Meaningful connections for private markets
Our Story
IPEM was created by Gilles Barrissat¹, a French investor specialising in tradeshows. With some knowledge of the European Private Markets (PM) industry, and using his skills, he came up with a creative way to mix the two industries.
Creating something new for the industry, out of nowhere, wasn’t easy. After a rough start, a small team, led by Florence Darve and Claire Villaudy, made IPEM a reality in 2016, counting 680 participants, at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. It gathered investment firms², investors³, advisors⁴ and business services. The company was later transformed with the arrival of the current CEO, Antoine Colson, in late 2017.
The team learned from clients’ feedback, listened to their suggestions, and constantly adapted to a booming industry, and by 2020, the number of attendees had more than quadrupled. IPEM has since blossomed into one of the greatest Private Equity (PE) events in the world, having had 5,200 delegates in the 2022 edition, and expecting even more for Paris 2023. What makes IPEM stand out from the rest, is its unique tradeshow format, which includes, not only conferences but strong networking opportunities for participants from all over the world.

During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, travel restrictions prevented us from running the event as we did up until then, in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. However, we never gave up: in 2021 we decided to bring the event, for the first time, to the Hippodrome de Longchamp, Paris. Moreover, we took the chance to create a new digital platform that would amplify the event’s in-person experience. The result? Amid a worldwide pandemic, IPEM kept growing, thanks to our trusting clients.
We could have stopped here and continued sailing smoothly as a specialized event company, but that’s just not us. We believe there’s so much more we could do to create meaningful connections for private markets. That’s why we are outgrowing our old selves, as an outstanding event company, and are now building the world’s first CaaS (Connections as a Service) company.
² GPs
³ LPs
⁴ Law firms, investment banks, etc.
Number of Delegates at IPEM Events
#1
International Private Equity Market in the World
2
Events (Paris & Cannes)
7
Editions
Video Review
IPEM in less than 2 minutes
Discover in this video our last IPEM edition which gathered the International Private Equity Market community for meetings, conferences, networking, parties and more.
Antoine Colson, CEO and Managing Partner at IPEM, presents to you IPEM’s future projects and what makes IPEM the benchmark of Private Capital events continuously praised for its dynamic, effective business format and top-quality participants!
Our Environmental Commitment
IPEM Going Green
Climate change is the most important challenge faced by our times. We at IPEM believe that we must do our part – and that the Private Capital industry is part of the solution.
This issue, along with strategies, advice and actions to reduce our impact on the world is constantly being shared in our sessions, events and digital content. And to stay ahead of the game, we decided to go big and launch an important step in the right direction with the support of our partner INDEFI.


Our Quality Commitment
Here are the main criteria that make IPEM a high-quality event:
- Top Participants (LPs, GPs, Business Services & Advisors)
- Top Conferences with Top Speakers
- Top Sponsored Events (Summits, Cocktails, Lunches, Parties…)
- Top Areas for Networking (Business Areas, Lounges…)
Our Social Commitment
At IPEM, we truly believe that diversity and equity, and more generally, inclusion for all, are a strength in Private Equity Markets. That’s why we organize each year several events around this theme, such as “Women in Private Equity”, and Powertalks like “Engaging With Fund Managers on Diversity and Inclusion”, or even “Diversity Through Good Governance”.