Main Capital Partners takes majority stake in 21south

Main Capital Partners acquired a majority interest in 21south on 3 November 2026. Founder Jan Kappenburg and the management team continued to lead the business. Founded in 2016 and based at Barendrecht, 21south develops and operates 21QUBZ, software managing the collection of household and commercial waste. It records which containers belong to which address, plans collection rounds, captures the weights registered at the vehicle and the weighbridge, issues the resulting invoices and produces the returns regulators require. Its customers are municipalities, publicly owned collection organisations and commercial operators across the Netherlands and Flanders, among them the cities of Amsterdam and Groningen, Saver and Rens Recycling, and its systems cover more than 2.8 million households. Waste collection resists general-purpose software. Billing depends on what each household actually presented, measured by containers emptied or kilogrammes weighed, and the regulatory returns differ from any other industry’s. A municipality running the activity therefore buys from a supplier that has built for it, and having configured its rounds, its container register and its billing rules around that system, rarely changes. Main Capital Partners intended to fund product development, expansion beyond the Dutch and Flemish markets, and acquisitions broadening the platform.

The acquisition of 21south is part of the growth strategy of Main Capital Partners, which already has several external growth operations under its belt, notably Raynet in 2026.