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W.IN.G
W.IN.G: José Zurstrassen's €80M Walloon digital PE firm running a public-private mandate across industrial tech, AI, and enterprise software.
W.IN.G
W.IN.G was founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur José Zurstrassen, known for co-founding Skynet, Belgium's first major internet service provider. The firm operates as a public-private hybrid — capitalized by Walloon investment vehicles SRIW, Sambrinvest, and Noshaq alongside private investors — to anchor technology investment in the region. The firm makes direct equity investments of €500,000 to €2 million in seed-stage and early-stage digital companies headquartered in Wallonia and, selectively, Brussels. Its portfolio spans enterprise software, AI/ML, industrial tech, and fintech, reflecting the local economy's pivot from heavy industry toward advanced digital services. Known holdings include intelligent document processing platform Acodis and cybersecurity compliance tool Cranium. W.IN.G's team size is deliberately lean, operating out of Liège with no disclosed additional offices. Total assets under management reached €80 million by 2020 (per L'Echo, 2020). The firm's most recent fundraising vehicle, W.IN.G III, remains operationally active, continuing to deploy capital into Walloon digital startups. W.IN.G's mandate is structurally unusual: it functions as a regional co-investment engine rather than a purely return-maximizing private equity firm. Its investment decisions are explicitly tied to job creation and economic development within Wallonia, making it a hybrid between venture capital and sovereign regional development finance.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
2015
AUM
€80 million (per L'Echo, 2020)
Location
Region
Europe
Country
Belgium
City
Liege
Corporate office
Liege, Belgium
Principals
José Zurstrassen
Chairman
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How is W.IN.G capitalized, and who are its anchor investors?
W.IN.G is a public-private hybrid capitalized by three Walloon institutional investors — SRIW, Sambrinvest, and Noshaq — alongside a group of private investors. This structure ties the firm's mandate explicitly to regional economic development goals while maintaining private-sector investment discipline. The first close in 2015 raised €22.5 million.
What investment stages does W.IN.G target?
W.IN.G exclusively targets seed and early-stage digital companies. Its typical initial check ranges from €500,000 to €2 million, positioning it as a bridge between business angels and later-stage Series A/B funds that are generally scarce in French-speaking Belgium.
What is W.IN.G's geographic mandate?
The firm's geographic mandate is tightly constrained to Wallonia, the French-speaking southern region of Belgium. It selectively considers Brussels-based companies when there is a strong Walloon nexus, but it does not invest in Flanders or outside Belgium as part of its core strategy.
How does W.IN.G source deal flow?
W.IN.G sources heavily from the Walloon regional ecosystem, leveraging its relationships with university spin-outs, local incubators, and the network of its three institutional backers. Its chairman, José Zurstrassen, also draws on a career-long network in Belgian technology circles dating back to the founding of Skynet in the 1990s.
Does W.IN.G lead rounds or co-invest?
W.IN.G can lead seed rounds but frequently co-invests alongside other regional funds and business angels to syndicate risk and bring sector-specific expertise into its deals. Its hybrid mandate encourages collaboration rather than competitive term sheets, and it will only invest if at least one private co-investor participates.
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