ANTWERP: Belgian private equity firm Gimv has taken a minority stake in Quality Guard, a fast-growing food tech company that provides a software platform to help foodservice and retail businesses manage food safety compliance.
Quality Guard, founded and led by co-CEOs Wim and Achlie Van Gierdegom, offers a SaaS platform that digitizes and automates food safety processes, including HACCP management and allergen control. The platform serves more than 5,000 customers across Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
The company uses a unique database of validated nutritional and allergen information and integrates with IoT-enabled hardware to help businesses comply with regulations while reducing administrative workloads.
With Gimv’s investment, Quality Guard plans to accelerate its growth by expanding commercially, entering new regions and pursuing strategic acquisitions to build a pan-European footprint. The Van Gierdegom family will remain the majority shareholder.
“Together with Gimv, we have developed an even clearer and more concrete growth strategy,” said Wim and Achlie Van Gierdegom in a joint statement.
David De Peuter and Laurens Boriale of Gimv’s Consumer team said the partnership aligns with their strategy of backing scalable B2B2C companies that address clear market needs.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Gimv, listed on Euronext Brussels, manages a portfolio of about 60 companies with a combined turnover of €4.5 billion.