A Dutch private equity firm just raised the biggest fund in Netherlands history by ignoring everything the tech press finds exciting.
Main Capital, led by Charly Zwemstra, closed a €5.25bn fund built around acquiring dull, indispensable enterprise software — think hospital appointment systems and municipal tax platforms. Zwemstra has spent 23 years in this corner of the market, and the new fund represents a direct counter-bet against the prevailing narrative that AI will hollow out traditional software businesses. The raise is the largest private fund ever closed in the Netherlands.
The timing is the whole story. While public-market investors have spent 18 months punishing legacy software companies on fears of AI displacement, Main Capital is pricing those same companies as undervalued. If boring software proves stickier than the AI-disruption thesis predicts — and government and healthcare procurement cycles suggest it might — the fund's entry prices could look smart in five years.
It is worth noting that "AI won't eat this" is itself a pitch, and pitches are not guarantees. But a €5.25bn raise suggests limited partners found it more convincing than the hype going the other direction.