The ICT Personality of the Year award is the only prize chosen by the editors of Data News itself.  Important criteria include track record, a strong personality, entrepreneurship and visibility in the industry. The editorial staff particularly praised Daan De Wever's strong entrepreneurial spirit and outspoken ambition as well as the spectacular growth of Destiny, with which he has clearly made his mark on the Belgian IT landscape.  

“I am delighted with this wonderful recognition. It is the reward for a journey that I started out on eleven years ago with my younger brother Samuel. Destiny’s success story is also down to him and the recognition I have been given with this award also goes to him. Together, we have built up Destiny in a constant and sustainable manner from a bedroom start-up to the fastest growing B2B cloud telecoms player in Belgium, with revised predicted turnover of 65 million euros for this year.  I am proud that, today, mainly thanks to our speed and flexibility, we are a challenger in the SME market that nobody can ignore. And our ambition certainly doesn’t stop there.  Currently, we are in the throes of conquering the Dutch market, a major step in our ambition to develop into a European independent virtual operator.”

When Samuel De Wever suggested taking over a bankrupt telecoms company, E-Leven, in 2008, brother Daan came on board. The founding of Destiny became a reality. Together, the enterprising brothers would go on to challenge Proximus on the B2B market by taking advantage of the existing cable network. They found a technology whereby, via the copper wires, they could offer a speed fifty times higher than the major operators could offer at the time.

In 2009, Marc Destrée was brought in as external CEO and together they successfully completed the first investment round.  In 2013, Joachim Lauwers was appointed Sales and Marketing Director and in 2015 Daan took over from Marc Destrée as CEO. Destiny had by then developed into a business worth 10 million euros. A number of acquisitions followed in quick succession, of Ergatel, Meritel and IT101 respectively, transforming Destiny from a telecoms operator to a cloud operator. In 2017, Mentha Capital joined as a new investor. Daan harboured international ambitions and in 2018, with fresh capital, he took the first step, with the acquisition of the Dutch company Motto Communications.  With the acquisitions of Belgium Telecom and DSD Business Internet earlier this year and further additional acquisitions planned for later in the year, he is continuing to work on Destiny’s local and European ambitions. The company now has more than 160 staff, more than 12,000 business customers and revised predicted turnover of 65 million euros for 2019.

Destiny, founded in 2008, is a provider of cloud communications solutions, focusing mainly on small and medium-sized innovative enterprises. With more than 160 employees spread across Belgium and the Netherlands, and an annual turnover in 2018 of 42 million euros, the telecoms company has developed into the fastest-growing cloud and telecoms player on the Belgian B2B market.

Using the Destiny cloud interaction platform, companies can communicate more efficiently with any device, from anywhere, thanks to the seamless blend of telecoms and IT in the underlying architecture. Destiny thereby offers very flexible and scalable solutions, which are a perfect match for the current needs of the customer and which can also be adapted to future needs.

Destiny’s proprietary network guarantees speed and advanced service for more than 12,000 business customers, including reputable companies such as Cevora, Democo, DPD, Ecover, Gabriëls, Interparking, Katoen Natie, McDonald’s, Standaard Boekhandel, Würth and ZEB.