From start-up thesis to a BESIX investment: how BAO Living stayed newsworthy for six years

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CONSTRUCTION & SUSTAINABILITY · LONG-TERM POSITIONING

BAO Living designs SAM, the Smart Adaptable Module that bundles kitchen, bathroom and all utilities into one circular furniture system. Since 2018, manley has guided the Antwerp-based proptech company through every stage of its growth — from its very first product launch to the day one of Europe's largest construction groups invested in the company.

the situation

In 2018, BAO Living was a start-up built on a thesis from Antwerp Management School. Two young founders, Benjamin Eysermans and Axel van der Donk, had a prototype, one showroom in Turnhout, and 300,000 euros in early funding. No track record, no name recognition, no obvious hook for journalists.

What they did have: a concrete answer to a problem the entire construction sector felt. Homes keep shrinking and getting more expensive, construction is responsible for 40 percent of Europe's energy consumption and 36 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions, and there's a structural labor shortage. SAM solved that directly: 30 percent cheaper, faster to install, and — thanks to its modular design — perfectly suited for circular building.

The challenge for manley wasn't a single press moment. It was building a credibility that would need to hold for six years — across a product launch, two funding rounds and a product expansion — while BAO Living evolved from a proptech start-up into a scale-up in modular, circular construction.

the approach

manley chose to embed every news moment in a broader societal urgency, rather than reducing it to a corporate announcement. Not "we raised funding" or "we launched a new product," but always: why does the construction sector need this right now? As a PR agency for contech and proptech, that means anchoring the narrative not in the technology itself, but in the sector-wide pain points — construction costs, labor shortages, climate impact — that every player in real estate and construction recognizes.

For the very first launch in 2018, manley organized a press moment in BAO Living's first SAM apartment in Turnhout, with a guest appearance from Prof. Hans Verboven (Director of Sustainability and Climate Change at EY) to independently confirm the sustainability context. Journalists could see the product for themselves and interview the founders directly — not a dry press release, but a tangible experience.

At every following milestone, manley built on the same logic:

funding round 1 (2020, €750,000 from PMV)

: the story was anchored in accelerating urbanization and rising construction costs, with the investor explaining the reasoning behind the deal in their own words.

product expansion (2024, the 100% circular bathroom)

: the press release went out in both Dutch and French, and the case was featured in a broader Knack Weekend list article on sustainable living — a placement that wasn't about BAO Living alone, but positioned the company alongside established names in circular design.

funding round 2 (2024, €1.5 million from Entrevest and BESIX Group)

: alongside the founders, the investors themselves spoke on record, which made the news instantly more credible than a one-sided company claim.

Those third-party voices — a professor, an investment firm, a general manager — weren't incidental. Each time, manley had someone other than BAO Living itself confirm that the story held up.

The real turning point didn't come from a press stunt, but from who ended up investing. BESIX Group — one of the largest contractors in the world, itself part of the traditional construction sector BAO Living is trying to disrupt — joined the 2024 funding round.

That's not a minor detail. It's proof that the story manley had built over six years also held up with the party that had the most to lose from real disruption. When Thomas Vandenbergh, General Manager of BESIX Group, stated that BAO Living "will play a significant role in the transition to a circular construction economy," that was a validation no press release from BAO Living itself could ever have forced.

Across the full collaboration (2018–2024):

45

publications

€152,436

in media value

3.7 million+

in reach and impressions

Broken down by key phases:

2018–2022

(launch, funding round 1, plus two later Trends articles on digitalization in construction): 27 publications, €66,934 media value, 1,630,323 reach

2024

(bathroom launch and funding round 2): 18 publications, €85,502 media value, 2,063,639 impressions

BAO Living repeatedly secured placements in both specialized trade media (Bouwkroniek, Architectura, Interieurbouw) and leading quality outlets — De Tijd, L'Echo, Trends/Kanaal Z, Bloovi, Knack Weekend, Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Laatste Nieuws. That combination kept the company visible to both construction professionals (developers, architects, contractors) and a broader sustainability-minded audience.

BAO Living didn't have trouble getting into the press once — it needed a story that would still hold six years later, even as the company itself changed completely. By anchoring every news moment in a societal urgency (climate impact, affordability, urbanization) rather than in the milestone itself, the PR strategy stayed relevant regardless of whether the news was a product launch or a funding round.

And by having an external voice confirm what BAO Living claimed at every step — a professor, an investor, and eventually an established player like BESIX Group — the story earned a credibility the company could never have built alone. That's the difference between sending a press release and building a reputation: manley made sure BAO Living never had to prove its own story — the market did it for them.

Interior of a BAO Living home in Olen featuring the SAM module

SAM module integrated into a renovated townhouse apartment

SAM module in a shell-and-core commercial space

Press event at the launch of BAO Living

BAO Living founder explaining SAM to journalists

Photographers at work during the BAO Living press event

Journalist talking with the BAO Living founders in the SAM kitchen

manley is a strategic PR and storytelling agency based in Antwerp, active across Europe since 2014. We help organizations like BAO Living get the recognition they deserve through the media — through media relations, press releases and sharp positioning that holds up in AI search results too. As a PR agency for proptech, contech and the broader construction and real estate sector, we guide scale-ups and established players through product launches, funding rounds and thought leadership.

about manley

manley is a strategic PR and storytelling agency. We help organisations earn the recognition they deserve through the media, so their impact lands with audiences and policymakers. Since 2014 we've spotted the strongest stories inside companies and put them on the page with edge. From Antwerp, across Europe. In a world full of AI content, authentic stories are the only ones that still count.