Karmijn Kapitaal appoints Brigitte van der Maarel as Managing Partner
Karmijn Kapitaal, the first Dutch private equity fund focusing on diversity and inclusion, announced Brigitte van der Maarel as Managing Partner as of October 1. Van der Maarel will lead Karmijn Kapitaal as Managing Partner in its new phase of growth and investments.
Van der Maarel has over 25 years of experience in Private Equity, Leveraged Finance and M&A and held various roles for ABN AMRO, ING, INKEF Capital and Convent Capital, among others. Since 2017, she has been Co-Head Investment Partners at NIBC. In addition, Brigitte holds several supervisory board positions. She is well acquainted with Karmijn Kapitaal, where she has been a member of the Investment Committee since 2017.
Third fund
With Van der Maarel's appointment, Karmijn Kapitaal is preparing for a new phase of growth and investment. Recently, Karmijn announced the first closing of its third fund. With this third fund, which will have a maximum size of €120 million, Karmijn is building on the unique investment strategy of its first two funds. Those first two funds were worth €135 mln and are fully invested in several successful Dutch SME companies, including Gielissen, the Haarlem-based Jopenbier and healthcare supplier JOYinCARE.
Commitment to sustainability and diversity in addition to financial results
Its commitment to sustainability and diversity characterizes Karmijn Kapitaal. In doing so, it seeks the balance between hard and soft values within Dutch SME companies: personal relationships - both internal and external - diversity and inclusion, creativity and continuity, in addition to the starting point of a positive return.
Recently Karmijn Kapitaal also appointed Freerk Smit and Niels Molewijk as partners. With that, the investment fund's partner team also reflects its key drivers. Like the newly appointed Van der Maarel, who is also a member of the Dutch Level20 Commission, the founders of Karmijn - Cilian Jansen Verplanke, Hadewych Cels and Désirée van Boxtel - are also actively committed to inclusivity and diversity outside of Karmijn Kapitaal.
Brigitte van der Maarel, Managing Partner Karmijn Kapitaal: "I am proud and happy to join the Karmijn Kapitaal team as Managing Partner. For me, this brings together the experience of over 25 years on the finance and investment side and the experience from a variety of supervisory and investment committee positions in a beautiful way. Entrepreneurial, with a strong and intrinsically very driven team and with an eye for the importance of creating and maintaining the right culture, putting the supporting organizational structures in place and executing a strategy focused on sustainability and diversity, and of course on financial results."
Désirée van Boxtel, co-founder of Karmijn Kapitaal: "With the arrival of Brigitte, we are getting ready for a new phase of Karmijn, in which we have grown into a mature investment fund with a track record that not only stands for financial results but also breathes our way of working: we actively collaborate with partners by turning softer values like employee satisfaction, creativity and personal relationships into results."