Author: Tatjana Anderer

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

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.

Frank­furt / London — Advent, a leading global private equity inves­tor, toge­ther with a consor­tium that includes Harbour­Vest Part­ners (“Harbour­Vest”), has reached an agree­ment to acquire FNZ Bank from FNZ. Upon comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, the inves­tors plan to support FNZ Bank in its next phase of growth—through long-term invest­ments in tech­no­logy and opera­tio­nal capa­bi­li­ties, as well as by further enhan­cing the range of products and services offe­red to its partners. 

Gibson Dunn advi­sed funds mana­ged by Advent Inter­na­tio­nal L.P. and the co-inves­tors on the acqui­si­tion of FNZ Bank.

FNZ Bank is a leading inde­pen­dent provi­der of asset manage­ment, banking, and infra­struc­ture services in Germany, with a focus on banking, cust­ody, tran­sac­tion proces­sing, and regu­la­tory services. It connects more than 50,000 finan­cial advi­sors, 200 asset mana­gers, and over 400 sales part­ners, and serves more than 2.1 million end custo­mers with assets under cust­ody tota­ling 155 billion euros. 

Given Germany’s aging popu­la­tion and the widening gap in reti­re­ment savings, private reti­re­ment plan­ning is beco­ming incre­asingly important. FNZ Bank provi­des the essen­tial infra­struc­ture that enables finan­cial advi­sors and finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons to support house­holds in buil­ding long-term wealth. Advent is convin­ced that these struc­tu­ral trends form a solid foun­da­tion for growth and will help FNZ Bank expand access to capi­tal market invest­ments throug­hout Germany. 

Ranjan Sen, mana­ging part­ner at Advent, said, “We are grateful for the trust that Blythe Masters, Group CEO of FNZ, and the entire FNZ team have placed in us in connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion of FNZ Bank in Germany.”

Advi­sors to Advent Inter­na­tio­nal L.P.: Gibson Dunn

Lead coun­sel: part­ners Dr. Wilhelm Rein­hardt (Frank­furt), Will Summers, and Michael Skou­ras (both London); asso­cia­tes Lucy Carr, Oliver Hill, Amith Damerla, and Char­lotte Deans (all London).
Munich part­ner Dr. Dennis Seif­arth led the German team, which included coun­sel Anne­kat­rin Pels­ter and asso­ciate Simon Stöhl­ker (both in Frank­furt). Frank­furt coun­sel Dr. Peter Gumnior advi­sed on employ­ment law matters. In London, Part­ner James Chand­ler advi­sed on tax matters; Part­ner Alison Beal and Asso­ciate Libby Pica advi­sed on the spin-off aspects of the tran­sac­tion; and Part­ner David Irvine and Asso­ciate Jona­than Griggs advi­sed on financing. 

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. — www.gibsondunn.com

Munich — The commer­cial law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus advi­sed NORD/LB, acting as lead arran­ger, on the compre­hen­sive refi­nan­cing of KEBOS Group GmbH. The finan­cing is being provi­ded by a banking consor­tium and includes term credit lines as well as a working capi­tal credit line. 

KEBOS has been a specia­list in water and air hygiene for over 50 years. With two main offices and 10 service loca­ti­ons in Germany, Austria, and Switz­er­land, the company offers custo­mi­zed services—ranging from Legio­nella eradi­ca­tion and the clea­ning of HVAC systems to the desca­ling of water pipes. 

NORD/LB is one of Germany’s leading commer­cial banks and is part of the S‑Finanzgruppe. As an estab­lished bank serving small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses with a focus on struc­tu­red finan­cing, it offers tail­o­red solu­ti­ons for invest­ment, corpo­rate, and acqui­si­tion finan­cing. In the private equity busi­ness, NORD/LB has many years of exper­tise in struc­tu­ring and arran­ging finan­cing. With a track record of over 200 tran­sac­tions in the small- and mid-cap segment—often as lead arranger—it is one of the most active banks in the German private equity market. 

Legal Coun­sel for NORD/LB: Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich

Dr. Tilmann Gütt, LL.M. (London) (Part­ner, Lead Coun­sel), Dr. Lucas Lengers­dorf (Coun­sel, Lead Coun­sel), and Hans-Joachim Englert (Senior Asso­ciate), all specia­li­zing in banking and finance law 

About GOF
GOF 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. — www.gof-partner.com

Munich –– McDer­mott Will & Schulte advi­sed the funds advi­sed by NORD Holding and their port­fo­lio company, 1Q Health Group, on the acqui­si­tion of the Swiss company Gelpell AG.
Gelpell specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment and contract manu­fac­tu­ring of soft gela­tin capsu­les, hard capsu­les, and vege­ta­rian capsules.

Head­quar­te­red in Switz­er­land, Gelpell offers services across the entire value chain—from product deve­lo­p­ment and contract manu­fac­tu­ring to regu­la­tory support and pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons. The company also has specia­li­zed exper­tise in the field of its paten­ted GELPELL Beads tech­no­logy. — Gelpell AG deve­lops and manu­fac­tures soft gela­tin capsu­les (soft­gels), hard capsu­les, and vege­ta­rian capsu­les on a contract basis. It offers a full range of services, from product deve­lo­p­ment and regu­la­tory support to pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons and flexi­ble batch sizes. 

The 1Q Health Group is a leading Euro­pean CDMO and deve­lo­p­ment part­ner for premium phar­maceu­ti­cals and dietary supple­ments. With the acqui­si­tion of Gelpell AG, the Group is streng­thening its presence in the DACH region and expan­ding its port­fo­lio to include soft gela­tin capsu­les. In addi­tion, exis­ting share­hol­ders Kris­tina Edvins­son and Tomas Edvins­son, as well as CEO Thomas Jager, are taking an equity stake in 1Q Health Group. 

NORD Holding is a private equity and asset manage­ment firm with appro­xi­m­ately 4 billion euros in assets under management.

McDer­mott has been advi­sing NORD Holding since the estab­lish­ment of the 1Q Health Group and, among other things, assis­ted with the acqui­si­tion of ABJ alive GmbH and HKS health solutions—which were used to create the platform—as well as the subse­quent add-on acqui­si­ti­ons of Viva­Cell Biotech­no­logy GmbH, Beauty Produc­tion GmbH, EHF Produc­tion B.V., and now Gelpell AG.

Bär & Karrer provi­ded legal coun­sel on matters of Swiss law.

Advi­sor NORD Holding: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Munich

Holger H. Ebers­ber­ger, LL.M., Dr. Thomas Diek­mann (both lead coun­sel, Private Equity); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Svenja Hefner, Tobias Thie­mann (both Private Equity)

Munich/Frankfurt am Main – Fort­ino Capi­tal, one of Europe’s leading buyout inves­tors in B2B soft­ware compa­nies, is inves­t­ing in Operations1, ther­eby driving the deve­lo­p­ment of one of Europe’s leading plat­forms for produc­tion workers in the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try. The three founders—Daniel Grobe, Benja­min Brock­mann, and Anian Ziegler—will remain on board and actively shape the company’s future direction. 

Operations1 was foun­ded in 2017 and has since become a tech­no­logy leader in soft­ware solu­ti­ons for produc­tion workers in German-spea­king count­ries. The AI-powered B2B SaaS plat­form digi­ti­zes employee-led produc­tion proces­ses end-to-end: from task plan­ning to know­ledge sharing and intui­tive process guidance, all the way to docu­men­ta­tion, real-time analy­sis, and colla­bo­ra­tive inci­dent management. 

With one of the largest custo­mer bases in the industry—comprising a total of over 160 leading indus­trial compa­nies, inclu­ding global market leaders such as ABB, Daim­ler Truck, Trumpf, Lieb­herr, and Thys­sen­krupp, as well as fast-growing tech­no­logy compa­nies such as Quan­tum Systems—Operations1 is one of Europe’s leading soft­ware provi­ders for produc­tion workers.

A Billion-Dollar Market in Flux – Struc­tu­ral Drivers for Sustainable Growth

With its invest­ment in Operations1, Fort­ino Capi­tal is conti­nuing its stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in Euro­pean B2B SaaS compa­nies that offer solu­ti­ons for busi­ness-criti­cal proces­ses and possess excel­lent prere­qui­si­tes for lever­aging AI to deli­ver even grea­ter value to custo­mers in the future. With this move, Fort­ino Capi­tal posi­ti­ons Operations1 at the center of a highly dyna­mic, future-orien­ted market within the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try. The market for soft­ware desi­gned for produc­tion workers is under­go­ing profound struc­tu­ral chan­ges. A shortage of skil­led workers, rising compli­ance requi­re­ments, and the indus­try-wide shift away from paper-based proces­ses are driving demand for scalable, digi­tal solu­ti­ons for produc­tion workers. In this compe­ti­tive land­scape, the platform’s product depth stands out: Operations1 covers work instruc­tions, main­ten­ance, quality assu­rance, and process analy­tics in a single, end-to-end solu­tion, with an imple­men­ta­tion time of just a few weeks. 

Phil­ipp Remy, Mana­ging Part­ner at Fort­ino Capi­tal, commen­ted: “It’s impres­sive what Daniel, Benja­min, Anian, and the entire Operations1 team have built since the company was foun­ded. What star­ted as a bold idea has grown into a leading plat­form in the German-spea­king world for produc­tion workers in the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try. We’ve been follo­wing this deve­lo­p­ment for a long time and are convin­ced that, with an end-to-end plat­form that maps the entire spec­trum of shop floor proces­ses, Operations1 is not just another tool, but the central plat­form for day-to-day work on the shop floor. We see a key market trend here: AI is incre­asingly taking on the work itself, rather than merely support­ing people, and Operations1 is actively shaping this very transformation—from a docu­men­ta­tion system, through a decis­ion-making system, to an action-orien­ted system. The Future Manu­fac­tu­ring Summit 2026, which Operations1 hosted with over 200 parti­ci­pa­ting compa­nies, recently demons­tra­ted just how much enthu­si­asm the indus­try alre­ady has for this tech­no­logy. A signi­fi­cant expan­sion of the event’s format is alre­ady plan­ned for 2027. In Germany alone, the addressa­ble market amounts to around 800 million euros; across Europe, the poten­tial is many times grea­ter. We are extre­mely exci­ted to write this next chap­ter toge­ther with the entire team and to actively help shape the future of connec­ted manufacturing.”

Stra­te­gic Part­ner­ship on the Path to Beco­ming a Euro­pean Champion

With the support of Fort­ino Capi­tal, Operations1 aims to consis­t­ently conti­nue its successful course and set the stage for Euro­pean market leader­ship. The focus is on three areas: further streng­thening its posi­tion in its core German-spea­king market, targe­ted expan­sion into other Euro­pean count­ries, and the conti­nuous deve­lo­p­ment of the platform’s AI capa­bi­li­ties. In its home market, the company aims to acquire new custo­mers and further expand exis­ting custo­mer rela­ti­onships, parti­cu­larly with medium-sized and large indus­trial compa­nies. At the same time, Operations1 is driving targe­ted expan­sion into attrac­tive Euro­pean growth markets and syste­ma­ti­cally expan­ding its AI-powered features. These capa­bi­li­ties build on the platform’s exten­sive opera­tio­nal data base and are desi­gned to support custo­mers even more effec­tively in opti­mi­zing their produc­tion proces­ses in the future—a key buil­ding block on the path to beco­ming the Euro­pean cham­pion in soft­ware for produc­tion workers. 

Daniel Grobe, CEO of Operations1, says: “With Fort­ino Capi­tal, we’re gaining a part­ner that perfectly aligns with our vision of shaping the future of indus­trial produc­tion as a Euro­pean soft­ware cham­pion. Since Operations1 was foun­ded, we’ve been driven by one goal: to make people’s work in manu­fac­tu­ring easier, safer, and more digi­tal, ther­eby incre­asing the produc­ti­vity and flexi­bi­lity of manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies. Today, over 160 indus­trial compa­nies alre­ady trust us—we want to build on that and, with Fort­ino Capital’s support, take our success story to the next level. In addi­tion to their tech­ni­cal and opera­tio­nal exper­tise, the “fit” on a perso­nal level was a key factor in our decis­ion to choose Fort­ino Capi­tal as our new part­ner. We are very much looking forward to this colla­bo­ra­tion and to conti­nuing Operations1’s incre­di­ble jour­ney. At the same time, we would like to take this oppor­tu­nity to thank our entire team, our custo­mers, and our exis­ting inves­tors and part­ners for their trust and for ever­y­thing we have achie­ved so far.” 

About Fort­ino Capital

Fort­ino Capi­tal, foun­ded in 2013, is one of Europe’s leading buyout inves­tors in B2B soft­ware compa­nies. Fort­ino invests in soft­ware compa­nies that provide solu­ti­ons for busi­ness-criti­cal proces­ses and supports their foun­ders and CEOs in acce­le­ra­ting the growth of their compa­nies. Fort­ino has offices in Antwerp, Amster­dam, and Munich. Its assets under manage­ment total more than 1.3 billion euros. Its private equity port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as SIMCON (DE), mpmX (DE), Ariadne (DE), Worklinq (DK), Addac­tis (BE), VanRoey (BE), Bizz­mine (BE), Efficy CRM (BE), Seenons (NL), InTouch (NL), SpeakUp (NL), Maxx­ton (NL), and Boni­ta­soft (FR). For more infor­ma­tion, visit fortinocapital.com.

About Operations1

Operations1 was foun­ded in Augs­burg in 2017 and has become the leading plat­form for produc­tion workers in the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try across German-spea­king count­ries. Using AI-powered B2B SaaS solu­ti­ons, Operations1 digi­ti­zes employee-driven produc­tion proces­ses end-to-end—from task plan­ning, know­ledge sharing, and process manage­ment to docu­men­ta­tion, real-time analy­sis, and colla­bo­ra­tive inci­dent manage­ment. More than 160 well-known indus­trial compa­nies, inclu­ding ABB, Daim­ler Truck, Trumpf, Lieb­herr, and Thys­sen­krupp, rely on the Operations1 plat­form. Toge­ther with Fort­ino Capi­tal, the company is pursuing its vision of beco­ming the leading Euro­pean cham­pion in soft­ware for produc­tion workers. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.operations1.com

Heidel­berg — The Euro­pean startup kausable has raised 12 million euros in its seed funding round to deve­lop causal AI that adapts effi­ci­ently and robustly to chan­ging contexts without the need for retrai­ning. The deep-tech startup has ties to Heidel­berg Univer­sity and Black Forest Labs (BFL), one of Europe’s most promi­nent AI compa­nies, among others. 

Inves­tors

German and Belgian inves­tors UVC Part­ners and Entou­rage are leading the round, with addi­tio­nal support from German inves­tors HTGF and Mätch VC. kausable is also backed by various private busi­ness angels from the AI indus­try and acade­mia, who work at compa­nies such as Black Forest Labs, OpenAI, Google Deep­Mind, Noxtua, and the Euro­pean Labo­ra­tory for Lear­ning and Intel­li­gent Systems (ELLIS). This funding round comes at a time when, due to geopo­li­ti­cal insta­bi­lity, stra­te­gic digi­tal sove­reig­nty and AI deve­lo­ped in and for Europe are beco­ming incre­asingly important. 

Fron­tier AI – Deve­lo­ped and Supported in Europe

“The world is evol­ving at a rapid pace, and AI should do the same. Yet even the most powerful AI systems are curr­ently still very static and require frequent, time-consum­ing, and costly retrai­ning. With kausable, we’re solving this problem by deve­lo­ping a new type of causal world model that adapts effi­ci­ently and robustly to the ever-chan­ging world. This offers enorm­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties in highly dyna­mic fields such as robo­tics, the energy sector, and finance. “We are exci­ted to work with our investors—UVC Part­ners, Entou­rage, HTGF, and Mätch VC—to advance Euro­pean AI at a pivo­tal moment,” explains Johan­nes Haux (CEO and co-foun­der of kausable). 

“The poten­tial we see here is enorm­ous: Virtually every indus­trial company relies on complex systems whose deve­lo­p­ment and opera­tion are diffi­cult to predict and control, and curr­ently, the use of AI in each of these systems is time-consum­ing and costly. kausable drasti­cally redu­ces this effort. This trans­forms AI from a series of costly indi­vi­dual projects into a solu­tion that can be scaled across the entire indus­trial land­scape; and that is precis­ely why we are leading this funding round,” empha­si­zes Andreas Unseld (part­ner at UVC Partners). 

“Most AI models are trai­ned to remem­ber the past. kausable is deve­lo­ping AI that can think about the future. Instead of rely­ing on ever-larger data­sets and constant retrai­ning, they’re taking a funda­men­tally diffe­rent approach: systems that adapt, infer causal rela­ti­onships, and solve problems they’ve never encoun­te­red before. This is an ambi­tious scien­ti­fic endea­vor and exactly the kind of ground­brea­king AI company we’re eager to support,” empha­si­zes Pieter­jan Bouten (co-foun­der of Entourage). 

From Heidel­berg Univer­sity to Pionee­ring AI Research

Johan­nes Haux (CEO), Dr. Benja­min Herde­anu (CTO), and Gregor Ramien (COO) foun­ded kausable in 2025, drawing on their rese­arch at Heidel­berg Univer­sity as well as their profes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence in start­ups and highly regu­la­ted indus­tries such as cyber­se­cu­rity and banking. That same year, they closed their pre-seed funding round at 1.5 million euros and recently deve­lo­ped TipPFN, a zero-shot-capa­ble fore­cas­ting model for complex, dyna­mic systems that predicts “black swans” (rare but far-reaching events) in various fields of appli­ca­tion, such as medi­cine or the energy sector. kausable’s “reaso­ning-first” AI learns in a way simi­lar to humans: A robust, univer­sal set of intui­ti­ons (the “world model”) helps the AI adapt quickly to chan­ges in its envi­ron­ment with mini­mal new infor­ma­tion. Toge­ther with rese­ar­chers from Colum­bia Univer­sity, the team recently published a rese­arch paper vali­da­ting their approach. 

kausable plans to use the invest­ment to expand its nine-person team and further deve­lop its Fron­tier model.

About kausable
The Heidel­berg-based AI startup kausable deve­lops causal AI that adapts auto­no­mously to new contexts without trai­ning and using mini­mal amounts of data. kausable was foun­ded in 2025 by Johan­nes Haux (CEO), Dr. Benja­min Herde­anu (CTO), and Gregor Ramien (COO), three physi­cists with ties to Heidel­berg Univer­sity and Black Forest Labs. kausable has alre­ady published a paper in colla­bo­ra­tion with experts from Colum­bia Univer­sity and deve­lo­ped TipPFN, a zero-shot-capa­ble model for predic­ting rare, high-impact events in complex dyna­mic systems. 

In 2026, kausable recei­ved 12 million euros in seed funding from Euro­pean inves­tors UVC Part­ners, Entou­rage, HTGF, and Mätch VC. In addi­tion, kausable is supported by private busi­ness angels from the AI indus­try and the acade­mic commu­nity. — www.kausable.ai

About UVC Partners

UVC Part­ners supports Europe’s most ambi­tious B2B tech foun­ders in buil­ding new market leaders. From deep tech to AI, the firm has inves­ted in promi­sing start­ups, inclu­ding Isar Aero­space, Proxima Fusion, Q.ANT, Aleph Alpha, Tacto, Flix, and FINN. 

With more than 700 million euros in assets under manage­ment, UVC Part­ners initi­ally invests up to 15 million euros in compa­nies at various stages, from early-stage to growth-stage. Over the entire term of the invest­ment, up to 30 million euros can be provi­ded per company. 

Beyond capi­tal, the invest­ment team at UVC Part­ners is a “tech team for tech teams”—it supports foun­ders in buil­ding and scaling market-leading compa­nies. Through its unique access to UnternehmerTUM—Europe’s leading inno­va­tion center—the VC offers a high-performing ecosys­tem of entre­pre­neurs, key busi­ness decis­ion-makers, and top rese­ar­chers. UVC Part­ners’ value crea­tion team provi­des direct access to a network of over 1,000 companies—potential custo­mers and stra­te­gic part­ners. — www.uvcpartners.com

About Entou­rage

Entou­rage is an early-stage venture capi­tal firm foun­ded by Pieter­jan Bouten, co-foun­der of Show­pad. Built by prac­ti­tio­ners, Entou­rage supports the next gene­ra­tion of legen­dary foun­ders from the pre-seed to seed stages in the fields of AI, robo­tics, enter­prise soft­ware, and deep tech. Entou­rage brings more than just capi­tal to the table; the team has first­hand expe­ri­ence buil­ding and scaling global tech­no­logy compa­nies. Its port­fo­lio includes ground­brea­king compa­nies such as Aikido, Lexroom, and Conveo. 

About Mätch VC

Mätch VC is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal inves­tor based in Stutt­gart that focu­ses on deep tech in the pre-seed phase. As a part­ner from the very begin­ning, the fund is usually the first name on the foun­ders’ cap table. In addi­tion to capi­tal (€50 million in fund size), Mätch VC offers a unique network of 91 family-owned busi­nesses, indus­try execu­ti­ves, and founders—including names such as Trumpf, Ritter Sport, and Fest­ool. Follow-on finan­cing rounds for port­fo­lio compa­nies are regu­larly led by global Tier‑1 funds. The port­fo­lio includes, among others, Black Forest Labs (Fron­tier AI Lab), Block­brain (modu­lar AI plat­form), Atmos Space Cargo (space tech), and XOR (cyber­se­cu­rity).  — www.maetch.vc/

Berlin — PropTech company metr Buil­ding Manage­ment Systems has secu­red a new inves­tor in SBG — Säch­si­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH. In addi­tion, Kachel GmbH (a subsi­diary of WIKA Alex­an­der Wiegand SE & Co. KG), IBB Capi­tal GmbH, BRAWO Capi­tal GmbH, Next Big Thing AG, and exis­ting busi­ness angels once again parti­ci­pa­ted in the finan­cing round. 

Ariane Neubauer, an equity part­ner at HEUKING’s Berlin office, and Dr. Henrik Lay, an equity part­ner at HEUKING’s Hamburg office, provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to metr Buil­ding Manage­ment Systems GmbH in connec­tion with its Series B finan­cing round tota­ling appro­xi­m­ately EUR 10.5 million.

In fiscal year 2025, metr increased its reve­nue by more than 80 percent compared to the previous year, achie­ved a net reten­tion rate of over 140 percent, and now serves more than 80 clients in the housing indus­try, asset manage­ment, and corpo­rate real estate sectors.

In addi­tion to the strong key metrics, the decisive factors for the invest­ment were, in parti­cu­lar, the proven product-market fit, the estab­lished tech­no­logy, and the growth poten­tial of the target market. metr is using the capi­tal to further deve­lop its tech­no­logy, expand its opera­tio­nal infra­struc­ture, and scale the plat­form further—including by estab­li­shing a hub in Saxony and prepa­ring for inter­na­tio­nal expansion. 

The Series B funding round thus marks an important mile­stone for metr

It provi­des the finan­cial foun­da­tion needed to further expand the company’s market posi­tion and initiate the next phase of growth. The company’s long-term goal is to become the leading Euro­pean plat­form for energy-effi­ci­ent exis­ting buildings. 

metr deve­lops AI-based soft­ware solu­ti­ons for opti­mi­zing energy consump­tion in exis­ting buil­dings. The plat­form combi­nes energy manage­ment and heating opti­miza­tion into a single inte­gra­ted solu­tion, enab­ling signi­fi­cant energy savings—without the need for costly retro­fits. Thanks to its univer­sal compa­ti­bi­lity with exis­ting heating systems, buil­ding owners and property mana­gers can improve the energy effi­ci­ency of their buil­dings, reduce opera­ting costs, and safe­guard property value over the long term. 

Consul­tant at metr Buil­ding Manage­ment Systems GmbH: HEUKING

Ariane Neubauer (Lead, Venture Capi­tal), Berlin,
Dr. Henrik Lay (Tax Law), Hamburg

London/Munich — The global busi­ness law firm Norton Rose Fulbright advi­sed Zenobē on its acqui­si­tion of sdp ener­gie GmbH and sdp ener­gie Austria GmbH. With the acqui­si­tion of sdp ener­gie, Zenobē is comple­ting its first corpo­rate acqui­si­tion in Germany and marking an important mile­stone in its Euro­pean growth strategy. 

London-based Zenobē is one of Europe’s leading provi­ders of energy infra­struc­ture and battery storage solu­ti­ons. The company deve­lops, finan­ces, builds, and opera­tes large-scale battery storage projects as well as solu­ti­ons for the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of vehicle fleets. With appro­xi­m­ately 1,500 MW of storage capa­city alre­ady in opera­tion or under contract, Zenobē is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal play­ers in the battery storage sector. Since its foun­ding in 2017, the company has raised more than 3.2 billion British pounds in debt and equity finan­cing. Its share­hol­ders include KKR and Infra­ca­pi­tal, among others. 

sdp ener­gie, head­quar­te­red in Schäft­larn, Bava­ria, deve­lops battery storage projects across the entire value chain—from site selec­tion and secu­ring land to permit­ting and grid connec­tion proce­du­res, all the way through to the cons­truc­tion of the faci­li­ties. The company has projects in nume­rous German states and an exten­sive deve­lo­p­ment pipe­line in the field of battery storage. 

Lead Part­ner Dr. Klaus Bader (Corporate/M&A, Munich; Head of Energy Europe) comm­ents: “With the acqui­si­tion of sdp ener­gie, Zenobē is comple­ting its first corpo­rate acqui­si­tion in Germany, marking an important mile­stone in its Euro­pean growth stra­tegy. We are very plea­sed to have advi­sed Zenobē on this signi­fi­cant step in the German market. Thanks to our many years of expe­ri­ence with battery storage and energy infra­struc­ture tran­sac­tions in Germany, as well as the close inte­gra­tion of our corporate/M&A and energy regu­la­tory exper­tise, we were able to provide Zenobē with compre­hen­sive support in this stra­te­gi­cally important acquisition.” 

Advi­sor to Zenobē: Norton Rose Fulbright

Led by Dr. Klaus Bader ( Corporate/M&A, Munich), the team also included part­ners Dr. Vale­rian von Richt­ho­fen (Energy Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Tim Scha­per (Anti­trust Law, Hamburg), Clau­dia Poslu­schny (Labor Law, Munich), and Dr. Heiko Bertel­mann (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), senior asso­cia­tes Sebas­tian Eisen­hut (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr. Tobias Teich­ner (Anti­trust Law, Hamburg), and Michaela Bach­meier (Labor Law, Munich), as well as the asso­cia­tes Dr. Jan Vogel­sang (Energy Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Markus Beil (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Marcel Gieß­ler (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Oliver Schmidt (Corporate/M&A, Munich), and Hannah Diete­rich (Employ­ment Law, Munich), as well as Tran­sac­tion Specia­list Kübra Teber (Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt).

About Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global busi­ness law firm. With more than 3,000 attor­neys across over 50 offices world­wide in Europe, the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, Austra­lia, Africa, and the Middle East, we advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies. We offer our clients compre­hen­sive advice across all major indus­tries. These include Finan­cial Insti­tu­ti­ons; Energy; Infra­struc­ture, Mining, and Commo­di­ties; Trans­por­ta­tion; Tech­no­logy and Inno­va­tion; and Life Scien­ces and Health­care. Our global Risk Advi­sory Group combi­nes this exten­sive indus­try expe­ri­ence with its exper­tise in legal and regu­la­tory matters, as well as in compli­ance and gover­nance. This enables us to offer our clients prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons to the legal and regu­la­tory risks they face. Where­ver we operate, we act in accordance with our busi­ness prin­ci­ples of “Quality, Unity, and Inte­grity.” We provide legal advice of the highest stan­dard and main­tain this level of quality in every inter­ac­tion. The Swiss Asso­cia­tion of Norton Rose Fulbright helps coor­di­nate the acti­vi­ties of Norton Rose Fulbright members but does not provide legal advice to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in over 50 cities world­wide, inclu­ding London, Hous­ton, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Johan­nes­burg. For more infor­ma­tion, visit nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices.

Munich – Quan­tum­Dia­monds GmbH (QD), one of the fastest-growing semi­con­duc­tor equip­ment compa­nies in Europe, has closed a funding round tota­ling 91 million euros to expand produc­tion of its quan­tum-based semi­con­duc­tor test­ing tech­no­logy. The finan­cing consists of a €15 million equity round led by World Fund, as well as €76 million in non-dilu­tive funding appro­ved at the EU level under the Euro­pean Chips Act. 

“This is an important step toward estab­li­shing quan­tum sens­ing in semi­con­duc­tor fabs world­wide,” said Kevin Berg­hoff, CEO and co-foun­der of Quan­tum­Dia­monds. “The response from leading chip manu­fac­tu­r­ers is clear: they view our tech­no­logy as indis­pensable for solving yield chal­lenges that cannot be addres­sed with today’s systems. With deploy­ments alre­ady under­way in the U.S. and Taiwan, as well as the ramp-up of mass produc­tion in Munich, Europe is not only parti­ci­pa­ting in the next era of chip tech­no­logy but is also play­ing a key role in shaping it.” 

The non-dilu­tive finan­cing is being provi­ded jointly by the Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy and the Free State of Bava­ria. — In addi­tion to QD’s exis­ting inves­tors —IQ Capi­tal, Early­bird, First Momen­tum, Unter­neh­mer­TUM, Crea­tor Fund, Onsight Ventures , and angel investors—Bayern Kapi­tal also parti­ci­pa­ted to a signi­fi­cant extent in the €15 million equity round led by World Fund.

The company plans to use the capi­tal to scale its technology

QD is well on its way to beco­ming the only startup to receive manu­fac­tu­ring grants under the Euro­pean Chips Act, which was crea­ted to streng­then the Euro­pean semi­con­duc­tor supply chain. This places the company among estab­lished indus­try play­ers such as Global­Found­ries and Carl Zeiss. 

The company was foun­ded in 2022 by Berg­hoff and Dr. Fleming Bruck­maier (CTO) as a spin-off from the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich. The company will use the funding to supply labo­ra­tory systems to leading chip manu­fac­tu­r­ers and to further deve­lop its wafer-level capa­bi­li­ties for inspec­tion in high-through­put manu­fac­tu­ring faci­li­ties. QD, which curr­ently employs 70 people, plans to more than double its engi­nee­ring team over the next 12 months. 

Conven­tio­nal semi­con­duc­tor testers slow down deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion because they have diffi­culty detec­ting buried defects in complex 3D chip archi­tec­tures, which redu­ces produc­tion yield and drives up costs for busi­nesses and consu­mers. The stakes are high: indus­try analy­ses show that a yield impro­ve­ment of just one percen­tage point for a mass-produ­ced product can be worth seve­ral million dollars per week. 

QD’s tech­no­logy addres­ses this key chall­enge in modern chip manu­fac­tu­ring by utili­zing defects in synthe­tic diamonds at the atomic scale to detect magne­tic fields with extreme precis­ion: Essen­ti­ally, it is a micro­scope that makes the current flowing through chips visi­ble. The company’s first commer­cial system, the QDm.1, enables non-destruc­tive 3D current mapping at the nanos­cale, ther­eby pinpoin­ting the exact loca­tion and depth of chip defects. — www.qd-st.com

Frank­furt am Main / Zurich — GÖRG advi­sed Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners on the sale of the ebutec Group’s heating, venti­la­tion, air condi­tio­ning, and refri­ge­ra­tion divi­sion to the Nordic Climate Group. The partial sale compri­ses four compa­nies with a strong regio­nal presence in nort­hern and western Germany. Ufenau conduc­ted the tran­sac­tion through Ufenau VI German Asset Light, a fund advi­sed exclu­si­vely by Ufenau. 

ebutec is a full-service provi­der of smart buil­ding energy effi­ci­ency solu­ti­ons, specia­li­zing in buil­ding enve­lo­pes, roof retro­fits, heating, cooling, venti­la­tion, and photo­vol­taics. Since Ufenau’s acqui­si­tion in 2022, the Dort­mund-based provi­der has evol­ved from a regio­nal group into an inte­gra­ted, inde­pen­dent plat­form. Today, ebutec opera­tes with over 300 employees across twelve loca­ti­ons in Germany and the Netherlands. 

The sale includes HRW Gebäu­de­tech­nik GmbH, Fried­rich Reitem­eier GmbH, Versor­gungs­tech­nik Stüve GmbH, and Karl Busch Instal­la­tio­nen GmbH, all of which are part of the port­fo­lio company. These compa­nies focus on commer­cial and indus­trial buildings. 

Through their inte­gra­tion into the Swedish Nordic Climate Group, the four compa­nies will become part of a larger corpo­rate group specia­li­zing in cooling and heating tech­no­logy as well as energy-effi­ci­ent buil­ding solu­ti­ons. The group employs appro­xi­m­ately 2,300 people in nine count­ries, inclu­ding Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, and Finland. The tran­sac­tion also marks Nordic Climate’s entry into the German market. 

The Swiss invest­ment group Ufenau has regu­larly relied on the exper­tise of Dr. Tobias Fenck and his team for tran­sac­tions in the German market for many years. As early as 2022, GÖRG advi­sed Ufenau as part of its part­ner­ship with ebutec, and now, with a team led by Frank­furt-based attor­neys Dr. Tobias Fenck and Florian Mayer, it provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal support for the sale of the unit to the Nordic Climate Group. In addi­tion to corporate/M&A, the inter­di­sci­pli­nary advi­sory team also covered, in parti­cu­lar, the areas of tax, labor law, finan­cing, real estate law, anti­trust law, and IP/IT.

About Ufenau Capi­tal Partners

Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent Swiss invest­ment group based on Lake Zurich that focu­ses on acqui­ring majo­rity stakes in service compa­nies in the DACH region, as well as in Spain, Portu­gal, Poland, Bene­lux, the UK, and the U.S., which operate in the sectors of busi­ness services, IT services, educa­tion & life­style, health­care services, and finan­cial services. Since 2011, Ufenau has inves­ted in appro­xi­m­ately 500 service compa­nies world­wide. Ufenau has over 5 billion euros in assets under management. 

Advi­sor to Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners: GÖRG Part­ner­ship of Attor­neys mbB

Dr. Tobias Fenck (Lead Coun­sel, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main), Florian Mayer, M.A. (Lead Coun­sel, Asso­ciate Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main), Phil­ipp Albert (Senior Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main), Dr. Adal­bert Rödding, LL.M. (Part­ner, Tax, Colo­gne), Dr. Karl-Georg Küsters, LL.B., LL.M. (Coun­sel, Tax, Colo­gne), Florian Knoll (Asso­ciate, Tax, Colo­gne), Florian Seidl (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Employ­ment Law, Frank­furt am Main), Thomas Lange (Part­ner, Finance, Colo­gne), Jannik Gese­kus (Asso­ciate, Finance, Colo­gne), Katha­rina Meeser (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Real Estate, Colo­gne), Mete­han Uzun­çak­mak, LL.M. (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Anti­trust, Colo­gne), Dr. Valen­tin Zipfel (Asso­ciate Part­ner, IP/IT, Frank­furt am Main)

London (UK) – Bain Capi­tal, a global private invest­ment firm, announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of Supp­lyOn, a supply chain colla­bo­ra­tion plat­form for the auto­mo­tive, aero­space, and defense indus­tries, as well as other advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring sectors across Europe, from its share­hol­ders AUMOVIO, Bosch, Schaeff­ler, and ZF. Kirk­land & Ellis advi­sed Bain Capi­tal Tech Oppor­tu­ni­ties on this transaction. 

Supp­lyOn opera­tes a tech­no­logy plat­form that connects more than 200 major manu­fac­tu­r­ers and Tier 1 suppli­ers with over 140,000 suppli­ers world­wide. The plat­form supports manu­fac­tu­r­ers and suppli­ers in colla­bo­ra­ting across the entire supply chain and the entire procu­re­ment lifecycle—from sourcing and purcha­sing through quality manage­ment, logi­stics, and invoi­cing to ESG compliance—all on a single, inte­gra­ted plat­form. Supp­lyOn was foun­ded in 2000 and has since evol­ved into a market-leading plat­form serving the broa­der Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­ring ecosystem. 

Bain Capi­tal will work closely with SupplyOn’s manage­ment team to support the company’s next phase of growth. The invest­ment will bols­ter product deve­lo­p­ment, inclu­ding the intro­duc­tion of new AI capa­bi­li­ties to the plat­form to drive custo­mer outco­mes. In addi­tion, there will be an increased focus on sales and marke­ting to acce­le­rate custo­mer adop­tion among manu­fac­tu­r­ers and in the defense sectors, where Supp­lyOn curr­ently has a growing presence. 

Bain Capi­tal’s Tech Oppor­tu­ni­ties Investment

The firm’s busi­ness in Europe reflects its exten­sive expe­ri­ence in inves­t­ing in Euro­pean tech­no­logy and indus­trial compa­nies,combi­ned with its long-stan­ding exper­tise in the aero­space and defense sectors. The digi­tiza­tion of the Euro­pean supply chain remains signi­fi­cantly under­de­ve­lo­ped, parti­cu­larly in complex manu­fac­tu­ring, where supply chain coor­di­na­tion is criti­cal given the growing comple­xity of supply chains for produc­tion proces­ses. Bain Capi­tal is commit­ted to main­tai­ning SupplyOn’s Euro­pean opera­tio­nal presence, data resi­dency, and gover­nance struc­ture, ther­eby ensu­ring conti­nuity for custo­mers who rely on the platform’s sove­reig­nty and compli­ance stan­dards. SupplyOn’s product quality, estab­lished custo­mer base, and network reach posi­tion the company to capi­ta­lize on this opportunity. 

The tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual closing condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory appr­ovals. The finan­cial terms of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed. 

“Supp­lyOn offers a rare combi­na­tion of product quality, network strength, strong custo­mer repre­sen­ta­tion, and market leader­ship in supply chain coor­di­na­tion across Europe,” said James Stevens, a part­ner on Bain Capital’s Tech Oppor­tu­ni­ties team. “The company has built a deeply embedded plat­form that custo­mers rely on for their day-to-day opera­ti­ons. We see a real runway to expand into adja­cent sectors and invest in product capa­bi­li­ties that are criti­cal to both manu­fac­tu­r­ers and suppliers.” 

“Supp­lyOn builds on our long-stan­ding presence in Europe, and in Germany in parti­cu­lar. Through our indus­trial port­fo­lio, we are custo­mers of Supp­lyOn and under­stand the criti­cal role it plays. “We have long-stan­ding rela­ti­onships with SupplyOn’s share­hol­ders and look forward to conti­nuing to support their busi­ness in the future,” said Dr. Michael Siefke, Part­ner and Chair­man of Europe Private Equity at Bain Capi­tal.

“We are plea­sed to part­ner with Bain Capi­tal, which shares our long-term vision for Supp­lyOn as a stra­te­gic capi­tal provi­der in the supply chain ecosys­tem across Europe,” said Markus Quicken, CEO of Supp­lyOn. “This part­ner­ship will enable us to acce­le­rate our product road­map and expand our market reach.” 

Advi­sors to Bain Capi­tal Tech Oppor­tu­ni­ties: Kirk­land & Ellis, Munich

Maxi­mi­lian Liegl (Lead, Private Equity/M&A); Asso­cia­tes: Mirjam Meyer, Fabian Walter­höl­ter, Lisa Müller, Dr. Eric Scheu, Alice Treu­le­ben-von Gans (all Private Equity/M&A), Dr. Florian Schütte (Tax)
Kirk­land & Ellis, London: Jacob Traff (Lead Coun­sel, Private Equity/M&A), Sam Sher­wood, Chris­to­pher Shield (both Debt Finance), Erika Krum (Inter­na­tio­nal Trade & Natio­nal Secu­rity), Rebecca Perl­man (Sustaina­bi­lity), Peter Abott, Cosmos Fung (both Tax), André Duminy, Jenni­fer Wilson (both Tech­no­logy & IP Tran­sac­tions); Asso­cia­tes: Ben Egan (Debt Finance), Mark Shak­kour (Invest­ment Funds), Tiho­mir Svil­a­no­vic (Sustaina­bi­lity), Shareen Dhil­lon (Tech­no­logy & IP Transactions)

About Kirk­land

With more than 4,000 attor­neys in 24 cities across the United States, 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 kirkland.com.

About Bain Capital

Foun­ded in 1984, Bain Capi­tal is one of the world’s leading private invest­ment firms. We are commit­ted to crea­ting sustainable impact for our inves­tors, port­fo­lio compa­nies, and the commu­ni­ties in which we live. As a private part­ner­ship, we operate with convic­tion and a culture of collaboration—advantages that enable us to inno­vate in our invest­ment approa­ches, unlock oppor­tu­ni­ties, and deli­ver excep­tio­nal results. Our global plat­form invests across five focus areas: private equity, growth and venture, capi­tal solu­ti­ons, credit and capi­tal markets, and real estate. We have 24 offices across four conti­nents, employ more than 2,000 people, and manage appro­xi­m­ately $225 billion in assets. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.baincapital.com.

About Supp­ly­On­Sup­ply

On is a leading cloud-based supply chain colla­bo­ra­tion plat­form that connects manu­fac­tu­r­ers with their global busi­ness part­ners. Supp­lyOn was foun­ded in 2000 and is head­quar­te­red in Hall­berg­moos, near Munich. SupplyOn’s network connects over 140,000 compa­nies world­wide across the auto­mo­tive, aero­space, rail, and other manu­fac­tu­ring indus­tries. The plat­form enables struc­tu­red digi­tal colla­bo­ra­tion in the areas of purcha­sing, procu­re­ment, quality manage­ment, logi­stics, and finance—and helps manu­fac­tu­r­ers streng­then colla­bo­ra­tion, trans­pa­rency, and execu­tion in complex, multi-tiered supply chains. 

 

Frank­furt am Main — The global busi­ness law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has MDA Space Ltd, an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner for space missi­ons, in its acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Coll­ecte Loca­li­sa­tion Satel­li­tes (CLS) from Compa­gnie Natio­nale à Porte­feuille (CNP).

Upon comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, MDA Space Ltd. will acquire appro­xi­m­ately 70 percent of the shares in CLS from CNP and other share­hol­ders of CLS’s parent company. The French space agency, the Centre natio­nal d’études spatia­les (CNES), will conti­nue to hold appro­xi­m­ately 30 percent of the shares in CLS. 

Subject to the neces­sary regu­la­tory appr­ovals, the tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in late 2026 or early 2027.

Advi­sors to MDA Space: An inter­na­tio­nal team from Norton Rose Fulbright based in Paris, Frank­furt, and Toronto 

The Frank­furt team consis­ted of part­ner Dr. Jens Steger and Senior Asso­ciate Sven Klüp­pel, who advi­sed on all anti­trust and merger control matters outside of France.

The Paris team was led by Corpo­rate Part­ner Jean-Claude Rivalland and also included Coun­sel Louis Frid­man and Asso­ciate Mathilde Juyol.

The expan­ded team included Part­ner Nadège Martin, Coun­sel Geoff­roy Coul­ouvrat, and Asso­ciate Laura Helloco in the Tech­no­logy Law prac­tice, Part­ner Laure Joncour and Coun­sel Marie-Thérèse Euge­nio in the Employ­ment Law prac­tice, EMEA Tax Head Antoine Colonna d’Is­tria, along with Asso­cia­tes Alex­an­dra Bloch Mani­kow and Jeanne Robart, on tax law matters; and Part­ner Isabelle Augais and Asso­ciate Marjo­rie Bodino on real estate law aspects. Advice on French anti­trust and foreign direct invest­ment (FDI) law was provi­ded by Part­ner Marta Giner Asins, along with Asso­cia­tes Cons­tance Chev­reste and Géral­dine Gaulard. 

The Toronto team was led by corpo­rate part­ner Bruce Sheiner.

About Norton Rose Fulbright: 
Norton Rose Fulbright is a global busi­ness law firm. With more than 3,000 attor­neys in over 50 offices world­wide across Europe, the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, Austra­lia, Africa, and the Middle East, we advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies. We offer our clients compre­hen­sive advice across all major indus­tries. These include Finan­cial Insti­tu­ti­ons; Energy; Infra­struc­ture, Mining, and Commo­di­ties; Trans­por­ta­tion; Tech­no­logy and Inno­va­tion; and Life Scien­ces and Health­care. Our global Risk Advi­sory Group combi­nes this exten­sive indus­try expe­ri­ence with its exper­tise in legal and regu­la­tory matters, as well as in compli­ance and gover­nance. This enables us to offer our clients prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons to the legal and regu­la­tory risks they face. Where­ver we operate, we act in accordance with our busi­ness prin­ci­ples of “Quality, Unity, and Inte­grity.” We provide legal advice of the highest stan­dard and main­tain this level of quality in every inter­ac­tion. The Swiss Asso­cia­tion of Norton Rose Fulbright helps coor­di­nate the acti­vi­ties of Norton Rose Fulbright members but does not provide legal advice to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in over 50 cities world­wide, inclu­ding London, Hous­ton, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Johan­nes­burg. For more infor­ma­tion, visit nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices