The holding company founded by former CNP employees, which took a stake in the capital in 2016, is strengthening its position in EMAsphere, a publisher of decision support tools for small and large companies.
Whitestone Group, which made its debut on Euronext Brussels last September, has just acquired a larger stake in EMAsphere, a new company in the field of business intelligence, it announced after the market.
The holding company, which was founded by former CNP employees, has held 1.48% of the company’s shares since 2016. From now on, its stake will be increased to some 9.89% following the injection of €2.3 million in fresh capital into the publisher of decision support tools for small and large companies, which are popular with economic players such as Standard de Liège, Kazidomi, Silversquare and Dandoy. The transaction is part of a total of €5.7 million raised, mainly from existing shareholders in addition to Whitestone.
This investment is fully in line with the strategy confirmed during the recent private placement (which saw some of the top names in the Belgian entrepreneurial scene come on board, editor’s note), which aims in particular to actively support the development of portfolio companies,” says Frédéric Pouchain, CEO of Whitestone Group.
At the same time, Philippe Masset, chairman of the holding company and CEO of Degroof Petercam for six years, also mentioned one or two future acquisitions of companies, as well as an additional investment “during January 2022”.
Focus on France
EMAsphere currently has 10,000 user companies.
Founded in 2015, EMAsphere initially focused on the Belgian market from its offices in Louvain-la-Neuve and Ghent. It was only after raising funds in 2018 – followed by a second in 2020 – that the Walloon scale-up launched in France with a team of 10 people based in Paris. Today, some 60 employees have joined the adventure to serve its 10,000 user companies.
Among its shareholders are Sambrinvest, as well as business angels Antoine Duchateau (Bsit, Cartoonbase, ClearSpace, Shippr, Spentys, Urbantz, etc.), Michel Delloye (once the boss of GBL) and Olivier Coune (Pierre Marcolini, Kazidomi, Shippr, Freshr, etc.), to name just a few.
14 January 2022
