Software and technology investor Fortino Capital is kicking off its second Benelux VC fund, targeting early growth companies

ANTWERP, April 10, 2020 – Fortino Capital Partners is raising the successor of its first VC-fund. Fortino Capital Venture II is aiming for a target size of €80 million and will be focussing on promising early stage European software and technology companies with a regional bias to the Benelux. As of today a total of €45 million in commitments have been signed up.

With its second VC fund, Fortino Capital Partners now has three funds in its portfolio.

The first VC fund, Fortino Capital I, with a capital of €80 million, is to date invested in 8  software companies including Teamleader (BE), BuyBay (NL) and Bloomon (NL). The fund is also an investor in Dobco and Riaktr, two companies that are actively involved in the diagnosing and monitoring of Covid-19. The fund has also realized a few important exits: Melita, Trendminer, Zentrick and Piesync, currently a subsidiary of Hubspot.

The second fund, Fortino Capital Growth PE I, is a growth private equity fund with a capital of €242 million targeting larger enterprises and their management, banking on accelerated organic growth. The fund currently supports Mobilexpense (BE), Efficy CRM (BE) and Odin Groep (NL).

Fortino Capital Venture II, now its third fund, will continue its predecessor’s strategy and is targeting investments in successful start-up and scale up companies with a focus on software and technology.

Duco Sickinghe, Managing Partner Fortino: “We are living through uncertain and tough times and as an investment company we would like to, more than ever, send out a sign of hope and trust to young entrepreneurs. With our new fund we would like to reiterate our trust in entrepreneurs, driving the digitalization of our economy and society. We will use our new capital, our experience and our expertise to boost the success story of early growth companies. We believe in the future and therefore would like to send out this positive signal. We are delighted that many investors follow the same philosophy and have reiterated their trust in Fortino.”

Fortino Capital Venture II is targeting minority participations in successful and ambitious early growth Benelux companies with entry investment tickets ranging from €500,000 to €5 million, and sufficient capacity for successor capital rounds.

Amongst our investors we count many well-known private investors and entrepreneurs as well as strong institutional investors such as PMV and SFPI-FPIM.

Arie Kuipers, CEO Buybay, one of the companies in Fortino’s first VC-fund confirms the importance of a viable investment partner:  “It is comforting in these turbulent times to know that one can count on investors believing in and supporting innovation and leadership. We are getting closer to a post Covid-19 period where innovative entrepreneurs will make the difference in an accelerated digital transformation. The track record of Fortino, the team and their expertise help us to make the difference and privileged partner to turn our strategy into reality.”

About Fortino Capital Partners

Fortino Capital is a leading venture capital and growth private equity firm investing in European software and technology companies with a focus on Benelux. Our mission is supporting ambitious management teams in realising their growth plans.

We invest in early growth (venture capital) and more mature companies (growth capital) for which organic growth is at the hart of their strategy. Fortino has offices in Belgium and the Netherlands. Fortino is currently investor in Odin Groep (NL), Mobilexpense (BE), Tenzinger (NL), Teamleader (BE), Bloomon (NL) and Buybay (NL).