EMERAM: four investments in 2024, double-digit growth in 2025

Munich — EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners, one of the leading inde­pen­dent growth buy-out inves­tors for medium-sized compa­nies in the German-spea­king region, has successfully concluded the 2024 finan­cial year, which was a diffi­cult one for the indus­try. In 2024: Four invest­ments, one exit and comple­tion of fund­rai­sing for Fund II. 

Funds advi­sed by EMERAM have inves­ted in the German company Provi­tal GmbH. The company sells species-appro­priate dog and cat food in the premium segment via its specia­list advi­sors and its online store. Provi­tal is bene­fiting from the incre­asing demand for quality products. With its largest brand “Anifit”, the company has grown faster than the market in recent years and has signi­fi­cantly expan­ded its market share in Germany and Austria. 

In addi­tion, funds advi­sed by EMERAM have acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Garde­ros GmbH, a provi­der of rugge­dized router solu­ti­ons for secure data commu­ni­ca­tion and opti­mal connec­ti­vity in harsh envi­ron­ments. Garde­ros was foun­ded in 2002 as a spin-off of Siemens AG and has deve­lo­ped into a market-leading system provi­der capa­ble of supp­ly­ing large quan­ti­ties of rugge­dized routers with proprie­tary, appli­­­ca­­tion-opti­­mi­­zed soft­ware to opera­tors of criti­cal infra­struc­tures (energy networks, traf­fic moni­to­ring) and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons compa­nies worldwide. 

Acqui­si­tion of CoCo­Net AG, a provi­der of soft­ware for the digi­tal corpo­rate client busi­ness with a focus on payment tran­sac­tions and cash manage­ment, by funds advi­sed by EMERAM. The company offers stand-alone front-office solu­ti­ons that enable finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons to improve secure custo­mer proces­ses without having to change their core banking systems. CoCo­Net has contin­ued its growth trajec­tory of the last ten years and is now expan­ding from Germany into other count­ries such as Italy, the Nether­lands, the UK, Switz­er­land and Austria. 

Invest­ment in ace Group (advan­ced clean energy Group), which opera­tes as an EPC provi­der in the clean energy sector and offers corre­spon­ding services in the areas of photo­vol­taics and char­ging infra­struc­ture. The company, which emer­ged from the two indus­try cham­pi­ons HMB and Charge Cons­truct, is alre­ady Germany’s largest full-service part­ner for long-term B2B custo­mers in the rene­wa­ble energy sector. 

Exit from diva‑e

In June 2024, EMERAM sold its port­fo­lio company diva‑e to the Dutch Conclu­sion Group. Since 2015, diva‑e, with the support of EMERAM, has succee­ded in buil­ding one of the leading provi­ders of end-to-end digi­tal expe­ri­ence solu­ti­ons in the DACH market by merging a total of 12 compa­nies. diva‑e has all major CX tech­no­lo­gies (e.g. Adobe, Sales­force, SAP, Spry­ker, Scayle and Pimcore) and counts leading compa­nies such as ALDI SÜD, Alli­anz, Bent­ley, E.ON, ZF Fried­richs­ha­fen and FC Bayern Munich among its custo­mers. In the 2023 finan­cial year, diva‑e gene­ra­ted sales of around 100 million euros with over 800 employees. 

Buil­ding on this series of succes­ses, EMERAM comple­ted the fund­rai­sing for Fund II last year, from which further invest­ments will be made in the current year 2025. In the first quar­ter of 2025, ]init[ AG, a joint port­fo­lio company of EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners and Rivean Capi­tal, comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of the HBSN Group imme­dia­tely after the turn of the year. Through this acqui­si­tion of a leading specia­list for digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion in the health­care indus­try, ]init[ AG was able to expand its holi­stic port­fo­lio for end-to-end digi­tiza­tion beyond the public sector into the health­care indus­try. The acqui­si­tion crea­tes a leading digi­tal specia­list with more than 1,500 employees at 18 locations. 

Due to the contin­ued expan­sion of the port­fo­lio compa­nies, EMERAM also expects double-digit percen­tage growth for the current finan­cial year 2025.

Solid deal pipeline

EMER­AM’s deal pipe­line will remain robust in 2025. The reason for this is the clear invest­ment focus on high-growth compa­nies that want to build on the three trend themes of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, health & well­be­ing and energy tran­si­tion and conti­nue to grow. The current market envi­ron­ment in parti­cu­lar offers great poten­tial and attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for the neces­sary trans­for­ma­tio­nal change. 

Confi­dence despite a chal­len­ging environment

“The entire private equity sector contin­ued to face chal­lenges in 2024 due to a persis­t­ently vola­tile market envi­ron­ment. We are proud that our port­fo­lio once again mana­ged to achieve an outstan­ding result last year. All compa­nies signi­fi­cantly increased their turno­ver and profit. We also expect a posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment for 2025,” explains Dr. Chris­tian Näther, Mana­ging Part­ner of EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners (photo: Emeram). “With our focus on the tren­ding topics of digi­ta­liza­tion, health & well­be­ing and energy tran­si­tion, we have clearly posi­tio­ned oursel­ves to support both successful compa­nies and the German-spea­king economy and society in the neces­sary transformation.” 

More than a decade of success on the market

Since its foun­da­tion in 2012, EMERAM has acted as a spar­ring part­ner for its port­fo­lio compa­nies and their manage­ment. The company accom­pa­nies and supports the port­fo­lio compa­nies of the funds it advi­ses with capi­tal and exper­tise in day-to-day busi­ness. Here are some figures: 

- Inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion was defi­ned as a stra­te­gic goal for two thirds of all invest­ments and successfully implemented.
— A total of 34 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons were inte­gra­ted to increase value.
— The increase in the value of the invest­ments was achie­ved prima­rily through growth: the port­fo­lio compa­nies’ sales increased by an average of 134% and EBITDA by 96%.
At the same time, the number of jobs rose by an average of 47%. This not only shows the scala­bi­lity of the port­fo­lio compa­nies, but also the social respon­si­bi­lity as an entre­pre­neur. This is because more than 1,200 new, attrac­tive jobs were created.
The imple­men­ta­tion and moni­to­ring of ESG measu­res increased the corre­spon­ding ESG score by 100 percent. In terms of fund perfor­mance, the funds advi­sed by EMERAM rank in the top group of their respec­tive years. 

EMERAM funds record top performance

EMERAM Private Equity Fund I, with a volume of EUR 400 million, is curr­ently ranked in the top quar­tile with a TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In) of 2.3x. The very good deve­lo­p­ment is driven in parti­cu­lar by the strong perfor­mance of the growth buy-out segment, which compri­ses the largest share of fund invest­ments with a volume of EUR 254 million and ranks among the top 10 percent with a TVPI of 3.5x and DPI (Distri­bu­ted to Paid-In) of 2.9x. EMERAM Private Equity Fund II, which was closed in 2024, conti­nues the successful growth buy-out stra­tegy. Here too, the TVPI is alre­ady 1.5x and is ther­e­fore also in the top decile. 

About EMERAM

EMERAM is one of the leading invest­ment mana­gers for invest­ments in medium-sized compa­nies in the German-spea­king region. Funds advi­sed by EMERAM provide more than EUR 800 million in capi­tal for the deve­lo­p­ment of growth compa­nies. The invest­ment stra­tegy focu­ses on the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, health and well­be­ing and energy tran­si­tion sectors. EMERAM acts as a long-term busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment part­ner for its compa­nies and promo­tes sustainable growth (orga­nic and inor­ga­nic). In addi­tion, the focus is on the imple­men­ta­tion of holi­stic ESG concepts.

The port­fo­lio curr­ently consists of eight plat­form holdings with a total of more than 3,500 employees. In addi­tion, a total of 34 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons have acce­le­ra­ted growth and enab­led inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion. www.emeram.com