Smartfin Research
Investment Thesis
Smartfin is a Brussels-based European venture and growth capital investor that backs B2B technology companies headquartered in Europe or the United Kingdom. The firm says it targets exceptional B2B technology companies with a working product, initial paying customers and a plan to grow in a large, fast-growing market. It deliberately avoids narrow pigeonholing: a quote on its site says a well-diversified portfolio is a better long-term strategy than a narrow focus on one technology area. It looks for areas where its team has operating and investment experience, and for opportunities where other investors hesitate to go.
Investment Criteria
Smartfin's four stated criteria are stage and sector (private B2B technology company with product and early revenue), mindset (leadership, integrity, vision and entrepreneurial spirit), geography (headquartered in Europe or the UK) and unique assets (proprietary technology, expert teams and a sustainable competitive advantage in a large market). The homepage summarises the screen as growing B2B technology companies, ambitious founders looking to lead, and Europe headquarters.
Stage Focus
The portfolio page labels companies Early Stage or Growth Stage. The firm lists both early-stage and growth-stage companies and describes a staged approach: smaller initial entry tickets followed by significantly larger follow-on investments over the long term. Recent rounds include a EUR 750K ticket in Auditstage (May 2025), a EUR 2.5M co-investment in Sequesto (Sept 2025), and lead roles in Series A rounds for Emma ($17M), Incard (GBP 10M) and Marble (EUR 6.5M). Smartfin partners with Pitchdrive for very early stage deals and with Tioga Capital Partners for blockchain.
Check Size
The website states tickets of up to EUR 50M. LinkedIn and Vestbee profiles state investments of EUR 0.5M to EUR 25M over the lifetime of a portfolio company. Check size fields in F4-OS are stored as a range of 500,000 to 50,000,000 (EUR figures, not converted).
Lead Tendency
Smartfin both leads and follows. It led Emma's Series A, Incard's Series A, Marble's Series A, and Payflip's round, and led the consortium that acquired Hex-Rays. It co-invested with Newion in Sequesto and took part in follow-on rounds elsewhere, so lead tendency is recorded as both.
Recent Activity and Fund Status
Smartfin closed its third growth fund at EUR 250M in January 2025 with backing from the European Investment Fund, and reports more than EUR 600M in assets under management, 25 portfolio companies and 10+ investment professionals. The firm appears to be actively deploying: Hadrian (cyber security, $40M round, Oct 2026), Marble (Sept 2026), Auditstage (EUR 2M seed, July 2026), Timefold ($13M, June 2026), Incard (Feb 2026), Sequesto and AI-Blox (Sept 2025), Fimple (Feb 2025). It ranked 9th in the HEC Paris-Dow Jones venture capital performance ranking in 2023.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio spans 36 listed companies across Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Turkey and the US. Notable names include MariaDB (NYSE listing via SPAC, 2022), Deliverect (raised $150M at a $1.4B+ valuation in 2022), Hex-Rays, CrazyGames, Timefold, Emma, Hadrian and Happeo. Exits shown on the site: UnifiedPost Group, Silverfin (acquired by Visma, 2023), Theo Technologies (joined Dolby, 2024), Recharge (acquired by Coda, 2025), Zivver, Itineris, Newtec and Ancoa.
Team
- Jurgen Ingels, Founding Partner and Chairman
- Bart Luyten, Founding Partner
- Thomas Depuydt, Managing Partner
- Jan Hollez, Managing Partner
- Sebastien Thiel, Partner and CFO
- Harry Haeck, Partner
- Saumitra Dubey, Partner
- Tallat Mahmood, Partner
- Laura Guillaume, Principal
- Jean-Baptiste Maenhout and Thibaut Claes, Investment Managers
- Tom De Bondt and Pieter Ediers, Associates
- Five entrepreneurs in residence and five advisors support the team.
Decision Process
The firm is a multi-partner team with managing and founding partners; the exact process is not published, so it is recorded as partnership. Intake is through a pitch form on the website.
Founder Preferences
Founders with leadership, integrity, vision, entrepreneurial spirit and a plan to build international leaders from a European base. The firm backs teams that have earned their stripes with product and paying customers.
Geographic Focus
Europe and the UK, with a strong Benelux concentration (Belgium and the Netherlands account for most of the portfolio), plus France, Finland, Luxembourg, Turkey and one US-listed company. The firm actively helps portfolio companies expand internationally.