Gimv acquires a minority stake in Projective Group, consisting of Projective, a consulting firm specialising in operational, regulatory and digital change trajectories in financial services; and Exellys, a technology talent incubator that recruits, trains and matches young talent with its customers’ technology needs. The current partners and shareholders of the Projective Group will remain on board and retain the majority of the shares. Projective Group wants to accelerate its European expansion, with a particular focus on buy-and-build. With Gimv, Projective Group brings in a long-term partner with a strong investment capacity.

Financial institutions are constantly changing in response to continuously evolving regulation and technological innovation. To pro-actively respond to these evolutions, they need external partners with the requisite expertise to assist them with the necessary change. One of the top priorities in responding to this change is securing an inflow of scarce young digital talent, with the skills to meet the needs of end customers and to compete with new fintech companies.

With Projective and Exellys (Mechelen, Belgium – www.exellys.com), Projective Group (Brussels, Belgium – projectivegroup.com) is perfectly placed to advise on these challenges. Over the past 15 years, Projective has established its place in the financial services sector for implementing transformation journeys on the interface of business and technology. Projective has more than 150 experienced specialists with strong industry and domain expertise, and a customer-centric approach. With this successful model, Projective has grown steadily in recent years, in its Belgian home market and from offices in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany and France. Exellys in turn helps companies attract and retain highly trained talent in IT and engineering functions across all sectors. With its innovative talent incubator model, Exellys has grown strongly in Belgium since its inception in 2014. In 2020, it opened its first international office in the Netherlands.

The Covid crisis has increased request for support in major (digital) change processes, coupled with an intensive focus on finding and training increasingly scarce new talent needed to maintain growth. Projective Group cannot grow fast enough internally to meet customer demand, so the team is looking for acquisitions to increase its European footprint. It is currently examining takeover candidates in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany and France, with a focus on payment traffic, data, agile and life insurance.

Projective Group has high ambitions. Together with Gimv, it wants to accelerate its international growth and broaden its fields of expertise through a combination of internal growth and buy-and-build. Projective Group has a clear goal: a turnover of 100 million euros by end of 2023 with a Europe-wide team of 800 employees (c.45 million euros and 350 employees today).

Stefan Dierckx, founder and CEO of Projective Group: “Projective Group has reached a level where further international expansion through acquisitions can turbo-charge our group’s growth. With its 40 years of experience, Gimv is the perfect partner to embark on this new adventure. Gimv specializes in supporting companies that demonstrate innovative strength, entrepreneurship and ambitious growth plans. They help build those plans in order to accelerate expansion. And that is exactly what we at Projective Group want to achieve.”

Ruben Monballieu, Partner Sustainable Cities team Gimv adds: “Projective Group is a reference in the realisation of (digital) transformation processes, in a strongly-growing B2B service market. We look forward to working with Stefan Dierckx and his team to accelerate the company’s growth trajectory and actively engage in buy-and-build.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. No further financial details on this transaction are being published.