Sortlist investment from SRIW, The ClubDeal & Business Angels

The platform connecting companies and marketing, web & creative agencies raises 11 millions euros

Growth capital 2021, October

Enterprise software

“We raised five times more than in the last round. We even had to refuse new investors to keep us from becoming dispersed. The important thing is making sure that investors correspond to our values and share our vision. This is not just a purely financial aspect.”

Thibaut Vanderhofstadt, CEO of Sortlist

Sortlist, the platform connecting companies and marketing, web & creative agencies, has once again attracted investors and is announcing a new fund-raising round of €11 million. The fundraising will serve to reinforce the company’s leadership position in Europe, support its launch in the UK, and recruit some 100 people.

Two years after a fundraising of 2 million euros and just one year after acquiring its German rival AgenturMatching, Sortlist, the Belgian scale-up is pursuing its expansion. The company aims to move into the UK market initially, followed by the US market in 2022.

Having originally intended to raise 7 million euros, the scale-up is proud to announce that it has raised some 11 million euros. This is the third fund-raising round for Sortlist, which is already present in Belgium, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. Since 2014, the scale-up has increased its headcount from four, i.e. the four co-founders, who remain at the company, to over 100 employees working around the world.

Thirty-seven positions are currently open, the aim being to step up the development of Sortlist. The company plans to double its current headcount to over 200 people in two to three years’ time. The funds raised will be used primarily to boost Sortlist’s presence in existing markets. Hiring new people will reinforce existing teams, substantially increase the size of the product teams and move into new UK and US markets.

With digital expertise in constant evolution, Sortlist provides a simple solution for all sizes of companies looking for experts. On the platform, companies can easily identify the right expertise for their needs and be put in contact with a trusted supplier (backed by customer opinions). Using an algorithm created by Sortlist, as well as human support, companies and agencies are put in contact in just a few clicks and free of charge. Sortlist’s vision is to continue reinventing the ecosystem to boost agencies’ visibility with major firms and enable a fully objective choice of partner. The scale-up aims to become a facilitator of dialogue and an Amazon in B2B, a marketplace that helps companies to save time and agencies to improve their visibility.