Albertus van der Linden

Albertus van der Linden (IRE Belgium Chartered Accountant) is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of XSML (Xpansion, SME Growth, Mergers & Leverage) — the Brussels, Kinshasa, Kampala, and Lagos-headquartered Central and West African specialist SME private equity and growth capital firm, a pioneer of African SME funds with the $100M XSML African SME Fund I (2012), $160M Fund II (2016), $220M Fund III (2020) and $280M Fund IV (2024) totalling ~$760M cumulative AUM with DFI backing from BIO (Belgium), FMO, EIB, IFC, and CDC/BII. A Université Libre de Bruxelles Applied Economics graduate, Belgian IRE Chartered Accountant, 9-year BIO Central Africa Principal and 6-year Deloitte PE Audit veteran, van der Linden co-founded XSML in 2008 as the first independent GP explicitly targeting the DR Congo-Uganda corridor, with a Lagos Nigeria office added in 2020.