Gimv partners with Quality Guard to establish a leading software platform for food safety compliance across Europe

Press release

Gimv partners with Quality Guard to establish a leading software platform for food safety compliance across Europe

Gimv is pleased to announce a minority investment in Quality Guard, a fast-growing Belgian food tech company that is redefining how businesses in foodservice and food retail manage food safety and compliance. 

With more than 5,000 customers in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, Quality Guard (www.qualityguard.com) offers a leading SaaS platform that fully digitalizes and automates the management of HACCP, food safety, and allergens. The platform supports a wide range of customers — from artisanal fresh food shops to large-scale kitchens — in complying with increasingly stringent regulations and helps to significantly reduce the administrative burden imposed by national food safety authorities.

Quality Guard, founded and led by Wim and Achile Van Gierdegom, has a unique database of validated nutritional and allergen data for raw materials. It integrates with IoTenabled hardware and offers full-service compliance support, giving foodservice and food retail professionals confidence that regulatory requirements are handled reliably, efficiently and without distraction from their core business.

With Gimv’s support, Quality Guard is set to accelerate its growth. The team will strengthen its commercial operations to drive broader adoption of digital compliance tools, expand in key regions, enhance customer value and pursue strategic acquisitions to consolidate a fragmented market and build a strong

European footprint.

Wim and Achile Van Gierdegom, co-CEOs of Quality Guard, declare: “In line with the strong growth of recent years, this partnership is another major step forward for Quality Guard. Together with Gimv, we have developed an even clearer and more concrete growth strategy. Their entrepreneurial spirit, hands-on support, and deep organizational expertise give us the confidence to scale our business, expand across borders and deliver even more

value to our customers.”

David De Peuter and Laurens Boriale, Partner and Principal in Gimv’s Consumer team, added: “We are excited to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs like Wim and Achile and to support Quality Guard in this next phase. The company addresses a real challenge for foodservice and food retail operators with an effective solution that brings confidence, efficiency and peace of mind. We share a strong strategic and cultural alignment with the team and see clear potential to grow across core markets. Quality Guard exemplifies the kind of scalable B2B2C business we aim to back

through our Consumer investment strategy.”

The Van Gierdegom family will remain the majority shareholder in Quality Guard, while Gimv joins as a strategic minority partner. Financial details of the transaction will not be disclosed.

           - Karel Oomsstraat 37, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium - T +32 3 290 21 00 -                                                                            1

Antwerp & Roeselare (BE), November 5, 2025, 07:30 CET

                                                               Press release

About Gimv

Gimv is a European investment company, listed on Euronext Brussels and a member of the Euronext BEL ESG Index. With over 45 years' experience in private equity, Gimv currently manages an investment portfolio of around EUR 2 billion. The portfolio contains about 60 portfolio companies, with combined turnover of EUR 4.5 billion and more than 20,000 employees.

As a recognized market leader in selected investment                platforms,               Gimv       identifies entrepreneurial, innovative companies with high growth potential and supports them in their transformation into market leaders. Gimv's five investment platforms are Consumer, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Smart Industries and Sustainable Cities. Each platform works with an experienced team across Gimv’s home markets of Benelux, France and DACH, supported by an extended international network of experts.

www.gimv.com.

For further information please contact:

David  De Peuter, Partner Consumer*

T +32 3 290 22 02 – david.depeuter@gimv.com

* acting on behalf of a company

           - Karel Oomsstraat 37, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium - T +32 3 290 21 00 -                                                                              2