Willem Delbare
Co-founder, CTO & CEO of Aikido Security; angel investor
Reviewed Updated Jun 11, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Background
Willem Delbare is a Belgian serial SaaS founder turned operator-angel based in Ghent. He earned a Master of Science in Computer Science from Ghent University (2007–2012) 1. In 2012 he co-founded Teamleader — a CRM, project-management and invoicing platform for SMBs — alongside Jeroen De Wit and Mathias De Loore, and served as CTO until 2016 23. Teamleader grew into one of Belgium’s most-cited SaaS successes (eventually acquired by Visma) and produced an alumni network of operator-angels that Delbare remains connected to 3.
After Teamleader, Delbare co-founded Officient (HR/payroll SaaS, 2017–2022) and was associated with other Belgian SaaS ventures including FutureproofedCities 34. In 2022 he co-founded Aikido Security in Ghent with Roeland Delrue (COO), Felix Garriau (CMO) and Madeline Lawrence (CGO), positioning the company as a “no-BS” developer-first security platform for SMBs 456. Aikido raised a €2M pre-seed in January 2023 5, a $5M seed in late 2023, and a $17M Series A led by Singular in May 2024 with participation from Notion Capital and Connect Ventures 67. As of 2026 Aikido reports 250+ employees and ~$85M total raised, protecting 100,000+ teams 4.
His angel investing runs in parallel with operating Aikido. Public databases record a small but growing portfolio of typically European (and especially Belgian) seed-stage SaaS bets, with check sizes ranging $5K–$50K and a sweet-spot check around $25K 8.
Stated Thesis
Delbare has not published a formal investment thesis. His public commentary frames investing as an extension of his operator perspective: he backs developer-facing or SMB-facing software where he has direct lived experience as a buyer or builder. On the journy.io seed announcement, describing the customer-data integration problem his portfolio company tackles, he said: “it is a lot of hard work to build, to secure, and to maintain…and certainly costly, too.” 9
His self-description across founder interviews emphasises building “software that didn’t make people want to throw their laptops out the window” 10, a sensibility that maps closely to the kinds of practical, B2B SaaS tools he angel-invests in.
Inferred Thesis
Sample size is small — 7 publicly verified angel investments — so percentages would be misleading. Below is a qualitative read of the pattern. 8
- Stage: Almost exclusively pre-seed and seed. Verified rounds range from a $410K seed (Salesflare, 2018) to a $20M Series A (Prelude, 2026 — likely a small follow-on or early angel position) 8.
- Geography: Heavily Belgian / Benelux-skewed. journy.io, StoryChief, and Salesflare are Belgian SaaS companies 911; this matches his role inside the Ghent / Teamleader / Showpad operator network.
- Sector: B2B SaaS dominates — marketing/sales tooling (StoryChief, Salesflare, journy.io), HR/people tools (Donna), and developer/security-adjacent products. Recent 2024–2026 rounds (Donna, Belfort, Holmes, Prelude) suggest a broader geographic and sectoral mix as his network has expanded post-Aikido 8.
- Check size: Aggregator data shows a $5K–$50K range with a $25K sweet spot — i.e., consistent friend-of-founder operator checks rather than lead positions 8.
- Co-investor pattern: Frequently co-invests with Belgian-Dutch funds and operator-angels: PMV (Flemish public-investment vehicle) and Peak Capital on journy.io 9; the Aikido pre-seed itself was backed by Belgian operator-angels including Louis Jonckheere and Pieterjan Bouten (Showpad), Christophe Morbee (Besox), and Mathias Geeroms (OTA Insight), all of whom form the wider Ghent/Antwerp operator-angel cluster Delbare moves in 5.
- Founder profile: Verified portfolio companies are overwhelmingly led by repeat or technical SaaS founders out of Belgium/Netherlands.
Notable gap: Despite running a security company, security startups do not dominate his angel portfolio — the bets reflect “SaaS founder helping SaaS founders” more than vertical security expertise.
Portfolio
Aggregator coverage of Belgian operator-angels is thin; the table below represents the publicly verifiable subset (7 deals) and may understate total activity. Source: Signal by NFX 8, cross-checked against round announcements where available.
| Company | Year | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prelude | 2026 | Series A ($20M) | 8 |
| Holmes | 2026 | Pre-seed ($1M) | 8 |
| Belfort | 2025 | Seed ($6M) | 8 |
| Donna | 2024 | Pre-seed ($2M) | 8 |
| journy.io | 2021 | Seed (€450K) | 9 |
| StoryChief | 2018 | Seed (~$1M) | 811 |
| Salesflare | 2018 | Seed (~$410K) | 8 |
In Their Own Words
On the original problem behind Aikido — the operator pain that shaped his current view of security tooling:
“Software security tools have made my life as a CTO harder…They overload you with false positives, spam you with notifications, and make triaging hard.” — Willem Delbare, Aikido pre-seed announcement, January 2023 5
“I wasted countless hours on irrelevant security alerts as a CTO. These legacy security platforms eat up developer time.” — Willem Delbare, quoted in TechCrunch on Aikido’s Series A, May 2024 7
“Developers are so swamped with complexity and false alerts, that they stop checking them all together.” — Willem Delbare, TechCrunch, May 2024 7
On market structure and who buys security:
“Security, like compliance, used to be for the big guys. Now security is a growing requirement for all companies.” — Willem Delbare, TechCrunch, May 2024 7
On building software more broadly:
“building software that didn’t make people want to throw their laptops out the window” — Willem Delbare, Unite.ai interview, 2024 10
On the journy.io thesis (a CRM-integration angel bet):
“it is a lot of hard work to build, to secure, and to maintain…and certainly costly, too.” — Willem Delbare, Peak Capital announcement, February 2021 9
What Founders Say
No independently sourced founder testimonials about Willem Delbare’s angel investing were found. Public coverage of his portfolio companies typically quotes the founders about their own products rather than about Delbare’s contribution as an angel.
Connections
- Co-founder, Aikido Security — alongside Roeland Delrue (COO), Felix Garriau (CMO), and Madeline Lawrence (CGO) 4
- Co-founder, Teamleader (2012–2016, CTO) — alongside Jeroen De Wit (CEO) and Mathias De Loore 23
- Co-founder, Officient (2017–2022) 13
- Belgian operator-angel cluster: Aikido’s pre-seed (which Delbare led / participated in as a founder) was backed by Louis Jonckheere and Pieterjan Bouten (Showpad), Christophe Morbee (Besox), and Mathias Geeroms (OTA Insight) — Delbare regularly co-appears with this group on Belgian seed rounds 5
- Co-investor: Peak Capital and PMV on journy.io seed (February 2021) 9
Sources
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Willem Delbare LinkedIn profile, accessed June 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/in/willemdelbare/↩↩
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SaaS Community, “Teamleader Company Profile,” accessed June 2026. https://www.saascommunity.com/saas-companies/belgium/ghent/teamleader/↩↩
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Inovia Capital, “Willem Delbare,” founder profile, accessed June 2026. https://www.inovia.vc/founders/company-founders/willem-delbare/↩↩↩↩↩
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Aikido Security, “About,” accessed June 2026. https://www.aikido.dev/about↩↩↩↩
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Aikido Security blog, “Aikido Security raises €2 million pre-seed round to build a developer-first software security platform,” January 19, 2023. https://www.aikido.dev/blog/aikido-security-raises-eur2-million-pre-seed-round-to-build-a-developer-first-software-security-platform↩↩↩↩↩
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Startup Reporter, “Ghent-based Aikido lands $17M Series A,” May 2024. https://www.startupreporter.eu/ghent-based-aikido-lands-17m/↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Belgium’s Aikido lands $17M Series A for its ‘no BS’ security platform aimed at developers,” May 1, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/01/belgiums-aikido-lands-17m-series-a-for-its-no-bs-security-platform-aimed-at-developers/↩↩↩↩
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Signal by NFX, “Willem Delbare investor profile,” accessed June 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/willem-delbare↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Peak Capital, “journy.io raises €450k seed funding from PMV, Peak, and Willem Delbare,” February 2, 2021. https://peak.capital/journy-io-raises-450k-seed-funding-from-pmv-peak-capital-and-willem-delbare/↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Unite.ai, “Willem Delbare, Co-Founder and CEO of Aikido – Interview Series,” 2024. https://www.unite.ai/willem-delbare-co-founder-and-ceo-of-aikido-interview-series/↩↩
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The Org, “Willem Delbare — Advisor at StoryChief,” accessed June 2026. https://theorg.com/org/storychief/org-chart/willem-delbare↩↩