Timeline:
2020: founding Marktlink Investment Partners (MIP)
2022: founding Welt Ventures
2023: merger of MIP and Welt
2023: continued under the name Marktlink Capital
2023: launching secondaries strategy
2024: €1 bln. AUM exceeded
2025: € 2.5 bln. AUM (now € 2.8 bln), start Belgium
Many a successful entrepreneurial story begins with a gap in the market. Such is the case with Marktlink Capital: where large investors such as pension funds and insurers invest substantially in private equity, private investors were missing out. Indeed, access to private equity funds was difficult. High entry fees, intransparency ... only the big clubs were allowed access to the sector.
But there is a solution: fund-of-funds. Together you are strong - by pooling investments from multiple private investors into a so-called fund-of-funds that invests diversely in a selection of great funds, you collectively gain access to the powerful returns of private equity. Only: this kind of fund-of-funds didn't really exist in the Netherlands yet. Bastiaan van Slobbe worked with Piet Hein Conijn at Rabobank and together they decided to explore this opportunity in the market.
During the orientation phase, they contacted Marktlink, the merger and acquisition advisor that does more than a hundred deals in the SME segment every year. Hundreds of deals also means hundreds of entrepreneurs who had to look for investment opportunities after the transaction. The synergy was clear: Marktlink had the network among entrepreneurial investors, Bastiaan and Piet Hein knew the funds. Under the name Marktlink Investment Partners, the first fund-of-funds launched in 2020.
Soon the third musketeer was found: Hylke Hertoghs was working in London at Rede Partners, a consultancy that guides private equity funds in finding investors, especially among institutional investors. With his extensive experience in assessing and selecting funds, he quickly became an indispensable member of the team.
V C
While the gentlemen at Marktlink Investment Partners were busy with private equity, elsewhere in Amsterdam things were brewing in the venture capital field. Bouke Marsman and Jaap Vriesendorp were partners in the successful venture practice of consulting firm McKinsey. They too saw a clear gap in the market - albeit on a different plane than private equity - namely, that in Europe the gap between talent and funding is still too large. Due to a lack of growth capital, promising startups are dying or leaving abroad.
Moreover, in the vast amount of data available to McKinsey, they saw two clear trends in the venture landscape: venture capital, due to the possibility of outsized returns, is indispensable in a strong investment portfolio; and that performance in venture capital is "sticky," which broadly means that the funds that have done good deals before also attract the best companies over time, making it pay to select the top funds.
In 2022, Welt Ventures came into the world: a fund-of-funds for investors who don't want to miss out on the latest technological developments and want to boost the growth of (European) tech. After a successful, oversubscribed first fund, it became clear that many investors like to combine private equity with venture capital - and so how logical is the synergy of combining the strengths of two strong teams?
In 2023, Welt and Marktlink Investment Partners continued together as Marktlink Capital. By including more feeder funds, a larger PE fund and a comprehensive secondaries fund, the product range was further expanded.
The momentum of 2024
In 2024, the momentum really kicked in. In January of that year, the magic limit of €1 billion was breached. The team also grew significantly. There was an in-house fund administration, a marketing team, a larger KYC team and more driven relationship managers to serve the growing number of clients. COO Michiel Povel made the move to the partner group.
In a striking case of the Droste effect, the scale-up acceleration we as investors are always looking for was experienced firsthand. The counter kept running: at the end of the year, the €2 billion mark was in sight.
2025: new markets and innovations
And 2025? The year is not yet over, but things are certainly moving fast. In mid-July it was announced that another half a billion has been raised. In September, the first Belgian employee joined the team to explore that market as well. Marktlink Capital also invested in Platform Eleven, the company that builds our fund portal.
And the future?
What's in the pipeline for Marktlink Capital? First of all, the existing fund offering will continue: a new private equity flagship fund every year and a venture capital fund every year. Feeder funds for individual funds are also increasing. In addition, new strategies are becoming available.
Recently, the co-investment fund was opened for single subscriptions, so that investors can also participate directly in that strategy, and a start was made on offering a private credit fund. The market is constantly changing and innovating within a broader economic context. We follow these developments closely and constantly look for relevant trends in product development to add to our offering - as we did previously when GP-led and LP-led secondaries offered interesting market opportunities.
By deepening our offerings, we are expanding in breadth, while at the same time investing in the depth of our team. With the arrival of Vincent Germyns as a partner in Belgium, we are taking the first step abroad. Domestically, the team has also recently expanded with several relationship managers, so that we have an ever finer network to best serve our investor community throughout the country.
And then there is all the invisible but important work on the back end: by doing the fund administration in-house, we are taking an important step in service quality. We are also deepening and broadening the investment team to take the investment process to an even higher level. With the investment in Eleven and the development of ever better online tooling, the investment process is constantly being improved.
Investor Community
Perhaps Marktlink Capital's greatest success is its growing Investor Community - the large and close-knit network of investors we have built over the past five years.
During that time we came together for knowledge sessions, sporting and cultural events and the annual Investor Day. From the Alpine Rally to the PAN art fair , what stands out again and again is the casual friendliness among the members of this diverse community. From twenty-somethings to eighty-somethings, from people from the province of Ghent to Amsterdam natives, artists and family businesses that have been around for generations - everything comes together in the community.
Is there no common thread? Sure there is: 90% of our investors are entrepreneurs or have been entrepreneurs. No wonder they like to invest in companies they understand well - strong SME brands through private equity or ambitious startups through venture capital. This is also reflected in the slogans on our marketing materials over the years: invest in what you know, invest in entrepreneurship.
Investor Community meetings are also a valuable opportunity to meet fellow entrepreneurs - like-minded people who understand the opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurship and are working on the same questions around investing.
This article has already appeared in the December 2025 Marktlink Magazine.
