François Derbaix

Who they are

François Derbaix is Co-founder and Co-CEO of Indexa Capital — a Belgian-born serial founder who sold Toprural.com to HomeAway and Rentalia.com to Idealista in 2012 before building Spain's leading robo-advisor.

Person

François studied Business Administration at the Université catholique de Louvain before making his career in Spain's internet economy. He co-founded Toprural.com, a rural tourism rental platform, and Rentalia.com, a vacation rental marketplace — both sold in 2012 (Toprural to HomeAway, Rentalia to Idealista). That double exit funded his next moves: he co-founded Aplazame, an instant credit / BNPL platform sold to WiZink Bank in 2018, and Soysuper, an online supermarket price-comparison startup. Then came Indexa Capital, now Spain's leading automated investment manager, where he is Co-founder and Co-CEO alongside Unai Ansejo and Ramón Blanco. Alongside Indexa he co-founded Bewater Funds, a private equity vehicle investing in unlisted Spanish companies, with Marc Antoni Macià. He's been a mentor at SeedRocket since at least 2008 and has made over 30 business angel investments in Spain and Belgium. He writes prolifically at francoisderbaix.com and at blog.indexacapital.com on index investing, personal finance, startup exits, and long-term wealth-building — the through-line across every venture is low-cost, compounding, patient capital.

Company

Indexa Capital crossed €5 billion in assets under management and 150,000 clients in 2026 — the clearest signal yet of mainstream adoption for low-cost automated investing in Spain. In July 2025 the company launched a new interest-bearing account indexed to the ECB deposit facility rate minus 0.50%, then partnered with A&G Banco for a yield account and with Caser Seguros for a life insurance product, deliberately widening beyond pure fund portfolios. Also in 2025, it launched a strategic alliance with Aon in claims management. The company has cut fees every year since launch; as of January 2026 the average total cost of its fund portfolios stands at 0.53% per year — around 81% lower than the average charged by Spanish banks and funds. Derbaix is the largest individual shareholder with a 20.4% stake.

Market

Indexa Capital operates in Spain's retail investment management market, competing directly against robo-advisors and online fund platforms including MyInvestor, Finanbest, and inbestMe — all vying for the same cost-conscious retail investor who currently keeps money in bank funds charging multiples of Indexa's fees. The broader context is a fintech sector facing consolidation and rising regulatory scrutiny across Europe, while geopolitical volatility in 2025 has added uncertainty to capital allocation decisions — conditions that typically strengthen the case for low-cost, passive, diversified investing.

Network

His closest working relationships are with Indexa co-founders Unai Ansejo and Ramón Blanco, who share operational leadership of the platform. He also co-founded Bewater Funds with Marc Antoni Macià, who appears across both ventures. Beyond the inner circle, he has invested in Novicap as a business angel and maintains an active mentoring relationship with SeedRocket, giving him broad exposure to the Spanish early-stage scene.

Unai Ansejo· Co-CEO and Co-founder, Indexa Capital
Ramón Blanco· Co-founder, Indexa Capital
Marc Antoni Macià· Co-founder, Indexa Capital and Bewater Funds
Pedro Luis Uriarte· Business angel investor, former BBVA CEO

How they likely show up

Long-tenure signal across multiple companies he founded and ran through full exit cycles → thinks in multi-year arcs; unlikely to be impressed by short-term metrics divorced from compounding fundamentals.
Five co-founded companies across different verticals (travel, fintech, retail, investment, PE) → high appetite for starting from scratch; gets bored maintaining, not building.
Active blogger at francoisderbaix.com and blog.indexacapital.com on personal finance and investing → comfortable being publicly accountable for his views; expects the same directness in return.
Core Indexa philosophy is 'lower costs every year' since launch → instinctively questions any proposal where the cost structure isn't explicit and compressing over time.
SeedRocket mentor since at least 2008, 30+ angel investments → has seen a lot of pitches; pattern-matches fast and will probe the founding team before the product.
role_type_pattern is 'founder' across all engagements → likely operates as a principal, not a delegate; expects decisions to be made in the room, not escalated.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific post from francoisderbaix.com — he'll know you read it and not just skimmed his LinkedIn.
→ Lead with the long-term thesis, not the near-term opportunity; his stated public interest is 'investing to get rich slowly' — short-term framing will land poorly.
→ If discussing Indexa, be precise about fee structures and AUM figures — he lives in those numbers and will notice vagueness.
→ Ask about the 2012 double exit (Toprural + Rentalia in the same year) — it's a formative moment and he's spoken about it openly across multiple podcasts.
→ Don't over-index on the Belgian background; his entire operating career is Spanish-market focused.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the €5 billion AUM milestone and the 2026 expansion into insurance and yield accounts — Indexa is visibly shifting from pure robo-advisor to a broader personal finance platform, and he's driving that.
Mention the Aplazame-to-WiZink sale in 2018 — he built a BNPL platform years before the term became mainstream, and sold it to a bank; it's a clean signal about his timing instincts.
Reference his Outliers podcast episode on 'Invertir para hacerte rico lentamente' — the title alone tells you his investment philosophy, and citing it specifically shows you've gone beyond the LinkedIn bio.

Discovery questions

Indexa has cut fees every year since launch — at what point does the fee floor constrain growth, and how do the new insurance and yield account products change that equation?
You've now had three exits and built one of Spain's largest robo-advisors — what does the SeedRocket mentoring side teach you that running Indexa doesn't?
Bewater Funds invests in unlisted Spanish companies while Indexa pushes passive, index-based investing — how do you hold both theses at the same time without one undermining the other?

Avoid

Don't pitch active fund management or stock-picking strategies — his entire public platform is built on the case that passive, low-cost indexing beats active management, and challenging that without hard data will close the conversation immediately.

Make it yours