Growth capital

Opening your capital: minority or majority?

Bringing in an investor is not just a matter of percentage. It's a choice of governance, horizon and ambition.

Illustration: a growth trajectory and opening the capital

Opening your capital finances a new stage, growth, acquisition, internationalisation, or reorganises the shareholding. What remains is defining the stake sold, which commits far beyond the numbers.

A minority entry

The owner keeps control and gains a partner to accelerate. The investor brings capital and support, without running the day-to-day. The quality of the shareholders' agreement, information rights, reserved matters, liquidity clauses, then becomes central: it is what organises the relationship over time.

A majority entry

The investor takes control of the capital, often in a transmission or ownership-change context. The owner may stay at the operational helm and reinvest alongside. This scheme releases liquidity and structures a new stage, but redistributes decision-making power.

Choosing on the right criteria

  • Your objective: fund growth, secure wealth, transmit.
  • Your relationship to control and shared governance.
  • The partner's horizon and alignment with your project.
  • The investor's real value-add, beyond the cheque.

Our read

The percentage matters less than the quality of the relationship it establishes. A good minority partner beats a bad majority one, and vice versa. What counts is alignment: that the owner's and the investor's interests point in the same direction, over the same horizon.

This article is for educational purposes and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice.

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