Showpad co-founder launches Entourage, a venture studio and $30M early stage VC fund

Entourage, a new operation launched by Showpad co-founder Pieterjan Bouten has confirmed the raised of over $30 million for its early stage VC fund.

The investment, provided by a list of successful software engineers, will go towards building new companies in “Entourage Studio” as well as backing, SaaS founders through its early-stage VC fund “Entourage Capital”. 

Issuing seed to Series A tickets, Entourage is aiming to build and fund B2B SaaS businesses that focus on products and services that drive growth and transformation. According to the firm, European VC is dominated by investors who often lack firsthand experience in building a company from zero to one and beyond and that it will be operated exclusively by veteran entrepreneurs.

A great number of European VCs might beg to differ.

Bouten shared:

“We aspire to be the builders and investors we dreamed of having by our side while building and scaling our companies.

“Our mission is to bolster the next generation of European SaaS founders to become even more successful than the previous by helping them make better decisions and shortening the timeline to achieve the next important milestone.” 

Backing Entourage is a list of B2B SaaS founders including Jason Lemkin (Saastr), Louis Jonckheere & Peter Minne (Showpad), Stijn Christiaans (Collibra), Jan Hollez and Zhong XU (Deliverect), Joris Van Der Gucht & Tim Vandecasteele (Silverfin), Matthias Geeroms (Lighthouse), Ewout Meyns & Mattias Putman (Piesync acq. by Hubspot), Gregory Blondau (Proxyclick acq. by Toma Bravo), Jeremy Le van (Sunrise acq. by Microsoft), Jeroen De Wit (Teamleader), Michiel Bearelle (Officient acq. by Exact), and Piet Maes (Sofico). 

Entourage Capital has already begun deploying funds, investing in cybersecurity firm Aikido, legaltech Henchman and access control & contractor management startup NineID.

Bouten concludes:

“Europe is in an exciting phase for early-stage investing. There are a ton of successful European SaaS entrepreneurs who built major companies and are now ready to pay it forward to the next generation of founders - who will become even more successful than the previous one. That’s our vision for Entourage.”