Private equity

Overview

Private equity funds raise committed capital from institutional investors, draw it down over a fixed investment period and return it after exits, so every holding carries a clock, and the manager earns a fee on that capital plus a share of the gain above a hurdle rate. In a buyout, part of the purchase price is placed on the target's own balance sheet as debt, which leaves three levers for the return: paying that debt down out of cash flow, growing earnings, and selling at a higher multiple than was paid. Buy-and-build stacks the third lever, because smaller firms are bought at lower multiples and the merged group is sold at the platform's multiple, and the exit is a trade sale to a strategic buyer, a sale to another sponsor, or a listing. Gimv works the same market from a different structure, holding 63 companies worth EUR 2.1 billion on its own balance sheet as a company listed on Euronext Brussels, with stated tickets of EUR 20 million to EUR 100 million for a platform investment and up to EUR 400 million for an anchor investment across four sector platforms. Kristof Vande Capelle is CFO at Gimv, and Sophie Manigart, a full professor at UGent and Vlerick who works on venture capital and entrepreneurial finance, holds a board seat there. The operators tied to this concept sit on the other side of the table: Pieter Janssens runs iO, more than 2,000 people across 13 campuses in five countries built up over 20 years; Conny Vandendriessche co-founded House of HR; Joris Van Der Gucht co-founded Silverfin, which was acquired by Visma.

Stated facts & numbers

• People tied to this concept on techwiki.be: 12
• Companies on the private-equity sector register: 0 as of September 2026
• Videos in the corpus discussing private equity: 35
• Gimv listing: Euronext Brussels, investing for 45 years as of 2026
• Gimv portfolio: 63 companies, EUR 2.1 billion portfolio value, EUR 5 billion combined turnover, over 20,000 employees
• Gimv ticket sizes: EUR 20 million to EUR 100 million for platform investments, EUR 50 million to EUR 400 million for anchor investments
• Gimv sector platforms: Consumer, Healthcare, Smart Industries, Sustainable Cities, across the Benelux, France and DACH
• Buy-and-build example in the set: iO, more than 2,000 people across 13 campuses in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Bulgaria, built over 20 years
• Exit in the set: Silverfin, co-founded by Joris Van Der Gucht, acquired by Visma
• Finance side of the set: Kristof Vande Capelle, CFO at Gimv; Sophie Manigart, professor at UGent and Vlerick, board seats at Gimv and AXA Belgium; Jurgen Ingels, Managing Partner at Smartfin