Paris-based Together Fund, which was launched last year with a mission to support Europe’s independent film and TV production sector, has chosen Belgium’s biggest production house Caviar for its first investment.
Under the operation, the equity fund has supported a management buyout, set in motion by majority shareholder Belgian telecommunications group Telenet’s decision to sell its 70% stake as part of a strategy refocusing its activities on its core telecom business.
The Together Fund was launched last April under the auspices of Axio Capital with the backing of the European Investment Fund and an initial capitalization of 58 million euros ($66 million).
It is focused on enabling European independent production companies to scale and strengthen in the face of the growing dominance of integrated audiovisual groups.
Alexandra Lebret, the former longtime Managing Director of the European Producers Club (EPC), co-runs the fund with Axio Capital partner Antoine Bodet, who has advised a number of French film and TV companies over his career including MakingProd and Federation Entertainment.
Under this first investment, the Together Fund has taken a 45% stake in Caviar alongside Belgian serial fintech entrepreneur Jürgen Ingels (SmartFin, Clear2Pay), with the management team taking a 55% majority stake.
Caviar co-founder and managing director Bert Hamelinck said the creation of the Together Fund last spring was good timing for the company’s management team which was grappling with how to move forward in the wake of Telenet’s 2024 decision to sell its stake.
“We didn’t feel like immediately going down the route of another industrial partner or being acquired by a bigger group and were exploring the possibility for a management buyout,” he said.
Hamelinck co-founded Caviar with managing partners Mathias Coppens and Michael Sagol in Belgium in 2005, out of the fusion of Flemish companies Rose Are Blue and Pix In Motion, with the group since opening up offices in London, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam.
It is best-known internationally on the cinema front for the Oscar winning 2021 drama Sound Of Metal, with other notable movies titles including Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s Cannes Caméra d’Or winning debut War Pony and Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s Rebel.
More recent titles include timely Belgian drama The Best Immigrant, which is in talks for a U.S. remake, and Frank Van Passel’s movie The Soundman, which gets its North American premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Friday.
It is also gearing up for a trio of upcoming U.S. releases: Jody Hill’s Famous, Joey Power’s Love Language and Zach Woods’ The Accompanist with Aubrey Plaza and Susan Sarandon.
Non-scripted programs under the Roses Are Blue label include hit escape room-themed entertainment format The Way Out (Code van Coppens), which is currently in production in four territories; 99 To Beat in the Netherlands and Germany, Down The Road and The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes.
Caviar is also known for its advertising work across a variety of brands with recent credits including Hill’s The Trial of Luka Dončić for Nike’s Jordan brand, and The Studio-inspired ad for Canadian food delivery app Skip, featuring Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen.
Hamelinck revealed he had first broached the subject of working with the Together Fund in a meeting with Lebret at Cannes.
“I said if we have an opportunity to do this management buyout, would you like to partner with us, because we can’t do it on our own?” he said.
Lebret said she was immediately interested and the Together Fund and Caviar spent the summer and fall getting the investment deal over the line, in partnership with Ingels, as well as with support from the company’s banking partner ING.
“It’s a beautiful company and what they were asking for and aiming to do in terms of growth was at the core of our strategy,” she said
“We’ve known each other for many years because Bert was a member of the EPC and I’ve followed the company’s growth… the trust was there from the beginning so it was easy to take the decision because it’s a lot about the men and women who are managing a company when you decide to invest in it… it was not the most complicated part.”
Hamelinck suggests the operation is the perfect solution for Caviar and enables it to seamlessly continue a growth strategy put in place when Telenet was its majority shareholder.
“We were very keen to keep our independence. Telenet was a very, very good shareholder, and very supportive of our M&A and growth plans… If we had become part of another group with a different strategy, we would likely have been forced to change course… which is normal,” he said.
The new partners have not revealed what they paid Telenet for its 70% stake in the company.
“What I can say is that we’re expecting revenues of slightly above 200 million euros ($233 million) [for 2025], with EBITDA of around nine million euros ($10.52 Million),” said Hamelinck, adding that the company’s long-term strategy is to double revenue through in-house growth and M&A activity.
Alongside Roses are Blue, further companies under the Caviar umbrella include Sputnik, and Loom, while the group took a 45% stake in Belgian company Versus Production in 2022, with its sister companies Inver Invest and O’Brother Distribution also included in the deal.
Hamelinck said he hoped Caviar’s operation with the Together Fund would encourage more private equity investment in Europe’s independent film and TV sectors.
“Having this fund backed by the European Investment Fund and then having private investors teaming up with that fund and creating together, this is unique in Europe. It’s very new and very needed. I think we need a lot more private equity money in our industry in Europe,” he said.
“It’s much easier in the U.S. on that side, and we need family offices to believe in this business. So I’m happy that at least now there’s an example. I think having the support of Europe makes it more credible. So I can only hope that this is just the start of many other initiatives.”
With the Together Fund running for a duration of 10 years, Lebret said its aim is to get out of its investments within a timeframe of three to seven years.
“When we were negotiating the exit, I was so sad. I was telling them. I don’t want to exit, but that’s the nature and the regulation of the fund,” she said.
Other deals are also in the works, with the fund hoping to announce new investments in this spring.
“They’re different in size, from different countries and different types of companies, reflecting the diversity of Europe’s film and TV scene,” she said.