European film and TV equity fund Together Fund has made its first investment, taking a minority stake in Belgium-based production powerhouse Caviar.
Together Fund has supported a management buyout at Caviar, the company behind Sound Of Metal, War Pony and The Rider, from Liberty Global-backed Flemish telco Telenet.
Telenet has been the majority owner of Caviar since 2022, with a 70% stake. It has sold its shareholding to focus on its core broadband and telecoms business, in line with the strategy of parent company Liberty Global, which has trimmed or sold its stakes in media companies such as All3Media and ITV.
The Caviar management team now owns 55% of the company. The Together Fund and tech investor Jürgen Ingels, chairman of Belgium-based venture capital firm Smartfin, have a combined 45% stake.
It marks the first audiovisual investment by the Together Fund, launched last year by former European Producers Club head Alexandra Lebret in partnership with Paris-based investment firm Axio Capital. The Together Fund has so far raised €58m to invest in around 12-15 European independent film and television production companies. It aims to raise €80m in total.
The Caviar management buyout was led by its three co-founders: CEO Bert Hamelinck, US managing director Michael Sagol, and head of unscripted Mathias Coppens. An additional 15 Caviar managers have participated in the buyout.
Caviar is based in Brussels, London, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin, and is active across film, television and commercials production.
Its film credits include double Oscar winner Sound Of Metal, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s Rebel, Cannes’ Camera d’Or winner War Pony and Nasha Nathwani’s 2024 Berlinale Crystal Bear winner Last Swim.
On the TV front, it produced series Clan, which was remade internationally as Apple TV’s Bad Sisters. It also makes commercials for brands such as Uber Eats, Louis Vuitton, Pepsi and Adidas.
Telenet informed Caviar in late 2024 of its plan to sell its stake in the business. “From the beginning, we had in our minds, if there would be an opportunity to do a management buyout, we would take it – but that we would need partners,” Hamelinck told Screen.
He first spoke with Lebret about investing in the company at Cannes last year.
“We both feel that there is room and there is appetite for a bigger, independent player. There’s been a lot of consolidation. But [many of the companies] were bought by bigger groups. We felt there is a market and an appetite for independent companies that want to join other independent companies.”
Under Telenet’s ownership, Caviar acquired stakes in a number of companies – including a 45% stake in leading Belgian producer Versus Production, whose co-pro credits include Lukas Dhont’s Close and Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio.
Caviar currently has a staff of 200, and annual revenues of €200m. The ambition is to grow to a €400m group through M&A and organic growth.
“I feel there’s a real need for combining resources, combining access to finance, having a good IT infrastructure, and creating a platform where indie people can still thrive and focus on their main job, which is creating exceptional content. Especially in this landscape, being on your own and being a smaller entity is not easy,” said Hamelinck.
This point was echoed by Lebret, who said that “size is important” given the consolidation of buyers, such as Warner Bros Discovery and/or Netflix and Paramount. “There will be less clients in the future, meaning less bargaining power in the hands of the independent producer. I believe that it’s crucial for them to get together. Also, there’s the question of budgets – they have increased, but the financing has decreased.”
For Lebret, a key attraction for investing in Caviar was a founding team who have been in place for over 20 years and are prepared to invest in their company, as well as its business model spanning film, TV and commercials.
She said Together is still planning to invest in a total of 12-15 European film and TV companies, across a range of sizes. She added that Together’s next deal will be for a “very different size of the company”.
Coming up, Caviar is prepping three movies. It has fully financed Joey Power’s romantic comedy Love Language, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, which is in post with Protagonist handling international sales and CAA Media Finance representing US rights. It is exec producing Jody Hill’s thriller Famous, starring Zac Efron and Phoebe Dynevor; A24 has US rights, while Black Bear is handling international sales. And it is producing Zach Woods’ magical realist story The Accompanist, starring Susan Sarandon, Everly Carganilla and Audrey Plaza. Mister Smith Entertainment is handling international sales, with CAA Media Finance and Gersh handling North American sales.
On the TV side, Caviar has just launched controversial Belgian series The Best Immigrant, and is working on a second series of comedy thriller Dead End by Flemish director Malin-Sarah Gozin.
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