Author: Tatjana Anderer

London/Munich – AURELIUS, a global private equity inves­tor known for its opera­tio­nal approach, has reached an agree­ment to acquire Hain Inter­na­tio­nal, the U.K. and Euro­pean busi­ness unit of Hain Celes­tial Group (NASDAQ: HAIN).

Hain Inter­na­tio­nal is a leading Euro­pean plat­form in the healthy and “better-for-you” food and beverage cate­go­ries and has a port­fo­lio of market-leading brands as well as exten­sive private-label capa­bi­li­ties. The company opera­tes in six core cate­go­ries: Baby & Kids (Ella’s Kitchen), spreads & jellies (Hartley’s, Sun-Pat, Robertson’s, Frank Cooper’s, and Rose’s), soups (New Covent Garden Soup Co., York­shire Proven­der, and Cully & Sully), plant-based bever­a­ges (Joya, Natumi, and Lima), meat alter­na­ti­ves (Linda McCart­ney), and desserts. With seven produc­tion faci­li­ties in the United King­dom, Germany, and Austria, Hain Inter­na­tio­nal supplies leading food retail­ers, discoun­ters, food­ser­vice opera­tors, and B2B custo­mers in the United King­dom, Ireland, and conti­nen­tal Europe. The company employs appro­xi­m­ately 1,500 people and gene­ra­tes annual reve­nue of about €600 million. 

The acqui­si­tion of Hain Inter­na­tio­nal will create an inde­pen­dent Euro­pean food and beverage busi­ness with leading brands and produc­tion capa­bi­li­ties across various cate­go­ries. With the support of AURELIUS Water­Rise, the company’s opera­tio­nal advi­sory team, Hain Inter­na­tio­nal will expand its leading market posi­ti­ons, drive product inno­va­tion, broa­den its private-label part­ner­ships, and opti­mize opera­tio­nal effi­ci­ency across its entire produc­tion base and supply chain. 

“Follo­wing the acqui­si­ti­ons of Xylem Inc. and Grain­ger Inc. last year, Hain Inter­na­tio­nal is our most recent Euro­pean carve-out from a U.S.-listed conglo­me­rate. “I am proud of our teams, who have made our mid-market plat­form the prefer­red part­ner for trans­at­lan­tic carve-outs,” says Tris­tan Nagler, part­ner at AURELIUS and head of the London office. “We are very plea­sed to become the owners of Hain International’s well-known brands and look forward to working with the team.” 

Frank­furt am Main/Munich — The space company “The Explo­ra­tion Company” secu­res $450 million for a reusable space capsule — backed by Besse­mer, Atomico, EQT, and Balder­ton. WEIL advi­sed Balder­ton Capi­tal (Balder­ton), one of Europe’s leading venture capi­tal inves­tors, on the Series C funding round for The Explo­ra­tion Company GmbH (TEC). The finan­cing is subject to the usual regu­la­tory approvals.

Hélène Huby foun­ded TEC in Munich in July 2021 toge­ther with a group of engi­neers who had alre­ady gained expe­ri­ence working on Euro­pean projects such as the Orion Service Module and the ISS resup­ply vehicle ATV at Airbus and Aria­ne­Group. Since then, the company has grown to more than 550 employees in Germany, France, Italy, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. 

The Explo­ra­tion Company (TEC) is now a German-French space company that deve­lops a compre­hen­sive range of space trans­por­ta­tion solu­ti­ons, inclu­ding reusable space capsu­les and high-perfor­mance rocket engi­nes. The new funding is inten­ded, in parti­cu­lar, to further advance the deve­lo­p­ment of the reusable Nyx space capsule, which is desi­gned to dock with the Inter­na­tio­nal Space Station (ISS) and return safely to Earth. In addi­tion, the deve­lo­p­ment of the reusable, high-perfor­mance Storm rocket engine is to be accelerated. 

At $450 million, this funding round was the largest Series C finan­cing for a Euro­pean space company. The funding round was co-led by Besse­mer Venture Part­ners, Atomico, and the Scaleup Europe Fund, mana­ged by EQT, and supported by exis­ting share­hol­ders such as Balder­ton, Plural, Cherry Ventures, and Red River West. Balder­ton had alre­ady parti­ci­pa­ted as the lead inves­tor in the previous funding round in 2024 and thus remains one of the company’s key investors. 

With this advi­sory enga­ge­ment, WEIL conti­nues to expand its exper­tise in the field of venture capi­tal and reaf­firms its posi­tion in the rapidly growing aero­space sector.

Balder­ton Consul­tant: WEIL

The tran­sac­tion team was led by Private Equity Part­ner Manuel-Peter Fringer (Munich) and included Part­ner Niklas Brüg­ge­mann (Regu­la­tory, Munich) as well as asso­cia­tes Manuel Schmutz­ler, Hannah Bisch­off (both Private Equity, Munich), and Lucas Valio Otto­witz (Regu­la­tory Affairs, Munich). — www.weil.com
About WEIL

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,200 attor­neys. WEIL has offices in New York, Austin, Boston, Brussels, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, Los Ange­les, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, San Fran­cisco, Washing­ton, D.C., and Sili­con Valley. In Germany, the U.S.-based firm is repre­sen­ted by two offices in Frank­furt and Munich. Here, the firm focu­ses on provi­ding specia­li­zed coun­sel to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients in cross-border private equity and M&A tran­sac­tions, high-profile liti­ga­tion matters, complex restruc­tu­rings and finan­cings, as well as tax planning.

Frank­furt am Main – Milbank LLP advi­sed LEA Venture­part­ner GmbH & Co. geschlos­sene Invest­ment­kom­man­dit­ge­sell­schaft (“LEA”) on the merger of Aleph Alpha GmbH (“Aleph Alpha”) and Cohere Inc. (“Cohere”). The new company will operate under the name Cohere, with head­quar­ters in Toronto and Berlin, ther­eby crea­ting the first trans­at­lan­tic sove­reign AI solution. 

V14 is advi­sing Burda Prin­ci­pal Invest­ments on the merger of Aleph Alpha and Coher. V14 has previously advi­sed Burda Prin­ci­pal Invest­ments on Aleph Alpha’s Series B finan­cing round and on subse­quent addi­tio­nal equity invest­ments in Aleph Alpha. 

The merger brings toge­ther two leading provi­ders of enter­prise AI and lays the foun­da­tion for meeting the growing demand for secure, compli­ant, and sove­reign AI solu­ti­ons. Aleph Alpha has estab­lished a strong market posi­tion by provi­ding trust­wor­thy AI solu­ti­ons for busi­nesses and public-sector orga­niza­ti­ons. Cohere comple­ments these capa­bi­li­ties with its enter­prise-focu­sed AI plat­form and the Command model family, which enables orga­niza­ti­ons to deploy advan­ced AI within their own infra­struc­ture while main­tai­ning control over their data. 

As an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner, LEA supports foun­ders and manage­ment teams at various stages of deve­lo­p­ment in their growth and in achie­ving a leading market posi­tion. Since 2002, LEA has successfully supported more than 140 tech­no­logy compa­nies. — The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial terms of the tran­sac­tion. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to the neces­sary regu­la­tory approvals. 

LEA Consul­tant: MILBANK 

Led by Dr. Michael Bern­hardt (Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt);
Asso­cia­tes Stef­fen Post and Maxi­mi­lian Huber (both Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt).

About Milbank

Milbank LLP is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm foun­ded in New York City in 1866. Today, Milbank has 1,100 attor­neys and 11 offices in Europe, the U.S., Latin America, and Asia, repre­sen­ting the world’s most important finan­cial and busi­ness centers. Milbank’s global advi­sory services focus on finance, tran­sac­tions, and liti­ga­tion. The first Euro­pean office was opened in London in 1979, follo­wed by Frank­furt am Main in 2001 and Munich in 2004. Through close colla­bo­ra­tion between the German offices and attor­neys at other Milbank offices—particularly in London and New York—who specia­lize in finance, corpo­rate, anti­trust, and tax law, Milbank Germany offers its clients inte­gra­ted legal coun­sel in these core areas in accordance with German, English, and U.S. law at the highest level. — www.milbank.com

Düssel­dorf – Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”) announ­ces its part­ner­ship with qbees GmbH (“qbees”), a specia­li­zed German provi­der of busi­ness-criti­cal mana­ged services and soft­ware solu­ti­ons for the finan­cial services indus­try. Through qbees, Main is inves­t­ing in a highly attrac­tive and dyna­mi­cally growing market charac­te­ri­zed by strong struc­tu­ral growth drivers, sustainable recur­ring reve­nue models, and incre­asing demand for the opera­tion and outsour­cing of regu­la­ted and busi­ness-criti­cal IT infrastructure. 

qbees was foun­ded in 2020 and is head­quar­te­red in Ohlstadt, Germany. The company is a specia­li­zed provi­der of mana­ged services and soft­ware solu­ti­ons for the finan­cial services indus­try. It supports banks, stock exch­an­ges, and fintech compa­nies in opera­ting busi­ness-criti­cal IT systems and, through its combi­na­tion of mana­ged appli­ca­tion services, infra­struc­ture services, soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment, and tech­no­logy consul­ting, occu­p­ies a unique posi­tion at the inter­sec­tion of finan­cial services and finan­cial IT. Thanks to its compre­hen­sive exper­tise in regu­la­ted finan­cial market envi­ron­ments, the company ensu­res the secure, regu­la­tory-compli­ant, and highly resi­li­ent opera­tion of busi­ness-criti­cal IT infrastructures. 

qbees’ exten­sive exper­tise in the finan­cial services sector, its long-stan­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships, and its estab­lished market posi­tion in highly regu­la­ted finan­cial market envi­ron­ments create a strong foun­da­tion for the next phase of growth. As a trus­ted tech­no­logy part­ner, qbees supports banks, stock exch­an­ges, and fintech compa­nies in opera­ting busi­ness-criti­cal IT infra­struc­tures and appli­ca­ti­ons. Main will support qbees and its expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team during the next phase of growth, contri­bu­ting its exten­sive exper­tise in scaling soft­ware and IT services companies. 

Toge­ther with Main, the company plans to further drive its growth through addi­tio­nal invest­ments in product inno­va­tion, expan­sion into new markets, and a targe­ted inter­na­tio­nal buy-and-build strategy.

Sven van Berge Henegou­wen, Mana­ging Part­ner and Head of DACH at Main, said: “We have closely follo­wed qbees’ deve­lo­p­ment and are impres­sed by the company’s unique posi­tio­ning, its highly specia­li­zed service port­fo­lio, and its proven track record in deli­ve­ring busi­ness-criti­cal solu­ti­ons to clients in regu­la­ted envi­ron­ments. We are convin­ced that qbees is excep­tio­nally well-posi­tio­ned to capi­ta­lize on the growing demand for secure IT opera­ti­ons services in the finan­cial sector. We view the company as an excel­lent addi­tion to our port­fo­lio and look forward to working with the manage­ment team to support the next phase of growth.”

Michael Spind­ler, CEO of qbees, added: “At qbees, we combine an engineer’s mind­set with a deep under­stan­ding of the finan­cial indus­try. Our clients trust us to take respon­si­bi­lity for the IT systems on which their busi­nesses depend. This requi­res tech­ni­cal exper­tise, prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons, and close colla­bo­ra­tion. With Main Capi­tal Part­ners, we aim to build on this foun­da­tion, invest in our team, and further deve­lop our services. Main brings the expe­ri­ence and network to support us on this jour­ney. Our goal is to grow while remai­ning true to what makes qbees qbees: tech­ni­cal curio­sity, a prac­ti­cal approach, and part­ner­ships built on trust.”

About qbees GmbH

qbees, head­quar­te­red in Ohlstadt, Germany, is a specia­li­zed provi­der of IT and mana­ged services focu­sed on the finan­cial sector. The company serves banks, stock exch­an­ges, fintechs, and other regu­la­ted orga­niza­ti­ons, combi­ning compre­hen­sive finan­cial indus­try exper­tise with a holi­stic mana­ged services offe­ring to support secure, compli­ant, and highly resi­li­ent IT infra­struc­tures. qbees plays a crucial role in ensu­ring the relia­ble opera­tion of business-critical
systems. — https://qbees.io/

About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a soft­ware inves­tor that mana­ges private equity funds in the Bene­lux count­ries, the DACH region, the Nordics, France, the United King­dom, and North America, with appro­xi­m­ately 12.0 billion EUR in assets under manage­ment. Main has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams of its port­fo­lio compa­nies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to drive profi­ta­ble growth and build leading soft­ware groups. Main employs appro­xi­m­ately 105 people in offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp, Paris, London, and a branch office in Boston. Main’s active port­fo­lio compri­ses more than 55 soft­ware compa­nies with a combi­ned work­force of over 15,000 employees. — www.main.nl

Vienna (Austria)/Hamburg — Wiener Börse AG is acqui­ring an 80% stake in North Data GmbH. North Data aggre­ga­tes publicly available corpo­rate infor­ma­tion from nume­rous regis­tries and sources and pres­ents it in a digi­tal, struc­tu­red, and user-friendly format. RSM Ebner Stolz advi­sed Wiener Börse AG on the tran­sac­tion by conduc­ting finan­cial and tax due diligence. 

As the region’s leading infra­struc­ture provi­der, Wiener Börse AG opens the door to global markets. It brings toge­ther the Vienna and Prague stock exch­an­ges. Listed compa­nies bene­fit from maxi­mum liqui­dity, while inves­tors enjoy fast and cost-effec­tive trading thanks to its posi­tion as market leader. The Vienna Stock Exch­ange coll­ects and distri­bu­tes price data and calcu­la­tes the key indi­ces for a dozen markets in the region. Thanks to its unique exper­tise, the natio­nal stock exch­an­ges in Buda­pest, Ljubljana, and Zagreb also rely on the Vienna Stock Exchange’s IT services. In addi­tion, it holds stakes in other energy exch­an­ges and clea­ring houses in the region, and now also in the company search engine North Data GmbH. 

North Data, head­quar­te­red in Hamburg, opera­tes a digi­tal plat­form for corpo­rate infor­ma­tion. The company aggre­ga­tes publicly available data from nume­rous natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal sources, struc­tures it, and makes connec­tions between compa­nies and indi­vi­du­als trans­pa­rent. Its offe­rings are aimed, among others, at users in the fields of compli­ance, risk manage­ment, sales, and data-driven services. The busi­ness model includes freely acces­si­ble content, subscrip­tion-based premium offe­rings, and data services provi­ded through inter­faces and data exports, among other means. North Data provi­des infor­ma­tion on compa­nies from 26 Euro­pean count­ries and combi­nes broad digi­tal reach with a scalable, data-driven busi­ness model. 

Wiener Börse AG is acqui­ring an 80% stake in North Data. With this tran­sac­tion, Wiener Börse aims to expand its exis­ting range of infor­ma­tion and data services and create addi­tio­nal trans­pa­rency in unlis­ted markets. Foun­der and CEO Frank Felix Deba­tin will retain a stake in the company and will conti­nue to support its future development. 

Advi­sors to Wiener Börse AG: RSM Ebner Stolz

Bektan Güler (Project Mana­ger, Tran­sac­tion Advi­sory Services), Tobias Papen­thin, Gustav Anton Stint­zing (all Finan­cial Due Dili­gence), Tobias Bake­berg (Part­ner, M&A Tax), Daniel Hach­mann (both Tax Due Diligence)

About RSM Ebner Stolz

RSM Ebner Stolz is one of the largest inde­pen­dent mid-sized audi­ting and consul­ting firms in Germany. The company ranks among the top ten in the indus­try and poss­es­ses broad exper­tise in audi­ting, tax, legal, and manage­ment consul­ting. With this multi­di­sci­pli­nary consul­ting approach and over 2,900 employees across 15 loca­ti­ons, RSM Ebner Stolz—as one of the market leaders serving small and medium-sized businesses—advises natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal indus­trial, commer­cial, and service compa­nies across all industries. 

As a member of RSM Inter­na­tio­nal, RSM Ebner Stolz offers its clients high-quality audit and consul­ting services in 120 count­ries world­wide through more than 500 offices.

Heil­bronn – HyIm­pulse Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH (“HyIm­pulse”), a leading Euro­pean launch services company that deve­lops and provi­des subor­bi­tal and orbi­tal launch capa­bi­li­ties based on proprie­tary propul­sion tech­no­logy, announ­ced a Series A exten­sion of its Series A finan­cing tota­ling more than 50 million euros in equity. This mile­stone reflects the strong confi­dence of new and exis­ting inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors in the company’s tech­no­logy, commer­cial progress, and long-term vision of streng­thening Europe’s sove­reign access to space. 

The round was co-led by JOIN Capi­tal and Ace Capi­tal Part­ners, with parti­ci­pa­tion from new inves­tors, inclu­ding North Ventures, BW-Capi­tal, and Bayern Kapi­tal, as well as the German Aero­space Center (DLR), supple­men­ted by contin­ued support from exis­ting share­hol­ders, inclu­ding Campus Foun­ders Ventures. This brings the company’s total equity and public funding to more than 125 million euros. 

The funding will acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment and commer­cia­liza­tion of HyImpulse’s port­fo­lio of launch services, inclu­ding the second SR75 launch from the Saxa­Vord Space­port by the end of 2026 and the maiden flight of the SL1 launch vehicle, as well as expan­ding produc­tion capa­city and scaling up commer­cial opera­ti­ons across Europe and beyond. It will also streng­then the company’s posi­tion in key growth markets, inclu­ding custo­mi­zed and respon­sive satel­lite launch services, space mobi­lity, and subor­bi­tal rese­arch and defense applications. 

Dr. Chris­tian Schmie­rer, co-foun­der and CEO of HyIm­pulse: “This finan­cing reflects our inves­tors’ confi­dence in our team, our tech­no­logy, and our busi­ness vision. Europe needs inde­pen­dent, flexi­ble, and econo­mic­ally sustainable launch capa­bi­li­ties. Our proprie­tary hybrid propul­sion tech­no­logy, along with our subor­bi­tal and orbi­tal services, enable us to meet the growing demand in the commer­cial, insti­tu­tio­nal, and defense markets.”

“Europe needs not only more rockets, but also a launch cost struc­ture that actually works,” said Jan Borg­städt, foun­ding part­ner of JOIN Capi­tal. “HyIm­pulse has deve­lo­ped a funda­men­tally leaner rocket archi­tec­ture: about half the number of compon­ents, a cost reduc­tion to half per kilo­gram, and signi­fi­cantly lower capi­tal requi­re­ments to reach orbit. The company has alre­ady proven the tech­no­logy in flight. That’s why we parti­ci­pa­ted in this funding round.” 

Shimon Tsent­si­per of ACE Capi­tal Part­ners explai­ned: “We were very impres­sed by how Dr. Chris­tian Schmierer’s team achie­ved key mile­sto­nes with limi­ted resour­ces. Today’s space launch market is suffe­ring from signi­fi­cant excess demand, parti­cu­larly for afforda­ble, purpose-built launches—and HyIm­pulse offers a ground­brea­king solu­tion to this bott­len­eck. We are proud to join the inves­tor group and support the company as it beco­mes the market leader in this segment.”

Estab­li­shing Europe’s Inde­pen­dent Access to Space and Subor­bi­tal Hyper­so­nic Capa­bi­li­ties Access to space is beco­ming incre­asingly important for Europe’s econo­mic compe­ti­ti­ve­ness, tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty, and secu­rity. HyImpulse’s proprie­tary hybrid propul­sion tech­no­logy combi­nes non-explo­sive paraf­fin fuel with liquid oxygen, offe­ring a safe, cost-effec­tive, and scalable alter­na­tive to conven­tio­nal kero­sene-based systems. The lower system comple­xity and redu­ced number of compon­ents enable safer, more respon­sive launch opera­ti­ons and compe­ti­tive launch econo­mics, support­ing afforda­ble and sove­reign access to space. HyIm­pulse alre­ady opera­tes a commer­cial subor­bi­tal plat­form, the SR75 subor­bi­tal launch vehicle. 

Follo­wing its first flight campaign at the Koonibba Test Range in South Austra­lia in 2024, the company is prepa­ring for its next SR75 launch from the Saxa­Vord Space­port in Scot­land. HyImpulse’s SR75 and the broa­der goals of the subor­bi­tal road­map aim for launch capa­bi­li­ties of up to Mach 15 and ranges of up to 10,000 kilo­me­ters, ther­eby addres­sing growing demand from governments. 

Commer­cial Momen­tum in a Growing Market

The global market for commer­cial launch services is projec­ted to reach a volume of $32 billion by 2035, with further growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in subor­bi­tal launch services and flexi­ble launch solu­ti­ons. HyIm­pulse is bene­fiting from the growing demand for inde­pen­dent launch capa­bi­li­ties and has an order back­log of more than 350 million euros for its subor­bi­tal and orbi­tal programs. The funding will further acce­le­rate the company’s commer­cial expan­sion and tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment. — HyIm­pulse is ente­ring its next phase of growth with an order back­log of more than 350 million euros and a growing inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base. 

About HyIm­pulse Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH

HyIm­pulse Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH is a leading German manu­fac­tu­rer and systems provi­der of commer­cial rockets for subor­bi­tal and orbi­tal launch services. Its small-satel­lite launch vehic­les, featuring a unique hybrid rocket propul­sion system based on oxygen and paraf­fin, set new stan­dards in the commer­cial space sector. With over 100 employees at its loca­ti­ons in Neuen­stadt, Otto­brunn, and Glas­gow, HyIm­pulse deve­lops rockets to deli­ver commer­cial payloads effi­ci­ently, sustain­ably, and relia­bly into low Earth orbit and beyond. — www.hyimpulse.de

 

 

Frank­furt and Los Ange­les — Gibson Dunn advi­sed WndrCo on its co-invest­ment in HYROX along­side L Catter­ton in connec­tion with Infront’s acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in HYROX in part­ner­ship with HYROX’s founders.

HYROX World GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Hamburg, opera­tes a global ecosys­tem of compe­ti­ti­ons, trai­ning, and coaching cente­red around HYROX’s signa­ture fitness race format—eight one-kilo­me­ter runs alter­na­ting with eight func­tional trai­ning stati­ons. HYROX was foun­ded in 2017 by Chris­tian Toetzke, a long­time indus­try expert in the inter­na­tio­nal cycling and triath­lon scene, and Moritz Fürste, a three-time Olym­pic meda­list and world cham­pion in field hockey, and has evol­ved into a global pheno­me­non with athle­tes parti­ci­pa­ting in more than 30 countries. 

WndrCo, foun­ded in 2016 by Sujay Jaswa and Jeffrey Katzen­berg, is a U.S.-based holding company and multi-stage tech­no­logy invest­ment firm whose goal is to rethink the way people live and work. WndrCo invests in the areas of the Future of Work, consu­mer tech­no­logy, cyber­se­cu­rity, and deve­lo­per infrastructure. 

Gibson Dunn’s private equity team, led jointly by part­ners Dr. Dirk Ober­bracht (Frank­furt), Sarah Graham (Los Ange­les), and Ari Lanin (Century City), included asso­cia­tes Andreas Rief, Fabiana Ober­meier, Simon Stöhl­ker, and Tilmann Warweg (all in Frank­furt), as well as Blaine Roth (Los Ange­les) and Matt Stau­gaard (Orange County). Part­ner Attila Borsos and Asso­ciate Marcus Seete (both in Brussels) advi­sed on anti­trust matters. Part­ner Sebas­tian Schoon (Frank­furt) advi­sed on finan­cing, and Part­ner Dora Arash (Los Ange­les) advi­sed on tax matters. 

About Gibson Dunn

Gibson Dunn is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms and is ranked among the world’s top firms in indus­try surveys and by leading publi­ca­ti­ons. With more than 2,200 attor­neys in 23 offices, the firm has a global presence in all major econo­mic regi­ons. Gibson Dunn’s offices are loca­ted in Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Century City, Dallas, Denver, Dubai, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Los Ange­les, Madrid, Munich, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Beijing, Riyadh, San Fran­cisco, Singa­pore, Washing­ton, D.C., and Zurich. —

Munich, London, Boston – PSG Equity (“PSG”), a leading growth equity firm, has announ­ced the closing of its third Euro­pean fund, PSG Europe III (“PSGE III” or “the Fund”), with total commit­ted capi­tal of over 4.4 billion euros. PSG specia­li­zes in part­ne­ring with soft­ware and tech­no­logy-based service compa­nies to drive trans­for­ma­tive growth. The fund has thus reached its hard cap and recei­ved strong support from its exis­ting and new investors.
PSGE III surpas­ses its prede­ces­sor fund, which closed defi­ni­tively in Octo­ber 2023 at €2.6 billion. Subscri­bers to the Europe-focu­sed fund included, among others, govern­ment pension funds, sove­reign wealth funds, insu­rance compa­nies, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals. 

With PSGE III, PSG is conti­nuing its stra­tegy of selec­tively forming part­ner­ships with ambi­tious Euro­pean soft­ware and tech­no­logy compa­nies and support­ing them as they grow into pan-Euro­pean indus­try leaders with a global reach. The fund targets compa­nies that use AI to rede­fine enter­prise soft­ware, as well as the next gene­ra­tion of AI-native compa­nies. PSG’s most recent invest­ments in Europe include Mistral AI, Bright­Ana­ly­tics, Aikido Secu­rity, Quali­ty­Hos­ting, Emotion Mobi­lity, Nami­rial, and Glass­wall, among others. 

Accor­ding to PSG, Europe is on the cusp of a new phase of soft­ware innovation—driven by the incre­asing adop­tion of AI, growing demand for trus­ted Euro­pean tech­no­logy provi­ders, and a focus on digi­tal sove­reig­nty. PSG is convin­ced that these struc­tu­ral trends present signi­fi­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties for soft­ware provi­ders that combine deep indus­try exper­tise with Europe-focu­sed infra­struc­ture and proprie­tary data capa­bi­li­ties, while also bene­fiting from the substan­tial momen­tum of AI. 

PSG has been active in the Euro­pean market with its own team since 2019; that team now consists of 83 employees. The team includes inves­tors and func­tional soft­ware and tech­no­logy experts who work closely with the manage­ment teams of the port­fo­lio compa­nies. The team is head­quar­te­red in London and has an addi­tio­nal office in Paris. 

To date, PSG has made 43 plat­form invest­ments in Europe, comple­ted 12 (partial) exits, and closed 98 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons, with loca­ti­ons in 24 Euro­pean cities. These include the most recent exits from Sellsy, Signa­tu­rit, N2F, Artur’in, Hornet­secu­rity, and Mapal. 

Peter Wilde, Chair­man of PSG, commen­ted: “We are very plea­sed with the broad support that PSGE III has recei­ved from both exis­ting and new inves­tors world­wide. This result unders­cores the strength of PSG’s global plat­form and confirms our consis­tent and sustainable approach to value crea­tion. In doing so, we support high-growth soft­ware compa­nies with the capi­tal and opera­tio­nal resour­ces neces­sary to build endu­ring indus­try leaders.”

Mark Hastings, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer at PSG, says: “This is an exci­ting time to be working with leading soft­ware scale-ups in Europe. We see that AI is signi­fi­cantly expan­ding oppor­tu­ni­ties in the enter­prise soft­ware sector, foste­ring the next gene­ra­tion of indus­try leaders, and at the same time acce­le­ra­ting the pace of inno­va­tion among estab­lished soft­ware plat­forms. We are very much looking forward to conti­nuing to support AI-native compa­nies that have a clear tech­no­lo­gi­cal and compe­ti­tive advan­tage. At the same time, we want to help provi­ders of busi­ness-criti­cal core systems and infra­struc­ture use AI to improve exis­ting products, acce­le­rate inno­va­tion, and drive their growth.”

Dany Rammal, Mana­ging Direc­tor and Head of Europe at PSG, adds: “The closing of PSGE III marks an important mile­stone for PSG Equity and reflects our confi­dence in the momen­tum of the Euro­pean soft­ware and tech­no­logy market. We are seeing outstan­ding soft­ware and AI compa­nies emerge at an ever-faster pace in Europe. Our plat­form enables us to iden­tify what we believe are Europe’s best compa­nies and to form part­ner­ships with their foun­ders and manage­ment teams to shape them into pan-Euro­pean market leaders with global reach. As digi­tal sove­reig­nty beco­mes incre­asingly important to custo­mers, we see a major oppor­tu­nity for Europe to produce a multi­tude of inter­na­tio­nally compe­ti­tive soft­ware champions.”

About PSG

PSG Equity is a growth equity firm that helps soft­ware and tech­no­logy-enab­led service compa­nies successfully navi­gate trans­for­ma­tive growth phases, capi­ta­lize on stra­te­gic oppor­tu­ni­ties, and build high-performing teams. With a total of more than 170 plat­form invest­ments and over 550 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons, PSG Equity brings exten­sive invest­ment expe­ri­ence, deep soft­ware and tech­no­logy exper­tise, and a clear commit­ment to part­ne­ring with manage­ment teams. PSG Equity was foun­ded in 2014 and has offices in Boston, London, and Paris. For more infor­ma­tion about PSG Equity, visit www.psgequity.com.

Munich — Auto Thoma GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Burgau, has sold all of its shares to aribos group GmbH, a port­fo­lio company of AURELIUS Wachs­tums­ka­pi­tal SE & Co. KG. — A team led by Marcel Greu­bel, Senior Coun­sel at HEUKING’s Munich office, provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal coun­sel to the share­hol­ders of Auto Thoma GmbH in connec­tion with the sale of all shares to aribos group GmbH. The advice also covered the re-invest­ment by one of the sellers in the buyer group. 

Auto Thoma GmbH is a family-owned busi­ness in Burgau, Bava­ria, specia­li­zing in colli­sion repair, auto­mo­tive pain­ting, and auto­mo­tive tech­no­logy. The target company will be inte­gra­ted as the sixth acqui­si­tion into aribos group GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Hildesheim—a dyna­mi­cally growing network of repair shops specia­li­zing in colli­sion damage repairs, which curr­ently employs more than 250 people across eight loca­ti­ons in Germany. With the acqui­si­tion of Auto Thoma GmbH, the aribos group is further expan­ding its posi­tion as one of the leading full-service provi­ders of body and paint services in the German-spea­king world. 

As part of the tran­sac­tion, Harry Thoma and TT-Betei­li­gungs GmbH sold their entire stakes in the target company. As part of the tran­sac­tion, TT-Betei­li­gungs GmbH acqui­red a stake in the buyer group through a reverse invest­ment; Timo Thoma will conti­nue to serve as mana­ging direc­tor of the target company and remain actively invol­ved in its opera­ti­ons. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. 

Advi­sors and Part­ners at Auto Thoma GmbH: HEUKING

Marcel Greu­bel (Lead Attor­ney, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)
Dr. Sebas­tian Poll­meier (Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)
Mari­lena Schöck (Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)
Peter M. Schäff­ler (Tax Law, Munich)
Stepha­nie Heider-Wurm (Employ­ment Law, Munich)
Chris­toph Nöhles, LL.M. (Boston Univer­sity), (Real Estate Law, Düsseldorf)
Nico­las Pielow (Real Estate Law, Düsseldorf) 

About HEUKING

HEUKING has appro­xi­m­ately 450 specia­li­zed attor­neys, tax advi­sors, and nota­ries across a total of eight offices and provi­des advice in over 30 areas of law as a full-service law firm. Accor­ding to the Juve Reve­nue Ranking 10/2025, the firm ranks 17th among the highest-reve­nue law firms in Germany. Its natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients include medium-sized and large compa­nies in the indus­trial, commer­cial, and service sectors, as well as asso­cia­ti­ons, public enti­ties, and discer­ning private clients. — www.heuking.de

Munich — BayBG is provi­ding Wiedemann GmbH of Deggen­dorf with equity capi­tal to support its contin­ued growth. Foun­ded in 1861, the premium candle manu­fac­tu­rer is now in its sixth gene­ra­tion of leader­ship and is one of the few family-run premium candle manu­fac­tu­r­ers still produ­cing in Germany. 

In recent years, Wiedemann has moved into a new produc­tion faci­lity in Deggen­dorf and exten­si­vely moder­ni­zed its manu­fac­tu­ring opera­ti­ons. Today, the company opera­tes a highly effi­ci­ent candle factory with a sustainable and cost-opti­mi­zed energy supply. In doing so, Wiedemann has laid the ground­work for its future growth and signi­fi­cantly streng­the­ned its compe­ti­tive position. 

Against the back­drop of growing demand for premium cand­les, the company is now plan­ning its next step toward growth. The equity invest­ment from BayBG provi­des addi­tio­nal finan­cial and opera­tio­nal flexi­bi­lity to support this. 

“By moder­ni­zing our produc­tion faci­li­ties, we have laid an important foun­da­tion for further growth. The addi­tio­nal finan­cing now gives us the flexi­bi­lity to respond to rising demand and drive our contin­ued deve­lo­p­ment,” saysJuliane Wiedemann, CEO of Wiedemann Kerzen.

BayBG is support­ing Wiedemann as a long-term finan­cing part­ner on its path to contin­ued growth.

Wiedemann GmbH, based in Deggen­dorf, has been produ­cing high-quality “Made in Germany” cand­les since 1861. This sixth-gene­ra­tion family-owned busi­ness combi­nes tradi­tio­nal candle-making with modern, effi­ci­ent produc­tion and focu­ses on the premium segment. — www.kerzen.de

About BayBG

For deca­des, BayBG has been synony­mous with relia­ble equity finan­cing for Bava­rian small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses. With a total invest­ment volume of appro­xi­m­ately 364 million euros, we are among the largest equity inves­tors in Bava­ria. — Our focus is on sustainable growth and long-term part­ner­ships. As an ever­green fund, we invest without exit pres­sure, think entre­pre­neu­ri­ally, and act with a clear goal: to ensure the long-term success of our port­fo­lio companies. 

Whether it’s growth finan­cing, succes­sion plan­ning, capi­tal struc­ture opti­miza­tion, or special corpo­rate situations—we offer flexi­ble, custo­mi­zed invest­ment solu­ti­ons tail­o­red precis­ely to the needs and goals of each company. We draw on our deep under­stan­ding of busi­ness chal­lenges, many years of expe­ri­ence, and a strong network span­ning indus­try, banks, inves­tors, and public insti­tu­ti­ons. — https://baybg.com/

Hamburg – The Explo­ra­tion Company (TEC) has secu­red $450 million in the largest Series C funding round to date for a Euro­pean space company. The round was jointly led by Besse­mer Venture Part­ners, Atomico, and the Scaleup Europe Fund, which is mana­ged by EQT. In addi­tion to Cherry Ventures, other exis­ting inves­tors parti­ci­pa­ted, inclu­ding Balder­ton, Plural, and Red River West, as well as other inves­tors from Europe and the U.S. With this funding round, TEC’s total funding rises to appro­xi­m­ately $680 million. — YPOG advi­sed Cherry Ventures on The Explo­ra­tion Company’s (TEC) $450 million Series C funding round. 

The Explo­ra­tion Company deve­lops reusable space trans­por­ta­tion systems for govern­ment and commer­cial custo­mers. At the heart of its efforts is the Nyx space capsule, which is desi­gned to trans­port cargo to space stati­ons and return it safely to Earth. One plan­ned mission invol­ves docking with the Inter­na­tio­nal Space Station (ISS). In addi­tion, TEC is deve­lo­ping a high-perfor­mance rocket engine called Storm, which is inten­ded to serve as the basis for a future reusable Euro­pean heavy-lift rocket. 

Accor­ding to its own figu­res, TEC has secu­red contracts and commit­ments tota­ling more than $2 billion with public and private custo­mers world­wide. Its part­ners include, among others, the Euro­pean Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. 

“The Explo­ra­tion Company combi­nes tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment with the estab­lish­ment of a Euro­pean space infra­struc­ture. This funding round demons­tra­tes the confi­dence that exis­ting and new inves­tors have in the company’s future deve­lo­p­ment. YPOG is plea­sed to have supported Cherry Ventures in this funding round,” says Dr. Adrian Haase, a part­ner at YPOG. 

About The Explo­ra­tion Company

The Explo­ra­tion Company (TEC) is a global space company with Euro­pean roots that builds space­craft for huma­nity. The company works across natio­nal borders to promote coope­ra­tion in space and deve­lops the full range of space trans­por­ta­tion solutions—including reusable capsu­les and high-thrust engines—to trans­port cargo and, ulti­m­ately, people into space and safely back to Earth. 

TEC was foun­ded in 2021 by Hélène Huby and a team of expe­ri­en­ced aero­space profes­sio­nals and works with space agen­cies and commer­cial opera­tors. The company is backed by leading venture capi­tal firms and is expan­ding with loca­ti­ons in Europe, the United States, and the United Arab Emira­tes. www.exploration.space

Cherry Ventures Advi­sors: YPOG

Dr. Adrian Haase (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. Miriam Peer (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Dr. Gerrit Breet­holt (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Dr. Caro­lin Raspé (Compli­ance), Part­ner, Munich

About Cherry Ventures

Cherry Ventures is Europe’s leading early-stage venture capi­tal firm, led by a team of foun­ders and execu­ti­ves with expe­ri­ence buil­ding fast-growing compa­nies such as Spotify, Zalando, and Uber. The firm supports Europe’s boldest founders—often as their first insti­tu­tio­nal investor—and guides them through every criti­cal phase of their company’s deve­lo­p­ment, from go-to-market stra­tegy to scaling the busi­ness to buil­ding the team. We’re looking for foun­ders with a vision to deve­lop revo­lu­tio­nary technologies—whether in AI, health­care, robo­tics, consu­mer goods, or other fields—that will impact society and change the world for the better. Cherry has inves­ted in over 130 compa­nies across Europe during the pre-seed and seed phases, inclu­ding Flix, Auto1, Flaschen­post, Amboss, Manual, Numa, Moss, The Explo­ra­tion Company, Quali­f­yze, Swap, Dash0, Proxima Fusion, and Tacto. Cherry has offices in Berlin, London, and Stockholm. 

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice. The firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity and jointly crea­ting opti­mal solu­ti­ons. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion, Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in Germany for venture capi­tal, private equity, fund struc­tu­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons of distri­bu­ted ledger tech­no­logy (DLT) in finan­cial services. YPOG employs more than 180 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists as well as a notary in its offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne, Munich, Cambridge and London. — www.ypog.law

 

Munich — As one of the leading cross-border private equity and M&A confe­ren­ces , pemacom’https://pemacom.com/, will once again offer a unique plat­form for networ­king and know­ledge exch­ange in the field of cross-border mergers, acqui­si­ti­ons, and private equity invest­ments with experts from around the world.

At the pema­com (Private Equity and M&A Commu­nity) event On Septem­ber 22, 2026, leading experts from inter­na­tio­nal private equity funds, German compa­nies, insti­tu­ti­ons, and consul­ting firms will gather to discuss current market chal­lenges and deve­lo­p­ments. The focus will be on topics such as geopo­li­ti­cal deve­lo­p­ments, cross-border tran­sac­tions (parti­cu­larly between the U.S. and Europe), ESG stan­dards, digi­tal busi­ness models as well as sectors such as Defen­se/­Dual-Use and family offices.

Exper­tise: Keynotes and panel discus­sions featuring leading figu­res such as Dr. Erich Vad or Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs offer in-depth insights into the stra­te­gic direction.

Commu­nity Aspect: The appro­xi­m­ately 700 parti­ci­pants network exten­si­vely, not only during the confe­rence but also during Okto­ber­fest in Munich.

Current Rele­vance: The panels will examine speci­fic market trends, such as the role of AI and the finan­cing of defense technologies

The confe­rence will take place on Sept. 22, 2026, at the Hotel Baye­ri­scher Hof in Munich and is orga­ni­zed by the global law firm Reed Smith https://www.reedsmith.com/ in colla­bo­ra­tion with Deal­Cir­cle https://dealcircle.com/ as the main sponsors. 

 

Munich – The funds advi­sed by BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal AG (“BU”) have successfully closed a multi-asset conti­nua­tion fund with a total volume of 811 million euros. The lead inves­tors in the conti­nua­tion fund are LGT Capi­tal Part­ners and Pantheon. The fund is desi­gned to conti­nue the part­ner­ship with Safety21 and Online­prin­ters and to support both compa­nies in their next phase of growth with long-term capi­tal. This will enable further acqui­si­ti­ons while also giving both compa­nies the time to further expand their posi­ti­ons as leading market players. 

The tran­sac­tion gene­ra­ted signi­fi­cant inte­rest among exis­ting and new insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Exis­ting inves­tors had the option of conti­nuing their invest­ment through the conti­nua­tion fund or selling all or part of their invest­ment to realize liqui­dity. This allo­wed them to struc­ture their invest­ment flexi­bly in line with their respec­tive invest­ment objectives. 

Both compa­nies conti­nue to have signi­fi­cant poten­tial for value growth. Against this back­drop, the Conti­nua­tion Fund repres­ents the opti­mal owner­ship struc­ture to support their next phase of deve­lo­p­ment over the long term. 

Safety21 – Buil­ding a Leading Euro­pean GovTech Plat­form for Traf­fic Safety and Smart Mobility

Since part­ne­ring with BU in 2021, Safety21 has evol­ved into Italy’s leading GovTech plat­form for traf­fic safety and smart mobi­lity. This growth was driven by the successful expan­sion of major conces­si­ons, a consis­t­ently imple­men­ted buy-and-build stra­tegy, and the modu­lar, proprie­tary soft­ware plat­form TitanO. During BU’s invest­ment period, reve­nue and EBITDA nearly tripled. Today, the company serves more than 700 muni­ci­pa­li­ties under long-term contracts and gene­ra­tes a high propor­tion of recur­ring revenue. 

These are supported by Safety21’s own exten­sive IoT infra­struc­ture and in-depth regu­la­tory exper­tise. Against the back­drop of ongo­ing digi­ta­liza­tion trends and nume­rous addi­tio­nal growth opportunities—including the expan­sion of exis­ting conces­si­ons, further market conso­li­da­tion, cross-selling oppor­tu­ni­ties, and inter­na­tio­nal expansion—Safety21 is excep­tio­nally well-posi­tio­ned to evolve into a leading Euro­pean GovTech plat­form for traf­fic safety and smart mobility. 

Online­prin­ters – Driving the Next Phase of Indus­try Consolidation

Since part­ne­ring with BU, Online­prin­ters has grown into one of Europe’s leading online prin­ting plat­forms and now serves more than one million small and medium-sized custo­mers. Driven by orga­nic growth and targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons, reve­nue and EBITDA have tripled since BU’s invest­ment. With its diffe­ren­tia­ted and value-enhan­cing stra­tegy of acqui­ring custo­mer port­fo­lios from smal­ler prin­ting compa­nies, Online­prin­ters syste­ma­ti­cally inte­gra­tes them into its highly auto­ma­ted produc­tion and fulfill­ment plat­form. This results in signi­fi­cant effi­ci­ency and sustaina­bi­lity bene­fits. With an expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team and further attrac­tive growth opportunities—both orga­ni­cally and through M&A—Onlineprinters is excep­tio­nally well-posi­tio­ned to conti­nue driving the conso­li­da­tion of a large and frag­men­ted market and to build Europe’s leading online prin­ting platform. 

Phil­ipp Struth, a part­ner at BU, says: “Safety21 and Online­prin­ters are two outstan­ding compa­nies with strong manage­ment teams and attrac­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties to conti­nue their growth both orga­ni­cally and through stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons. At BU, we see oursel­ves as a long-term part­ner to entre­pre­neurs and manage­ment teams. That is why we conti­nue to support compa­nies even beyond tradi­tio­nal invest­ment hori­zons when we still see signi­fi­cant poten­tial for value crea­tion. The Conti­nua­tion Fund enables us to conti­nue on this shared jour­ney and actively support both compa­nies in their next phase of growth.”

Caro­line Schim­mel­busch, Part­ner of Capi­tal Forma­tion at BU, adds: “We thank our exis­ting and new inves­tors for their trust and are very plea­sed to be working toge­ther with LGT Capi­tal Part­ners and Pantheon as lead inves­tors in the conti­nua­tion fund. The tran­sac­tion offe­red our exis­ting inves­tors the flexi­bi­lity to either realize liqui­dity or parti­ci­pate in the next phase of value crea­tion along­side BU. We look forward to support­ing the contin­ued growth and long-term deve­lo­p­ment of Safety21 and Online­prin­ters toge­ther with the inves­tors in the conti­nua­tion fund.”

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Whar­ton & Garri­son LLP served as legal counsel.

Ever­core served as the exclu­sive finan­cial advi­sor for the transaction.

About Bregal Entre­pre­neu­rial Capital

BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) is a leading private equity firm with offices in Zug, Munich, Amster­dam, Milan, and London. With more than €7 billion in assets under manage­ment (AUM), BU is the largest mid-cap inves­tor head­quar­te­red in the DACH region. The funds advi­sed by BU focus on invest­ments in mid-sized compa­nies in the DACH region and adja­cent markets. With a mission to be the prefer­red part­ner for entre­pre­neurs and family-owned busi­nesses, BU focu­ses on part­ner­ships with market leaders and “hidden cham­pi­ons” that have strong manage­ment teams and growth poten­tial. Since its foun­ding in 2015, the funds advi­sed by BU have inves­ted in more than 180 compa­nies with nearly 32,000 employees. This has resul­ted in the crea­tion of more than 11,000 jobs. BU supports entre­pre­neurs and fami­lies as a stra­te­gic part­ner in further deve­lo­ping, inter­na­tio­na­li­zing, and digi­tiz­ing their compa­nies, and helps them create sustainable value respon­si­bly and with an eye toward the next generation. 

About LGT Capi­tal Partners

LGT Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading global specia­list in alter­na­tive invest­ments with over $110 billion in assets under manage­ment and more than 750 insti­tu­tio­nal clients in 50 count­ries. An inter­na­tio­nal team of over 950 employees mana­ges a broad spec­trum of invest­ment programs focu­sed on private markets, multi-alter­na­ti­ves, and diver­si­fy­ing stra­te­gies, comple­men­ted by sustainable and impact invest­ments. Head­quar­te­red in Pfäf­fi­kon (SZ), Switz­er­land, the company has offices in San Fran­cisco, New York, Dublin, London, Paris, The Hague, Luxem­bourg, Frank­furt am Main, Vaduz, Dubai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singa­pore, and Sydney. — www.lgtcp.com

About Pantheon

For more than 40 years, Pantheon has been one of the leading inves­tors in the private markets sector—from invest­ments in primary funds and co-invest­ments to secon­dary tran­sac­tions in the asset clas­ses of private equity, infra­struc­ture, and private credit. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.pantheon.com. Pantheon works globally with insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors of all sizes, as well as a growing number of wealth advi­sors and private inves­tors. As of Decem­ber 31, 2025, the company mana­ged appro­xi­m­ately $84 billion in discre­tio­nary assets. Drawing on its many years of expe­ri­ence and a global team of invest­ment experts in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, Pantheon invests with a clear focus on sustainable value crea­tion and a commit­ment to secu­ring long-term finan­cial pros­pects for its investors.

Munich/Wuppertal – The Munich-based invest­ment firm Para­gon Part­ners is inves­t­ing in the contin­ued growth of Babtec Infor­ma­ti­ons­sys­teme GmbH. The two share­hol­ders, Michael Flun­kert and Waios Kasta­nis, will retain their stakes in the company and will guide the next phase of its deve­lo­p­ment toge­ther with Paragon. 

Babtec is a leading provi­der of inte­gra­ted quality manage­ment soft­ware in the DACH region. Foun­ded in 1994 and head­quar­te­red in Wupper­tal, the company brings toge­ther product, process, and orga­niza­tion-wide quality on a unified plat­form for quality manage­ment (QMS) and inte­gra­ted manage­ment systems (IMS)—from proac­tive quality plan­ning and risk analy­sis in product deve­lo­p­ment, through inspec­tion, complaint, and audit manage­ment, to colla­bo­ra­tion with suppliers. 

With over 30 years of indus­try expe­ri­ence, Babtec serves more than 1,300 custo­mers in quality-criti­cal indus­tries and employs appro­xi­m­ately 230 people at loca­ti­ons in Germany, Austria, Switz­er­land, and Spain.

From a tech­no­lo­gi­cal stand­point, Babtec has always been one of the industry’s leading inno­va­tors: Through the Babtec­Qube cloud plat­form, compa­nies and their suppli­ers colla­bo­rate directly in shared quality processes—an approach that is unique in the market. With the new AI agent Quorix, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence is making its way into daily quality work­flows: Quorix analy­zes docu­ments and defect images, supports complaint proces­sing, and provi­des users with context-speci­fic assistance—directly within the plat­form, while the user reta­ins decis­ion-making autho­rity. At the same time, Babtec is driving forward the expan­sion of its cloud and subscrip­tion offerings. 

“In Para­gon, we have found a part­ner with a long-term perspec­tive who reco­gni­zes the poten­tial of our plat­form and shares our vision. The fact that we are both remai­ning share­hol­ders sends a clear signal: We believe in the next phase of Babtec—in the strength of our team, our tech­no­logy, and our custo­mer relationships—and we are shaping it toge­ther with Para­gon,” say Michael Flun­kert and Waios Kasta­nis, part­ners and co-CEOs of Babtec.

“Quality is incre­asingly beco­ming a compe­ti­tive factor for indus­trial compa­nies, and Babtec, with its end-to-end plat­form, is built precis­ely for that purpose,” says Chris­tian Bettin­ger, a part­ner at Para­gon Part­ners. “Toge­ther with the share­hol­ders and manage­ment, we aim to acce­le­rate the cloud and AI road­map, drive natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, and support Babtec with capi­tal, our network, and opera­tio­nal expertise.”

The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

About Babtec

Babtec is a leading provi­der of inte­gra­ted soft­ware for quality manage­ment (QMS) and inte­gra­ted manage­ment systems (IMS) in the DACH region. Since 1994, the Wupper­tal-based company has been setting stan­dards in the digi­tiza­tion of quality proces­ses and today supports more than 1,300 compa­nies in consis­t­ently mana­ging quality across products, proces­ses, and the supply chain—from plan­ning to networked colla­bo­ra­tion with suppli­ers. — www.babtec.de

About Para­gon

Para­gon is an owner-mana­ged, private group of compa­nies that has been inves­t­ing in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since its foun­ding in 2004. Para­gon works closely with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to ensure sustainable growth and improve opera­tio­nal proces­ses. The Para­gon port­fo­lio spans various indus­tries and curr­ently compri­ses 12 compa­nies. Para­gon is head­quar­te­red in Munich and curr­ently mana­ges over €2.4 billion in equity capi­tal. Further infor­ma­tion about the company is available at www.paragon.de. —

Berlin — GÖRG advi­sed CODE Capi­tal on the legal design and struc­tu­ring of the inde­pen­dent early-stage fund. CODE Capi­tal was foun­ded by Stephan Scham­bach and Younes Ouaqasse. The fund is struc­tu­red as an inde­pen­dent invest­ment vehicle within the frame­work of the Berlin-based CODE Univer­sity of Applied Sciences. 

CODE Capi­tal is aiming for a fund size of 10 million euros and focu­ses on invest­ments in the early pre-seed phase. Initial invest­ments range from 50,000 to 100,000 euros. As a first-check inves­tor, the fund targets tech­no­logy-orien­ted foun­ders from the CODE Univer­sity startup ecosys­tem who play a key role in shaping the tech­no­lo­gi­cal foun­da­tion of their compa­nies them­sel­ves. Key invest­ment areas include, in parti­cu­lar, AI soft­ware, tech­ni­cal infra­struc­ture, deep tech, and quan­tum-secure encryption. 

An inde­pen­dent invest­ment commit­tee prepa­res the invest­ment decis­i­ons. Bright­point Capi­tal Invest GmbH has been manda­ted to manage the fund. Prof. Dr. Julia Köhn, profes­sor of entre­pre­neur­ship at CODE Univer­sity as well as a serial entre­pre­neur and inves­tor, mana­ges the fund as gene­ral partner. 

CODE Univer­sity of Applied Scien­ces is a private univer­sity specia­li­zing in compu­ter science, data science, and cyber­se­cu­rity. It serves as the fund’s entre­pre­neu­rial hub and has an exten­sive network of students, alumni, and startup teams. 

A GÖRG team led by Hamburg-based part­ner Prof. Dr. Stephan R. Göthel advi­sed CODE Capi­tal on legal struc­tu­ring and tax matters.

Advi­sors to CODE Capi­tal Vintage 2026 GmbH & Co. KG: GÖRG Part­ner­ship of Attor­neys mbB
Prof. Dr. Stephan R. Göthel, LL.M. (Cornell) (Lead Advi­sor, Part­ner, Corpo­rate Law/Venture Capi­tal, Hamburg)
Dr. Adal­bert Rödding, LL.M. (Part­ner, Tax, Cologne)
Dr. Holger Dann, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Tax, Cologne)
Felix Schmidt (Senior Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate Law/Venture Capi­tal, Hamburg)

Wildpoldsried/Munich/Vienna – The SYSTABUILD Soft­ware Group, a BU port­fo­lio company and leading Euro­pean plat­form for soft­ware solu­ti­ons in the cons­truc­tion and trades sectors, is acqui­ring a majo­rity stake in Network Dimen­si­ons GmbH, based in Vienna. Foun­ded in 1997, the company deve­lops MEGABAU, an ERP solu­tion for the cons­truc­tion indus­try, and is one of the estab­lished specia­lists in the commer­cial and opera­tio­nal manage­ment of cons­truc­tion compa­nies in German-spea­king countries. 

Network Dimen­si­ons comple­ments the SYSTABUILD Soft­ware Group’s ERP soft­ware port­fo­lio. MEGABAU combi­nes project manage­ment, resource plan­ning, and finan­cial manage­ment into a single solu­tion based on Micro­soft Dyna­mics 365 Busi­ness Central—tailored to the proces­ses of cons­truc­tion and indus­trial compa­nies, ranging from buil­ding cons­truc­tion and civil engi­nee­ring to wood, steel, and metal fabri­ca­tion, as well as buil­ding services, earthwork, as well as demo­li­tion and recy­cling. Network Dimen­si­ons has custo­mers in Germany, Austria, Switz­er­land, and Italy. 

At the same time, company foun­der Günther Schwai­ger is fina­li­zing his busi­ness succes­sion plan after nearly 30 years. He is over­see­ing the tran­si­tion as part of a struc­tu­red process within the execu­tive manage­ment team. Florian Thur­ner, previously mana­ging part­ner of the subsi­diary ND Projects GmbH in Villach, is joining as a co-part­ner and mana­ging direc­tor and is reinves­t­ing his previous stake into the new structure. 

The SYSTABUILD Soft­ware Group is one of Europe’s leading plat­forms for soft­ware solu­ti­ons in the cons­truc­tion and trades sectors. Foun­ded in 2022, the group brings toge­ther specia­li­zed soft­ware compa­nies across the three value-chain areas of Specify (CAD, BIM, and engi­nee­ring), Fabri­cate (CAM, MES, and machine control), and Orchest­rate (ERP, service, and busi­ness soft­ware), combi­ning local market exper­tise with a centra­li­zed tech­no­logy infra­struc­ture, AI-powered deve­lo­p­ment proces­ses, and group-wide go-to-market excel­lence. Head­quar­te­red in Wild­polds­ried, the group serves more than 22,000 custo­mers with over 450 employees. The group includes Acies, Compass Soft­ware, Digi­Para, E‑KOMPLET, GLASER, Haus­mann & Wynen, Huse­mann & Fritz, SEMA, SORBA, and WGsystem. 

About Bregal Entre­pre­neu­rial Capital

BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) is a leading private equity firm with offices in Zug, Munich, Amster­dam, Milan, and London. With more than €7 billion in assets under manage­ment (AUM), BU is the largest mid-cap inves­tor head­quar­te­red in the DACH region. The funds advi­sed by BU focus on invest­ments in mid-sized compa­nies in the DACH region and neigh­bor­ing markets. With a mission to be the prefer­red part­ner for entre­pre­neurs and family-owned busi­nesses, BU focu­ses on part­ner­ships with market leaders and “hidden cham­pi­ons” that have strong manage­ment teams and growth poten­tial. Since its foun­ding in 2015, the funds advi­sed by BU have inves­ted in more than 180 compa­nies with nearly 32,000 employees. In the process, more than 11,000 jobs have been crea­ted. BU supports entre­pre­neurs and fami­lies as a stra­te­gic part­ner in further deve­lo­ping, inter­na­tio­na­li­zing, and digi­tiz­ing their compa­nies, and helps them create sustainable value respon­si­bly and with an eye toward the next gene­ra­tion. — https://www.bu-partners.de/

Munich – The commer­cial law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus advi­sed Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners on the sale of the autma­tec Group to HOCHTIEF Aktiengesellschaft.

Since Maxburg’s acqui­si­tion in 2023, autma­tec has expe­ri­en­ced dyna­mic growth and signi­fi­cantly increased its reve­nue and earnings. At the same time, the company has syste­ma­ti­cally expan­ded its tech­ni­cal capa­bi­li­ties, regio­nal presence, and opera­tio­nal struc­tures. With its acqui­si­tion by HOCHTIEF, autma­tec is stra­te­gi­cally well-posi­tio­ned for the next phase of growth and can further streng­then its role in the expan­sion of Germany’s energy infra­struc­ture. autma­tec is a leading German gene­ral contrac­tor for the cons­truc­tion, reha­bi­li­ta­tion, and main­ten­ance of 110-kV and 380-kV over­head power lines. The company offers trans­mis­sion and distri­bu­tion system opera­tors throug­hout Germany a compre­hen­sive range of services, from site prepa­ra­tion and foun­da­tion work to tower cons­truc­tion and line instal­la­tion, as well as project management. 

Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners is an invest­ment firm focu­sed on the German-spea­king region, with multi­ple funds and total assets under manage­ment of appro­xi­m­ately 1 billion euros. Foun­ded by expe­ri­en­ced entre­pre­neurs and inves­tors, the firm makes long-term invest­ments in medium-sized compa­nies, taking a flexi­ble approach across the entire capi­tal struc­ture. Maxburg provi­des between 10 and 100 million euros per transaction. 

The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the Fede­ral Cartel Office.

Legal Coun­sel, Maxburg: Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich

Dr. Heiner Feld­haus (Part­ner, Lead Attor­ney), Dr. David Negen­born (Salary Part­ner), Matthias Uelner (Coun­sel, Lead Attor­ney), Tobias Berg­meis­ter (Asso­ciate) (all Corpo­rate / M&A), Thomas Becker, LL.M. Eur. (Of Coun­sel, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Anja Schmidt (Asso­ciate, Banking / Finance)
Pusch Wahlig Work­place Law, Munich: Ingo Sappa (Part­ner), Lisa Want­zen (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, both Employ­ment Law)
Kind & Drews, Düssel­dorf: Dr. Ernesto Drews (Part­ner, Tax Law)
Blom­stein, Berlin: Dr. Elisa Hauch (Part­ner, Compe­ti­tion and Anti­trust Law)

Legal advice for the other sellers:
MOOG Part­ner­schafts­ge­sell­schaft mbB, Darm­stadt: Dr. Tobias Moog (Part­ner), Dr. Bernd Pfert­ner (Senior Advisor)
Legal coun­sel to HOCHTIEF Aktiengesellschaft:
M&A Team at Fieldfi­scher, Hamburg: Dr. Sebas­tian Kamm (Part­ner), Jonas Klima (Coun­sel), Maxi­mi­lian Franz (Senior Associate)

About Gütt Olk Feldhaus

Gütt Olk Feld­haus is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm based in Munich. We provide compre­hen­sive advice on commer­cial and corpo­rate law. Our prac­tice areas include corpo­rate law, M&A, private equity, and finan­cing. Gütt Olk Feld­haus also hand­les liti­ga­tion in these areas. — www.gof-partner.com

 

Geneva / Paris – AMCO | CPM acqui­res Green-ty Advi­sory, a Paris-based corpo­rate treasury consul­ting firm, and expands its Office-of-the-CFO plat­form to include corpo­rate treasury. Green-ty’s consul­tants come from corpo­rate treasury, invest­ment banking, and industry—not just from consulting—and work closely with treasu­r­ers on both day-to-day opera­ti­ons and trans­for­ma­tion projects. 

The company covers the entire treasury value chain: inte­rim support in the front, middle, and cash/back offices; orga­niza­tion, secu­rity, and effi­ci­ency of the treasury func­tion; as well as treasury system projects and their admi­nis­tra­tion. The part­ners are actively invol­ved in the French treasury commu­nity, inclu­ding the AFTE. 

With this acqui­si­tion, AMCO | CPM is expan­ding its offe­rings for the Office of the CFO beyond plan­ning, finan­cial closing, conso­li­da­tion, taxes, ESG, and report­ing to include corpo­rate treasury—an area the group had previously outsour­ced to specia­li­zed part­ners. Green-ty will retain its exis­ting team and conti­nue its current opera­ting model, while expan­ding its treasury exper­tise through AMCO | CPM’s presence in Europe, the Asia-Paci­fic region, the Middle East, and Africa. 

Édouard Nguyen (ESCP Busi­ness School) and Denis Pantel (ENISE, Centrale Paris, HEC Busi­ness School), who foun­ded Green-ty in 2020, conti­nue to lead the firm. Both made the tran­si­tion from the market side to consul­ting: Édouard came from a back­ground in finance in invest­ment banking and later in corpo­rate treasury, while Denis moved into market risk manage­ment for corpo­ra­ti­ons after fifteen years in invest­ment banking. 

Alex Constan­ti­nescu, CEO and Co-foun­der, AMCO | CPM: “Treasury is the part of the Office of the CFO that we haven’t been able to cover oursel­ves until now. Green-ty brings in-depth, prac­ti­cal exper­tise in a disci­pline that directly comple­ments our exis­ting work. Édouard, Denis, and their team are first and fore­most experts and only then consultants—exactly what this work requires—and we are very plea­sed to welcome them to the group.”

Édouard Nguyen, Co-foun­der, Green-ty Advi­sory: “Joining AMCO | CPM allows us to build on a global plat­form, expand our reach both within and outside of France, and colla­bo­rate with colle­agues who serve the same client base. We’ll keep our team and our way of working, now with a signi­fi­cantly larger group behind us.”

Denis Pantel, Co-foun­der, Green-ty Advi­sory: “Since 2020, we’ve built Green-ty around a simple idea: Treasury deser­ves the same level of tech­ni­cal depth as any other finan­cial disci­pline. As part of AMCO | CPM, we can offer this exper­tise to more clients and in more regi­ons without losing what has made us successful so far.”

Green-ty Advi­sory is the latest step in AMCO | CPM’s expan­sion cente­red on the Office of the CFO, follo­wing Deut­sche Private Equity’s (DPE) invest­ment in the group in 2025 and the merger of CPM Part­ners and AMCO Solu­ti­ons in the spring of 2026.

About AMCO | CPM

AMCO | CPM is a vendor-neutral consul­ting group specia­li­zing in Corpo­rate Perfor­mance Manage­ment (CPM) that opera­tes in EMEA and APAC and supports the Office of the CFO through CFO Advi­sory, plan­ning, conso­li­da­tion, report­ing, tax, ESG, and—with the addi­tion of Green-ty Advisory—corporate treasury. The group was formed in 2026 through the merger of CPM Part­ners and AMCO Solu­ti­ons, is backed by Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE), and brings toge­ther more than 500 profes­sio­nals in EMEA and APAC who work with leading CPM ecosys­tems such as OneStream, Wolters Kluwer CCH Tage­tik, Pigment, kShut­tle, SAP, and Oracle. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.cpm.partners.

About Green-ty Advisory

Green-ty Advi­sory was foun­ded in 2020 by Édouard Nguyen and Denis Pantel and is a corpo­rate treasury consul­ting firm that serves compa­nies from offices in Paris, Rennes, and Bordeaux. Green-ty advi­ses clients on treasury proces­ses, orga­niza­tion, and treasury manage­ment systems. The company employs appro­xi­m­ately 20 consul­tants and serves more than 80 active clients across a broad range of indus­tries. Its mission, as enshri­ned in its artic­les of incor­po­ra­tion, is to share its exper­tise with clients, colle­agues, and society through a perso­nal commit­ment to equal oppor­tu­nity. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.green-ty.com.

Hamburg – Jung­hein­rich AG, one of the world’s leading provi­ders of intra­lo­gi­stics solu­ti­ons, announ­ces the launch of its first venture capi­tal fund tota­ling 100 million euros. The fund is aimed at the next gene­ra­tion of Euro­pean deep-tech foun­ders and is a key compo­nent of Jungheinrich’s long-term stra­tegy to expand its own inno­va­tive capabilities. 

Uplift Ventures plans to use the fund to invest in high-growth tech­no­logy compa­nies as well as select deep-tech venture capi­tal funds in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. The focus is on early-stage start­ups deve­lo­ping inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons in the areas of Physi­cal AI, energy, enter­prise AI, and logistics. 

A Mile­stone

The launch of the fund marks another important mile­stone in Jungheinrich’s Stra­tegy 2030+. The goal of the corpo­rate stra­tegy is to conti­nuously expand the exis­ting port­fo­lio and streng­then long-term growth through inno­va­tion, new busi­ness models, and stra­te­gic partnerships. 

“Deep-tech inno­va­tions require long-term capi­tal and part­ners who under­stand both indus­trial chal­lenges and entre­pre­neu­rial ambi­ti­ons,” says Dr. Lars Brzo­ska, CEO of Jung­hein­rich AG. “Uplift Ventures invests in the next gene­ra­tion of indus­trial tech­no­logy pioneers, making it an important stra­te­gic part­ner for Jung­hein­rich and our Stra­tegy 2030+. Close colla­bo­ra­tion with foun­ders and the expan­sion of our inno­va­tion and part­ner network are key prere­qui­si­tes for Jungheinrich’s sustainable success.”

Through Uplift Ventures, Jung­hein­rich gains important access to areas of inno­va­tion that are of parti­cu­lar signi­fi­cance for the company’s future deve­lo­p­ment. At the same time, the plat­form streng­thens colla­bo­ra­tion with tech­no­logy-orien­ted startup teams and entre­pre­neurs. The new venture capi­tal fund comple­ments the venture-buil­ding acti­vi­ties that began in 2025, ther­eby further expan­ding the Uplift Ventures platform. 

Chris­tian Noske is joining the Uplift Ventures leader­ship team as a Gene­ral Part­ner. He will be respon­si­ble for deve­lo­ping the new venture capi­tal fund. Noske has more than ten years of expe­ri­ence inves­t­ing in deep-tech compa­nies in Europe, the U.S., and China. Before joining Uplift Ventures, he led Euro­pean invest­ments at NGP Capi­tal and was a foun­ding part­ner at BMW i Ventures and Alli­ance Ventures, the venture capi­tal arm of the Alli­anz Renault-Nissan-Mitsu­bi­shi alli­ance. Throug­hout his career, he has funded more than 40 compa­nies, inclu­ding those in the fields of robo­tics, energy, aero­space tech­no­logy, auto­no­mous driving, indus­trial manu­fac­tu­ring, and logistics. 

Kerk Wich­mann (Vice Presi­dent of Corpo­rate Stra­tegy at Jung­hein­rich and Mana­ging Direc­tor of Uplift Ventures), Chris­tina Hammes (Mana­ging Direc­tor of Uplift Ventures), Maike Steding (Venture Clienting & Opera­ti­ons Lead at Uplift Ventures), and Chris­tian Noske (Gene­ral Part­ner of the Uplift Ventures Fund).

Munich — Schülke & Mayr GmbH (“Schülke & Mayr”), a hygiene and disin­fec­tion specia­list based in Norder­stedt, has acqui­red PFENNIG Reini­gungs­tech­nik GmbH (“PFENNIG Reini­gungs­tech­nik”), the leading Euro­pean specia­list in manual clea­ning systems for clean­rooms, health­care, and faci­lity manage­ment. With this acqui­si­tion, Schülke & Mayr is further expan­ding its acti­vi­ties in the life scien­ces sector and streng­thening its exper­tise in conta­mi­na­tion control for regu­la­ted phar­maceu­ti­cal and biotech envi­ron­ments. The manage­ment team at PFENNIG Reini­gungs­tech­nik is expec­ted to conti­nue guiding the company through the inte­gra­tion process. — POELLATH provi­ded legal and tax advice to the Pfen­nig family, the owners of PFENNIG Reini­gungs­tech­nik, in connec­tion with the transaction. 

PFENNIG Reini­gungs­tech­nik, based in Durach (Allgäu), is one of the leading provi­ders of clean­room clea­ning solu­ti­ons. The family-owned company’s range of services includes the deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­ture of high-quality clea­ning systems as well as comple­men­tary services. PFENNIG Reini­gungs­tech­nik combi­nes many years of indus­try exper­tise with regu­la­tory know-how and a strong presence in the Euro­pean market. 

Schülke & Mayr is one of the worl­d’s leading provi­ders in the field of infec­tion preven­tion and control. For more than 135 years, the company has been deve­lo­ping products and solu­ti­ons for the health­care, life scien­ces, over-the-coun­ter, and direct pati­ent care sectors, and supports custo­mers world­wide with compre­hen­sive stra­te­gies for infec­tion preven­tion and conta­mi­na­tion control. 

Advi­sors to the Pfen­nig family of owners in the sale of PFENNIG Clea­ning Tech­no­logy: PPLAW 

Dr. Frank Thiä­ner (Part­ner, M&A/PE, Munich)
Dr. Matthias Durst (Part­ner, Real Estate Tran­sac­tions, Berlin)
Dr. Katha­rina Hemmen, LL.M. (Part­ner, Private Clients, Frank­furt am Main)
Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax, Munich)
Dr. David Hötzel, LL.M. (San Diego) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax, Berlin)
Dr. Andreas Reuther (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Employ­ment Law, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (NYU) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Frank­furt am Main)
Dr. Katha­rina Pich­ler (Senior Asso­ciate, Private Clients, Frank­furt am Main)
Daniel Hoppen (Senior Asso­ciate, Anti­trust Law, Frank­furt am Main)
Jannis Lührs (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax, Munich)
Michael Grun­wald (Asso­ciate, Tax, Munich)
Arthur Linde­mann, LL.M., Maître en droit (Asso­ciate, M&A/PE, Munich)
Marvin Ritt­meier (Asso­ciate, M&A/PE, Munich) 

Wendel­stein (led by Part­ner Niko­laus Hofstet­ter and Senior Asso­ciate Maxi­mi­lian Ried, both from the M&A/Corporate prac­tice in Frank­furt am Main) acted as advi­sor to the buyer.

–

London — Veri­due Raises 4 Million Euros in Pre-Seed Round. — Veri­due is an AI-native plat­form for due dili­gence and M&A desi­gned speci­fi­cally for energy infra­struc­ture and is now offi­ci­ally available. The plat­form acce­le­ra­tes invest­ment and project finan­cing proces­ses. This follows two years of product deve­lo­p­ment and vali­da­tion in colla­bo­ra­tion with deve­lo­pers from the rene­wa­ble energy and data center sectors, inde­pen­dent power produ­cers (IPPs), and infra­struc­ture investors. 

The plat­form gives inves­tors a clear compe­ti­tive advan­tage: They evaluate a much wider range of oppor­tu­ni­ties, iden­tify the most attrac­tive assets, and close deals signi­fi­cantly faster. With the same team size, they can thus execute more tran­sac­tions and make decis­i­ons with grea­ter confi­dence. For deve­lo­pers, Veri­due shor­tens the path to invest­ment readi­ness and finan­cial viabi­lity. This allows both sides to act more quickly and with grea­ter care. 

The launch is backed by a $4 million pre-seed funding round—one of the largest Euro­pean pre-seed rounds for an energy soft­ware company. The round was led by Episode 1 Ventures. Other parti­ci­pants included High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) and Pi Labs, as well as promi­nent figu­res from the energy and tech­no­logy sectors, inclu­ding Came­ron Hepb­urn, co-foun­der of Aurora Energy Rese­arch, and Jeremy Palmer, former CEO of QuantumBlack. 

Market envi­ron­ment

In Europe and the U.S., demand for energy conti­nues to rise sharply—driven by data centers, elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, and a focus on energy secu­rity. There is ample capi­tal available. Howe­ver, expan­sion is being held back by slow, costly, and largely manual processes. 

More and more energy infra­struc­ture projects are seeking capi­tal, inde­pen­dent power produ­cers are shif­ting their focus from green­field deve­lo­p­ment to acqui­si­ti­ons, and inves­tors are evalua­ting a growing number of projects—a rising propor­tion of which are not econo­mic­ally viable. This makes it incre­asingly diffi­cult to iden­tify attrac­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties and to distin­gu­ish between solva­ble problems and funda­men­tal risks. 

Longer wait times for utility connec­tions, plan­ning risks, and long lead times make assets that are ready for cons­truc­tion or alre­ady in opera­tion more attrac­tive than green­field project development.

At the same time, hybrid assets—such as solar PV or wind power plants combi­ned with battery energy storage systems (BESS)—as well as regu­la­tory chan­ges are signi­fi­cantly incre­asing the comple­xity of tran­sac­tions. Co-loca­ted storage, reli­ance on merchant reve­nue, and combi­ned reve­nue models are leading to more chal­len­ging deals that can hardly be evalua­ted using tradi­tio­nal due dili­gence approaches. 

“The infra­struc­ture that Europe needs—renewable energy, data centers, and grid capacity—is one of the most criti­cal expan­sion projects of our gene­ra­tion. The capi­tal is there, and the projects are in the pipe­line. What has been miss­ing so far is the ability to drive tran­sac­tions forward at the speed this moment demands. This is precis­ely the chall­enge Veri­due addres­ses,” says Timo Bertsch, Invest­ment Mana­ger at High-Tech Gründerfonds.

The Veri­due Solution

“We deve­lo­ped Veri­due as the solu­tion we oursel­ves would have wanted when we were bearing the risk of such decis­i­ons. Veri­due is not just a chat­bot that you plug into a data room. It is an AI system trai­ned on a proprie­tary data­set of real tran­sac­tions and their due dili­gence results, running on an agent layer we deve­lo­ped oursel­ves that deli­vers deter­mi­ni­stic results with full tracea­bi­lity. We combine the most powerful and cutting-edge AI models with our own tech­no­logy and human exper­tise. In addi­tion, we employ leading energy experts who vali­date the AI results and contri­bute their judgment—shaped by deca­des of expe­ri­ence on all sides of such tran­sac­tions. “This gives deal teams the scala­bi­lity and speed of AI without compro­mi­sing the due dili­gence for which they are respon­si­ble,” says Daniel Csonth, CEO and foun­der of Veridue.

Veri­due was foun­ded in 2024 by Daniel Csonth and Xander van den Eela­art. Csonth previously worked as an invest­ment consul­tant for the energy sector at McKin­sey, where he advi­sed on energy M&A tran­sac­tions tota­ling more than $10 billion in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. As Head of Data Science at SCOR, van den Eela­art was respon­si­ble, among other things, for deve­lo­ping agent-based AI for under­wri­ting insu­rance for energy assets and for contract review. Veri­due was foun­ded to funda­men­tally rethink the complex work­flows behind energy infra­struc­ture transactions. 

Veridue’s buy-side clients report the same bott­len­ecks: High tran­sac­tion volu­mes, unfe­a­si­ble projects, and overly opti­mi­stic projec­tions of project progress make it diffi­cult to iden­tify and secure quality assets with limi­ted team capa­city. Problems disco­vered too late result in unneces­sary consul­ting costs and tie up valuable time. This leads to high oppor­tu­nity costs and capi­tal left unin­ves­ted. On the sell side, it is beco­ming incre­asingly diffi­cult to secure finan­cing for complex assets or to sell projects. 

Veri­due is speci­fi­cally desi­gned for the energy infra­struc­ture sector and provi­des insti­tu­tio­nal-grade due dili­gence. With a single click, the plat­form high­lights the risks, oppor­tu­ni­ties, and insights that are criti­cal to deal teams. Custo­mers can use it to: 

Explore more oppor­tu­ni­ties and iden­tify the best assets; act with confi­dence weeks ahead of the competition—or secure the deal off-market. Close more deals, invest more capi­tal, and achieve better exits or finan­cing terms for your projects. 

Veri­due offers inves­tors, inde­pen­dent power produ­cers, lenders, and insu­r­ers tran­sac­tion pipe­line manage­ment, prio­ri­ti­zed deal recom­men­da­ti­ons based on indi­vi­dual invest­ment crite­ria, and compre­hen­sive due diligence—including an analy­sis of project development—all comple­ted in hours rather than weeks. Veri­due provi­des fami­liar formats such as due dili­gence reports and Infor­ma­tion Request Lists (IRLs).

“Teams that still conduct their due dili­gence manu­ally are alre­ady losing out to more precise and faster AI-powered compe­ti­tors. We’re seeing a high volume of tran­sac­tions, and Veri­due helps us reduce time and costs on the path to convic­tion and exclu­si­vity. This allows us to iden­tify better oppor­tu­ni­ties and invest more capi­tal in higher-quality assets,” says Daniel Szen­tir­mai, CEO of Futureal Energy Partners.

For project deve­lo­pers and sellers, Veri­due offers a free, insti­tu­tio­nal-grade data room that auto­ma­ti­cally orga­ni­zes files into a consis­tent folder struc­ture with clear file naming conventions—as well as an invest­ment readi­ness report, a vendor due dili­gence (VDD) report, and a teaser that meet the highest market stan­dards. This enables sellers to make their projects invest­ment-ready and bankable more quickly, streng­then their credi­bi­lity with buyers and lenders, and ulti­m­ately secure better offers. 

Instead of having to purchase multi­ple stan­da­lone solu­ti­ons and labo­riously compile important deal infor­ma­tion from emails, Excel trackers, PDFs, and isola­ted AI chat histo­ries, Veri­due allows all parties invol­ved in a tran­sac­tion to manage their entire process within a single AI-native solution—from origi­na­tion and deal scree­ning through the data room, Q&A, and due dili­gence, all the way to invest­ment commit­tee memos and beyond.

“What convin­ced us was the team’s deep under­stan­ding of the chal­lenges in the rene­wa­ble energy market. The foun­ders have spent two years deve­lo­ping a focu­sed, custom-built solu­tion that’s desi­gned around how energy infra­struc­ture tran­sac­tions actually work—rather than a gene­ric AI plat­form that deal teams simply can’t trust. Veri­due is a leader in a market that is expec­ted to attract at least 15 tril­lion U.S. dollars in invest­ments over the next 15 years. That’s why we’re inves­t­ing in this unique approach,” says Adrian Lloyd, Gene­ral Part­ner at Episode 1.

About Veri­due
Veri­due is the AI-native due dili­gence and M&A plat­form desi­gned speci­fi­cally for energy infra­struc­ture and data centers. It acce­le­ra­tes invest­ments and project finan­cing for inves­tors, inde­pen­dent power produ­cers (IPPs), project deve­lo­pers, lenders, and insu­r­ers: buyers increase their returns by iden­ti­fy­ing higher-quality assets and winning more deals; owners and sellers bring their projects to banka­bi­lity or a better exit faster. 

Veri­due brings slow, manual, and costly tran­sac­tion processes—which can no longer keep pace with incre­asing volume and growing complexity—into the age of AI. Throug­hout the entire life­cy­cle of a tran­sac­tion, the plat­form serves as a central source of information—from origi­na­tion and deal scree­ning through the virtual data room and Q&A to due dili­gence and beyond. 

Veri­due combi­nes the latest AI models with a proprie­tary, deter­mi­ni­stic agent layer trai­ned on thou­sands of risk factors, and a human layer that incor­po­ra­tes the judgment of its own energy tran­sac­tion specia­lists. This results in struc­tu­red data rooms, vetted tran­sac­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties, and compre­hen­sive due dili­gence comple­ted in hours rather than weeks. The result is an inde­pen­dent, objec­tive foun­da­tion for direc­ting capi­tal on a large scale toward finan­ceable energy infrastructure—and deal teams that work both faster and more thoroughly. — www.veridue.ai

About Episode 1 Ventures
Episode 1 is a London-based venture capi­tal firm that supports B2B soft­ware foun­ders in the pre-seed and seed stages in the UK and Europe—with the goal of guiding them successfully through to Series A.

Since 2013, Episode 1 has built a port­fo­lio of more than 65 compa­nies, inclu­ding Carwow, Lawhive, Ori, Raft, FatMap, Touch Surgery, Fluid­stack, CloudNC, Mimica, Pass­fort, Mantic, StackOne, and Refute. 73 percent of the port­fo­lio compa­nies subse­quently comple­ted a Series A funding round. 

What sets it apart is its hybrid approach combi­ning human exper­tise and machine analy­sis: Athena, the company’s proprie­tary AI data plat­form, was deve­lo­ped over four years by Gene­ral Part­ner Adam Shuaib, PhD. It analy­zes the digi­tal foot­print of young compa­nies based on a trai­ning data­set compri­sing more than 15,000 Euro­pean start­ups. Episode 1 uses this to iden­tify excep­tio­nal foun­ders earlier, reduce bias, and make more precise port­fo­lio decisions. 

Athena’s findings form the basis for the Outlier Quotient™—Episode 1’s approach to iden­ti­fy­ing foun­ders who defy the consen­sus and do not fit into the conven­tio­nal venture capi­tal mold: charac­te­ri­zed by early adver­sity, unusual career paths, and inde­pen­dent thinking.

More than 40 percent of the foun­ders in the Episode 1 port­fo­lio would not have been iden­ti­fied through tradi­tio­nal sourcing methods. Foun­ders with a high Outlier Quoti­ent™ are three times more likely to secure Series A funding than the indus­try average. 

 

London/Stuttgart — A multi-office HEUKING team led by Dr. Alex­an­der Schott advi­sed the Harrier Group on its acqui­si­tion of Halstan Deutsch­land GmbH. Halstan Deutsch­land conso­li­da­tes the Halstan Group’s German prin­ting opera­ti­ons. The acqui­si­tion streng­thens Harrier’s Euro­pean presence and expands its capa­bi­li­ties in specia­li­zed publi­shing segments. The tran­sac­tion is part of Harrier’s broa­der acqui­si­tion of Halstan’s prin­ting opera­ti­ons in the United King­dom and Germany, which was led by the British law firm Michel­mo­res. HEUKING’s role included provi­ding advice during the due dili­gence process in Germany, as well as draf­ting and nego­tia­ting the rela­ted German tran­sac­tion documents. 

Harrier Group is head­quar­te­red in Newton Abbot, United King­dom, and is part of the U.S.-based District Photo Group. The group specia­li­zes in print-on-demand and photo gift fulfill­ment, and as part of the District Photo Harrier Group, it ranks among the world’s largest print-on-demand specia­lists with an inter­na­tio­nal produc­tion and distri­bu­tion network. 

Halstan was foun­ded in 1919 and is the United King­dom’s leading specia­list in the produc­tion of sheet music, books, and premium notebooks.

Advi­sors to Harrier LLC: HEUKING

Dr. Alex­an­der Schott (lead coun­sel), Dr. Peter Ladwig, Marco Bahmann, LL.M. (Univer­sity of Sydney), Antje Münch, LL.M. (IP/IT), all based in Stuttgart;
Felix Noack (all Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Munich
Chris­toph Hexel, Laura-Feli­cia Bokranz, LL.M. (Univer­sity of Cape Town), (both Employ­ment Law), both Düsseldorf;
Dr. Vero­nika Straub (Real Estate & Cons­truc­tion), Stuttgart;
Dr. Stefan Jöster, LL.M. (Insu­rance Law), Cologne;
Fabian Gaffron, Simon Pommer, LL.M. (both Tax Law), both Hamburg

Stuttgart/Metzingen — A HEUKING team led by Dr. Anne de Boer provi­ded legal coun­sel to Ulm-based Adla­tus Robo­tics GmbH in connec­tion with its sale to NEURA Mobile Robots. NEURA Robo­tics and ADLATUS have been colla­bo­ra­ting since Septem­ber 2025 as part of a stra­te­gic partnership. 

HEUKING coor­di­na­ted the various share­hol­ders and finan­cial backers on behalf of Adla­tus during the sale process and assis­ted Adla­tus with the neces­sary docu­men­ta­tion. On the corpo­rate finance side, Frank Motte of Motte Consult led the nego­tia­ti­ons on behalf of the various share­hol­ders and mezza­nine inves­tors. HEUKING has been advi­sing Adla­tus on a wide range of legal matters for quite some time. 

ADLATUS Robo­tics GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Ulm, deve­lops, manu­fac­tures, and distri­bu­tes auto­no­mous service robots and offers compre­hen­sive solu­ti­ons ranging from consul­ting and project plan­ning to commis­sio­ning and trai­ning, as well as service and support. The company focu­ses on the deve­lo­p­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of auto­no­mous clea­ning solu­ti­ons that combine state-of-the-art robo­tics tech­no­lo­gies with simple and relia­ble opera­tion in daily use. 

NEURA Mobile Robots GmbH, part of the NEURA Robo­tics Group based in Metzun­gen, is a leading provi­der of auto­ma­ted guided vehic­les (AGVs) and auto­ma­ted mate­rial hand­ling solu­ti­ons. Foun­ded in 2019, NEURA Robo­tics is a global Physi­cal AI company that deve­lops tech­no­lo­gies enab­ling intel­li­gent machi­nes to learn, adapt, and work side by side with humans in the real world. 

Advi­sors to Adla­tus Robo­tics GmbH: HEUKING
Dr. Anne de Boer, LL.M. (RSA), (lead counsel),
Benja­min Birzele (both Corpo­rate Law/M&A), both in Stuttgart 

About HEUKING

With appro­xi­m­ately 450 specia­li­zed attor­neys, tax advi­sors, and nota­ries across a total of eight loca­ti­ons, HEUKING is a full-service law firm provi­ding advice in over 30 areas of law. Accor­ding to the Juve Reve­nue Ranking 10/2025, the firm ranks 17th among the highest-reve­nue law firms in Germany. Its natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients include medium-sized and large compa­nies in the indus­trial, commer­cial, and service sectors, as well as asso­cia­ti­ons, public enti­ties, and discer­ning private clients. — www.heuking.de

Berlin — YPOG advi­sed the Berlin-based fintech company Moss on its Series C funding round. Upon comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, Moss will be valued at 1 billion EUR, ther­eby achie­ving unicorn status. To date, the company has raised a total of more than 200 million EUR in funding. The Series C funding round was led by fintech specia­list Portage and included parti­ci­pa­tion from exis­ting inves­tor Cherry Ventures. 

Foun­ded in 2019, the company is deve­lo­ping an AI-powered finan­cial plat­form for Euro­pean small and medium-sized busi­nesses that offers compa­nies grea­ter trans­pa­rency and control over their finan­cial proces­ses. Among other things, the plat­form auto­ma­tes the issu­ance of corpo­rate credit cards, invoice manage­ment, and expense report­ing, and is curr­ently used by more than 5,000 compa­nies in Europe. 

Moss plans to use the funds from its Series C finan­cing round to further expand its “Finance AI” tech­no­logy plat­form. The goal is to support finance teams with key tasks such as expense and receiv­a­bles manage­ment, book­kee­ping, and monthly finan­cial state­ments. Users retain control over the AI appli­ca­ti­ons used at all times. 

“With this Series C funding round, Moss has reached an important mile­stone in its corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment. Its unicorn status unders­cores the confi­dence inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors have in the company’s busi­ness model and tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment. It has been a great plea­sure to support Moss on this jour­ney since 2021,” comm­ents Dr. Johan­nes Janning, part­ner at YPOG. 

MOSS Consul­tant: YPOG

Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Cologne
Janic Salce­das (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Paul Haren­berg (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Laura Franke (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Project Lawyer, Cologne
Matthias Kres­ser (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin

The in-house team was led by Alex­an­der Hoff­mann (Mana­ging Direc­tor & Gene­ral Coun­sel).

Munich — The two long-estab­lished bake­ries, Bäcker Görtz GmbH and Bäcke­rei Pappert, are merging to form the Brot­Wert Group. With the support of the private equity fund FSN Capi­tal VI—advised by FSN Capital—the Brot­Wert Group has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the long-estab­lished Frank­furt bakery Der Bäcker Eifler. This crea­tes a network of three family-run, long-estab­lished bakeries—Bäcker Görtz, Bäcke­rei Pappert, and Der Bäcker Eifler—with appro­xi­m­ately 500 loca­ti­ons in Nort­hern Bava­ria as well as in the Rhine-Main and Rhine-Neckar regions—one of the largest regio­nal bakery groups in Germany. 

As early as 2025, Bäcker Görtz—which was also recei­ving tax advice from POELLATH—had acqui­red the Pappert Bakery.

The goal of the Brot­Wert Group is to combine the shared strengths of the three long-estab­lished bake­ries, exch­ange expe­ri­ence and know­ledge, and conti­nue to grow with the support of FSN. At the same time, the group aims to preserve the regio­nal roots, artis­a­nal skills, and family tradi­ti­ons of the indi­vi­dual bake­ries for the long term. 

The Eifler Bakery, based in Frank­furt am Main, is one of the leading regio­nal bake­ries in the Rhine-Main area. The Eifler family will retain a stake in the company going forward; Gerhard Eifler and Michael Eifler will conti­nue to manage it. 

FSN Capi­tal, one of Nort­hern Europe’s leading private equity firms, was foun­ded in 1999 and has four offices in Oslo, Stock­holm, Copen­ha­gen, and Munich. The four funds advi­sed by FSN Capi­tal have more than four billion euros under manage­ment; for its most recent Fund VI, 1.8 billion euros were raised for invest­ments in Scan­di­na­via and the DACH region. The funds make majo­rity invest­ments in growth-orien­ted compa­nies to support them on their path to contin­ued success. 

In connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Der Bäcker Eifler and the forma­tion of the Brot­Wert Group, POELLATH provi­ded tax advi­sory services in colla­bo­ra­tion with the follo­wing Munich-based team:

Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax)
Dr. Saskia Bardens (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax)

About POELLATH

POELLATH is a leading, inter­na­tio­nally networked busi­ness and tax law firm with over 180 legal and tax profes­sio­nals in Berlin, Frank­furt, and Munich. We are commit­ted to provi­ding excel­lent advice on tran­sac­tions and asset management—covering both legal and tax matters under one roof. Our specia­li­zed prac­tice groups don’t just know the law—together with our clients, we shape best prac­ti­ces in the market. —- www.pplaw.

Frank­furt / Pullach – Triton Fund 6, mana­ged by Triton Part­ners, has signed an agree­ment to acquire United Initia­tors, a manu­fac­tu­rer specia­li­zing in active oxygen solu­ti­ons, from funds mana­ged by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe. The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary and regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted to close in the fourth quar­ter of 2026. The terms of the tran­sac­tion will not be disclosed. 

United Initia­tors (“UI”) was foun­ded in 1911, is head­quar­te­red in Pullach, Germany, and is a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty chemi­cals that serves a diverse custo­mer base of blue-chip compa­nies world­wide. UI’s products are used to initiate poly­me­riza­tion proces­ses and, due to their oxida­tive poten­tial, in a wide variety of appli­ca­ti­ons. The company employs more than 800 people and opera­tes nine produc­tion faci­li­ties and two warehou­ses in the EMEA, Ameri­cas, and APAC regions. 

The acqui­si­tion of United Initia­tors marks Triton Part­ners’ third acqui­si­tion of an indus­trial tech company this year and the seventh over­all for the Triton Fund 6.

Advi­sors to Triton: Kirk­land & Ellis, Frankfurt

, Dr. Fried­rich Schlott, Dr. Chris­tian Halàsz (both lead advi­sors), Ann-Kath­rin Zieg­ler (lead advi­sor, Munich, all Restruc­tu­ring), Dr. Alex­an­der Längs­feld (Munich, Debt Finance), Tim Nobe­reit (Munich, Tax); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Paul Päfgen (Munich), Dr. Jona­than Hain, Caro­lin Paus (Munich, all Restruc­tu­ring), Mirjam Meyer, Michael Döpp­ner, Alice Treu­le­ben-von Gans (all Private Equity/M&A), Sebas­tian Trom­pler (Munich, Debt Finance)

About Triton Partners

Triton Part­ners was foun­ded in 1997, is owned by its part­ners, and is a leading Euro­pean inves­tor specia­li­zing in mid-market compa­nies. Triton Part­ners focu­ses on inves­t­ing in compa­nies that provide busi­ness-criti­cal goods and services in its three core sectors: busi­ness services, indus­trial tech­no­logy, and healthcare. 

Triton Part­ners employs over 150 invest­ment profes­sio­nals and value-crea­tion specia­lists across eleven offices and invests through three comple­men­tary stra­te­gies: Mid-Market Private Equity, Smal­ler Mid-Cap Private Equity, and Oppor­tu­ni­stic Credit. — www.triton-partners.com

About Kirk­land

With more than 4,000 attor­neys in 24 cities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, Kirk­land & Ellis is one of the leading law firms provi­ding high-cali­ber legal services. The German team focu­ses on advi­sing clients in the areas of private equity, M&A, restruc­tu­ring, corpo­rate and secu­ri­ties law, finan­cing, and tax law. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit www.kirkland.com.

About United Initiators 

www.united-initiators.com/de

 

Paris / Frank­furt am Main — WEIL served as lead coun­sel to the Paprec Group in connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Brant­ner Green Solu­ti­ons from the Brant­ner family. The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory approvals. 

The Paprec Group, head­quar­te­red in France, is one of Europe’s leading compa­nies in the circu­lar economy sector and covers the entire waste manage­ment value chain. The inter­na­tio­nal provi­der of compre­hen­sive solu­ti­ons for waste manage­ment and green energy gene­ra­tion will operate in fifteen count­ries by the end of the year, with appro­xi­m­ately 26,000 employees at 450 loca­ti­ons. With the acqui­si­tion of Brant­ner Green Solu­ti­ons, Paprec is ente­ring five new markets in Central and Eastern Europe—Austria, Slova­kia, the Czech Repu­blic, Roma­nia, and Serbia—thereby crea­ting a strong plat­form for further growth in the region. Brant­ner Green Solu­ti­ons, a family-owned company foun­ded in 1936, is a leading waste manage­ment company in Central and Eastern Europe. It employs appro­xi­m­ately 2,500 people at 65 loca­ti­ons and serves more than 28,000 muni­ci­pal, indus­trial, and commer­cial customers. 

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details of the transaction.

Advi­sor to the Paprec Group: WEIL

The inter­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tion team was led by part­ners Andreas Holzgreve (Private Equity/M&A, Munich), Kamyar Abrar (Private Equity/M&A, Frank­furt), and Frédé­ric Cazals (Private Equity/M&A, Paris). The team also included part­ners Benja­min Rapp (Tax Law, Munich) and Ning-Ly Seng (Anti­trust Law, Paris), as well as coun­sel Julia Schö­fer (Private Equity, Munich), and asso­cia­tes Maxi­mi­lian Kucher­nig, Kevin Mägerle (both Private Equity, Munich), Maxi­mi­lian Schatz (Private Equity, Frankfurt/Munich), Ines Kova­ce­vic (Anti­trust, Paris), Daniel Reich (Tax Law, Frank­furt), Florian Strief­ler, and Nico­las von Wallis (both Tax Law, Munich).

The WEIL team was assis­ted on matters of Austrian law and other local legal regu­la­ti­ons by a Kinstel­lar team led by Horst Ebhardt and Hart­wig Kienast.

About WEIL

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,200 attor­neys. WEIL has offices in New York, Austin, Boston, Brussels, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, Los Ange­les, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, San Fran­cisco, Washing­ton, D.C., and Sili­con Valley. In Germany, the U.S.-based firm is repre­sen­ted by two offices in Frank­furt and Munich. Here, the firm focu­ses on provi­ding specia­li­zed coun­sel to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients in cross-border private equity and M&A tran­sac­tions, high-profile liti­ga­tion matters, complex restruc­tu­rings and finan­cings, as well as tax planning.

Munich/Cologne – Funds advi­sed by Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) have signed an agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in FOGTEC Brand­schutz GmbH from the foun­ding share­hol­ders and the M Cap Finance Mittel­stands­fonds. As part of the tran­sac­tion, manage­ment will retain a signi­fi­cant stake in FOGTEC and will conti­nue to lead the company on its growth trajec­tory. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details of the acquisition.

Foun­ded in 1997 and head­quar­te­red in Colo­gne, FOGTEC Brand­schutz GmbH is a leading, inno­va­tive, and rapidly growing provi­der of fire protec­tion systems based on high-pres­sure water mist for buil­dings, indus­trial faci­li­ties, data centers, tunnels, train stati­ons, and rail vehic­les. In this process, water is atomi­zed under high pres­sure into a fine mist that quickly cools fires and requi­res up to 90 percent less water than tradi­tio­nal sprink­ler systems—without chemi­cal extin­gu­is­hing agents and with signi­fi­cantly less conse­quen­tial damage. FOGTEC’s range of services extends from nozz­les, pumps, and valves to sensor tech­no­logy and control systems, as well as engi­nee­ring, instal­la­tion, main­ten­ance, and spare parts for complete fire protec­tion systems. Its custo­mers include inter­na­tio­nal rail vehicle manu­fac­tu­r­ers and rail opera­tors, as well as opera­tors of data centers, indus­trial faci­li­ties, specia­li­zed buil­dings, and tunnels. With appro­xi­m­ately 255 employees at loca­ti­ons in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, the company is targe­ting reve­nue of around 70 million euros for 2026.

DPE views FOGTEC as a highly attrac­tive group in a market where fire protec­tion is incre­asingly a deci­ding factor in terms of avai­la­bi­lity, value preser­va­tion, and sustaina­bi­lity. High-pres­sure water mist is growing signi­fi­cantly faster than the over­all market for fire protec­tion tech­no­logy, as new fire risks are emer­ging in data centers, battery storage faci­li­ties, power plants, and modern trains, and stric­ter safety and envi­ron­men­tal requi­re­ments are pushing chemi­cal extin­gu­is­hing agents out of the market. FOGTEC meets this demand through its own rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment, expe­ri­ence gained from more than 1,500 large-scale fire tests, 102 regis­tered patents, and parti­ci­pa­tion in 13 natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards committees—a combi­na­tion of certi­fi­ca­ti­ons, test data, and refe­ren­ces that clearly sets FOGTEC apart from the competition.

Toge­ther with manage­ment, DPE intends to support the company’s further deve­lo­p­ment as a stra­te­gic part­ner. The focus is on expan­ding appli­ca­tion-orien­ted sales, streng­thening the company’s inter­na­tio­nal presence, driving growth in the service and spare parts busi­ness based on instal­led systems, and making further invest­ments in rese­arch, deve­lo­p­ment, and regu­la­tory appr­ovals. Selec­tive acqui­si­ti­ons that faci­li­tate access to new markets and custo­mers or expand the range of services are inten­ded to comple­ment orga­nic growth.

FOGTEC will conti­nue to be led by its exis­ting manage­ment team: Foun­der Dirk K. Spra­kel as Chair­man of the Execu­tive Board, Rüdi­ger Kopp as Mana­ging Direc­tor for Statio­nary Systems, and Roger Dirks­meier as Mana­ging Direc­tor for Rail Systems.

Dirk K. Spra­kel, foun­der and CEO of FOGTEC, says: “Since its foun­ding, FOGTEC has grown inter­na­tio­nally and has conti­nu­ally pionee­red new appli­ca­ti­ons for water mist tech­no­logy. For the next stage of our deve­lo­p­ment, we were looking for a part­ner who thinks long-term, under­stands our tech­ni­cal focus, and supports our growth plans. DPE perfectly meets these requirements.”

Fabian Rücker, a part­ner at DPE, empha­si­zes: “As a pioneer in the field of high-pres­sure water mist, FOGTEC combi­nes a high level of tech­ni­cal exper­tise with a strong posi­tion in a growing market, making it a perfect fit for our invest­ment approach. We were parti­cu­larly impres­sed by the quality of the manage­ment team and its ability to trans­late tech­no­lo­gi­cal leader­ship into new applications.”

Fabio Adjou­dani, Direc­tor at DPE, adds: “FOGTEC has built an inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base based on its tech­no­lo­gi­cal strength—and we intend to build on that speci­fi­cally. We see signi­fi­cant poten­tial in the service and spare parts busi­ness, driven by the large instal­led base of systems, in rapidly growing end markets such as data centers, and in further inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion. To this end, we are inves­t­ing in sales, addi­tio­nal certi­fi­ca­ti­ons, and an orga­niza­tio­nal struc­ture capa­ble of sustai­ning this growth over the long term.”

Debt Finan­cing: Ares is provi­ding debt finan­cing for the transaction.

Consul­tant DPE:

DPE was advi­sed by Strategy& (Commer­cial), Alva­rez & Marsal (Finan­cial & Tax), PwC (ESG), CMS (Legal), Pöllath + Part­ners (Struc­ture), Gleiss Lutz (Anti­trust), Howden (W&I), Harris Williams (M&A), and Pava Part­ners (Debt).

About FOGTEC

The company deve­lops and supplies fire protec­tion systems for statio­nary faci­li­ties and rail vehic­les. Its tech­no­lo­gi­cal focus is on high-pres­sure water mist, in which water is finely atomi­zed under high pres­sure. Its product port­fo­lio also includes sensors, elec­tro­nic control systems, soft­ware, engi­nee­ring, instal­la­tion, main­ten­ance, and repla­ce­ment parts. These solu­ti­ons are used in buil­dings, indus­trial faci­li­ties, data centers, tunnels, train stati­ons, and trains, among other loca­ti­ons. The company holds 102 regis­tered patents and employs 255 people. FOGTEC was foun­ded in 1997 and is head­quar­te­red in Colo­gne. — www.fogtec-international.com.

About Deut­sche Private Equity

Since 2007, Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) has been a growth part­ner for mid-sized compa­nies in the German-spea­king region (DACH). DPE supports port­fo­lio compa­nies in reali­zing their full future poten­tial by provi­ding capi­tal, exper­tise, and respect for entre­pre­neu­rial initia­tive. Its invest­ment focus is on five core sectors: Busi­ness Services, Energy & Envi­ron­ment, Health­care, Indus­trial Tech­no­logy, and Soft­ware & IT Services. DPE curr­ently mana­ges assets of appro­xi­m­ately three billion euros. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.dpe.de.