CUTTING EDGE

Who owns CUTTING EDGE?

CUTTING EDGE is currently owned by Irdi Capital-Investissement through IRDI Impulsion (2021 vintage), since 2024. Across its history, CUTTING EDGE has been through 3 private equity ownership periods, detailed in the timeline below.

Hand-verified · updated 2026-07-16

About CUTTING EDGE

Cutting Edge is a Montpellier-based ophthalmic surgery company that designs, develops, manufactures and distributes intraocular lens implants and related devices for cataract, corneal and vitreoretinal procedures. Its catalogue spans hydrophilic and hydrophobic intraocular lenses, corneal trepans and rings, viscoelastic products, retinal agents such as perfluorodecaline and silicone oil, and single-use surgical instrumentation and injectors, supported by an ISO 13485 certified quality system. The group runs an integrated French model, pairing its Montpellier headquarters with an intraocular lens manufacturing site at Labege in the Toulouse area, and positions itself as a specialist eye-surgery supplier serving practitioners and partners internationally. Its manufacturing heritage draws on more than two decades of intraocular lens design and production expertise.

Ownership journey

Cutting Edge was structured in 2015 by Jean-Pierre Boudet and Yves Brouquet, two former Bausch and Lomb executives, as a holding vehicle to acquire Chauvin Opsia, a Labege-based maker of intraocular implants for cataract surgery that at the time employed around 77 people and generated roughly EUR 10 million in revenue. Sofilaro backed the company from that 2015 transaction, providing the equity that supported the founders' buyout, and remains an active shareholder. From 2024 the shareholder base widened, with Irdi Capital-Investissement and Ibla Capital joining as investors. All three sponsors, Sofilaro, Irdi Capital-Investissement and Ibla Capital, are currently active in the company, and no exit or secondary transaction has been recorded.

Under PE ownership

Under the ownership, Cutting Edge pursued an industrial build-out of its French intraocular lens operations rather than a change of focus. In 2021 it committed about EUR 1.5 million to double the production capacity of its Labege manufacturing facility, expanding its ability to supply higher-volume, higher-specification implants. The company continued to broaden its ophthalmic range across cataract, corneal and retinal segments while maintaining ISO 13485 certification and an in-house research, production and distribution chain. The 2024 arrival of additional financial partners is consistent with a further phase of development for the platform.