Founded in 2002 and closed earlier this year, BI³ Fund invested in 8 spin-offs of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. One of them was Collibra, the first Belgian unicorn. Purpose was to invest in an early stage when other investors were not interested to take the risk. Looking back this was the right strategy.
The company Brussels I³ Fund NV, BI³ Fund for short, was established in 2002 as a risk capital fund with financial contributions from Brustart (a department of finance.brussels), KBC Bank, BNP Fortis Private Equity Belgium, Ethias and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
“BI3 Fund has been a great partner throughout our growth. As the very first investor in Collibra, they believed in our founding team and our vision before anyone else did. That takes courage. They have always been supportive, when things were good and when things were difficult. It's been a great pleasure working with the whole BI3 team as we've scaled Collibra from an idea to a successful, high-growth software company.”
Felix Van de Maele , CEO and co-founder of Collibra, VUB spin-off in data governance - founded in 2008 - first Belgian unicorn.
