Vendis Capital Management

Managing partners Cédric Olbrechts and Vincent Braams lead the investment committee and day-to-day operations. Both co-founded the firm in 2009 after careers at established European private equity houses — Olbrechts at Gilde and Braams at 3i. They maintain direct involvement in deal origination, negotiation, and portfolio company board roles.

No. Vendis has maintained an exclusively consumer mandate since founding in 2009. The firm targets branded goods, specialty retail, and consumer services across food and beverage, personal care, home goods, and adjacent categories where brand equity drives pricing power and customer loyalty. The firm explicitly avoids technology, healthcare, industrials, and financial services.

Vendis typically writes equity checks between EUR 10 million and EUR 40 million per deal. It targets majority or significant minority positions in profitable companies generating EUR 5 million to EUR 50 million in annual revenue. The firm does growth capital, buyout, and buy-and-build transactions but does not participate in seed or early-stage venture rounds.

The firm relies heavily on a centralized origination function and deep sector networks cultivated over 15 years of exclusive consumer investing across the Benelux, France, and DACH regions. Management partners maintain direct relationships with brand founders, family-owned consumer companies, and sector-specialist intermediaries. Vendis also conducts proactive thematic sourcing within sub-verticals such as organic food, personal care, and sleep-health before targets formally come to market.

Vendis operates as an institutional private equity firm raising blind-pool commingled funds from third-party limited partners. Its investor base includes pension funds, funds of funds, and institutional allocators, predominantly European. It is not a single-family office, multi-family office, or permanent-capital vehicle.

Vendis typically leads or acts as sole institutional sponsor in its transactions rather than co-investing passively alongside other GPs. The firm does occasionally invite limited partners to co-invest directly into deals on a no-fee, no-carry basis, but this is managed selectively and disclosed within fund documentation.

Vendis invests primarily across the Benelux, France, and DACH regions, with a secondary focus on the United Kingdom and Southern Europe. The firm maintains offices in Brussels, Paris, and Amsterdam. Portfolio companies are typically headquartered in one of those core geographies, with investment activity weighted toward Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.