Aretea Is Building a Cybersecurity “Buy-and-Build” Group

Berlin – YPOG advi­sed Aretea on the estab­lish­ment of its corpo­rate group specia­li­zing in cyber­se­cu­rity. The colla­bo­ra­tion included struc­tu­ring the group’s corpo­rate and tax frame­work, a finan­cing round in the summer of 2025 invol­ving Cherry Ventures and Tengel­mann Ventures, and the acqui­si­tion of five port­fo­lio companies.

As a cyber­se­cu­rity plat­form, Aretea brings toge­ther five specia­li­zed compa­nies under one roof: RedTeam Pentest­ing, iTen­tity, ujima, ERNW Networks, and ERNW Research.

The range of services extends from risk analy­ses, secu­rity audits, and secu­rity stra­te­gies to pene­tra­tion tests and Iden­tity and Access Manage­ment (IAM), as well as Mana­ged Secu­rity Services and a 24/7 Secu­rity Opera­ti­ons Center (SOC). In addi­tion, the company offers services in the areas of inci­dent response, digi­tal foren­sics, malware analy­sis, cloud secu­rity, and compli­ance. This also includes consul­ting on regu­la­tory requi­re­ments such as NIS2 and DORA, as well as stan­dards such as ISO 27001.

The two foun­ders, Max Brück­ner and Max Blome, previously worked as inves­tors at Cherry Ventures. The group is pursuing an entre­pre­neu­rial “buy-and-build” approach and aims to acquire addi­tio­nal specia­li­zed cyber­se­cu­rity companies.

“When estab­li­shing Aretea, the goal was to lay the struc­tu­ral foun­da­ti­ons for a growing corpo­rate group while also desig­ning stan­dar­di­zed proces­ses for acqui­si­ti­ons. The combi­na­tion of a venture capi­tal struc­ture and an entre­pre­neu­rial ‘buy-and-build’ stra­tegy allows Aretea to operate with excep­tio­nal agility.”

“The importance of cyber­se­cu­rity can hardly be over­sta­ted in times of global poli­ti­cal tensi­ons and incre­asingly powerful AI models. Aretea brings previously frag­men­ted services toge­ther under one roof, ther­eby enab­ling digi­tal secu­rity from a single source—a testa­ment to the poten­tial of buy-and-build stra­te­gies in the German market,” says Sjard Seeger, Senior Asso­ciate at YPOG.

Aretea Consul­tant: YPOG

Corpo­rate:
Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Sjard Seeger (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Ferdi­nand Cadmus (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin/Hamburg
Dr. Sarah Sostak (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Ciro D’Amelio (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Alex­an­dra Tafel (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin/Hamburg

Tax:
Jörg Schr­ade (Tax), Part­ner, Munich
Dr. Sebas­tian Schwarz (Tax), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Jacob Schrei­ber (Tax), Senior Asso­ciate, Munich
Dr. Anto­nia Schein­ba­cher (Tax), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Munich
Ninetta Klein­dienst (Tax), Asso­ciate, Munich

Debt:
Matthias Kres­ser (Tran­sac­tions, Debt Finan­cing), Part­ner, Berlin
Jan Stamm­ler (Tran­sac­tions, Debt Finan­cing), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Helena Dierckx (Tran­sac­tions, Debt Finan­cing), Asso­ciate, Berlin

IP/Data Protec­tion:
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Berlin
Char­lotte Petrasch (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Konstan­tina Natha­nail (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Anna Eick­meier (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin

Regu­la­tory:
Jens Kretz­schmann (Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Niklas Ulrich (Funds), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Hamburg