Belgium’s WAD Capital reaches €67.5 million first close for debut fund following €25 million EIF investment

Belgian investment firm WAD Capital has completed the first closing of its fund at €67.5 million with a €25 million investment from the European Investment Fund (EIF), making the EU’s development bank the largest backer of its debut fund.

The Ghent-based firm, which buys small and mid-sized European companies facing succession problems and hands them to vetted operators, will use the funding to scale its debut fund from €67.5 million toward a €130 million target.

Robert de Groot, Vice President of the EIB Group, said, “Europe is home to many successful SMEs with strong growth potential, which need both capital and entrepreneurial talent to pursue their growth path and reach the next stage. WAD Capital’s innovative approach helps a new generation of entrepreneurs take over established businesses and grow them further.

“This way, WAD Capital helps tackle succession issues, whilst supporting business continuity, job creation, long-term competitiveness and adapting their strategies to current market needs.”

Founded in 2023 by Christopher Tournis Gamble, Steven Coppens and Alain Brossé, WAD Capital is building one of Europe’s largest institutional platforms for “Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition”. It targets profitable SMEs with EBITDA of €1 to 5 million across the Benelux, northern France and western Germany, largely in healthcare, energy and climate transition, and business services.

Each deal is led by a “CEO in Residence”, an experienced manager recruited, vetted and guided from initial market screening through to running the acquired company. WAD says it screens tens of thousands of companies a year using data-driven sourcing, an approach it has paired with AI-assisted legal due diligence tools to speed up deals that are typically too small to justify conventional advisory costs.

Eight of thirteen CEOs in Residence from the firm’s first cohort have completed acquisitions, including HVAC group Groupe Jordan, construction firm Mignone, security specialist Alsec, tyre distributor HBI Tyres & Wheels, packaging firms Ausloos and Euro-M, insurance broker Kantoor Lardenoit and events business E-Demonstrations, with another five in the final stages of closing.

“Eight acquisitions in less than a year and a substantial investment from the European Investment Fund. This shows our model is scalable, and that Europe also recognises the importance of what we do,” said Steven Coppens, Managing Partner at WAD Capital.

With EIF’s €25 million backing, aided by the European Commission’s InvestEU programme, the firm is pushing toward a €130 million target with a hard cap of €132.5 million. Alongside a group of family investors, WAD Capital’s managing partners are putting in 2 per cent of the fund’s capital themselves.

“Hundreds of thousands of European SMEs are looking for a successor but cannot find one. With this capital, we can match CEOs with those companies more quickly, and keep more jobs and businesses in European hands,” added Coppens.

The fresh capital will fund a second cohort of twelve CEOs in Residence, ten of whom are already confirmed, as WAD Capital works to double its cohort size and expand its portfolio to 25 companies by the end of 2027. Alain Brossé, Managing Partner at WAD Capital, said, “By increasing the number of ‘CEOs in Residence’ from thirteen to twenty-five, we can acquire twenty-five healthy SMEs with a succession challenge and keep them in European hands. This is a way to protect jobs and give strong managers the opportunity to become owners.”

“We are not setting up yet another private equity fund for SMEs, we are scaling up the search-fund model – a model that has delivered an average IRR of 35 per cent over the past thirty years – to create one of Europe’s largest institutional platforms for Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. The EIF’s investment confirms both aspects: the return and the impact.”