Axa Venture Partners (AVP), formerly a corporate venture capital fund of French insurance multinational Axa, has become an independent VC firm after management negotiated to buy Axa’s 70% stake.

The management buyout came as Axa was selling its investment subsidiary, Axa Investment Managers, which owned the CVC, to BNP Paribas, a French bank. Managing partner François Robinet said in the announcement that the company ethos will remain the same but the name will change.

Launched in 2016, AVP has a fund size of $1.6bn with $2bn of assets under management. It invests globally across the enterprise software, fintech, insurtech, digital health and consumer tech sectors.

It has 45 portfolio companies. One of these is Cryptonext, which works to develop cryptography that can withstand quantum computing. Another, Idelic, is a driver management platform that summarises fleet data. In the digital health sector, Troy Medicare is a US-based healthcare company that provides AI-driven plans approved under Medicare.

Most recently, AVP led the $70m series B investment round in Finbourne Technology, which makes investment management software for financial services companies.