Warren, a Ghent-based startup offering workplace pension plans and financial coaching to employees, has closed a €10 million seed round. The company was co-founded by Cedric De Vleeschauwer, who previously built Alan Belgium into the country's largest regulated health-insurance newcomer, together with David Du Pré, Jos Polfliet, Tijs Deryckere, and Pieterjan Behaeghe.
Belgium's supplementary pension system has been underperforming for years, and the numbers show it. Public pension expenditure in the country is projected to climb from 13.1% of GDP to 15.1% over the next three decades, the second steepest increase in the OECD, according to the organization's Pensions at a Glance 2025 report. On top of that, the Belgian federal government has committed to making supplementary pensions mandatory for all employees by 2035, requiring employers to contribute at least 3% of annual salary. More employers are now being pushed to reassess what their current pension plans actually deliver.
The seed round was led by the venture arm of Motive Partners, a transatlantic investment firm that focuses exclusively on financial technology. F Capital also joined, alongside returning backers Entourage, Syndicate One, and 100IN.
Belgium's second-pillar pension system, meaning the layer of savings on top of the state pension, has a structural product problem. A portion of pension reserves is held in Branch 21 group insurance contracts. These products guarantee a nominal return, but once inflation and fees are factored in, employees often end up with very little real growth. Branch 23 products take a more investment-oriented approach, but high annual management charges eat into returns year after year.
The median supplementary pension reserve for Belgian employees between the ages of 56 and 65 is less than €10,000. That is a striking figure for a benefit that can represent one of an employer's largest compensation costs. The issue runs deeper than contribution levels. Many of these products are structured in a way that does not allow long-term compounding to work, and most employees receive little more than a single annual document that few understand.
Other countries offer a useful point of comparison. In Australia, employers contribute at least 11% of gross salary into pension funds that invest broadly across capital markets. The country holds roughly 2,500 billion euros in pension capital, approximately twice its GDP. Belgium's second-pillar reserves amount to less than one fifth of GDP. That gap is the opportunity Warren is trying to address.
"With this capital, we want to fundamentally reinvent the Belgian pension system. We're targeting 100,000 employees on the platform by 2028, after which we'll push into one or two larger European markets. That's why we're looking for around thirty additional hires, on top of the 25 already in place. We're building a workplace pension platform that genuinely delivers returns, for every company in Belgium and beyond. Building the financially fearless generation." — David Du Pré, Co-founder and CCO of Warren
The funding will support growth in Belgium first, with expansion into one or two European markets to follow. Warren plans to grow its current team of 25 by roughly thirty people, with hiring focused on product, engineering, and commercial roles.
Warren received its IBP licence in June 2025, which allows it to operate its own regulated pension fund. The fund, called Warren Pension Fund OFP, is supervised by the FSMA, Belgium's financial regulator, and invests through a portfolio of equity and bond ETFs. ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, are low-cost investment funds that track a market index. There are no entry or exit fees, and Warren does not charge a percentage of the assets it manages. Employers pay a flat subscription fee, and the full investment return goes to the employee.
"The vast majority of Belgians save for their retirement in financial products that erode their purchasing power year after year, even though retirement is by definition a long-term horizon. This is an enormous social problem whose severity remains chronically underestimated. It's not just about our pension. It's about our prosperity, today and for future generations." — Cedric De Vleeschauwer, Co-founder and CEO of Warren
Warren also provides a financial coaching app that pulls together data from several sources: the employee's compensation package, retirement projections from Mypension.be, and bank account data accessed through PSD2, a European standard that allows apps to connect to bank accounts with the user's consent. The app can help employees model scenarios like early retirement, income during illness, or mortgage refinancing. Those who want to speak with a person can book a video consultation with one of Warren's nine in-house specialists, who cover areas including loans, insurance, and investment planning. Within a year of launch, roughly a hundred Belgian companies have made the switch, among them Lighthouse, Yuki, Wintercircus, and Poppy Mobility, with thousands of employees using the app on a daily basis.
The round was led by the venture arm of Motive Partners, a private investment firm with offices in New York, London, and Berlin. The firm concentrates on financial technology across five areas: banking and payments, capital markets, data and analytics, insurance, and wealth and asset management. It has previously backed pension and wealth infrastructure businesses in other markets.
F Capital participated alongside three investors who had already backed Warren at an earlier stage: Entourage, Syndicate One, and 100IN.
