Entourage closes €100 million Fund II backed only by founders and private investors
The firm says it passed its €75 million target within two weeks and capped the fund at €100 million. Fund II will write first cheques of €1 to 5 million into AI, robotics and deep tech.
Entourage, the early-stage investment firm founded in 2024 by Showpad co-founder and former CEO Pieterjan Bouten, has closed its second fund at €100 million. According to EU-Startups and Tech Funding News, the fund exceeded its €75 million target within two weeks and was capped at €100 million despite demand above that level.
The fund is backed entirely by entrepreneurs, family offices and private investors, with no institutional limited partners named. It plans to invest in around 25 pre-seed and seed companies.
The fund
Fund II will make initial investments of €1 million to €5 million, with reserves for follow-on rounds, Tech Funding News reported. Its focus is AI and enterprise software, robotics and physical AI, and deep tech. That is a broader remit than Fund I, which was mostly software.
Entourage says its backers include founders of companies such as Aikido, TechWolf and Collibra. That fits the firm's pitch: it presents itself as a fund run by operators for founders, with a network of experienced entrepreneurs who support portfolio companies.
A different view on boards
One feature that stands out is governance. According to the coverage, Entourage rarely takes board seats, even when it leads a round. Bouten, who says he has invested in more than 60 companies, argued that investors often slow founders down with misplaced advice and operational interference. "Most VCs destroy value in early-stage boardrooms," he said, as quoted by EU-Startups. "That's why we rarely take board seats, even when we lead a round."
"With Fund II, we're doubling down," Bouten added, describing the new fund as a continuation of the same model at larger scale.
Portfolio and team
The firm's portfolio includes Belgian security company Aikido, which became a unicorn and raised a $60 million Series B in January 2026, Conveo, which raised a $50 million Series A in September 2026, and Italian legal AI company Lexroom, which the firm says reached €30 million in annual recurring revenue within 24 months. These figures were reported by EU-Startups and Tech Funding News.
Partners Pieterjan Bouten, Evert Beeckman and Maarten Mortier lead the firm. Entourage has added investors Erwan Gardelle, Sixtine Riescher and Illja Schiller, opened a London office and established a presence in Paris. It also runs Entourage Studio, a venture-building arm.
The firm's roots are in Belgium. Belgian business daily De Tijd covered the close, and Tech Funding News describes the firm as Ghent-based, while EU-Startups refers to it as London-based following the new office. Readers should treat it as a Belgian-founded firm now operating from several European cities.
Why it matters for European founders
Early-stage fundraising for new managers has been hard in Europe. Many institutional investors have concentrated commitments on established firms. A fund that fills its target in two weeks from private money alone shows another route: founder-led capital from successful exits recycling into the next generation of startups.
This matters for founders at the earliest stage. Seed cheques of up to €5 million with follow-on reserves are large enough to lead rounds, which helps companies avoid stitching together many small tickets. The shift toward robotics and physical AI also tracks where investors are moving, as seen in recent rounds such as Enact Intelligence's $30 million pre-seed and the large growth rounds for AI application companies like Legora.
There is a trade-off. A fund without board seats gives founders more control, but it also means less formal governance as a company grows. Founders who take money from such investors should plan for when and how to add independent board members as they approach Series A and beyond.
The bigger picture
Europe has a growing pool of founders who have built and sold or scaled companies. Their capital and experience are increasingly flowing into new funds, angel syndicates and operator-led firms. Entourage's close is one of the clearest recent examples, and it follows other fund announcements covered here, such as Seaya's Nova growth fund.
Founders interested in Entourage should expect a focus on technical depth in AI, robotics and deep tech, and on teams aiming for international markets from day one.
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