Smartfin and Newion invest €2.5 million in SEQUESTO

Smartfin and Newion invest €2.5 million in SEQUESTO

BRUSSELS, 17 September 2025

• The Belgian scale-up SEQUESTO has raised €2.5 million in growth capital from Smartfin and Newion, two of Europe’s most renowned B2B SaaS investors.
• SEQUESTO streamlines the entire RFx process (RFI, RFQ, RFP and Ausschreibungen) with an AI-first platform and agentic workflows. This lets organizations win more RFx business with the same team: faster, at scale, and with full governance.
• SEQUESTO is active today in all major European markets and in the United States, serving a diverse customer base that ranges from SaaS providers to highly regulated enterprises.
• The funding will accelerate SEQUESTO's international expansion and strengthen its position as market leader.

Smartfin and Newion announce a strategic investment of 2.5 million euros in SEQUESTO, the Belgian scale-up that is changing how companies respond to Ausschreibungen, RFIs, and RFPs. With its AI-first approach and agentic workflows, SEQUESTO automates nearly all repetitive, time-consuming, and error-prone tasks across the entire RFx cycle and sustainably increases the efficiency and win rates of Ausschreibungsteams.

The global market for RFP optimization software is growing rapidly, driven by the rising volume and complexity of Tenders and the breakthrough of AI technology. For most organizations, responding to RFPs, RFIs, and other complex procurement processes is still a highly manual, time-consuming, and frustrating task with high costs and relatively low win rates.

While established vendors deliver only incremental improvements, SEQUESTO fundamentally transforms the RFx process through the consistent use of innovative, advanced AI capabilities. This clearly sets the platform apart from traditional competitors like Loopio and Responsive, which have dominated this segment for years.

The impact goes far beyond saving time: SEQUESTO systematically reduces content management costs, shortens time to value, and measurably increases win rates on complex tenders.

Founded in 2020 by Patrick Dalvinck (CEO) and Evrard t’Serstevens (CTO), SEQUESTO has grown from a Belgian start-up into an international growth company. Today, SEQUESTO is active in several core European markets and in the US, supporting customers from fast-growing SaaS companies to highly regulated enterprises, including ISS Facility Services, ooDrive, and Barona. The team currently consists of sixteen employees and continues to grow.

Strategic investment to fundamentally transform tenders

“SEQUESTO offers a holistic solution that combines orchestration and creation of responses in a powerful platform, purpose-built for Ausschreibungen. While other tools remain limited to niches, SEQUESTO supports the entire RFx cycle and can be used across all industries and regions.” said Frank Claassen, Managing Partner at Newion.

With the capital injection of €2.5 million from Smartfin and Newion, SEQUESTO aims to accelerate its international expansion and strengthen its position as the smartest AI RFP Response Platform.

Tenders are strategically important for many companies, but the process is often slow, complex, and inefficient. SEQUESTO combines AI and automation to fundamentally reinvent this process. At Smartfin, we invest in companies that build platforms which structurally improve efficiency. says Jürgen Ingels, Founding Partner at Smartfin.

About Smartfin

Smartfin is a European venture and growth capital investor with more than €600 million in assets under management. The fund focuses on early-stage and growth-stage B2B technology companies across Europe and the United Kingdom. Smartfin combines a strong track record in venture capital and private equity with decades of operational experience in building and scaling international technology companies. More information:www.smartfinvc.com

About SEQUESTO

SEQUESTO supports tender teams with modern, AI-powered technology that automates repetitive, error-prone and time-consuming tasks. The platform structurally reduces content management costs, shortens time-to-value and measurably increases the win rate on complex RFx projects.
More info:sequesto.com

About Newion

Newion is one of the most experienced early-stage and growth venture capital funds in Europe, focused on B2B software. Since its founding in 2000, Newion has been investing in exceptional teams with global ambitions. The fund is supported by the European Union through the InvestEU Fund.
More information:www.newion.com

Press inquiries
Smartfin - Jürgen Ingels | jingels@smartfinvc.com
SEQUESTO - Patrick Dalvinck | patrick.dalvinck@sequesto.com
Newion- Frank Claassen | frank@newion.com