Karmijn Kapitaal announces the first close of its first private equity fund. Over 30 investors have invested in the fund. Karmijn's focus on companies with a balanced management team of men and women is new and unique in Europe.

"The rationale of this focus is the fact that mixed managed companies show a better performance and reach higher financial results. These conclusions are shown by extensive research by McKinsey, Catalyst and others" explains Hadewych Cels, one of the three women founders of Karmijn.

The Next Women reported earlier on Karmijn Kapitaal, while one of the founders participated in their Pitch Events.

These are the requirements for companies to be able to do a deal with Karmijn:

• The fund will invest in small cap management buyouts and growth finance.
• The companies have to show an extensive track record and turnovers between 5 and 50 mln euro.
• The companies have to be headed by a mixed team of men and women.

"Different people have different views, management styles and priorities," says Cels. "These different styles lead to more balanced decision making. Additionally, the fact that our founders are women, gives us easy access to the women in the management teams, leading to proprietary dealflow."

Over 100 companies have already contacted Karmijn, the first investment to be announced mid March.

The current investor base consists of family offices and high net worth individuals. In addition the European Investment Fund (EIF) has signed up to the fund as anchor investor, participating in the second close, expected Spring 2012. The EIF contributes 33% of the total fund. Target size of the fund is EUR 50 mln.

The Karmijn founding team, next to Cels consisting of Cilian Jansen Verplanke and Désirée van Boxtel, are seasoned private equity professionals and entrepreneurs, with over 20 year of financial and investments experience, a.o. with ABN AMRO and Rabobank and private equity boutiques.

Cilian Jansen Verplanke, one of the co-founders and also European Board member of Astia, the venture accelerator for women-led companies:

"To our investors both our experienced team and our innovative vision and methods are attracting, they actually call it Private Equity 2.0".