“From a week of work to less than one day, that’s the difference”

M80 Partners is a small-cap private equity fund based in Brussels, Belgium. With a focus on founder-owned, entrepreneurial, and family-run companies across Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France, M80 looks for businesses rich in intellectual property—be it software, sector-specific know-how, or proprietary processes.

The team blends financial expertise with deep operational experience, setting them apart in the industry. Since its first fund in 2018, M80 has built a portfolio of high-potential companies and launched its second €170 million fund in early 2024.

One of the voices behind M80’s evolution into a more data-driven investor is Bart Van Hoe, an investment manager at the firm. With a front-row view of deal sourcing and execution, Bart shared how openthebox became an essential part of their workflow.

The Challenge: Doing More with Less Time

As M80 scaled, they faced a dual challenge: time constraints and data overload.

Every week, the team evaluates 4 to 8 potential investment opportunities. Many come through traditional channels—advisors, corporate finance consultants, and auction-based deals. These tend to be polished and data-rich, but still require validation. Others come from proprietary sourcing—where M80 actively researches and builds relationships with promising SMEs well before they go to market.

It’s this proprietary pipeline that’s especially challenging. To find hidden gems, M80 needed:

• Access to comprehensive, up-to-date company data
• The ability to analyze entire sectors to identify patterns and opportunities
• A way to move fast, turning raw data into actionable insights before the competition

Previously, collecting and structuring financial data meant days of manual work: interns copying figures from the Belgian National Bank, analysts inputting numbers into Excel, and delayed internal discussions due to lack of visualized trends.

Openthebox as a Dual Engine

M80 adopted openthebox as a key tool in their sourcing and analysis workflow. According to Bart, the platform brings value in two main areas:

1. Company-Level Analysis

When M80 identifies a specific company—through inbound deal flow or proactive outreach—they use openthebox to instantly access:

• Historical financials (10–15 years of EBITDA, cash flow, revenue)
• Shareholder and director information
• Differences between reported and published figures
• Alerts for new filings, changes in ownership or leadership

They integrate the data directly into a custom-built LBO model, generating visuals and summaries in minutes. This transformed their internal “deal pack” process—used for weekly team meetings—by allowing faster and clearer decision-making.

2. Sector-Level Research

For proprietary deal flow, M80 often conducts deep dives into entire industries. These studies require identifying all relevant companies, analyzing macro trends, growth rates, and market concentration.

Openthebox allows them to:

• Filter companies by keywords (e.g., "dentists", "property managers")
• Import lists of VAT numbers to analyze cohorts at once
• Track market movement over time, like average EBITDA margins or regional distribution
• Create custom company segments for ongoing monitoring

In one standout example, M80 mapped out over 100 public affairs firms in Brussels, analyzing their 10-year financial history to support an investment in a lobbying agency—a task that used to take a week, now done in less than a day.

The Results: From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs

The key results from implementing openthebox were clear:

• • Time Savings
  • Deal analysis reduced by 80% - going from days to hours
  • Automated data processing and visualization
  • 100+ lobbying firms analyzed efficiently
• • Daily Operations
  • 4-8 deal evaluations processed weekly
  • Real-time tracking of target companies
  • Custom segments and notifications system
• • Strategic Benefits
  • Time reallocated to high-value activities
  • Enhanced trend interpretation
  • More productive team meetings
  • Better investment decisions through real-time visual insights

Overall, M80 Partners has seen a remarkable ROI of 3800%, demonstrating the substantial value and efficiency gains achieved through their strategic implementation of data-driven processes and automated analysis capabilities

Lessons & Outlook: People First, Powered by Data

For M80, openthebox hasn’t replaced expertise—it’s amplified it. It allows the team to act on instinct faster, validate hypotheses with real numbers, and bring sharper insights into every founder conversation.

“Data won’t make the deal. But it helps you get to the meeting quicker—and walk in smarter.” – Bart, M80 Partners

Their advice to other funds? Use data to your advantage, but know where it ends. Let it inform your intuition, help you spot trends early, and free up time for what really matters: building trust, seeing value, and moving fast.

And with openthebox now embedded in their daily workflow, M80 is well-positioned to keep doing just that.

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