Jan Alexander, Secretary General
“Welcome! Private Capital Belgium is the industry body and public advocacy advocate for the venture capital and private equity industry in Belgium. As the voice of the Belgian VC & PE community and its entrepreneurs they fund, it is our role to demonstrate the positive impact of the industry on the Belgian economy.”
What is Private Equity?
Private equity refers to professional investment activities focused on unlisted companies. Private equity investors make investments in both early-stage startups and established, larger businesses. In exchange for their investment, private equity investors receive either a majority or minority stake in the company. The goal of private equity investing is to accelerate the company’s growth.
Private equity investors are active owners, and the advantages of this approach compared to other forms of financing include a professional approach to growth and the expertise and contacts that the investors bring to their portfolio companies.
Succes stories
Daan De Wever | Destiny
Daan and Samuel De Wever were just shy of thirty when they founded their own telecommunications company, called Destiny, in 2008. Destiny provides telecommunications services and cloud solutions to the business world, to small and large companies. The De Wever brothers have plenty of ambition and appetite. Being a challenger for the big players on the Belgian market? Why not? Gladly even. Rolling out a European strategy in the long term? Most certainly. “But you need to get other financial partners on board in every growth phase.”
Didier Depreay | Point Chaud
Domestically, the Liège retail group Point Chaud has been growing nicely for a quarter of a century now. Today the company of founder and CEO Didier Depreay (56) helps consumers satisfy their hunger for quality rolls and various pastries at over fifty locations.
BNP Paribas Fortis has supported the business side of things since 2014. “A real win-win situation”, according to Didier Depreay.
Fabrice Brion | I-care Group
The I-care Group from Mons, Belgium, is a company that has achieved a global leader position in ‘machine health’ in less than two decades. The way in which CEO Fabrice Brion accomplished this is rather unique. In addition to capital injections from the Wallonian public investment company SRIW and IMBC, he gave employees the option to buy into the company, contributing 10% of the capital. ‘There’s no better way to motivate employees to do their very best in their jobs and for the company,’ says Brion.
