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Maxime Guérin de la Houssaye and Nikolas Wensjoe met at IESE Business School and shared the same dream: a desire to take control of their own path, and an entrepreneurial streak they no longer wanted to keep on the sidelines. They partnered to launch Crescendo Transmission, with the aim of acquiring and growing a great French SME. They are backed by around fifteen carefully selected investors, including EPA Investissements, Innesto Partners, Lineage Partners, evolutiq, Cerralvo Capital, The Cromwell Harbor, Pitlane Capital, Cabiedes Capital, Norland Equity Partners, Crossworld Capital, BM Holdings, Jean Cyrille Droin, Alain Jarre, Didier Vigne, and A. Kumar.
Maxime began his career at Sanofi in strategic project management before joining Capgemini, where he supported Airbus on digital and financial transformation projects, including financial reporting and program performance management. He then moved to Willing, where he advised major French corporates on post-acquisition integration, contributing to more than 30 integrations in two years. At ITER, he managed complex project portfolios as a contract manager, overseeing up to 15 projects simultaneously. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Maxime has always been driven by a strong desire to build and transmit.
Nikolas is an engineer with a strong entrepreneurial mindset and a passion for building innovative industrial solutions. He began his career at TBMaestro, working on strategic and operational consulting projects in physical asset management for public and private organizations. He then joined Voestalpine Additive Manufacturing, where he spent nearly five years building the additive manufacturing business in France from the ground up. He developed the activity across business development, engineering, and market strategy, delivering more than 80 client projects and establishing strategic partnerships, including with Renault across three countries. Driven by a preference for action over observation, Nikolas thrives when creating, scaling, and transforming ideas into tangible businesses.
They are looking to acquire a well-established B2B company with revenues between €5M and €35M, characterized by solid and recurring profitability, strong cash generation, and a diversified client base. Their focus is on businesses with a defensible market position—whether through reputation, technical expertise, long-standing customer relationships, or niche specialization—operating in resilient and growing sectors. Priority industries include medical equipment distribution, local industrial services, IT services, and building maintenance.
