REWE Group acquires stake in sugar reducer NEOH

Colo­gne — YPOG has provi­ded legal advice to REWE Group in connec­tion with its invest­ment in the Austrian NEOH AG. The invest­ment is part of a compre­hen­sive finan­cing round in which REWE Group is joined by ZINTINUS as co-lead inves­tor and Teseo Capital. 

NEOH deve­lops and markets sugar-redu­­ced confec­tion­ery and has estab­lished “Zero+”, a tech­­no­­logy-based process for sugar reduc­tion that is inten­ded to comple­tely replace indus­trial sugar. Accor­ding to the company, the tech­no­logy is indus­tri­ally scalable and can be used across all product cate­go­ries. In addi­tion to the end custo­mer busi­ness, NEOH also sells its Zero+ tech­no­logy in the B2B segment. 

With this invest­ment, REWE Group is consis­t­ently expan­ding its commit­ment in the food tech sector. The retail and tourism group selec­tively invests in tech­­no­­logy-driven compa­nies with a clear level of inno­va­tion, scaling poten­tial and rele­vance for the core busi­ness. The focus is parti­cu­larly on the areas of alter­na­tive prote­ins, fermen­ta­tion tech­no­lo­gies, inno­va­tive ingre­di­ents and tech­­no­­logy-driven food brands. 

“An inno­va­tive process meets stra­te­gic capi­tal. We are deligh­ted to have successfully advi­sed our client on the legal struc­tu­ring of this forward-looking invest­ment in the food tech sector,” says Johan­nes Janning, Part­ner at YPOG.

About VC Zinitus

The Zinti­nus food fund is said to have a volume of 150 million euros. The foun­der is the former CEO of Metro, Olaf Koch. The money comes from family offices and high-net-worth indi­vi­du­als. Nume­rous mega­trends are chan­ging the context and struc­ture of the food indus­try. The rapidly growing demand for new solu­ti­ons offers unique oppor­tu­ni­ties for new solu­ti­ons. We are deter­mi­ned to help advan­ced start-up compa­nies achieve signi­fi­cant growth. — www.zintinus.com

Consul­tant REWE: YPOG

Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Cologne
Dr. Tim Walter (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Janic Salce­das (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Cologne

The REWE Group in-house team was led by Dr. Ulrich Flei­scher (Senior Legal Coun­sel — M&A and Financing).

About REWE Group

The coope­ra­tive REWE Group is one of the leading retail and tourism groups in Germany and Europe. In 2024, the company achie­ved a total exter­nal turno­ver of over 96 billion euros. Foun­ded in 1927, REWE Group has around 380,000 employees and is present in 21 Euro­pean count­ries. Its sales lines include super­mar­kets and hyper­mar­kets under the REWE, REWE CENTER, nahkauf, BILLA, BILLA PLUS and ADEG brands, the discoun­ters PENNY and IKI, the BIPA drugs­to­res and the toom DIY stores. In addi­tion, there are the conve­ni­ence stores REWE To Go and the e‑commerce acti­vi­ties REWE Liefer- und Abhol­ser­vice as well as Zooroyal and Wein­freunde. The Lekker­land Group compri­ses the whole­sale acti­vi­ties of the corpo­rate group in the area of on-the-go supply. Under the umbrella of the DERTOUR Group, the tourism divi­sion includes over 2,000 travel agen­cies, tour opera­tors, hotel brands and online travel portals.