institutional capability that is measurable, scalable, and fundamental to returns.

Kitson Symes, Managing Partner at Singulier, presents Singulier‘s operating partner benchmarks study

Specialists in data, digital, and talent are now embedded at the deal stage, and building a direct bridge between investment thesis and post-close action.

AI has left the lab.

Artificial intelligence is no longer a frontier technology; it has become part of the private equity operating model. At IPEM Paris 2025, both the keynote with Guillaume Princen, Head of EMEA at Anthropic, and the following panel showed how GPs are moving from pilots to scalable impact.

Guillaume Princen, Head of EMEA at Anthropic

Princen observed that AI adoption has entered its second phase: one focused on measurable results. He cited Anthropic’s work with clients such as Novo Nordisk and AIG, where process automation has cut cycle times from weeks to minutes and delivered accuracy gains that would have been unthinkable even two years ago. The lesson: value comes from focus and trust. Anthropic’s expansion in Europe is built on “safe AI”, which are models that protect proprietary data and comply with regulation.

From the investor side, Advent’s Gaël Gibert described how AI underpinned the transformation of Evri, the former Hermes UK. By embedding machine learning across operations — from customer-service chatbots to dynamic pricing and truck-route optimisation — Advent generated roughly $70 million in incremental EBITDA and a 2.4× multiple expansion.

François Candelon added that success depends on tackling “elephants, not rabbits”: aiming at large, high-value processes where AI can fundamentally reshape cost, speed and decision-making. And as Ryan O’Holleran from Anthropic noted, safe deployment doesn’t have to mean slow deployment — the firms winning now combine responsible governance with rapid experimentation.

Sofia Karadima (Actum Group), Gaël Gibert (Advent International), Ryan O’Holleran (Anthropic), François Candelon (Seven2)

Across the sessions, the message was consistent. AI works when it is integrated into operations, supported by clean data and pragmatic leadership. For private equity, it is no longer a test of innovation but of execution.

Data foundations become the invisible infrastructure

Behind every successful transformation sits one essential layer: data that can be trusted, connected and acted upon. Clean data is now the true infrastructure of value creation. Without it, even the most advanced tools fail to deliver impact.

Vincent Grosgeorge (InfraVia), Kitson Symes (Singulier)

InfraVia’s Vincent illustrated how adaptability drives success. His team’s work with Quartz, a German radiology network, showed how using operational data to optimise scheduling and machine utilisation added several appointments per site each day. Another example, Green Utility in Italy, used a targeted data algorithm to identify high-consumption commercial clients and accelerate growth. Both cases proved that context determines approach and flexibility is essential.

The cultural side matters just as much. At Mater Private, an Irish hospital group, InfraVia built support for a data transformation by demonstrating results before scaling. Theatre usage and patient throughput improved, and management began to see data as a management tool rather than a reporting burden.

FSI’s Marco Ferrigo reinforced that digital transformation is a direct contributor to EBITDA when data governance is strong. Across sessions, the message was consistent: data transformation is not a technology project but an operational discipline.

Nicolas Monnier (SAP), Marc Boullier (PAI Partners), Marco Ferrigo (FSI), Clément Marty (Ardian), Arnaud Houette (Extens)

Efficiency becomes a growth strategy

Efficiency and growth have converged. Digital transformation is no longer about risk mitigation but value creation. Panels with SAP, Vertice and Ardian explored how technology and cost optimisation now sit on the same agenda.

Michelle Keller-Hopson (Vertice), Ellen Marie Nohus (Verdane)

Vertice’s Michelle Keller-Hopson highlighted that most portfolio companies still overpay for software because of fragmented procurement. By consolidating contracts and introducing active vendor management, firms are cutting spend by double-digit percentages. Ardian’s Clément Marty added that timing matters. Technology programmes must deliver impact within the holding period, which requires sequencing digital investments with the deal’s lifecycle.

Across funds, efficiency is being treated as a source of competitive advantage. Well-executed technology modernisation now drives both margin expansion and valuation uplift.

Sustainability shifts from compliance to competitiveness

Sustainability has moved to the centre of the investment conversation. It is no longer a compliance function but a performance driver that influences pricing, capital access and exit outcomes.

Nordic Capital and Unigestion both described how ESG maturity now correlates with stronger valuation outcomes. LPs are increasingly asking for evidence of how sustainability initiatives translate into commercial advantage rather than policy statements. For Unigestion, assessing whether a GP can withstand a decade of climate and regulatory change has become part of due diligence.

The industry is treating sustainability as strategy. Firms that can show measurable outcomes, such as lower emissions intensity or improved supplier standards, are using these results to differentiate in competitive auctions.

Talent defines execution

Every lever of value creation depends on people. The talent discussions led by Verdane, Innership and Elevate placed leadership and culture at the centre of execution.

Verdane’s Ellen Marie Nohus described how leadership success now relies on adaptability and emotional intelligence as much as technical expertise. Innership spoke about building individual engagement by understanding what motivates each person through change rather than relying on top-down communication. Charterhouse’s Vincent Pautet linked talent directly to buy-and-build success, emphasising that integration readiness must be built into the investment thesis itself.

Across panels, the consensus was clear: leadership is no longer a soft skill. It is a measurable contributor to value creation and exit performance.

A stronger value-creation ecosystem

IPEM Paris 2025 confirmed a simple truth. Private equity has become an execution business. Operational excellence, data discipline and leadership capability now define performance more than leverage or timing. The ecosystem surrounding GPs — from advisors to AI partners — is stronger, more connected and more focused on measurable results.

This is where Singulier operates.

We partner with private equity funds and portfolio companies across the investment cycle, from due diligence through to execution, to unlock measurable and lasting value. Our teams combine deep expertise in data, digital, technology and AI with commercial strategy and operator experience.

Through Graphite, our data strategy practice, and Holis, our AI and transformation arm, we help clients accelerate go-to-market, optimise operations and build data foundations that scale. We do not just advise. We implement.

If you are rethinking how to elevate your value-creation capabilities, Singulier can help you move from intent to impact.

👉 Discover more at singulier.com