Brussels-based Syndicate One, an international network-driven fund backing technology startups based in Belgium or founded by Belgian entrepreneurs, today announced that it has concluded the first close of its second fund at €22 million.
The capital raise follows Syndicate One’s €6.5 million fund, which closed in late 2024, and is intended to identify, finance, and support more standout founders from Belgium across various sectors. The new fund was oversubscribed within eight weeks after the first pitch, and will be managed by Syndicate One founder Laurens De Poorter, together with founding members Arnaud Bakker and Robin Wauters.
The fund’s investor list included over 120 entrepreneurs, operators, and investors who are key stakeholders of the Belgian tech startup ecosystem. Syndicate One notes that some of the founders it backed have become investors in the fund. Other investors include prior anchor investor Sofina, new institutional backers such as Finhouse and COI, and four governmental funds: PMV (Flanders), SFPIM (federal), Finance&Invest Brussels, and Wallonie Entreprendre.
“Our €22 million fund is a strong signal that the Belgian tech ecosystem is maturing and compounding. What started as a tight-knit network of ambitious founders and operators has evolved into a powerful flywheel, where today’s founders become tomorrow’s backers. We are doubling down on exceptional Belgian entrepreneurs, wherever they are in the world, and on the ecosystem initiatives that help them scale faster, think bigger and build globally competitive companies from day one,” said Laurens De Poorter, founder of Syndicate One.
Founded in 2022, Syndicate One pools expertise, an international network, and Seed capital from a group of experienced founders, operators and professional investors to help early Belgian startups level up.
It has invested in Belgian early-stage startups such as Aikido Security, Techwolf, Conveo, Sirona Technologies, Donna, Warren, SAPI, Ravical, Cosmic Aerospace, Powernaut, Tekst, Mindoo and others. According to Syndicate One, two of its early investments, Fundamental and Aikido Security, have hit unicorn status.
“The depth and breadth of the Syndicate One community offers a unique platform for founders to leverage, enabling them to gain direct insights on investments, operations, go-to-market, and sales, platform development, marketing and PR, and many more topics,” the investment firm mentioned in the press release.
Syndicate One states that it regularly launches targeted initiatives to strengthen Belgium’s tech ecosystem. These include the release of the second ‘State of Belgian Tech Report’, produced in collaboration with Sofina, SFPIM, and Bain & Co, as well as the second iteration of the ‘Syndicate One Convertible’, a standardised convertible loan agreement (CLA) for early-stage financing of Belgian startups. The firm also launched a video podcast featuring wide-ranging interviews showcasing Belgium’s talent.
In addition, it notes that it will continue to organise events, workshops and meetups, and engage in other activities in support of its mission to elevate the Belgian tech ecosystem.
