Amsterdam, 30 June 2021 – Karmijn Kapitaal, the first Dutch private equity fund to focus on diversity and inclusion, today announces the successful initial closing of its third fund, holding a maximum of 120 million euro. With this third fund, Karmijn will continue the unique investment course established with the first two funds.

The initial closing of the new investment fund was achieved with considerable interest from both new and existing investors. The fund enables Karmijn to continue the investment trend it has previously set. Karmijn’s first two funds totalled 135 million euro and have been entirely invested in various successful Dutch SMEs, among which Gielissen, Haarlem-based brewery Jopenbier, healthcare solutions provider JoyinCare and recent addition BPI Services, supplier of identification applications to, amongh others, the Dutch National Police.

Freerk Smit, Financial Portfolio Manager at Karmijn Kaptial, says: ‘We are very pleased with the interest that was expressed by new and existing investors for the initial closing of our third fund. The fact that the previous two funds have been fully invested and are doing well gives investors confidence in our abilities and we intend to stay the course with this new fund.’

Investment fund
Founded in 2010 by three women, Karmijn Kapitaal has to date invested in 19 Dutch SMEs and completed several takeovers. Co-founder Cilian Jansen Verplanke believes they owe their success to their active cooperation strategy: ‘We are investors with a close connection to entrepreneurs and their management teams. Our approach helps them grow their businesses while balancing hard and soft company values. While we believe in (internal and external) personal relationships, diversity, inclusion, creativity and continuity, we do not lose sight of the aim to achieve greater returns. With the above values in mind, we actively support and cooperate with Dutch SMEs in the fields of consumer products, corporate services and industrial activities to help them expand their operations.’ Jansen Verplanke is also the founder of level20 Netherlands, which is committed to equality in the private equity sector. Karmijn co-founders Hadewych Cels and Désirée van Boxtel are actively committed to inclusiveness and diversity as well. Cels was nominated in the Future 40 Diversity and Inclusion Leaders in March 2021 and Van Boxtel in the Inclusive 30 this week.

Karmijn Kapitaal also announces that long-term employees Freerk Smit and Niels Molewijk are now partners in the company. Smit has been with Karmijn since 2014 and is in charge of financial portfolio management and investor relations. Molewijk joined in 2013 and is responsible for new investments. Jansen Verplanke says: ‘It goes without saying that Karmijn is a diverse company; half of our staff is male, the other half female. Niels and Freerk have embraced our philosophy from day one and we are happy that not only our investment team, but now also our team of partners reflects our ideal of diversity.’

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Image bank Karmijn Kapitaal: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13nr8SV37w7sE6i2yfWFxi6zp7zntuiaQ

For more information, please contact:
Chris Peters, Crisp Communications
chris@crisppr.nl
+31 6 39 411 265

About Karmijn Kapital
Karmijn Kapitaal is an investment fund that participates in Dutch SME companies with a diverse management team, or a management that wants to work on a higher degree of diversity with the help of Karmijn. Karmijn’s approach is aimed at continuity of the companies in which she invests. The fund believes that not only the traditional economic and financial factors are important and that is why it also actively focuses on the balance between harder and softer values such as employee satisfaction, creativity and good personal relationships. Karmijn uses diversity as a means to help create better companies.