Joelle Frijters

TLDR

Joelle Frijters bootstrapped Improve Digital to EUR 80M in revenue and sold it to Swisscom in 2016, then founded Inspiring Fifty to increase visibility for women in tech across 10+ countries.

Overview

Joelle Frijters built Improve Digital as a bootstrapped adtech company, scaling it to EUR 80M in annual revenue before selling to Swisscom in 2016. The bootstrap-to-exit story without Venture Capital is unusual at that revenue scale and makes her one of Belgium's more distinctive founders.

After the Improve Digital exit, she founded Inspiring Fifty, a program that recognizes the 50 most inspiring women in tech across participating countries. The initiative has expanded to 10+ countries and has become a credibility marker in the Belgian women-in-tech community, intersecting with efforts by Elke Kraemer and others.

She currently serves as Senior Advisor at Inkef Capital, a Dutch venture fund.