A fundraising file has to show three things within minutes: a quantified, justified need, readable accounts over three years and a team able to deliver the plan. The rest (data room, contracts, legal detail) is prepared for due diligence. A fund quickly sets aside a file that does not answer those three points.
I have read files from both sides. At the bank, for eight years, then as financial controller of an SME opening its capital to an invest. The rejected files all looked alike: a round amount, no breakdown, and growth assumptions that nobody in the company would have signed off.
What goes into a fundraising file?
It is built in three levels, sent as the fund moves forward. Sending everything at once drowns the reader.
- For first contact: a two-page summary or a ten- to fifteen-page deck. Business, customers, figures for the last three years, project, amount sought, team.
- After a first meeting: the business plan with its assumptions, the financial plan (projected income statement, balance sheet and cash flow over three to five years), the cap table, the organisation chart.
- For due diligence: the data room. Articles of association, key contracts, leases, disputes, employment and tax position, intellectual property. The detail is in the article on due diligence.
| Level | When | Documents | Prepared by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First contact | 2-page summary or 10 to 15 slides | Owner |
| 2 | After the first meeting | 3- to 5-year financial plan, cap table, organisation chart | Owner and accountant |
| 3 | After the letter of intent | Indexed, dated data room | Owner, accountant, lawyer |
Which figures does the fund ask for?
First, the need, broken down item by item. A file announcing "€1.5M to accelerate growth" does not get past the first filter. The same amount broken down opens the discussion.
| Item | Amount | Timing | Planned financing |
|---|---|---|---|
| New production line | €900,000 | Q1 to Q3 | Bank loan and equity |
| Working capital linked to higher activity | €350,000 | Year 1 | Equity |
| Hiring two export sales staff | €250,000 | Years 1 and 2 | Equity |
This table is built for the example. It also shows what the bank can carry (the production line, a financeable asset) and what falls to equity (working capital and hires, which banks finance poorly). That is often the starting point for a discussion with a growth fund: its equity lets the bank follow. The article on bank debt or equity covers that balance in detail.
Next come historical accounts and projections. Funds read the assumptions before the totals: prices, volumes, gross margin, customer payment terms, stock. Prepare three scenarios (cautious, central, ambitious) and be able to explain what moves you from one to the next.
Finally, the cap table before and after the deal. In percentage terms, it answers the question the fund asks straight away: how much capital for how much money. With €1.5M put in on a €4.5M valuation before the round, the fund holds 25% afterwards.
Which criteria do Walloon and Brussels funds publish?
Several players publish their criteria, and reading them before you write saves weeks of waiting for a predictable no. Surveyed on the funds' websites on 15.10.2026:
| Player | Published target | Published ticket | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| ORSA | Industrial SMEs with 20 to 150 employees: growth, buyout, succession | €500,000 to €2.5M | Wallonia |
| Namur Invest | SMEs in the province, including below €500,000 | €100,000 to €2.5M generally | Province of Namur |
| Invest.BW | SMEs and start-ups not in difficulty | Up to €2.5M, in one or several rounds | Walloon Brabant |
| finance&invest.brussels | From the self-employed to scale-ups | Up to €5M for SMEs, as co-investment | Brussels |
Sources: ORSA, financing my SME and Namur Invest, frequently asked questions. For the nine players tracked by this site, the ranking of funds for SMEs applies these ticket and area filters.
An efficient round targets five to ten investors. Three filters are enough: the stage (seed, growth, succession), the published ticket, the area. Outside the published range, the file will not be looked at.
Which mistakes sink a file?
The ones I have seen most often fit in a few lines:
- sending the same file to twenty funds without targeting, half of them outside their ticket or area;
- stating a valuation in the first email;
- presenting a round-number need with no breakdown or timetable;
- hiding a dispute or a customer worth half of revenue: due diligence will find it, and trust does not come back;
- leaving intellectual property in a founder's name rather than the company's.
The last one looks harmless. It has already pushed back a signing I followed, because a formal assignment had to be arranged before the deed.
How do you get the company itself ready?
Before opening the capital, tidy up the legal side. Articles of association up to date and suited to several classes of shares if needed. Complete share register. Written agreements with the managers (mandate, pay). Intellectual property in the company's name.
These points do not win a round. Their absence can make it fail at due diligence or push the valuation down. Your accountant and a corporate lawyer can check them in a few hours, well before the first meeting; the full process, from file to notarial deed, is set out in how to raise capital for an SME.
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From 2009 to 2017, Cédric spent eight years in the corporate lending department of a Belgian bank in Namur, on the side that turns files down and writes the covenants. He then became financial controller at an industrial SME in Hainaut just as a provincial invest took a stake in its capital. Based in Gembloux, he rereads the terms published by Walloon and Brussels funds and invests every month.