Smile Sail is acquiring a majority stake in Ghent-based Payment Orchestrator Twikey. This marks the first Belgian investment by the Tech fund from serial entrepreneur Urbain Vandeurzen. Twikey’s existing management team is re-investing alongside the new majority shareholder. With this funding, Twikey’s founders want to further strengthen their presence across Europe, and build new capabilities around proactive risk and fraud prevention. In 2025, the scaleup processed more than 29 billion euros in recurring payments for 2,000 customers across Europe and the UK.
When a recurring payment for a subscription, energy provider or an EV-player fails due to insufficient funds, it takes 3 to 5 days before that feedback is passed on and action can be taken. On top of that, companies lose an average of 3% in revenue due to poorly managed recurring payments, which can rise to as much as 10% when oversight is weak.
“Companies sometimes see their profits evaporate because payments are not collected,” says Dominique Adriansens, founder of Twikey. “And that’s before you even factor in fraud, which can cost them millions of euros every year. At Twikey, we strongly believe in the power and transparency of Open Banking to fight fraud proactively.”
3,500 connections
Twikey was founded by co-founders Dominique Adriansens and Koen Serry to tackle those pain points. The Ghent-based scaleup streamlines recurring customer payments and achieves a success rate of over 99%. Its payment orchestration platform brings together more than 3,500 connections with banks and payment providers across Europe. As a result, businesses no longer get bogged down in the complexity of the European market and can process payments more cost-effectively.
If a payment fails due to insufficient funds, Twikey immediately stops the transaction and automatically proposes alternative payment methods. That helps companies avoid collection cases and reduces the time employees spend on follow-up. At the same time, recurring payments help businesses manage cash flow more effectively, cutting revenue loss from 3% to less than 1%.
Focus on Europe
Today, Twikey announces that Smile Sail, the Tech fund from serial entrepreneur Urbain Vandeurzen, is acquiring a majority stake in the scaleup. Co-founders Dominique Adriansens and Koen Serry are also reaffirming their commitment. Smile Sail will support the company both strategically and financially in its next phase of growth. The partnership fits the fund’s vision to help software and AI leaders scale through sector specialization and an international network, with a focus on sustainable value creation. Earlier, Smile Sail invested in Dutch legal software company Reglab and IT company Rsult. With Twikey, the fund is now making its first Belgian investment.
With this funding, Twikey’s founders want to further strengthen their presence abroad, including in Germany, Scandinavia, and the UK, with the goal of offering companies with recurring customers one unified solution as they expand across Europe. The entrepreneurs also see major growth opportunities in risk and fraud prevention, in part thanks to AI.
“By bringing Smile Sail on board, we gain a lot of expertise,” says Dominique Adriansens. “They bring experience in successfully scaling a software company in Europe and beyond. The recurring payment model has grown exponentially in recent years. We want to become the platform for recurring payments for companies looking to conquer Europe’s fragmented, yet exciting market.”
“We’re genuinely impressed by the Twikey management team, which has built a strong, scalable platform for flexible payments and subscription management across Europe,” says Nico Bogaerts, Partner at Smile Sail. “With its payment orchestration layer, Twikey helps businesses get paid faster, reduce unpaid invoices and admin work, and use AI to take a more proactive approach to risk and fraud prevention. As an investor, we’re backing Twikey with our software and AI expertise, our network, and growth capital to accelerate its expansion across Europe.”
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