Matthias Geeroms

TLDR

Matthias Geeroms co-founded Lighthouse in 2012 with Gino Engels and Adriaan Coppens, serving as CFO from inception through the company's USD 370M raise and Unicorn valuation of USD 2.4B in November 2024.

Overview

Matthias Geeroms is the financial architect behind Lighthouse, Ghent's hotel revenue management platform that became Belgium's fifth Unicorn in November 2024 after raising USD 370M led by KKR at a USD 2.4 billion valuation.

Before founding Lighthouse, Matthias worked as a transfer pricing specialist at FOD Financiën (Belgian federal finance authority) from November 2009 to August 2015, though his founding work at Lighthouse overlapped from September 2012. His legal background, with a Master of Laws from Ghent University, complements his commercial science degree from the European University of Applied Sciences in Brussels.

Matthias co-founded Lighthouse in September 2012 alongside Gino Engels and Adriaan Coppens. While Gino leads customer relationships and Adriaan handles operations, Matthias has served as Chief Financial Officer from the start, managing the company's financial strategy through multiple major funding rounds including:

• Series A from Spectrum Equity
• Series B from Eight Roads Ventures
• A landmark USD 370M raise from KKR (2024)

By late 2024, Lighthouse employed 700 people globally, with 270 still based in Ghent. The company serves hotel revenue managers across every country in the world.

Career History

• Co-Founder & CFO at Lighthouse (September 2012 - present), hotel revenue management platform, Belgium's fifth Unicorn
• Head of Corporate Development at Lighthouse (title evolution alongside CFO role)
• Transfer Pricing Specialist at FOD Financiën (November 2009 - August 2015)

Education

• Master of Laws, Ghent University (2009)
• Master in Commercial Science and International Relations, European University of Applied Sciences Brussels (2008)

About

Matthias represents a different archetype from most Ghent founders: a legally trained financial professional who co-founded a deeply technical product company. His FOD Financiën background in transfer pricing gave him an unusual command of complex financial structures that proved valuable as Lighthouse scaled internationally and navigated multi-jurisdiction operations.

Connections

The Lighthouse founding triad of Matthias Geeroms, Gino Engels, and Adriaan Coppens is one of the most successful co-founder arrangements in Belgian tech history, maintaining cohesion from founding through Unicorn status.