Pitchdrive raises third fund of €40M to fuel entrepreneur-driven early-stage investing in Europe

Antwerp, Belgium, May 13th 2024 - Belgian investor Pitchdrive professionalizes early-stage startup investing with entrepreneur-driven expertise and startup support. They have received overwhelming interest from LPs, and had to overshoot their initial fund size by +30%, only accepting entrepreneurs and family offices.

Pitchdrive was founded in 2020 from a syndicate of well-known Belgian angels such as Jonas Dhaenens (Team.Blue), Boris Bogaert, Wim Derkinderen and Koen Christiaens (Xpenditure/ Rydoo), Lorenz Bogaert and Toon Coppens (Netlog/Twoo & StarApps) and Luc Verelst (DROIA invest). They understood the value of well-experienced entrepreneurs on the captable first-hand, but also the huge challenges in scalability and follow-on money. With this experience in mind, the founders built the European household name within pre-seed investing that is Pitchdrive today.

VC funding with proven entrepreneurial expertise

Startups have much higher success rates when they raise their early investments with experienced entrepreneurs, and move to traditional operator-led VC in later rounds. Pitchdrive uses their entrepreneurial expertise to provide pre-seed investments, highly personalized guidance support and network access to their portfolio. The fund size allows for possibilities of participation in new rounds, giving the startups an immediate edge.

This approach has proven to work. Of their 50+ investments, about 70% have already raised new rounds within 2 years and first exits are in progress. Their European-first approach has led to an active portfolio in 11 countries, 66% of the startups being located outside of Belgium.

Launching Fund III with top European Entrepreneurs

Fund I and II’s successful results (the latter run together with later-stage VC Smartfin) have translated into extreme interest in their third fund, which has been oversubscribed within 2 months. What would have been a €30M fund, has completed a first closing at €34M and while commitments are 30% higher, will be hard capped at €40M.

Boris Bogaert (Managing Partner) states: “The €40 million investment fund will support 30 European startups over the next two years. Alongside the fund, Pitchdrive has established a new mentor network of 10 successful European entrepreneurs. This powerhouse network will provide personalized guidance and diverse expertise to propel Pitchdrive's growing portfolio”.

About Pitchdrive:

Pitchdrive is a Belgian-based entrepreneur-led early-stage investor, investing in startups all over Europe and providing highly personalized and active support to their portfolio. The VC is actively managed by Boris Bogaert, Wim Derkinderen and Koen Christiaens (founders of Xpenditure/Rydoo), and has invested in +50 startups over the last years through 2 funds, and has started deploying their third fund. Investments include Belgian Henchman, NineID, Otiv, Bizzy, Fixform, Introw, Oper Credits, Smooved, Brauzz, Picky, UK based Hotel Manager, Happl, Privasee, Greenspark, Dutch Luna, German FoodAmigos, Keaz, Turkish Salus Mental, and much more.