Focused capital

A look under the hood of Gimv’s Venture Capital investment process

We take a closer look at Gimv’s Venture Capital investment process with Steven Coppens, Partner Technology at the company’s venture capital division, and learn that the key to finding capital is having the right business plan. Gimv may be Belgium’s largest venture capital and private equity group, but its market is the whole of Europe, and as such it needs to focus in order to compete effectively. Deals don’t just happen coincidentally. On the contrary, Gimv’s deal-flow is based on the systematic analysis of technology markets and trends. As a result, Gimv is pretty specific about the types of companies it is looking to invest in. The point is to make the right investment choices; and once on board, Gimv is also able to put its market knowledge and network to good use, in support of its portfolio companies.

Focus

For Coppens, the key to Gimv’s investment strategy is focus. “We operate at a European level so if we want to compete effectively we need to specialise, we need to focus on a number of key areas where we can build real expertise and market knowledge. Only that way can we be confident that we know about all the promising business plans in the area.”

At one level Gimv focuses on specific sectors: telecom, software, electronics and internet; but its actual investment strategy is informed by a much deeper analysis of the growth drivers in the technology sectors, a process that is supported by an international panel of experts and entrepreneurs. This analytical work is useful not only to spot the right opportunities, but also ensures that Gimv is a useful sparring partner for its portfolio companies.