Smile Invest’s bets are paying off as the Benelux private equity firm celebrates realising its first seven investments.
In July 2026, Smile Invest announced that several of its portfolio companies had reached their full potential and would enter the next phase of growth with new partners, including CFL with listed group NIBE, SmartSD with Cobepa, Rovers with listed Halma, Microflor with the founding family, IGS with BC Partners, Oldelft Ultrasound with Steute Technologies (backed by Battery Ventures) and 4itego with MAIT (backed by German investor DBAG).
Managing partner Bart Cauberghe (pictured) says this achievement reflects Smile’s investment philosophy: “While our portfolio spans technology, healthcare, industrial and business services, the common denominator is always ambitious companies with innovation embedded in their DNA and a clear aspiration to become leaders in their niche markets.”
The Smile Invest value creation playbook enables these organisations to fully capitalise on their innovation by accelerating international expansion, developing new products, strengthening commercial capabilities or executing strategic add-on acquisitions. “In many cases, we are the first professional investor alongside a founder or entrepreneurial management team,” Bart shares. “Beyond providing capital, we bring strategic perspective, governance, access to networks, buy-and-build experience, operational expertise and support in building stronger management teams.”
Ultimately, he summarises it as helping entrepreneurs professionalise their organisations and pursue growth opportunities with confidence and discipline; a "hands-with" approach, if you will.
Hedging the bet: the evergreen advantage
When Smile invested in the seven companies (CFL, SmartSD, Rovers, Microflor, IGS, Oldelft and 4itego), the envisioned potential was still a gamble – that’s the PE game after all. Even with the best investment strategies, geopolitical tensions, market pressures, environmental factors, and other elements can sometimes change everything.
Where traditional private equity funds often face constraints linked to fundraising cycles or fund lifetimes, Smile Invest’s secret to mitigating these challenges lies in its open-ended exit strategy. “Flexibility is one of the most important advantages of our evergreen structure,” Bart explains. “We are very transparent from the outset that Smile Invest is not a buy-and-hold investment company. Our objective is to help businesses create significant value through growth and eventually realise that value through an exit. The difference is that our timing is driven by what is best for the company, not by fund dynamics.”
The Microflor exit was a good example of this, he elaborates. The founding family had a very long-term vision, with an investment horizon extending well beyond fifteen years. After about five years, the company was evaluating a major capacity expansion combined with a strategic merger. “While we fully supported the industrial logic of that strategy, it implied a substantial investment program with a payback period exceeding eight years and would have resulted in Smile Invest becoming a relatively small shareholder. Given our role and return expectations, the economics were no longer fully aligned with our investment thesis.”
Rather than becoming an obstacle to the company’s next phase of growth, Smile Invest worked constructively with the founding family to find a solution. “We agreed on a bilateral transaction, whereby the family repurchased our shareholding,” Bart reveals.
“As an evergreen investor, we do not need to exit because a fund is approaching maturity, nor do we need realisations to support a new fundraising cycle. We can decide to sell when there is a compelling strategic rationale, when a new shareholder can accelerate the next growth phase, or when we believe our value-add has been largely delivered.”
The structure also allows Smile Invest to reinvest alongside new majority partners when appropriate without creating conflicts of interest between the different generations of investors – as it did with Cobepa in SmartSD and BC Partners in IGS. “We believed both companies would benefit from a larger financial partner capable of supporting substantial acquisitions and further international expansion; so we deliberately sought experienced private equity investors fitting the skills required to support the next growth phase and chose to reinvest as a meaningful minority shareholder alongside them,” Bart explains.
High-payouts and winning hands
For companies such as Rovers, CFL, Oldelft and 4ITEGO, strategic buyers were often the most natural counterparties because they could unlock substantial operational and commercial synergies. “Ultimately, we do not start with a preference for either strategic or financial buyers. We focus on finding the partner best positioned to maximise the company's long-term potential while delivering an attractive outcome for all stakeholders,”
Bart says. “In these situations, we received highly compelling offers from industrial buyers who not only recognised the intrinsic value of the businesses but also provided an attractive vision for their future development.”
The most attractive valuations were consistently driven by a combination of strong differentiation, profitable growth and quality management teams. “Buyers were particularly attracted to businesses with sustainable competitive advantages based on technology, innovation or niche expertise, especially in markets with meaningful barriers to entry,” Bart divulges, adding that they also valued proven growth trajectories, solid double-digit EBIT margins and recurring evidence of operational excellence.
“In the end, the highest multiples are achieved by companies that offer something genuinely difficult to replicate and have demonstrated the ability to convert that advantage into sustainable value creation.”
This is why Smile Invest focuses on building businesses where value creation is driven by operational performance and strategic growth rather than financial engineering. It also makes the investment case less dependent on debt market conditions and more resilient during periods of financing volatility.
Players are the true Ace up a target’s sleeve
Perhaps most importantly, however, were the premium valuations buyers were willing to pay for management teams that combined ambition, execution capability and a clear vision for future growth (the same values Bart has built Smile Invest on). “If there is one lesson that has been reinforced throughout my career, it is that people matter more than any spreadsheet, model or due diligence report,” he offers as a reason. “While strategy, markets and financial performance are important, exceptional outcomes are ultimately created by teams that share a clear mission, possess a strong ambition to grow and continuously adapt to changing circumstances.”
To this end, Bart believes the quality, drive and mindset of management teams remain the most important determinants of long-term success: “We see that management teams genuinely open to a 'hands-with' investor are often able to take their company to the next stage.”
Ironically, he notes that while this is often one of the most critical factors, it is also one of the hardest to assess objectively during the investment process.
Industrial innovation, technology leadership and strategic autonomy are also gaining recognition across Europe, which Smile Invest suspects will stimulate investment, entrepreneurship and the creation of high-quality growth companies over the coming years – exactly what they’re looking for when investing. “For us, the opportunities are particularly compelling in advanced technologies, medical technology, sustainability-related solutions and highly specialised B2B service businesses,” Bart says. “These sectors align closely with our network, experience and track record, allowing us to provide differentiated support and strategic insight to management teams beyond capital alone.”
The PE firm’s recent investments exhibit this focus. Of its last five platform investments, three (BAP Medical, Alphatron Medical and iPractice) have been in healthcare, while two (RB+ and Varel Security) have been in the broader safety sector.
Read also: Smile Invest achieves deal hat trick in one week
“More broadly, we continue to focus on ambitious companies with the potential to become market leaders through innovation,” Bart concludes. “Sectors evolve, but our investment philosophy remains unchanged: partnering with innovation leaders who have the vision and determination to build exceptional companies.”
