Testimonials

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.”

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.

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.

Gert De Caluwé was asked to manage the revival of the Neckermann new look in the midst of the Covid crisis and after the downfall of Neckermann Belgium and parent company Thomas Cook. His mission was to turn the company into a different tour operator than before. The experienced Ghent resident took up the gauntlet as he knew the sector through and through. He was supported by a respected private equity player in this challenge.

In 2022, the young and promising start-up AstriVax (Leuven) was allocated 30 million euros in seed capital by Flanders Future Techfund (under the operational management of PMV) and V-Bio Ventures, Fund+, Ackermans & van Haaren, Thuja Capital Management, OMX Europe (through Mérieux Equity Partners and Korys), BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity and Gemma Frisius Fund. This investment should enable AstriVax to further validate its exceptionally promising quest for new vaccines (for such diseases as yellow fever) and to continue its work on the development of a number of vaccines in the pipeline.

In June 2017 the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (Vlaams Instituut Biotechnologie, VIB), Ghent University and the Catholic University of Leuven launched the spin-off Aphea.Bio. This young start-up and spin-off studies micro-organisms that coexist closely with plants, and their effect on agricultural crops. Using advanced biotechnology techniques, Aphea.Bio conducts practical research into thousands of different micro-organisms that may be useful.

Isabel Vercauteren helped get the company off the ground, also in terms of financing. Aphea.Bio was able to raise a total of 9 million euros in capital from around ten different partners.

Deliverect, originally from Ghent, has four partners, all with an equal interest, and presents itself as a software company providing ultra-fast services to restaurants and other food-related businesses. Their motivation: greater efficiency and the best possible services. The company works to achieve this mission entirely by digital means, as is only fitting in 2023.

Like many other growing companies, as the company already maintains a presence in 40 countries around the globe, Deliverect needed more cash to realise their ambitions. Private equity proved the perfect lever.

At the end of last year the specialist in biological crop protection, Biobest, acquired its Brazilian counterpart, Biotrop. This acquisition is part of the M&A strategy of the Kempen-based company, with the ultimate goal of being among the top 10 global AgTech companies by 2034. The rapid growth of the company can be attributed, among other factors, to its long-standing collaboration with private equity players.

In March of last year, private equity player Down2Earth Capital announced the sale of its majority stake in VK architects+engineers to engineering and architectural firm Sweco. Over five years earlier, Down2Earth Capital had invested in the multidisciplinary design firm headquartered in Merelbeke. Through a dynamic buy-and-build strategy, VK architects+engineers had become a leading player in the Benelux during that period. As CFO, Karel Verhaeghe was at the forefront during this exciting phase in the company’s lifecycle, with a global history of over 70 years.

Despite her youth, Kim De Nolf leads a start-up with enormous potential. Ghent-based QustomDot has a noble goal: to improve the colour range and energy efficiency of screens and monitors. You can sense it right away: this is a high-potential start-up.

Kim De Nolf joined forces with two fellow students from her university days (Igor Nakonechnyi from the Ukraine and Willem Walraevens) to run the business operationally and seek capital to make their dream come true. Venture capital (VC) investors Qbic II, PMV and Vigo Ventures (from Poland) were convinced to invest three million euros in the start-ups, albeit in unequal parts.

Right across from the Charleroi airport, the Walloon biotech company iTeos is working towards a better world. CEO Michel Detheux and his forty employees are full of idealism as they fight the cancer monster. iTeos Therapeutics is active in immunotherapy and in a few years, hopes to be launching two medications to help relieve cancer patients from their misery. This year the model business raised 75 million dollars, intended in part to fund the costly testing and research phase. This promising biotech company is now opening an office in Boston as well.

Antwerp-based (Brecht) Theo Coertjens International is a leading producer of preserved meat products for the hospitality industry, catering companies and wholesale industry. Originally a small, family-owned butcher’s, the company has since become a modern, medium-sized company, whose products are sold on the Belgian market and in several European countries. But nothing can be achieved without spending money, especially in case of a management buy-in. As Pascal Wuillaume knows all too well. “The most difficult thing was to convince the previous owner to sell his company.”

In the category of ‘model companies’, niche company and textile firm Grandeco comes very close to attaining the highest distinction. The SME, which has grown almost too big to merit this distinction, employs a workforce of approximately 300 and is present all over the world and is a wallpaper specialist. In 2007 GIMV took over the majority (91 per cent) of Grandeco after parent company Balta opted for an exit. At the request of GIMV, Brabant-born and bred Patrick Molemans took on the extra muros leadership of the company as its CEO in 2014. “You simply can’t have a better private equity partner than GIMV.”

Robin List (51) is van Nederlandse afkomst, maar zowel privé als professioneel helemaal ingeburgerd in de Vlaamse contreien. Met zijn zelf opgericht bedrijf Sylphar gooit hij hoge ogen. In die mate zelfs dat private equity spelers wat graag aan de deur kwamen kloppen van zijn snelgroeiend bedrijf, dat uitpakt met producten voor mondverzorging en een brede range van voedingssupplementen.

Last year, Agomab Therapeutics secured the largest capital round of 2023 in our country and the largest capital round ever in the Belgian private biotech sector. With the transaction, the Gent-based company raised 100 million dollars. Barely six years after its inception, the company’s total now stands at 240 million dollars. This was achieved through three capital rounds, with increasingly larger players coming on board. CEO Tim Knotnerus leads the company with around 50 employees, focusing on the development of drugs to prevent organ damage from fibrosis.