Created in 2008, the Wallimage Entreprises investment fund was originally intended to complement the activities of Wallimage, whose vocation since 2001 has been to attract audiovisual productions to the Walloon territory. For the newly created fund, the main objective was to help film service companies to set up in the Walloon region by becoming their financial partner. Since then, Wallimage Entreprises has developed its activities far beyond, committing a total of €23.8M in 85 companies, all active in the audiovisual sector in the broadest sense, including gaming, creative digital agencies and musictech, and thus going far beyond the strict film industry.
In 2019, the fund committed a record amount of 3.7 M euros, half of which was for new companies. Its current portfolio is composed of forty companies varied in size and activities, ranging from post-production studios, including image, sound and special effects, to audiovisual technology developers, gaming studios and digital agencies.
In doing so, Wallimage Entreprises has scrupulously fulfilled its mission of structuring the audiovisual industry, progressively extended to video games, innovative content and new technologies. Thanks to the constant support of the Walloon region, the fund meets the challenge of supporting a risky and constantly evolving economy.
If its offer has been greatly enriched over the years, the financing granted still mainly concerns cinema providers, for which more than one million euros have been invested in 2019 and for which Wallimage Entreprises remains the financial partner of reference. It is in this sector that its effects are the most visible: the Walloon film industry, even if it remains risky, is now truly stabilized and complete. All of the filming, production and post-production professions are represented and today 88% of the fund’s interventions in this sector are in the form of loans, whereas equity investments were almost systematically necessary a few years ago. The fund remains attentive to this original sector in which it supports innovative approaches by investing in platforms with international potential such as Moonday.
The great strength of Wallimage Entreprises since its beginnings is its capacity of adaptation mixed with discernment. The fund is committed to following the evolution of this market, trying to identify the players who are betting on the audiovisual sector to position themselves. But his willingness to listen to the market has never hindered his rigorous choice of investments, based on solid fundamentals : quality of the teams, consistency with market expectations and profitability potential. While the fund is continually looking to support forward-looking sectors, it remains very mindful of the risks involved. Some of the digital agencies in which he invested a few years ago, such as Dogstudio or Tapptic for example, are now internationally renowned.
The action of Wallimage Entreprises in favor of gaming is a good illustration the relevance of its investments: in recent years, the share of aid in this sector has increased and represents a quarter of commitments in 2019, encouraging the emergence and development of quality studios, which are now experiencing a good evolution. Among them is Appeal Studio, a young company that is already working on significant contracts with international publishers.
After twelve years and an impressive track record, Wallimage Entreprises does not intend to stop there. The fund is now focusing its efforts on the video game sector, where it aims to play a role comparable to the one it played in the film sector. This long-term work, of which we know he is capable, has already begun, and we have no doubt that it will bear fruit. As for possible new strategic directions, the fund will adapt to the evolution of the market as it has done so well up to now.
