We don’t care whether you’re a market leader or not. We invest in companies with a unique mindset, ready to challenge the status quo, in sectors such as consumer, healthcare, business services and manufacturing.


M80 is an investor in companies in Benelux and France. We seek out ambitious companies that embrace change and we work with them to create and realise their potential.
Our diverse international team of entrepreneurs, former CEO’s, private equity professionals and digital pioneers will inspire, challenge and support companies to generate meaningful value for their customers, employees, owners and investors.
Investment
criteria
Across Benelux and France we typically focus on companies that have sales between €25m and €300m, EBITDA between €5m and €30m and an enterprise value between €25m and €250m. Our preferred investment range is 10 – 60 million in equity. We are open to transactions where we can be a significant shareholder or the leading investor, aligning closely with founders or family shareholders and management. We steer away from real estate, R&D based life sciences, pre-commercial technology and companies that do not fit with our values and those of our investors.


The M80 team
We are a balanced mix of successful senior managers and deeply experienced private equity and M&A professionals. Most of us are also entrepreneurs, having started and built companies. We embrace digitization – we have used it to transform companies and to improve our own daily lives.

Peter Maenhout
Partner/CEO
Pieter Vermeersch
Partner
Jehanne de Walque
Partner/CFO
Laurent Catry
PartnerResumé
Peter is founder and CEO of M80. He was a managing director at Gimv, where he was responsible for Gimv-XL, a €609m closed-end fund aimed at midsize companies in Flanders. Peter also led Gimv’s private equity activities in Belgium and its Consumer platform in Benefralux. Gimv-XL’s participations included investments in Vandemoortele, Greenyard, Punch Powertrain, Lampiris, Xeikon, Hansea and XL Video. Investments from Gimv’s Consumer platform included Melijoe, La Croissanterie, Joolz, United Dutch Breweries and Snack Connection. Peter has created value for his investors by growing companies rather than by financial wizardry. Throughout his career he has advised families and companies on managing growth and organizing succession.
Selected past and current board engagements
Vandemoortele, Greenyard, United Dutch Breweries, Melijoe
- 09-17
- Gimv, managing partner
- 07-09
- Amber Capital, MD Amber Capital Benelux
- 97-07
- Petercam (Brussels, Amsterdam), MD and various other roles
- 91-97
- Generale Bank, corporate finance officer
- Edu
- International Relations (University of Ghent), Financial Management (Vlerick School), MBA (ChicagoBooth)
Resumé
Pieter founded his first company in Belgium, a specialist in over-the-counter health care products, while he was still studying. After five years at McKinsey & Company, Pieter moved to New York in 2007 where he created and led the team that developed and rolled out the global franchise network of Le Pain Quotidien. He set up the Pain Quotidien’s global marketing team and ran the company’s international brand and marketing strategy. In 2015 he became CEO of Le Pain Quotidien Belgium.
Selected Past and current Board engagements
Le Goût du Naturel SA (La Croissanterie), Brouwland NV
- 17-18
- FNG Group, Group Director Sales and Business Development
- 15-16
- Le Pain Quotidien Belgium, CEO
- 07-15
- Le Pain Quotidien (New York), EVP
- 06-07
- Cabinet of the Prime Minister, advisor
- 02-06
- McKinsey & Co, engagement manager and other roles
- 00-
- Aeon Quality Life / Merlin Europe, founder
- Edu
- MA Applied Economics and MA International Relations (University of Leuven)
Resumé
Jehanne is CFO of M80. She was previously at Pacific Crest Group in San Francisco where she worked with Silicon Valley start-ups and scale-ups to develop their finance and accounting functions. As finance director for NewTree America, the Belgian high-end sustainable chocolate company, Jehanne helped launch and build the company in the US market. Jehanne has a deep experience in financial markets, having spent 15 years as an analyst at Puilaetco and Dexiam.
Selected past and current board engagements
Newtree
- 13-18
- Pacific Crest Group (San Francisco), Director of Finance and Operations
- 11-13
- NewTree America (San Francisco), Director of Finance
- 04-10
- Dexiam, senior financial and SRI analyst
- 95-04
- Puilaetco, financial analyst
- Edu
- Business engineer (University of Louvain-la-Neuve), MA international management (CEMS), certified European financial analyst
Resumé
Laurent is a seasoned private equity professional with experience in the small and midcap segments from his roles at TCR Capital and Permira. Laurent has worked in multiple sectors but has strong knowledge of healthcare, with primary LBO investments including Laboratoires Chemineau, Laboratoire de la Mer and In’tech Medical. He has solid experience in assisting companies in growth strategies, international expansion and build-up acquisitions.
Selected past and current board engagements
Laboratoires Chemineau, Nocibé, Générale de Protection, Laboratoire de la Mer, In’tech Medical
- 18-18
- Oloryn Partners, partner
- 16-17
- Permira Advisors
- 04-15
- TCR Capital, principal
- 98-03
- Société Générale Investment Banking - M&A, VP
- 93-97
- EY, Corporate Finance, manager
- Edu
- M.Sc. in corporate finance (ESPC), MBA (Insead)

Carl Annicq
Partner
Xavier Dura
Partner
José Zurstrassen
Associate Partner
François Bouchat
AssociateResumé
Carl has a track record of leading companies through significant digital transformation. He drives projects from conception to implementation, working hands-on with senior management and IT teams to embed systems such as CRM, ERP, predictive analytics, lean management and agile software development. Carl acted as CIO at Raet, the leading HR software company from the Netherlands, owned by CVC Capital Partners and later HG Capital, bringing operational efficiencies which translated into direct bottom line results. At Euroclear, he led a lean management transformation which is still considered a benchmark transformation in the European financial industry. Carl started his career at JP Morgan & Co on Wall Street and then remained in New York as a member of the management committee of Ubizen, the Belgian cybersecurity company. He is co-founder and co-owner of Nova Reperta, a 50-strong enterprise transformation consultancy.
Selected past and current board engagements
Nova Reperta Holding, Ticto, TrainM, Esoptra
- 11-18
- Nova Reperta, partner and co-founder
- 14-17
- Raet Software, CIO
- 10-11
- LMS International, EVP M&A, finance, legal, IT
- 05-10
- Euroclear, director risk management & capital modelling, lean transformation, strategic IT programs
- 98-05
- Ubizen (New York), managing director
- 94-98
- JP Morgan & Co (New York), associate
- Edu
- MSc Electro-Mechanical Engineering (University of Leuven) and MBA (Vlerick)
Resumé
Xavier has been CEO of several lifestyle & FMCG companies in France. At Nocibé, where he led two consecutive management buy-outs with Bridgepoint and Charterhouse, he repositioned the brand of the cosmetics and perfumes retail chain and pioneered a multi-channel strategy – resulting in a French market share increase from 13,6% to 18,5%. After an early career in finance, Xavier moved into entrepreneurship as part of the core team that launched the Okaïdi children’s clothing retailer, and brought it to break-even within three years. Being a board member of Wolf Lingerie along with Gimv and Alsace Capital, Xavier became CEO in 2016 where he developed and drove a value-creation strategy based on a digital transformation and an overhaul of the business model.
Selected past and current board engagements
Made in Design, Wolf Lingerie, Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance, Hopps Group, Mecatechnics
- 16-18
- Wolf Lingerie, CEO
- 15-18
- LAC International, senior advisor
- 14-14
- Mim (New Look Group), CEO
- 13-18
- MP Consulting, senior advisor and board member at several companies
- 98-12
- Nocibé, CEO
- 96-98
- Camaieu, CMO
- 93-96
- Okaïdi, CFO
- 88-92
- Arthur Andersen and PwC, auditor
- Edu
- ESCP Europe and DESCF
Resumé
José started coding and selling his own software at age 13 in 1980 in his local computer shop in Verviers, Belgium. As a student and young graduate, he developed and sold software to international corporations and institutions. José has IPO’d three companies of which he was founder or early investor. He first co-founded skynet.be, one of Belgium’s first internet portals. He was involved in the business side and the technology side – having coded the central systems including automated invoicing, payment verification and customer service. Following the sale of skynet.be to Belgacom, José co-founded Keytrade Bank which was Belgium’s first online broker. He is currently an investor in and advisor to multiple start-ups.
As well as being in the M80 team, José is also Executive Chairman of LeanSquare, a venture capital investor.
Selected past and current board engagements
Leansquare, Verlinvest, Zetes, Skynet, Keytrade Bank
- 15-
- Meusinvest/LeanSquare, executive chairman
- 12-17
- MyMicroInvest/Spreds/Inventures, co-founder & executive chairman
- 12-14
- MondialTelecom, CEO
- 07-12
- Independent director at Verlinvest, Zetes, ThinFactory, NewTree, STAR-Apic, e.a.
- 98-07
- Keytrade Bank, CTO & co-founder, sold to Credit Agricole
- 95-98
- Skynet.Be, CEO, CTO & co-founder, sold to Belgacom.
- Edu
- Civil engineer (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, dropped in year 5) and commercial engineer (Solvay Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Resumé
François spent the first part of his career in the public sector where he was advising executives on diverse range of financial topics such as M&A, financing structuring, accounting, tax policy and investments. He focused on the energy sector where he managed major transactions. In 2017, he moved to Chicago (USA) to obtain his MBA from Kellogg School of Management – Northwestern University. In that context, he interned in the Investment Banking divisions of Credit Suisse (London) and Marathon Capital (Chicago).
- 17-19
- Kellogg School of Management
- 18-18
- Marathon Capital, Credit Suisse
- 12-17
- IGRETEC
- 11-11
- L’Oréal Business
- Edu
- MBA (Kellogg School of Management – Northwestern University), Bachelor and Master in Business Engineering (Solvay Brussels School of Management), CFA Charterholder (CFA institute), Master in Financial Risk Management (Université Saint-Louis)

Jan-Willem Callewaert
Associate
Ward Coolman
Analyst
Jeremy Mestdagh
AssociateResumé
For the last 4 years, Jan-Willem has been advising clients – both PE and private companies – on mergers and acquisitions. He assisted these companies with various services (FDD, Restructuring, Valuation and Corporate Finance) during a rotation program, after which he joined the Corporate Finance Team. Although having an industry agnostic approach, Jan-Willem worked mainly for companies in the consumer goods and logistics sectors in Belgium. Next to advising founders during sell-side processes, he also assisted PEs with buy-side services in their attempt to acquire new portfolio companies.
- 15-19
- PwC Belgium (Brussels), Sr. Consultant
- 16-17
- PwC Germany (Hamburg), Consultant Transaction Services (FDD)
- Edu
- Applied Economics, University of Ghent
Resumé
Ward started his career in Corporate Finance. He gained experience in M&A. Ward has mainly worked on valuation models.
- Edu
- MSc in Business Engineering (University of Leuven)
Resumé
Jeremy started his career in Investment Banking. He gained experience in Financial Markets and M&A before switching to asset management working on both large private and listed investments. He has mainly worked on industrial and business services companies.
- 19
- GBL Investment Team
- 18
- Lazard M&A Advisory
- 17
- Degroof Petercam – Financial Markets
- Edu
- Master in Financial Markets, Vlerick Business School
How we
work
We put our entrepreneurial, management, financial, private equity, change-management and digital skills to work in ambitious companies to:
- Bring focus to companies’ strategies
- Invest in companies’ sales organisations and top-line growth
- Deploy digital – from basic to sophisticated – to increase sales and improve efficiency
We do not stick our noses in every detail, but we play an active role if and when needed. We believe in having a clear common purpose. We motivate, inspire and help. We focus on the long term. We work based on mutual respect for our investors and for our portfolio companies. We listen, we evaluate the options, and we act upon what we hear and see. We believe in the positive power of private equity.

Contact
We are based in Brussels.
Paris office will open in 2019.
- 1 rue de la Victoire /
- Overwinningsstraat 1
- 1060 Brussels
- We have an E-bike charging station available.
- T Please contact anyone of our team.
By train
Our offices are at 600m from Brussels Midi/Zuid station, the main station for arrivals by Thalys, Eurostar and TGV in Brussels. In the station, go towards platform 22 and take exit “Fonsny”. The walk is less than 10 minutes – follow Google Maps. Alternatively, take the metro. Taxis are best avoided – if in doubt, take an Uber.
By car
Easiest is to use Waze, introducing “parking Porte de Hal Brussels”. There are charging stations for electric cars on the -1 level. Take the elevator and you will see rue de la Victoire more or less in front of you. Look for a café called “Straton”.
By metro
Our offices are next to metro stop Porte de Hal/Hallepoort (both lines 2 and 6). Leaving the metro via de escalators, rue de la Victoire is on the other side of the historical tower. Look for a café called “Straton”.