Private Equity Associate (junior/medior)

OUR COMPANY

Akiles is an investment fund focusing on small and midsize companies in Belgium and neighboring countries.

Given its long-term investment horizon, Akiles is structured as an evergreen fund with committed capital of €50 million. It was founded and is managed by a team of four with diverse backgrounds in banking, private equity, finance, and a notable track record in building and scaling Immoweb - Belgium's leading online real estate classifieds site and part of a European buy-and-build story.

We invest in early-stage companies (min. €1m in sales), scale-ups, and growing established SMEs with typical EBITDA profitability between €0.5m and €4m.

The fund is generally sector-agnostic. On our website, you'll find over 15 active investments in fields such as management consulting, SaaS, consumer lifestyle products, omnichannel retail, organic food distribution, IoT solutions, fraud detection, 3D printing, and VR.

The team's work includes sourcing and assessing new investment opportunities, conducting in-depth due diligence, structuring transactions, and allocating equity tickets ranging from €0.5m to €5m in the most promising companies. After investing, we actively support portfolio companies at board level, with both recurring follow-up and ad hoc strategic involvement until exit.

More about us at .

FUNCTION DESCRIPTION

You will be actively supporting the fund across a broad set of responsibilities. This includes deal sourcing through intermediaries and proactive outreach, screening databases, and mapping sector landscapes. You'll lead or contribute to sector research, financial modeling, and the assessment of business plans and valuations. You will support due diligence, transaction structuring, post-investment management, and exit preparation.

Given Akiles' broad investment scope - from profitable SMEs to fast-growing scale-ups - you will gain hands-on exposure to both private equity and venture capital dynamics. The high volume of opportunities requires a methodical and structured approach to evaluation. This involves financial analysis, and also the integration of strategic, legal, and fiscal insights - with a critical eye throughout.

OUR OFFER

This position represents a distinctive opportunity to build or further develop a rewarding career in private equity and venture capital.

You'll work closely with experienced professionals in a small but dynamic investment team. The role offers a flexible and well-balanced mix of time at our office in southern Brussels and remote work.

Alongside a competitive compensation package, you'll gain deep insights into the functioning of both the fund and its portfolio companies, and broaden your exposure to investment and value creation strategies.

IDEAL CANDIDATE

In this role, you will be involved in all phases of the investment lifecycle and contribute to each strategic decision concerning our direct investments. This requires a broad profile, capable of assessing risks and opportunities across financial, legal, industrial, and human dimensions.

We are looking for someone with strong analytical thinking, problem-solving skills, market insight, and communication abilities. You should be able to balance a positive, commercially driven mindset with critical thinking on risks and downside scenarios.

You are able to work largely autonomously, are fluent in Dutch, French, and English, and can synthesize a wide range of factors to form an opinion on a company's investment potential.

You hold a Master's degree in finance, business, economics, or a related field. While strong academic results are appreciated, we equally value meaningful achievements from relevant work experience or entrepreneurial activity. We also welcome candidates with backgrounds in law, engineering, IT, or data sciences, provided they can demonstrate a strong interest in business and investment.

You bring at least one year - and potentially up to seven years - of experience in financial modeling, valuation, and data analysis (in Excel). Exposure to investment processes, consulting, audit, M&A, or entrepreneurship is considered an asset.

You are also comfortable embracing AI tools to increase efficiency, extract insight, or accelerate workflows - whether for research, analysis, or productivity.

At Akiles, above all, we value curiosity, a positive mindset, a collaborative spirit, the willingness to learn and take on challenges.