Active Capital Company case study

Investment firm Active Capital Company were looking for more than just a data room for the data management of their portfolio companies. Since their acquisition, the Amsterdam based company have been looking for one clear, structured overview for its documents to maintain a clear insight into each portfolio company. Finally, CFO Henkbert Kruizenga found it with Virtual Vaults. As a result, Active Capital has everything organised and ready for a possible immediate sale with its new structure.

Hands-on private equity
Active Capital currently has ten companies in its portfolio and operates from Amsterdam and Munich with a small team of twenty people. One of whom is Chief Financial Officer Henkbert Kruizenga. “I started working here five years ago; before that, I worked at ING. Active Capital is very much a hands-on private equity firm. Not only do we invest, but we also actively participate in the companies to support their growth. Therefore, we are in close contact with all our portfolio companies. As a result, directors have many questions, most of which we can usually answer off the cuff because we really support the companies ourselves.”

To live up to their reputation and operate with an efficient hands-on approach, Active Capital was looking to standardise its way of working with questionnaire templates. That's when Virtual Vaults came into the picture.

Secure starting point
Kruizenga had previously struggled with collecting data in a secure and structured way during his time at ING: “I was looking for one common environment to share private and sensitive data securely. I no longer wanted to rely on unsafe document sharing via e-mail or in an unprotected Excel file. I always want to be able to view important data and have one single source of truth.”

CFO Henkbert Kruizenga found the solution in Virtual Vaults: “I compared several providers. Which works best and easiest? Then I came across Virtual Vaults. And we don't just use Virtual Vaults for the sale. We use their data room from the moment we purchase a company. So together, we have developed a tailor-made solution which fits our organisation.”

Fast and safe with Virtual Vaults
Active Capital Company no longer has to worry about document security with Virtual Vaults: “The security is robust, including two-factor authentication (2FA), watermarks and tracking. That makes it easy for us to share the Vaults with third parties.” For those third parties, such as accountants and corporate finance advisors, it also works much faster, according to Kruizenga: “It saves them an enormous amount of time in collecting and keeping track of all documents. And a huge benefit is that I have more control over it.”

Better structure, from holding period to sale
Virtual Vaults often play the leading role in the sales process but quickly became an essential part of the purchase phase at Active Capital. Kruizenga explained, “We needed a clear structure for the holding period. Because a good structure is essential in the first 100 days of an investment process, we want to immediately put a company's core in the right place and facilitate that ourselves. All documents must be collected and prepared, so our way of working is clear for everyone involved. For example, information is exchanged between the portfolio company, the investors and the accountant. The holding period is important so that structure begins with Virtual Vaults. Thanks to that structure, the data room is filled with the correct documents, ready to use when we decide to proceed with the sale.”

Workspaces
The Virtual Vaults team took the Active Capital approach as a starting point to develop a new tailor-made tool for private equity firms: 'Workspaces'. A deal preparation tool to organise, collaborate and collect documents in advance so all parties involved can work smarter, faster and more structured. Moreover, all users have secure access to files and financial information, preventing unnecessary communication. Virtual Vaults also makes the holding period a lot easier for Kruizenga and his team with Workspaces: “Workspaces works for us as a kind of to-do list to which we can add tasks; I find that very useful.”

Overview and insight
Kruizenga and his team are happy with the new layout: “We want to be hands-on at Active Capital, and we now are with this structure and workflow. We put everything in Virtual Vaults that we will need for the transaction later. This helps us work safely worldwide and is straightforward to use; I can do the onboarding with our customers myself.” In addition, the dashboard provides Kruizenga and his colleagues with guidance at all times: “We have a better overview with more insight: what happens when someone logs in, how often does someone login, what do they look at, what topic are they asking questions about? At many of our companies, it works really well, and the people are very enthusiastic. They like to work with our fixed structure. And as CFO, I feel I have more control.”