Gimv supports innovative growth companies in five forward-looking investment areas. Recently, the various teams have been using openthebox as part of their proactive analysis and follow-up of future participations.
As a European investment company, Gimv currently participates in around sixty companies from various sectors that together generate a turnover of 3.7 billion euros. The organization is active in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany. Across these countries, it is divided into five investment platforms: Consumer, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Smart Industries and Sustainable Cities.
Catharina Soenen joined Gimv as Legal Counsel in March 2017. She has been part of the Sustainable Cities team since September 2021. “Our platform invests in companies that contribute to sustainable urbanization,” she says. “As Principal, my job consists, on the one hand, of proactively finding and identifying suitable candidates and, on the other hand, reviewing the deals and preparing them for our investment committee.”
Since June 2023, openthebox has been a fixed value within the investment company. “Actually, our Sustainable Cities team has been using the demo version for some time,” Catharina confesses. “And we liked that one. We also noticed that new features were added regularly. So we were quickly convinced of the added value. '
“openthebox regularly adds new features. So we were quickly convinced of the added value. '
Catharina Soenen - Principal Sustainable Cities GIMV
Analyze and monitor growth
At the same time, Gimv was inventorying its various resources. “Across the four countries, it had become a tangle of licenses,” says Catharina. “Because our team was really excited about the openthebox demo, it was decided to switch to the Enterprise version. It was rolled out across all our investment teams in Belgium in June. Since then, it has been a crucial addition to a number of other databases and knowledge tools that we use here. '
Catharina Soenen's Sustainable Cities team primarily uses openthebox to analyze and track the growth of certain companies. “The platform continuously centralizes all data that is publicly available and combines it in one place,” it sounds. “That makes it easy for us to monitor companies and sectors.”
“We also very often use openthebox to find out how shareholder structures work, and to map the relationships and dynamics between different stakeholders. To do this, we use the handy spiderweb function. It is indispensable for us, because it is simply very difficult to unravel connections and relationships between people and entities ourselves. '
“We really appreciate that openthebox - unlike other tools - strongly respects the privacy of its users.”
Catharina Soenen - Principal Sustainable Cities GIMV
Fewer inaccuracies
In its own words, the use of openthebox within Gimv also leads to fewer inaccuracies. “In the past, we once mapped out a sector to see whether we could merge companies of a certain size in it,” illustrates Catharina. “When we went to talk to one of the companies afterwards, it turned out that it was three times what we thought. Very annoying... '
“Had we been able to rely on openthebox back then, we would have had more correct figures. We did the test afterwards, and we immediately got to see the entire group structure. Since then, all our investment teams have been using openthebox to prepare accurately. Every day, someone falls back on the platform. I couldn't miss it myself. '
“An additional advantage is the fact that openthebox lets you click through to the various databases that he uses. So if you doubt certain data, you can dig deeper. We also really appreciate that openthebox strongly respects the privacy of its users. Other tools often show recommendations or reports from companies, which suggests that they deal with search data much less confidentially. '
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