Overview
Syndicate One is a Belgian angel investment network focused on tech founders. Led by Frank Bekkers, the network pools capital from individual angels to back early-stage Belgian tech companies.
With EUR 22M in capital, Syndicate One operates as a structured angel group, offering founders both capital and a network of experienced operators and entrepreneurs.
Media & appearances
- VirtualYouTubeVirtual S02#32 - Bart Becks: De roots van AI: van science fiction tot realiteitA fund of mostly Ghent-based investors through which Becks backs young driven founders across Belgium.
- Ben's MentorsYouTubeDe Onzekere Toekomst van het Europees Tech EcosysteemNetwork-driven early-stage fund; first vintage was 32 people pooling €25k each (€800k), second vintage a structured €5-6M fund investing pre-seed/seed.
- SuperNovaYouTubeSuperHero Conversations EP9 | Emmanuelle Ghislain & Robin Wauters - Pulse FoundationRobin Wauters does pre-seed investments into young Belgian founders and connects them to international investors.
Stated facts & numbers
- Syndicate One's first vintage: 32 people invested €25,000 each, pooling roughly €800,000; the second vintage is a structured fund of €5-6 million.Ben's Mentors 2025-12-170:32:32
- Syndicate One now has about 40 active members.Ben's Mentors 2025-12-170:39:10
- Belgian startup funding declined in the first half of this year versus last year, per the second State of Belgian Tech report by Syndicate One.Ben's Mentors 2025-12-170:15:48
Funding & milestones
1 events found for Syndicate One · 2026
Funding eventType unspecifiedDetails€22M
Reported amount €22,000,000
Source not attached to this recordDeal record
Recorded history so far. Original currencies are preserved; amounts in different currencies are not added together. Debt, grants, acquisitions and listings are separate event types. Undated events appear last.
Leadership & org chart
In the news
- A few weeks ago, at the Syndicate One Summit panel, I was asked what first-time technical founders need from their backers. My answer: a strong ecosystem, and the chance to learn from other founders. Christine Hick then uno-reversed the question and asked whether I’ve taught other founders. As an early founder I haven’t had many chances yet, but I’m grabbing every one I can! So next week I’ll be at KU Leuven KICK House for “The Co-founders Conversation You Need to Have,” together with Sam Biermans from Nunki.ai. We’ll cover the
- Still buzzing from Tectonic last week. And slightly overwhelmed, in the best possible way, by how much the Belgian tech ecosystem has grown. 🇧🇪 I’ve been following this community for a long time. Seeing so many founders, investors and familiar faces together in Wintercircus Ghent, with so much happening and so much ambition in the room, was quite something. A personal highlight was my fireside chat with Visma CEO Merete Hverven on building a European tech champion while keeping its local soul. Plenty to learn from her
- Belgian founders, let's make some noise! 🦁 To get a true picture of Belgium’s tech ecosystem, we need to hear from the people building it. We're calling on the BeCentral community and founders across Brussels and Belgium to take 7 minutes to contribute to the State of Belgian Tech 2026 report. Your experience, challenges and ambitions matter. The more founders take part, the closer the report gets to the reality on the ground. 👉 7 minutes to make your voice heard: https://tally.so/r/q4lbDk Speak up, Belgian founders.
- It's been a while since I was out fund raising! And aside from the take aways below, you really have to love that game. And I loved fundraising. I loved perfecting the pitch, I loved persuading investors, I loved proving myself time and time again. I didnt love the NO's obviously, but it was turning each NO into a lesson, a new optimisation, doubling down on hitting our targets that I liked. Thanks for reminding me of that with this opportunity to reflect back on that adventure Syndicate One Dewi Van De Vyver Ellen Batens !
- What does it take to build a European tech champion without losing what made the business work in the first place? On October 21, I’ll be opening the main stage at Tectonic 2026 in Ghent with Merete Hverven, CEO of Visma, for a conversation titled “Global scale, local soul: Lessons from building a European tech champion”. I’ll be there wearing my Syndicate One hat as Head of Ecosystem, with plenty of questions relevant to the founders and operators in our community. We’ll dig into the decisions behind that growth: what to
- Thanks Syndicate One Dewi Van De Vyver and Ellen Batens for hosting this webinar and for having me! I could tap into that raw pitching energy again and it was exhilerating! What I would like to add to anyone thinking of raising money: start pitching yesterday. It will sharpen your story not just to investors but also to your market. It will sharpen your sales energy as well. Thinking of it this way makes it easier absorbing all the NO’s, because there will be a LOT of them before you’ll maybe get a YES! And if you are raising:
- My first panel ever, and I didn’t even have to leave our office building. 🎤 Last Friday, Syndicate One hosted its 10th Summit at De Hoorn in Leuven, with the theme “Small Funds, Big Impact”. Christine Hick asked Maxime Lahy and me what first-time technical founders need from their backers. I went straight from a PhD at KU Leuven to co-founding Belfort. Within a year, we grew to a team of 18, partnered with companies like Google and LG Electronics, and learned how to build a company across Leuven and San Francisco. A PhD prepares
- I recently sat down with Robin Wauterst at Syndicate One for a great conversation about entrepreneurship and startup life. Twenty years of building companies, from my first startup steps at Fortis Venturing in 2006 to co-founding and selling Flow Pilots in 2022 to taking a KU Leuven spin-off out of the lab and turning it into Effex, which found a new home at Minitab this February. A few things we dug into: ✨ Why diversity is an innovation argument before it's a moral one. I no longer bother arguing that it's fair. I just point to
Alumni 3 went on to found or lead
Dominique PellegrinoMember→CEO & Co-founder at Vertuoza
Nathan De TroyerFreelance: State of Belgian Tech 2025→Board & Co-Founder at Tectonic
Evert BeeckmanFounding Member & Investor→Partner at Entourage Ventures
The full Syndicate One mafia →
Related profiles
Frank BekkersRelated
Robin WautersRelated
Stijn ChristiaensRelated
Roeland DelrueRelated
Andreas De NeveRelated
Felix GarriauRelated- DSyndicate One Fund II First Close 2026Related
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