After combining decades of experience to help founders raise funding or work towards exit, two angel investors Dave Dirks and Arjan Brienen have joined forces to launch their company Goldfish Global.
The Amsterdam-based company helps founders to raise capital and realise their exit or secondaries. Additionally, it also enables founders to give back to the ecosystem by investing jointly with Goldfish in early-stage companies.
Co-founder, Dave Dirks says, “Both as a venture capital lawyer and investor in over 25 startups, I have learned how to best help founders from start to exit. I know what investors and buyers look for when either investing or acquiring startups. Arjan and I have worked on many transactions together over the years. Now it is time to join forces and realise our joint dream. To advise founders and also enable them to co-invest with us in new talented founder teams. A great way to give back to the ecosystem we both have been active in for the most time of our careers.”
About the founders
Dave Dirks has been active as a venture capital and merger and acquisition lawyer since 1998. His past experiences include working at the global firm DLA Piper and later at Certa Legal Group and Steelman, which he co-founded. Since 2012, Dirks has been involved in over 27 deals as an angel investor and as a partner of the venture capital firms Keadyn, EVO Venture Partners and Velar Capital.
Currently, he is active as a Board member of various ventures including Hardt Hyperloop. Dirks investments and expertise are mainly in e-commerce, fintech and enterprise software. Besides, he also manages various family offices in relation to their tech investments. With his combined experience and background, Dirks is able to advise founders and investors in relation to all aspects that are important in any funding or exit project.
Arjan Brienen, on the other hand, has over 20 years of experience as corporate finance and M&A advisor at companies including First Dutch Capital, IMPROVED Corporate Finance and KPN. He has already ‘successfully’ executed over 70 funding and M&A deals in various industries and has also made several angel investments.
Besides, Brienen has also filled numerous roles as a CFO/Operator including BridgeFund, iwell Middistrict (now part of Asklepios) and Galaxy Business Networks (now part of EDPnet).
In a statement, Arjan Brienen says, “After many cups of coffee over the years, I am excited that we finally took the step to bring our experience together. We’ve been discussing the market we are both active in, and how we can join forces to utilise our strengths together for a while now fully. With Goldfish, we are more dedicated than ever to help founders realise their dreams.”
Made two exits
Founded in 2021, Goldfish Global has been advised in relation to two successful exits already: Customer Data Platform Squeezely was acquired by Spotler Group in August of 2021. And in March 2022, the company was again involved in a deal where Dutch data feed management and optimisation software company DataFeedWatch was acquired by US-based e-commerce company Cart.com.
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