Main Capital partners eyes investment opportunities in Belgian software market

• Main said it has strengthened its position as a strategic software investor
• The firm expects to realise its first Belgian investment through this expansion
• Main’s goal is to create larger and more visible software groups

Main Capital Partners has announced the opening of an office in Antwerp, Belgium. The firm said the new office would strengthen its position as a strategic software investor in the Benelux region.

“Since the foundation of Main we have invested in more than 100 software companies,” said Pieter van Bodegraven, managing partner Benelux at Main. “However, the Belgian market remained underexposed for us, but also in this market we see beautiful and innovative software companies that fit well with our investment criteria. By opening an office in Antwerp, we now want to change this through local presence and targeted focus. We are already in contact with various parties and expect to realise our first investment in Belgium in the short term.”

“It is our goal to help Belgian software companies grow, also internationally, just as we have done and still do for the other software companies in our portfolio,” said Sjoerd Aarts, senior investment manager at Main, and co-responsible for the Belgian team. “We support these companies by sharing our experience with business models, smart partner strategies and selective acquisitions. Our specialised knowledge and expertise, as well as our broad network within the software market that we have built up over the past 20 years, will also be easier to offer to new Belgian software companies through the local team in Antwerp.”

Main Capital Partners is a Dutch private equity firm headquartered in The Hague. It targets enterprise software companies in the Benelux, DACH and Nordic regions and has over €2.2 billion in assets under management. Besides investing in new software companies, the Main team will also support its current portfolio companies in executing international buy-and-build strategies. The firm’s goal is to create larger and more visible software groups, in addition to strengthening its local presence. Main is present in the healthcare, public sector, security and human resources software market and is actively looking at acquisitions in the Belgian market with several of these companies.