Laurens Boriale
Investment Manager
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- Full Name
- Laurens Boriale, CFA
- Title
- Principal, Consumer investment platform
- Firm
- Gimv (Euronext Brussels: GIMB) — he was previously at BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity
- Firm Type
- Listed European private equity / growth-capital investor (not an angel fund, despite the stub label)
- Investment Stage
- Growth capital and majority buyouts (not seed/angel, as the stub suggested)
- Check Size
- Firm-level Gimv equity tickets typically run from the low millions to tens of millions of euros; no personal angel check size is documented
- Target Company Profile
- Established, growing consumer businesses with international scale-up potential and clear market differentiation
- Sector Focus
- Consumer — food & beverage, food tech / SaaS for food safety, consumer brands
- Geographic Focus
- Benelux and broader Europe
- Location
- Antwerp / Belgium
Background
Laurens Boriale is an investment professional at Gimv, the Antwerp-based, Euronext-listed European private equity and growth-capital firm. He joined Gimv in January 2023 as an associate on the Consumer team and has since been promoted to Principal on Gimv's Consumer investment platform. In that role he sources and executes deals in consumer-facing businesses and works on portfolio companies alongside Consumer platform lead David De Peuter (referred to in Gimv releases as partner).
Before Gimv, Boriale spent roughly eight years at BNP Paribas Fortis. He first joined as a management trainee, rotating through internships in leveraged finance, corporate acquisition finance, and corporate coverage, and then moved into BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity around 2014 as an investment analyst. During his time on the direct-investments/private-equity team he acted as a board observer at portfolio companies including Suitsupply and Antilope, building experience in deal-making and portfolio management. This is the origin of the "Investment Manager / BNP Paribas Fortis" details in the stub — that information is now out of date.
Academically, Boriale holds a Master's in Business Economics from KU Leuven (University of Leuven) and a Master's in Financial Management from Vlerick Business School, and he is a CFA charterholder.
Note on the stub: the "Angel Investors / Seed Round / Investment Manager" framing does not match his current work. Boriale is an institutional growth-equity investor at Gimv, focused on established consumer companies rather than seed-stage angel deals.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Invests through Gimv's Consumer platform in "leading consumer businesses with strong growth potential to scale internationally and further enhance their market differentiation" (his own stated framing in the Spice Factory announcement).
- Backs established, growing companies — majority stakes and growth equity — rather than pre-revenue startups.
- Strong tilt toward food & beverage and food-adjacent technology: private-label/foodservice manufacturing and SaaS platforms serving the food industry.
- Emphasis on partnering with entrepreneurs — in the Quality Guard deal he described Gimv as "excited to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs" and stressed helping companies operate with "confidence, efficiency and peace of mind."
- Benelux-rooted, Europe-facing: targets Benelux market leaders with a runway to expand across Europe.
Notable Investments
- The Spice Factory (TSF) — Gimv acquired a majority stake (from Gilde Equity Management and founder Davy De Muyer) in the Benelux market leader in private-label dried culinary herbs & spices; announced 20 February 2025, expected to close before end of March 2025. Boriale is quoted in the announcement as Principal on the deal.
- Quality Guard — Minority investment (announced 5 November 2025) in a fast-growing Belgian food-tech company whose SaaS platform digitalizes HACCP, food-safety and allergen management for 5,000+ customers across Belgium, the Netherlands and France; Boriale co-signed the announcement.
- Suitsupply (BNP Paribas Fortis PE era) — served as board observer during his private-equity role at BNP Paribas Fortis.
- Antilope (BNP Paribas Fortis PE era) — board-observer role during his BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity tenure.
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