The Belgian IT company announces a strategic partnership with Apheon, a Belgium-based investment firm specializing in international expansion, to accelerate its growth while preserving its unique culture, its participatory ownership model, and its management team. This marks a new milestone in the company's development.
Easi today announces the arrival of Apheon as its new investment partner. Following a rigorous and deliberate selection process, Easi's leadership chose Apheon because of the shared vision between both organizations, their proven expertise in international growth, and their commitment to preserving what makes Easi unique.
This partnership represents a major milestone in Easi's journey. It reinforces the company's ambition to expand beyond its current markets, while fully maintaining its culture, its ownership model, and the autonomy of its teams.
A partnership built on values, not just strategy
From the outset of the process, Easi had established clear, non-negotiable criteria for any potential partner: cultural alignment, respect for its ownership model, and trust in the management team's ability to run the business. Apheon met every one of them.
Salvatore Curaba, Founder of Easi, comments: “Building Easi from a single idea in 1999 into the company it is today, alongside so many talented colleagues, has been the journey of a lifetime. The employee shareholder model we created is the heart of this company, and it was essential to me that any partner would cherish and maintain it. I have great confidence in Jean-François, Thomas, the team, and in Apheon as a partner who shares our values, to take Easi to the next level. I look forward to continuing to support the Company as it embarks on this new and exciting chapter.”
"What convinced us about Apheon is straightforward: they came to us for who we are. From our very first conversations, they demonstrated a genuine understanding of our ownership model and clearly expressed their willingness to preserve it. Our way of doing business is an asset in their eyes. That is fundamental to us."
— Thomas Van Eeckhout, co-CEO of Easi
Continuity at the heart of the partnership
For Easi's leadership, the impact on clients was a central concern throughout the entire process. The message is clear: nothing changes for the companies and organizations that trust Easi on a daily basis.
"Our clients chose Easi for the people behind it. A new partner does not disrupt that balance. If anything, it gives us greater capacity to support them even better, and to reach clients we have not yet been able to serve. Continuity for our clients is not a promise we are making today; it has been our way of working since day one."
— Jean-François Herremans, co-CEO of Easi
The same teams, the same expertise, and the same commitment to delivering high-quality IT solutions remain fully in place. Easi's management team will continue to lead the business with the autonomy it has always had.
The next chapter of a remarkable journey
Founded in 1999, Easi has established itself as one of Belgium's most respected IT companies, recognized for its technical excellence, its unique ownership culture, and its unwavering commitment to the long-term success of its clients and employees. This partnership opens a new chapter in that journey.
"We have never been more excited about what lies ahead. We have built something truly unique here: a culture, a model, a team. We now have the right partner to go further than we could ever have achieved alone. The future of Easi is ours to write, together."
— Thomas Van Eeckhout and Jean-François Herremans, co-CEOs of Easi
Drawing on Apheon’s international expertise and Easi's proven model, both partners now intend to jointly realize Easi's development ambitions beyond Belgium's borders, expanding into new regions while remaining true to the principles that have guided their success for over 25 years.
Pieter Lambrecht, Partner, and Herbert Vanden Eynde, Managing Director at Apheon, elaborate: “Easi is a truly exceptional company: a profitable, fast-growing software and managed IT services platform, a category-defining employee ownership culture, and a broad leadership team that has realized unparallelled growth for more than two decades. We have enormous respect for Salvatore, Jean-François, Thomas and the entire Easi community, and we are proud to have been chosen as their first institutional partner. Our ambition is to support them in writing the next chapter, preserving the culture and the model that built Easi, while bringing our pan-European footprint and buy-and-build experience to accelerate the company’s expansion.”
A process supported by Kumulus Partners
To carry out this strategic initiative, Easi enlisted the expertise of Kumulus Partners, an independent corporate finance firm based in Belgium. Specializing in M&A transactions and the advisory support of companies and management teams at their most decisive moments, Kumulus played a central role in structuring the process, identifying candidates, and conducting negotiations through to signing.
About Apheon
Apheon is a pan-European mid-market private equity investment company managing ~€4.5 billion of assets from select global institutional investors and families. Apheon is characterized by its partnership approach, providing “patient and friendly capital” and industrial know-how to entrepreneurs and management teams, preparing their companies for the future. Through its pan-European footprint, the firm acts as a gateway into Europe for companies in the mid-market. Since its founding in 2005, Apheon has raised ~€5.0 billion in capital, invested in more than 40 companies across Europe and completed more than 200 add-on acquisitions for a total aggregate transaction value of more than €7 billion. Apheon’s current portfolio consists of 23 companies across its target sectors, representing ~€3.5 billion sales and more than 20,000 employees. Apheon is advised by Apheon Advisors, which has offices in Brussels, Paris, Munich, Milan, Madrid and Amsterdam.
For more information, please visit www.apheon.com.
About Kumulus Partners
Kumulus Partners is an independent corporate finance boutique that supports companies and their shareholders at the most decisive moments of their corporate existence: growth capital raising, transformative acquisitions, business transfers, or sales to strategic or financial investors. Kumulus offers its clients an impartial and entrepreneurial approach, with interests always fully aligned with those of its clients. The firm was founded by four experienced investment banking professionals with an extensive track record in M&A, financial advisory, and capital markets transactions.
For more information, please visit www.kumuluspartners.com.
About Easi
Easi is a company specialized in IT services and solutions. It stands out in particular for developing its own business software solutions designed to meet the needs of mid-sized and large organisations. Beyond delivering IT solutions, Easi positions itself as a high-value strategic partner, fostering long-term relationships with its clients. Its approach is built on proximity, trust and operational excellence. Today, Easi employs 682 people. The company places strong emphasis on employee well-being, convinced that client satisfaction starts with the fulfilment and engagement of those who support them every day.
For more information, please visit www.easi.net.