Pieterjan Bouten’s Entourage closes €100 million second fund after surpassing €75 million target in two weeks
Entourage, the London-based early-stage VC firm founded by Showpad co-founder and former CEO Pieterjan Bouten, today announced the close of its €100 million second fund, just over two years after launching its first fund in 2024.
Entourage Fund II has been backed entirely by entrepreneurs, family offices and private investors, including founders behind Aikido, TechWolf and Collibra. It has surpassed its original €75 million target in just 2 weeks and has secured over €100 million in commitments before being capped at €100 million.
“When we launched Entourage two years ago, we had a simple ambition: to back the next generation of legendary founders. We wrote the first cheques into companies like Aikido, Conveo and Lexroom. What these founders have achieved in such a short time has only strengthened our conviction in our founder-first approach. With Fund II, we’re doubling down,” said Pieterjan (PJ) Bouten, Founder and General Partner of Entourage.
Founded in 2024 by Bouten, Entourage claims to bring a founder’s mindset and an operator’s experience to venture capital. It backs “exceptional founders” at the pre-Seed and Seed stages and invests across sectors, including AI, enterprise software, robotics, and DeepTech.
Bouten co-founded and scaled Showpad into a global software company generating more than €89.84 million ($100 million) in annual recurring revenue. He then became an active angel investor before launching Entourage.
In this episode of The EU-Startups Podcast, Bouten reflects on his journey from co-founding In the Pocket and scaling Showpad to now building and funding the next generation of B2B SaaS companies through Entourage Studio and Entourage Capital.
According to him, this experience helped forge Entourage’s approach: build conviction, invest early and keep founders firmly in the driver’s seat.
The firm states that it extends its founder-first philosophy to governance as well, and therefore rarely takes board seats despite leading or co-leading most of its investment rounds.
Bouten said, “Most VCs destroy value in early-stage boardrooms. Too few have built a company at scale. After more than a decade as a founder and CEO, and investments in over 60 companies, I’ve seen investors slow founders down with misplaced advice and operational interference. Great founders don’t need babysitting. They need trust, challenge when it counts and perspective at pivotal moments. That’s why we rarely take board seats, even when we lead a round.”
He also highlighted that the firm’s investor base reflects that philosophy. “Many of our investors have built companies themselves. They know what it takes. That creates a powerful alignment between the people funding Entourage and the founders we back,” he added.
Since launching in 2024, Entourage reported that it has backed some of Europe’s fastest-growing technology companies, including Aikido Security, which reached unicorn status earlier this year; Conveo, which recently raised a €44.92 million ($50 million) Series A; and Lexroom, which reached €30 million in annual recurring revenue in just 24 months.
“Entourage was among the first investors in all three, backing their founders before major international venture capital firms arrived – often before a product launch or the first euro of Revenue,” the firm mentioned in the press release.
Fund II will back around 25 companies at the pre-Seed and Seed stages across Europe and beyond, with initial cheques of €1 million to €5 million and “ample” capacity for follow-on investments.
Entourage states that it seeks “driven, ambitious founders building their life’s work.” It argues that while the first fund focused primarily on software, Fund II will broaden its focus to include AI and enterprise software, robotics, physical AI, and DeepTech.
The London-based VC firm also builds companies through Entourage Studio, its venture-building arm. Alongside Fund II, Entourage has expanded its investment team around partners Pieterjan Bouten, Evert Beeckman and Maarten Mortier. It has added three investors—Erwan Gardelle, Sixtine Riescher, and Illja Schiller—opened a London office and established a presence in Paris.
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