Author: Tatjana Anderer

Hamburg — Rabot Energy, the market leader in dyna­mic elec­tri­city rates, has closed a Series B funding round tota­ling 50 million. Endeit, a growth capi­tal inves­tor specia­li­zing in Euro­pean tech scale-ups, is parti­ci­pa­ting in the round as the new lead inves­tor along­side the DeepT­ech & Climate Fund (DTCF). Among the exis­ting inves­tors parti­ci­pa­ting in the round were HV Capi­tal, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), Bosch Ventures, CNI, Acurio Ventures, and vent.io.

With this capi­tal, the company is embar­king on its next phase of growth with the goal of reaching one million custo­mers and conti­nues to expand its own tech­no­logy plat­form. A key compo­nent of this is the smart networ­king of house­hold battery storage systems: When bund­led toge­ther as a virtual power plant (VPP), they can contri­bute to the flexi­bi­lity of the power grid. As the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of mobi­lity and heating increa­ses, not only does the demand for elec­tri­city rise, but the ability to flexi­bly manage consump­tion and storage also beco­mes more important.

From Consu­mer to Part of the Energy System

The elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of trans­por­ta­tion and heating, along with the expan­sion of rene­wa­ble energy, is shif­ting the focus of the energy tran­si­tion: When and how elec­tri­city is consu­med is beco­ming incre­asingly criti­cal. The focus is thus shif­ting away from gene­ra­tion and toward consump­tion. Rabot Energy offers smart elec­tri­city rates and, at the same time, helps auto­ma­ti­cally shift flexi­ble consump­tion to times when elec­tri­city is parti­cu­larly afforda­ble and comes from rene­wa­ble sources. Charge storage systems when rene­wa­ble elec­tri­city is abun­dant, and discharge them when it beco­mes scarce. Every kilo­watt-hour shifted in this way does not have to come from a gas-fired power plant during peak hours, and rene­wa­ble gene­ra­tion needs to be curtailed less often.

In June 2026, the company laun­ched Rabot Flow, an inte­gra­ted solu­tion combi­ning dyna­mic elec­tri­city rates, smart meters, and plug-and-play battery storage. This solu­tion can reduce the energy costs of an average house­hold by 15 percent. Deli­very takes three days, the system can be plug­ged into any stan­dard outlet, and acti­va­tion takes just under two minu­tes via the app. No private PV system is required—a rental apart­ment is sufficient.

In this way, milli­ons of indi­vi­dual house­holds come toge­ther to form a decen­tra­li­zed energy infra­struc­ture that supports the expan­sion of rene­wa­ble energy, lowers elec­tri­city costs, and makes Europe’s energy supply less depen­dent on fossil fuel imports. Each house­hold thus tran­si­ti­ons from being a mere consu­mer to beco­ming part of the system and bene­fits finan­ci­ally from its own flexibility.

Jan Rabe, CEO of Rabot Energy: “The next gene­ra­tion of power plants won’t be built—they’ll be inter­con­nec­ted. Milli­ons of house­holds hold enorm­ous, previously untap­ped poten­tial: not just to consume energy, but to intel­li­gently inte­grate it into the over­all system. With our Series B funding, we’re turning indi­vi­dual house­holds into a network that stabi­li­zes the power grid, acce­le­ra­tes the energy tran­si­tion, and, as a bonus, signi­fi­cantly lowers our custo­mers’ elec­tri­city bills.”

Sara Resvik, Part­ner at Endeit:
“The energy tran­si­tion in Germany is reaching a point where flexi­bi­lity is beco­ming just as important as the expan­sion of rene­wa­ble energy. Rabot is crea­ting the condi­ti­ons to actively involve milli­ons of house­holds: They can help stabi­lize the power grid while bene­fiting from it at the same time. Jan Rabe and his team have built a profi­ta­ble core busi­ness and possess the tech­no­logy needed to intel­li­gently manage elec­tri­city demand on a large scale. This is precis­ely the combi­na­tion requi­red by an energy system that is incre­asingly based on rene­wa­ble energy. We are proud to lead this funding round.”

Dr. Anne Hinze, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at DTCF:
“Rabot Energy addres­ses a key chall­enge of the energy tran­si­tion: With inno­va­tive energy rates and a smart energy manage­ment plat­form, the company enables house­holds to bene­fit from the dyna­mics of an incre­asingly vola­tile energy market. Jan and his team won me over right away with their ambi­tious vision, their outstan­ding ability to execute, and their tire­less dedi­ca­tion. We are very plea­sed to support them as part­ners on this journey.”

Growth and Financing

The finan­cing follows a period of rapid growth: Within three and a half years, Rabot Energy gained over 200,000 custo­mers, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately 15,000 commer­cial and indus­trial custo­mers, and increased its reve­nue to 200 million euros. The company curr­ently supplies over 200,000 custo­mers with more than 600 million kilo­watt-hours of green elec­tri­city. Accor­ding to Rabot Energy’s calcu­la­ti­ons, custo­mers will coll­ec­tively save appro­xi­m­ately 45 million euros in 2025 compared to the respec­tive basic provi­der rates.

From Dyna­mic Rates to a Connec­ted Energy Platform

With the capi­tal raised in its Series B round, Rabot Energy is acce­le­ra­ting the expan­sion of its offe­rings for resi­den­tial, commer­cial, and indus­trial custo­mers in Germany, the further deve­lo­p­ment of its tech­no­logy plat­form, and the inte­gra­tion of addi­tio­nal devices—from battery storage and wall boxes to heat pumps.

About Rabot Energy

Rabot Energy is a brand of RABOT Energy DE GmbH and, as a digi­tal energy provi­der, has been driving the energy tran­si­tion in Germany since 2021. With 100% green elec­tri­city and AI-based opti­miza­tion, Rabot Energy helps house­holds signi­fi­cantly reduce their elec­tri­city costs. Over 200,000 custo­mers alre­ady rely on the smart energy plat­form. — https://www.rabot.energy

About Endeit Capital

Endeit Capi­tal was foun­ded in 2006 and provi­des growth capi­tal to promi­sing Euro­pean tech­no­logy compa­nies. With offices in the Nether­lands, Germany, and Sweden, the invest­ment firm uses its fund—with a volume of over 300 million euros—to invest in forward-looking compa­nies in the fields of energy tech, fintech, the future of work, and secu­rity. — www.endeit.com

About the DeepT­ech & Climate Fund (DTCF)

The DeepT­ech & Climate Fund (DTCF) provi­des finan­cing to high-growth DeepT­ech and Clima­te­Tech compa­nies in Germany and Europe, with up to 50 million euros per invest­ment. As an anchor inves­tor and part­ner to long-term-orien­ted Euro­pean inves­tors, the DTCF supports compa­nies with long deve­lo­p­ment cycles and high finan­cing needs in imple­men­ting a sustainable growth stra­tegy and actively contri­bu­tes to the expan­sion of the tech­no­logy ecosys­tem. The fund serves as a bridge between inves­tors, small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs), and inno­va­tive start­ups in the fields of climate, compu­ting, indus­try, and life scien­ces. Finan­ced by funds from the Zukunfts­fonds and the ERP Special Fund, the DTCF plans to invest 1 billion euros in the coming years to streng­then the Euro­pean tech­no­logy ecosys­tem. — www.dtcf.de

Copenhagen/Bonn — Biograil ApS, a Copen­ha­gen-based biotech company deve­lo­ping a unique oral device for admi­nis­te­ring thera­peu­tics that would other­wise require injec­tion, announ­ced the comple­tion of a 20 million euro funding round. Verve Ventures and Mega­trend Invest are back­ing the company, while HTGF—which led Biograil’s seed syndi­cate in 2019—is parti­ci­pa­ting through its growth fund, HTGF Opportunity.

The addi­tio­nal funding will support ongo­ing acti­vi­ties for the plan­ned Phase 1 clini­cal trials of BIONDD® in order to achieve key mile­sto­nes, such as noncli­ni­cal GLP studies, and to estab­lish the GMP manu­fac­tu­ring process ahead of a larger round of finan­cing in 2027.

Kars­ten Lind­hardt, CEO of Biograil: “It’s great to see such strong support from exis­ting inter­nal inves­tors and to have the HTGF Oppor­tu­nity growth fund parti­ci­pate in this round. Combi­ned with non-dilu­tive finan­cing from part­ner­ships, this will enable Biograil to conti­nue advan­cing our BIONDD® tech­no­logy toward Phase 1 clini­cal trials. The BIONDD® tech­no­logy can enable the oral admi­nis­tra­tion of large-market compounds for grea­ter conve­ni­ence and medi­cal bene­fit, and further­more create deve­lo­p­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for new, inno­va­tive combi­na­tion products that may never have been feasi­ble or attrac­tive as conven­tio­nal injec­ta­ble or oral products.”

Anke Caßing, Prin­ci­pal at HTGF:
“We first inves­ted in Biograil in 2019 because we reco­gni­zed the poten­tial of its approach to oral drug deli­very. Our parti­ci­pa­tion through the HTGF Oppor­tu­nity reflects our contin­ued confi­dence in this poten­tial as the company prepa­res for clini­cal development.”

About Biograil ApSB

iograil is a Copen­ha­gen-based biotech company that deve­lops phar­maceu­ti­cal products based on BIONDD®. The device comes in a stan­dard-sized capsule, Double Zero or Single Zero, and can deli­ver active thera­peu­tics to the gastric mucosa to effec­tively distri­bute them throug­hout the human body. Such thera­peu­tics may include products curr­ently on the market, inclu­ding injec­ta­ble drugs worth seve­ral billion dollars, or new chemi­cal compounds that cannot other­wise be admi­nis­te­red orally. The Biograil device uses a novel mecha­nism to faci­li­tate the effi­ci­ent deli­very of active ingredients—specifically biologics—into the stomach lining using a proprie­tary plat­form tech­no­logy manu­fac­tu­red via injec­tion molding. The team behind Biograil consists of expe­ri­en­ced entre­pre­neurs with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in foun­ding successful biotech compa­nies, as well as R&D execu­ti­ves respon­si­ble for the world’s first FDA-appro­ved injec­tion-molded oral tablet. — The Biograil inves­tor consor­tium includes Mega­trend Invest, Verve Ventures, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds, Eli Lilly and Co., Sanner Ventures, Evonik Venture Capi­tal, Anobis GmbH, and Roquette Ventures.

About Verve VenturesVer

ve Ventures is one of Europe’s most active deep-tech inves­tors. Foun­ded in Switz­er­land in 2010, Verve supports science-driven foun­ders from the seed stage onward in the fields of health and biotech, energy and resour­ces, and compu­ter and AI infra­struc­ture. With more than CHF 400 million in assets under manage­ment, Verve has achie­ved over 30 exits in global market leaders such as Apple, Ipsen, Ripple, and Essil­or­Lu­xot­tica. — https://www.verve.vc

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds

Germany and Europe need a new econo­mic miracle—we’re laying the foun­da­tion. We are Germany’s most active VC inves­tor, funding deep-tech, life-science, and digi­tal-tech compa­nies that secure their tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty and expand their indus­trial strength. From the initial idea to inter­na­tio­nal scaling, we support bold foun­ders as a multi-stage VC platform—seamlessly, relia­bly, and for the long term. 350 active start­ups, 200+ exits, and 5 unicorns. Over €10 billion in follow-on funding mobi­li­zed. Toge­ther with DTCF, we repre­sent more than €3 billion in fund volume—and turn German and Euro­pean inno­va­tions into global tech champions.

Inves­tors in the HTGF Oppor­tu­nity growth fund include the ERP Special Fund and KfW, with funding from the Zukunfts­fonds (“Future Fund”). For more infor­ma­tion, visit HTGF.de, Linke­dIn, or the Zukunfts­fonds website. — www.htgf.de

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aretea Consul­tant: YPOG

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

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

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

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

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

Berlin/Munich — Verdane, a Euro­pean private equity firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, is leading a growth finan­cing round for Engin­sight GmbH (“Engin­sight”). Engin­sight is a German provi­der of a cyber­se­cu­rity plat­form for small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses and public insti­tu­ti­ons. Exis­ting inves­tors UVC, HDI, and SIV (SI Ventures) are parti­ci­pa­ting in the finan­cing round along­side Verdane. Upon comple­tion of the round, Verdane will become Enginsight’s largest shareholder.

Engin­sight offers a compre­hen­sive cyber­se­cu­rity solu­tion for orga­niza­ti­ons with complex and constantly chan­ging IT envi­ron­ments. The company was foun­ded in Jena in 2017 by Mario Jandeck (CEO), Eric Range (CIO), and Max Taran­tik (COO), and deve­lops its soft­ware enti­rely in-house in Germany. Engin­sight helps orga­niza­ti­ons streng­then their digi­tal sove­reig­nty and resi­li­ence against evol­ving cyber threats.

The Engin­sight plat­form combi­nes vulnerabi­lity manage­ment, asset moni­to­ring, attack detec­tion, compli­ance analy­sis, and auto­ma­ted defense measu­res into a single solu­tion. Guided by the prin­ci­ples of “making the invi­si­ble visi­ble” and “making the inse­cure secure,” Engin­sight combi­nes trans­pa­rency, auto­ma­tion, and a prac­ti­cal secu­rity archi­tec­ture to effi­ci­ently and sustain­ably manage secu­rity across growing organizations.

Engin­sight markets its solu­ti­ons through more than 250 active sales part­ners, inclu­ding a growing number of mana­ged service provi­ders. The company serves more than 750 custo­mers and employs over 80 people. Engin­sight has a strong custo­mer base, parti­cu­larly in the public sector. Its custo­mers also include health­care provi­ders and orga­niza­ti­ons in regu­la­ted indus­tries. Demand for the plat­form is growing parti­cu­larly stron­gly among muni­ci­pa­li­ties, hospi­tals, and universities.

Verdane has ente­red into a part­ner­ship with Engin­sight to grow its busi­ness through distri­bu­tion part­ners, drive inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, and pursue a Euro­pean buy-and-build stra­tegy. The part­ner­ship focu­ses on acti­vat­ing and further deve­lo­ping Enginsight’s part­ner network. The company will also expand the sales of its Secu­rity Infor­ma­tion and Event Manage­ment (SIEM) solu­ti­ons and its Mana­ged Detec­tion and Response (MDR) services to exis­ting custo­mers. A parti­cu­lar focus is on mana­ged service provi­ders that deli­ver IT services to their custo­mers. Verdane will support Engin­sight in expan­ding beyond the DACH region by ente­ring selec­ted Euro­pean markets and making targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons. The goal is to build a Euro­pean cyber­se­cu­rity platform.

The EU’s NIS2 Cyber­se­cu­rity Direc­tive and Germany’s secu­rity requi­re­ments for opera­tors of criti­cal infra­struc­ture are driving invest­ment in cyber­se­cu­rity among small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses and public-sector orga­niza­ti­ons. Many public insti­tu­ti­ons prefer soft­ware deve­lo­ped in Germany that can be instal­led locally and opera­ted within their own IT infrastructure.

Engin­sight will also conti­nue to deve­lop its tech­no­logy plat­form through ongo­ing inno­va­tion. To achieve these goals, Verdane and its team of opera­tio­nal experts at Elevate will support the company as it scales its orga­niza­tion for the next phase of growth.

Mario Jandeck, CEO and co-foun­der of Engin­sight, said: “We foun­ded Engin­sight in 2017 to address a chall­enge we oursel­ves were facing at the time: we lacked a unified solu­tion that provi­ded compre­hen­sive trans­pa­rency and secu­rity across the entire IT land­scape. Today, orga­niza­ti­ons are streng­thening their cyber resi­li­ence with our state-of-the-art cyber­se­cu­rity plat­form from Germany. To achieve this, we combine powerful secu­rity features with intui­tive usability.”

Regar­ding the part­ner­ship with Verdane, Jandeck adds: “For our next phase of growth, we were looking for a part­ner who under­stands cyber­se­cu­rity and reco­gni­zes the importance of a part­ner-driven sales stra­tegy. With Verdane’s expe­ri­ence in scaling Euro­pean soft­ware compa­nies and the exper­tise of the Elevate team, we will acce­le­rate our growth, expand inter­na­tio­nally, and further streng­then our posi­tion as a leading cyber­se­cu­rity platform.”

Domi­nik Schwarz, a part­ner at Verdane, said: “Engin­sight embo­dies the quali­ties we at Verdane look for in ambi­tious growth compa­nies: a strong team, a compel­ling product, and signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial. Mario, Eric, and Max have built a compre­hen­sive, robust cyber­se­cu­rity plat­form that puts custo­mers and part­ners on equal footing with the world’s leading providers.”

About Engin­sight

Engin­sight offers a compre­hen­sive cyber­se­cu­rity solu­tion for compa­nies with complex IT envi­ron­ments. Foun­ded in Jena in 2017, the software—developed enti­rely in-house—is now used by seve­ral hundred end custo­mers, ranging from regio­nally active small and medium-sized busi­nesses to corpo­rate groups with their own IT secu­rity orga­niza­ti­ons. The Engin­sight plat­form combi­nes vulnerabi­lity manage­ment, asset moni­to­ring, attack detec­tion, compli­ance analy­ses, and auto­ma­ted defense measu­res into a single solu­tion. Guided by the mottos “Making the invi­si­ble visi­ble” and “Making the inse­cure secure,” Engin­sight combi­nes trans­pa­rency, auto­ma­tion, and a prac­ti­cal secu­rity archi­tec­ture to manage secu­rity effi­ci­ently and sustain­ably across growing struc­tures. Cyber­se­cu­rity 100% Made in Germany. — www.enginsight.com

About Verdane

Verdane is a private equity firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal that forms part­ner­ships with tech­no­logy-driven and sustainable compa­nies that contri­bute to the digi­ta­liza­tion and decar­bo­niza­tion of the Euro­pean economy. Verdane’s funds have the most flexi­ble manda­tes in the indus­try. The firm can invest as a mino­rity or majo­rity inves­tor, using buyout or growth capi­tal, in indi­vi­dual compa­nies or in port­fo­lios of companies.

Verdane’s funds have capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling more than 10 billion euros. Since 2003, the firm has inves­ted in over 200 fast-growing compa­nies. Verdane employs more than 180 people at offices in Berlin, Munich, Copen­ha­gen, Helsinki, London, Oslo, and Stock­holm, combi­ning in-depth indus­try exper­tise with exten­sive local networks and a strong presence in key Euro­pean markets.

Verdane holds B Corpo­ra­tion certi­fi­ca­tion, which is conside­red the most rigo­rous stan­dard for sustaina­bi­lity world­wide. In addi­tion, the invest­ment firm supports only compa­nies that pass the 2040 Test. This test asses­ses whether a company can succeed in a more sustainable econo­mic envi­ron­ment in the future. Verdane is also parti­ally owned by the Verdane Foun­da­tion, which focu­ses on two areas: climate change and a more equi­ta­ble and inclu­sive society. — www.verdane.com

Munich / Oslo – FSN Capi­tal VI has signed an agree­ment to acquire Zeni­tel, a leading global provi­der of high-quality, certi­fied inter­com systems, public address systems, and voice alarm systems (PAGA/PAVA) for safety-criti­cal envi­ron­ments. The seller of the shares is the invest­ment firm 3d inves­tors. With this acqui­si­tion, FSN will support Zeni­tel in its next phase of growth, which will build in parti­cu­lar on the company’s proven tech­no­logy plat­form and inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer relationships.

Zeni­tel has a 125-year history and today opera­tes as a global provi­der of high-quality solu­ti­ons for safety-criti­cal commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. These solu­ti­ons serve as a vital compo­nent of the secu­rity infra­struc­ture in various indus­tries, inclu­ding mari­time, energy, trans­por­ta­tion, and manu­fac­tu­ring, as well as in hospi­tals, high-secu­rity faci­li­ties, and office buil­dings. Custo­mers around the world rely on Zenitel’s inter­com, public address, and voice alarm systems (PAGA/PAVA) in some of the most sensi­tive and criti­cal envi­ron­ments. The company’s opera­tio­nal headquarters—which house the rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment, opera­ti­ons, finance, and HR departments—are loca­ted in Norway and the United King­dom, while its corpo­rate head­quar­ters are in Zellik, Belgium.

Zeni­tel has grown by more than 10% annu­ally over the past five years, further streng­thening its posi­tion as a global leader in inte­gra­ted solu­ti­ons for safety-criti­cal commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. In 2025, the company gene­ra­ted reve­nue of over 128 million euros. Today, appro­xi­m­ately 450 employees serve more than 2,000 custo­mers in over 115 count­ries worldwide.

Koen Claer­bout, CEO of Zeni­tel, says: “We are very much looking forward to opening the next chap­ter in Zenitel’s history toge­ther with FSN Capi­tal. In FSN Capi­tal, we have found a strong part­ner that shares our values and vision and brings valuable opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence to the table. Toge­ther, we will acce­le­rate our growth plans, drive inno­va­tion more quickly, and expand our reach so that we can better support our custo­mers world­wide. As a manage­ment team, we are firmly commit­ted to shaping this next phase toge­ther with our new part­ner. Our mission remains unch­an­ged: We will conti­nue to support our custo­mers with the dedi­ca­tion and quality they have come to expect from us, and provide them with inte­gra­ted solu­ti­ons for mission-criti­cal communications.”

Ulrik Smith, Co-Mana­ging Part­ner at FSN Capi­tal Part­ners, An invest­ment advi­sor at FSN Capi­tal VI commen­ted: “We have been follo­wing Zenitel’s progress for seve­ral years now and are impres­sed by how the company has deve­lo­ped under the leader­ship of Koen and 3d inves­tors. We share not only the manage­ment team’s vision for the company’s future stra­te­gic direc­tion but also the values upon which we intend to imple­ment this stra­tegy. Further­more, we combine the manage­ment team’s deep indus­try exper­tise with FSN Capital’s many years of expe­ri­ence in the safety and secu­rity sector. We look forward to working with the Zeni­tel team to shape the company’s next phase of growth.”

Eirik H. Wabø, Prin­ci­pal at FSN Capi­tal Part­ners and invest­ment advi­sor for FSN Capi­tal VI, adds: “Zeni­tel is a global leader in inte­gra­ted commu­ni­ca­ti­ons solu­ti­ons for safety-criti­cal envi­ron­ments. The company relies on its own tech­no­logy and certi­fi­ca­ti­ons, which custo­mers have trus­ted for deca­des. Given incre­asingly strin­gent safety regu­la­ti­ons and rising cyber­se­cu­rity requi­re­ments, we see signi­fi­cant poten­tial for further invest­ment in inno­va­tion and the expan­sion of our inter­na­tio­nal presence so that we can support custo­mers throug­hout the entire life­cy­cle of their instal­led systems.”

Frank Donck, Mana­ging Direc­tor at 3d inves­tors, says: “Zeni­tel is a prime exam­ple of what we aspire to be as a family-run inves­tor: a pati­ent, commit­ted part­ner with the courage to make clear decis­i­ons. Working closely with the manage­ment team, we delis­ted the company from the stock exch­ange and gave it the free­dom it needed to conti­nue growing. Today, Zeni­tel is a global market leader in safety-criti­cal commu­ni­ca­ti­ons and is expe­ri­en­cing strong, profi­ta­ble growth. We are very proud of this deve­lo­p­ment. We are convin­ced that FSN Capi­tal, with its exten­sive track record in secu­rity-rela­ted markets, is the right part­ner to lead Zeni­tel into its next phase of growth.”

FSN Capi­tal funds** have alre­ady made seve­ral successful invest­ments in compa­nies whose custo­mers come from safety-focu­sed markets, inclu­ding Fire­safe, Poly­tech, Safe­road, and Seriline.

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the details of the tran­sac­tion. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant autho­ri­ties and the custo­mary closing conditions.

FSN Capi­tal VI was advi­sed by Ever­core (M&A); Thom­mes­sen, Stibbe, Dorsey & Whit­ney and Wolf Theiss (legal due dili­gence); McKin­sey & Company (commer­cial due dili­gence); PwC (finan­cial and tax due dili­gence); Imple­ment Consul­ting Group (opera­tio­nal and tech­ni­cal due dili­gence); Marsh (insu­rance due dili­gence), and Howden (warran­ties and indemnities).

About FSN Capital

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, FSN Capi­tal 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 and to posi­tion them to be even more sustainable, compe­ti­tive, inter­na­tio­nal, and profi­ta­ble. FSN Capital’s team of more than 90 people (25 of whom are based in Munich) is commit­ted to inves­t­ing respon­si­bly and achie­ving market-leading returns, in keeping with the motto “We are decent people making a decent return in a decent way.” Current port­fo­lio compa­nies in Germany include Adra­gos Pharma, BoldR, Brot­Wert Group, Ecovium, impreg, Lobs­ter, Swash Group, and TASKING, among others. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.fsncapital.com.

About Zeni­tel
https://www.zenitel.com/de

About 3d investors
https://www.3d-investors.be/en

Fulda – Mehler Systems, an inter­na­tio­nal group of compa­nies with combi­ned exper­tise in the fields of balli­stic protec­tion, tacti­cal equip­ment, and tacti­cal appa­rel, today signed an agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in MARS Armor, a Bulga­rian manu­fac­tu­rer of perso­nal balli­stic protec­tion solu­ti­ons. The acqui­si­tion streng­thens the group’s presence in Eastern Europe, expands its port­fo­lio with comple­men­tary products and capa­bi­li­ties, soli­di­fies its EU-based supply chain, and brings the group closer to its custo­mers in the region. Mehler Systems is a port­fo­lio company of DPE.

MARS Armor, based in Kost­in­brod, Bulga­ria, deve­lops and manu­fac­tures protec­tive equip­ment for the mili­tary, law enforce­ment agen­cies, and govern­ment clients. Its product port­fo­lio includes balli­stic vests, soft and hard balli­stic protec­tion, balli­stic helmets, shields, and protec­tive equip­ment for mine clearance and bomb dispo­sal opera­ti­ons. In addi­tion, the company has its own test­ing faci­li­ties for balli­stic and stab-resistant testing.

With MARS Armor, the Group is expan­ding its reach to new custo­mers and appli­ca­ti­ons. At the same time, the port­fo­lio is being expan­ded to include addi­tio­nal NIJ-compli­ant protec­tive systems as well as specia­li­zed solu­ti­ons such as mine-clea­ring suits. Custo­mers in MARS Armor’s target markets also gain access to comple­men­tary products and solu­ti­ons from the entire Mehler Systems portfolio.

Commen­ting on the acqui­si­tion , Dr. Mario Amschlin­ger, CEO of Mehler Systems, said: “Inter­na­tio­nal growth means inves­t­ing in local compa­nies that have the exper­tise and custo­mer rela­ti­onships to support users over the long term. MARS Armor provi­des us with a strong foun­da­tion for the next phase of growth in Eastern Europe.”

MARS Armor will conti­nue to operate under its estab­lished brand and exis­ting manage­ment, while rely­ing on the support of Mehler Systems. The Group is commit­ted to sustain­ably streng­thening MARS Armor’s exper­tise and capa­bi­li­ties in Bulga­ria, pursuing a consis­t­ently custo­mer-orien­ted approach with a focus on exis­ting and future target markets.

Plamen Tash­kov, CEO of MARS Armor, adds: “We are brin­ging our expe­ri­ence, our products, and our custo­mer rela­ti­onships to Mehler Systems. We look forward to buil­ding on these strengths and contri­bu­ting to the group’s further deve­lo­p­ment in Eastern Europe and beyond with an expan­ded portfolio.”

The acqui­si­tion marks another mile­stone in Mehler Systems’ inter­na­tio­nal growth stra­tegy. Through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons, the group conti­nues to expand its presence in stra­te­gi­cally important markets while streng­thening the reach and resi­li­ence of its supply chain.

About MARS Armor

MARS Armor is a Bulga­rian manu­fac­tu­rer of perso­nal balli­stic protec­tive equip­ment with more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence and a presence in over 40 count­ries. The company combi­nes deve­lo­p­ment, manu­fac­tu­ring, and test­ing exper­tise to provide protec­tive solu­ti­ons tail­o­red to the needs of the mili­tary, law enforce­ment agen­cies, and govern­ment clients. — www.marsarmor.com.

About Mehler Systems

The Mehler Systems Group is a leading inter­na­tio­nal provi­der of balli­stic protec­tion solu­ti­ons and tacti­cal equip­ment for law enforce­ment agen­cies, mili­tary forces, and special opera­ti­ons units.

Mehler Systems includes the brands Mehler Protec­tion, Craig Inter­na­tio­nal Balli­stics, Lind­ner­hof, and UF PRO. Mehler Protec­tion specia­li­zes in body and plat­form protec­tion solu­ti­ons; UF PRO specia­li­zes in high-quality tacti­cal appa­rel systems; and Lind­ner­hof is known for inno­va­tive carry­ing systems and tacti­cal equip­ment. With a presence in over 40 count­ries, Mehler Systems has estab­lished itself as a leading provi­der over the past four deca­des and is synony­mous with inno­va­tion and the conti­nuous deve­lo­p­ment of protec­tion and equip­ment solu­ti­ons. — www.mehler-systems.com.

Munich — GÖRG provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal coun­sel to Conrad Elec­tro­nic SE in connec­tion with its acqui­si­tion of the Berlin-based e‑procurement specia­list Hive­buy GmbH. With this acqui­si­tion in Novem­ber 2026, Conrad is expan­ding its range of digi­tal procu­re­ment solu­ti­ons and broa­de­ning its service port­fo­lio for busi­ness customers.

Hive­buy GmbH specia­li­zes in deve­lo­ping soft­ware for the digi­tiza­tion and auto­ma­tion of corpo­rate procu­re­ment proces­ses. The plat­form enables centra­li­zed manage­ment of procu­re­ment processes—from demand capture through inter­nal appr­ovals and purchase orders to invoice processing.

Conrad Elec­tro­nic SE is intro­du­cing “Hive­buy Start,” a free entry-level solu­tion desi­gned speci­fi­cally to give small and medium-sized busi­nesses access to digi­ti­zed purcha­sing proces­ses. The soft­ware is inte­gra­ted with the Conrad product lineup and can be used without a sepa­rate inven­tory manage­ment system.

Hive­buy will conti­nue to operate inde­pendently within the Conrad Elec­tro­nic Group.

Advi­sors to Conrad Elec­tro­nic SE: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB

Dr. Bern­hard A. Guthy, LL.M. (Edin­burgh) (Lead Coun­sel, Part­ner, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)
Sebas­tian Frech (Part­ner, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)
Jonas Luu (Senior Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)
Dr. Katha­rina Landes (Part­ner, IP/IT, Cologne)
Dr. Julian Stas­sek (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Employ­ment Law, Munich)

About GÖRG

GÖRG is one of Germany’s leading inde­pen­dent busi­ness law firms.
With over 370 profes­sio­nals in the fields of legal, tax, and audi­ting services across its five offices in Berlin, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg, Colo­gne, and Munich, we advise renow­ned dome­stic and inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons, medium-sized compa­nies, finan­cial inves­tors, and publicly traded corpo­ra­ti­ons across all sectors of the economy and the public sector.

www.goerg.de

Munich — Maxburg has ente­red into a part­ner­ship with Schmal­len­ber­ger Bohr­ser­vice GmbH (SCHMABO). The goal of this part­ner­ship is to support the company’s contin­ued orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth.

SCHMABO is a specia­li­zed hori­zon­tal flush-dril­ling rig that carries out complex rock dril­ling projects for gene­ral contrac­tors, utility opera­tors, and public clients. The company’s services are used, among other things, in infra­struc­ture projects rela­ted to the energy transition—for exam­ple, when cables need to be laid through diffi­cult terrain.

Maxburg is an owner-mana­ged private equity firm based in Munich. Foun­ded in 2014, it focu­ses on long-term invest­ments in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries (the DACH region). The firm has capi­tal commit­ments of appro­xi­m­ately 1 billion euros and has comple­ted more than 30 plat­form invest­ments to date.

Advi­sor at Maxburg Capital: 

POELLATH provi­ded tax advice to Maxburg in connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion through the follo­wing Munich-based team: Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Tax), Jannis Lührs (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax). — www.pplaw.com

Busi­ness law firm LARK provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Maxburg on this tran­sac­tion. The team included Dr. Daniel Wied, Dr. Daniel Gubitz, Dr. Daniel Epe, Dr. Florian Auer, and Jenni­fer Blüm­lein (all Corporate/Private Equity), Phil­ipp Büch­ler (Finance), as well as Dr. Tobias Stuppi and Dr. Julian Siller (both Tax). — www.lark.de

Labor Law: Wahlig Work­place Law

IP/IT: boes­ling IP Attor­neys at Law 

Real Estate Prac­tice Group: Satell
Dr. Clau­dia Schil­ling and Dr. Sabine Gerlach

Düssel­dorf – ARQIS provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal coun­sel to the globally active IHI Corpo­ra­tion in connec­tion with the sale of all its shares in Stein­mül­ler Engi­nee­ring GmbH to Muta­res SE & Co. KGaA. This tran­sac­tion will streng­then Stein­mül­ler Engineering’s sustainable growth and compe­ti­ti­ve­ness, parti­cu­larly through syner­gies with Muta­res’ port­fo­lio. This move will enable IHI to opti­mize its Carbon Solu­ti­ons busi­ness and thus focus speci­fi­cally on its future-orien­ted and growth areas. The signing took place in Septem­ber 2026. The tran­sac­tion was closed in Octo­ber 2026. 

Foun­ded in 1853, IHI Corpo­ra­tion is a Japa­nese tech­no­logy and indus­trial conglo­me­rate opera­ting inter­na­tio­nally, with its head­quar­ters in Tokyo. The company is active in the fields of resour­ces, energy, and the envi­ron­ment; social infra­struc­ture; indus­trial systems and gene­ral-purpose machi­nery; and aircraft engi­nes, aero­space, and defense. In fiscal year 2025, IHI gene­ra­ted conso­li­da­ted reve­nue of appro­xi­m­ately 1.64 tril­lion yen and employs over 26,000 people world­wide. IHI is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. 

Stein­mül­ler Engi­nee­ring GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Gummers­bach, provi­des ther­mal process engi­nee­ring solu­ti­ons for the energy and indus­trial sectors. The company offers engi­nee­ring, procu­re­ment, and turn­key EPC solu­ti­ons for combus­tion systems, exhaust gas treat­ment, and heat trans­fer. The roots of this long-estab­lished company date back to 1874. 

Muta­res, head­quar­te­red in Munich, is an inter­na­tio­nally active, publicly traded private equity inves­tor. Its invest­ments focus on compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and estab­lished busi­ness models, inclu­ding those in the auto­mo­tive & mobi­lity, energy & tech­no­logy, and infra­struc­ture & defense sectors. 

An ARQIS team led by Dr. Shigeo Yama­guchi and Dr. Meiko Dill­mann provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal coun­sel to IHI Corpo­ra­tion in connec­tion with this tran­sac­tion. At the same time, ARQIS led an inter­na­tio­nal team of lawy­ers consis­ting of Gide (Morocco), Nauta­Du­tilh (Belgium), and TMI Asso­cia­tes (Japan).

Consul­tant for IHI Corpo­ra­tion: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Part­ners: Dr. Shigeo Yama­guchi (Düssel­dorf), Dr. Meiko Dill­mann (Munich, both Lead and Japan Desk), Dr. Fried­rich Gebert (Regu­la­tory), Johan­nes Landry (Restruc­tu­ring), Lisa-Marie Niklas (HR Law), Tobias Neufeld (Tech Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP, Munich), Dr. Chris­tof Schnei­der (Tran­sac­tions); Of Coun­sel: Dimi­trios Chris­to­pou­los (Dispute Reso­lu­tion); Coun­sel: Dr. Yohei Nagata-Vogel­sang (Japan Desk), Dennis Reisich (Tax, Munich), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (HR Law); Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Hanna Caesar (HR Law), Anselm Graf (Tran­sac­tions, Munich), Dr. Bern­hard Gröhe (Regu­la­tory), Marius Mesen­brink (Japan Desk); Asso­cia­tes: Carla Benkel­berg (Regu­la­tory), Anna Munsch (HR Law), Dr. Julia Wild­gans (IP, Munich); Foreign Lawyer: Miho Kuram­ochi (Japan Desk); Legal Specia­list: Tim Kottmann

Munich/Berlin/Milan — Lingotto is inves­t­ing once again in the Munich-based robo­tics company RobCo. The tran­sac­tion includes both new capi­tal for the company and the sale of exis­ting shares by long-time employees, and values RobCo at more than 1 billion USD. — In addi­tion to Lingotto, exis­ting inves­tors Sequoia, Lightspeed, Green­field, Kind­red, and Promus Ventures are parti­ci­pa­ting, as well as new inves­tors, inclu­ding Cherry Ventures and Euro­pean Tech Collective. 

RobCo deve­lops auto­no­mous robo­tics solu­ti­ons for indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. Foun­ded in Munich in 2020, the company combi­nes robo­tics with AI to auto­mate produc­tion proces­ses and address chal­lenges such as the shortage of skil­led workers, cost pres­su­res, and work­place safety. The systems are offe­red through a Robo­tics-as-a-Service model, allo­wing them to be deployed without upfront invest­ment. In addi­tion to its Munich loca­tion, RobCo has manu­fac­tu­ring and assem­bly faci­li­ties in Austin and a deve­lo­p­ment lab in San Francisco. 

In the next phase of deve­lo­p­ment, the company is focu­sing on advan­cing auto­no­mous indus­trial robo­tics and expan­ding into the U.S. With its auto­no­mous indus­trial robot Alfie, RobCo is deve­lo­ping a system that combi­nes percep­tion, plan­ning, and execu­tion and is desi­gned to perform complex tasks in produc­tion envi­ron­ments. The commer­cial launch is sche­du­led for March 4, 2027, in Munich. 

Morgan Samet, Co-Head of Lingotto Inno­va­tion, comm­ents: “The indus­try has reached a point where auto­nomy is beco­ming a decisive compe­ti­tive advan­tage. RobCo stands out because the company inte­gra­tes physi­cal AI directly into real-world produc­tion envi­ron­ments, combi­ning proven imple­men­ta­ti­ons with a clear, step-by-step path to grea­ter auto­nomy. This enables lear­ning systems to support people where it matters most in production.”

“We are plea­sed to have advi­sed Lingotto on another invest­ment in RobCo. This enga­ge­ment follows directly on from our advi­sory work on the Series C funding round. We thank the Lingotto team for their contin­ued trust and close colla­bo­ra­tion,” says Dr. Benja­min Ullrich, a part­ner at YPOG.

About Lingotto

YPOG previously advi­sed Lingotto on RobCo’s Series C funding round in Janu­ary 2026. The round, tota­ling $100 million, was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Part­ners and Lingotto Innovation. 

Team
Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Silke Ricken (Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Elmar Traut­mann (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Jonas Reguez (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin

About Us

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers. The leading law and tax advi­sory firm supports foun­ders, inves­tors, compa­nies, and funds in Germany and inter­na­tio­nally in brin­ging visio­nary ideas to life within the tech ecosys­tem and in dyna­mic future markets.
YPOG advi­ses on the struc­tu­ring of venture capi­tal and private equity funds, finan­cing rounds, and complex tran­sac­tions, as well as on regu­la­tory and tax issues rela­ted to digi­tal assets and finan­cial inno­va­tion. As a stra­te­gic part­ner, YPOG deve­lops prac­ti­cal and legally sound solu­ti­ons. The firm combi­nes legal and tax exper­tise with legal tech, digi­tal work­flows, and AI-based systems to deli­ver effi­ci­ent and scalable advice. More than 380 attor­neys, tax advi­sors, tax specia­lists, a notary, and busi­ness profes­sio­nals work for YPOG at its offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne, and Munich. —- www.ypog.de

Stutt­gart – The share­hol­ders of Lothar Walt­her have sold the company to Rigeto Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal GmbH (“Rigeto”) in a combi­ned share and asset deal. RÖDL served as the exclu­sive M&A advi­sor for the tran­sac­tion. The tran­sac­tion was execu­ted as part of a struc­tu­red, inter­na­tio­nal inves­tor process that targe­ted both stra­te­gic and finan­cial investors. 

With this sale, Lother Walter’s mana­ging partners—Dr. Frank Walt­her and Gerd Walther—are fina­li­zing the company’s succes­sion plan. The company will retain its opera­tio­nal inde­pen­dence, while Rigeto, as the new part­ner, will lay the ground­work for further growth. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details. 

Lothar Walt­her will form the foun­da­tion of the WX Group, initia­ted by Rigeto, an indus­trial plat­form for precis­ion compon­ents for hand­guns and air guns in Europe and the United States. The WX Group will be gradu­ally expan­ded to include addi­tio­nal specia­li­zed manu­fac­tu­r­ers, which will bene­fit from the group’s combi­ned exper­tise in sales, exports, and compli­ance. The foun­da­tion is a stable civi­lian busi­ness in hunting and sports, supple­men­ted by struc­tu­rally growing demand from govern­ment agen­cies and the armed forces. 

Gerd Walt­her, mana­ging part­ner of Lothar Walt­her, explains: “My brot­her and I are the third gene­ra­tion to run Lothar Walt­her. It was clear to us that succes­sion should not only preserve the company but also help it grow. That’s exactly what convin­ced us about Rigeto—the idea of turning Lothar Walt­her into the plat­form for a growing group, where our brand opens doors to new custo­mers and other indus­try specia­lists. RÖDL has mana­ged this chal­len­ging process with great exper­tise and a clear under­stan­ding of our company, and has found the right part­ner for this jour­ney. We are actively support­ing the tran­si­tion and will conti­nue to advise the company even after it is complete.”

“We are very plea­sed to have supported the share­hol­ders of the Lothar Walt­her Group through this chal­len­ging inter­na­tio­nal process and to have contri­bu­ted our market exper­tise in metal proces­sing and the defense sector. The tran­sac­tion successfully combi­ned a long-term succes­sion plan for the family-owned busi­ness with a clear stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment outlook, opening up new growth oppor­tu­ni­ties and access to addi­tio­nal markets for the Group,” adds Rainer Miller, part­ner at RÖDL.

About Lothar Walther

Lothar Walt­her is an inde­pen­dent manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion barrels based in Königs­bronn. Foun­ded in 1925, this family-owned busi­ness is now run by the third gene­ra­tion and deve­lops and manu­fac­tures barrels for hunting, sports, and defense appli­ca­ti­ons. The group has a fully inte­gra­ted manu­fac­tu­ring process, produ­ces in Germany and the U.S., and offers a wide range of products and cali­bers. The company has a long history of custo­mer certi­fi­ca­ti­ons and opera­tes inter­na­tio­nally under the Lothar Walt­her brand. — www.lothar-walther.de

About Rigeto

Rigeto Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Munich, was foun­ded in 2014 and has since faci­li­ta­ted more than 50 tran­sac­tions invol­ving over 300 million euros in inves­ted capi­tal; the port­fo­lio compa­nies coll­ec­tively gene­rate over 500 million euros in reve­nue. Rigeto invests private capi­tal from entre­pre­neurs and entre­pre­neu­rial fami­lies, pursuing a long-term invest­ment approach aimed at deve­lo­ping and incre­asing the value of the compa­nies it supports. Its invest­ment acti­vi­ties focus on estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies in the DACH region that have a sustainable busi­ness model and are opera­ting profi­ta­bly. The most common reasons for invest­ment are busi­ness succes­sion and growth finan­cing. For compa­nies in these situa­tions, Rigeto is a highly expe­ri­en­ced and relia­ble part­ner. In addi­tion to provi­ding the neces­sary capi­tal, Rigeto brings, in parti­cu­lar, its exper­tise in the further deve­lo­p­ment of medium-sized compa­nies. — www.rigeto.de

Advi­sors to Lothar Walt­her’s share­hol­ders: RÖDL

M&A Advi­sory:
Rainer Miller, Part­ner, Stutt­gart – Over­all Project Management
Marcel Grätz, Mana­ger, Munich
Julian Kuscholke, Mana­ger, Munich
Niklas Henseling, Senior Asso­ciate, Stuttgart

Legal:
Kai Graf von der Recke, Part­ner, Stuttgart
Johan­nes Scher­zin­ger, Part­ner, Stuttgart
Chris­tian Speckert, Part­ner, Stuttgart
Matthias Schu­bert, Asso­ciate Part­ner, Hof
Amélie Unge­rer, Asso­ciate Part­ner, Stuttgart
Tugba Pollak, Senior Asso­ciate, Nuremberg
Maria Pingou, Asso­ciate, Stuttgart

Tax:
Dr. Tobias Schädle, Asso­ciate Part­ner, Nuremberg
— www.roedl.com

About RÖDL

RÖDL has been a trus­ted part­ner and pioneer since 1977. With legal services, tax consul­ting, audit & assu­rance, advi­sory & IT, and busi­ness process outsour­cing, our global team of over 6,000 employees deli­vers effec­tive solu­ti­ons across natio­nal borders. Forward-looking, inter­di­sci­pli­nary, and all under one roof. With a global mind­set and a local presence. At 117 of our own loca­ti­ons in 50 count­ries. In short: We lead the way—and make sustainable success possi­ble for your company. — www.roedl.com

Hamburg – Oppen­hoff advi­sed Reso­nant Clini­cal Solu­ti­ons, a port­fo­lio company of Audax Private Equity, on its acqui­si­tion of labfish rental solu­ti­ons GmbH and its affi­lia­ted compa­nies (“Labfish”) in the United States and the United King­dom. With this acqui­si­tion, Reso­nant is further expan­ding its presence in the Euro­pean Equip­ment & Ancil­la­ries (E&A) market and broa­de­ning its range of services for complex clini­cal trials. 

Reso­nant is a global provi­der of solu­ti­ons for life scien­ces compa­nies across the clini­cal supply chain and the entire life cycle of biolo­gi­cal samples. Among other things, the company offers services for the storage and manage­ment of biolo­gi­cal samples, as well as the provi­sion of kits, devices, and supple­men­tary mate­ri­als for clini­cal trials. Reso­nant employs more than 850 people in the U.S. and Europe and has supported over 2,500 clini­cal trials to date. 

Labfish, head­quar­te­red in Hamburg, was foun­ded in 2014 and supplies labo­ra­tory and clini­cal equip­ment. In addi­tion, the company offers cali­bra­tion, import, and export services, as well as logi­stics services for clini­cal trials. Labfish supplies trial sites in more than 70 count­ries and opera­tes one of the largest company-owned cali­bra­tion faci­li­ties for clini­cal trials in Europe. 

Audax Private Equity, head­quar­te­red in Boston with addi­tio­nal offices in San Fran­cisco, New York, London, and Hong Kong, is a leading private equity firm focu­sed on inves­t­ing in mid-market compa­nies in North America.
https://audaxprivateequity.com/

Consul­tant at Reso­nant Clini­cal Solu­ti­ons: Oppenhoff

Led by Dr. Markus Rasner, Moritz Schmitz, Laurenz Kiefer (all Private Equity), Dr. Gunnar Knorr (Tax), Dr. Wolf­gang Kotzur (Finance), Anja Dombrow­sky and Lisa Strieg­ler (both Employ­ment Law), Maxi­mi­lian Broich (Compli­ance), Valen­tino Halim and Melissa Irtel (both IT/Data Protec­tion), Julia Höyng and Anto­nia van Dam (both Real Estate), Dr. Patric Mau (Intellec­tual Property), as well as Chris­tine Seiz and Sarah Liomin (both Commer­cial), Dr. Cars­ten Bormann and Mareike Heesing (both Foreign Invest­ment), Daniel Dohrn and Konstan­tin Ogil­vie (both anti­trust law). Holland & Knight advi­sed on U.S. legal matters, and Walker Morris advi­sed on U.K. legal matters. 

About Oppen­hoff

The Oppen­hoff team had previously advi­sed on the German aspects of the carve-out and acqui­si­tion of Avan­tor Inc.’s Clini­cal Services divi­sion. The resul­ting inde­pen­dent plat­form was subse­quently rena­med Reso­nant Clini­cal Solu­ti­ons. Oppen­hoff regu­larly advi­ses on add-on acqui­si­ti­ons of plat­forms in the private equity sector; most recently, among others, Schenk Tank­trans­port on its acqui­si­tion of Franz Fischer Spedi­tion, Rensa Filtra­tion on its acqui­si­tion of IREMA-Filter GmbH and its U.S. subsi­diary Aeolus Filter, and Stat­Lab Medi­cal Products on its acqui­si­tion of Histo­serve. — www.oppenhoff.eu

Munich — The Afinum-backed MedTech Laser Group (“MTL”) has agreed to acquire iMS GmbH (“iMS”), a Tutz­ing-based deve­lo­per, manu­fac­tu­rer, and distri­bu­tor of surgi­cal diode laser systems and single-use fiber consu­ma­bles for endo­ve­nous laser abla­tion (EVLA) and proc­to­lo­gi­cal procedures.

iMS was foun­ded in 2018 by Dr.-Ing. Michael Schu­bert and Tors­ten Kühnle and has deve­lo­ped its own laser plat­form (simLa), which is in use in 16 count­ries with more than 100 units instal­led. To date, more than 40,000 pati­ents have been trea­ted, and iMS has laun­ched the first diode laser with a wave­length of 1940 nm.

Looking ahead, iMS streng­thens MTL’s presence in the EVLA and proc­to­logy segments and supports the Group’s goal of estab­li­shing a leading inter­na­tio­nal plat­form in the field of specia­li­zed medi­cal laser tech­no­logy through conti­nuous orga­nic growth and further targe­ted acquisitions.

We would like to thank our advi­sors at Ebner Stolz and Orrick for their contri­bu­ti­ons during the tran­sac­tion process.

Advi­sors to Afinum: Ebner Stolz and Orrick

About Afinum

Afinum Manage­ment GmbH is an inde­pen­dent finan­cial inves­tor wholly owned by its manage­ment, with offices in Munich, Frank­furt, and Zurich. The company specia­li­zes in majo­rity acqui­si­ti­ons of finan­ci­ally sound, ambi­tious medium-sized compa­nies, prima­rily in the DACH region. As a renow­ned specia­list in succes­sion plan­ning, Afinum has proven itself over the past 25 years as a trus­ted part­ner to more than 100 compa­nies in the tran­si­tion from owner-mana­ged to mana­ger-led orga­niza­ti­ons. — www.afinum.de

Munich/Bremen – The commer­cial law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus advi­sed the Metis Group, a port­fo­lio company of the invest­ment firm Gimv, on its acqui­si­tion of Assmy & Bött­ger Elec­tro­nic GmbH.

A+B Elec­tro­nic is a full-service provi­der of elec­tro­nic manu­fac­tu­ring services (EMS) and employs appro­xi­m­ately 130 people at its loca­tion in Groß­enkne­ten, near Bremen.
The Metis Group is a leading group of elec­tro­nics compa­nies focu­sed on the deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­ture of advan­ced elec­tro­nic and mecha­tro­nic products and systems in the high-mix, low- to medium-volume segment. Toge­ther, they support leading OEM custo­mers throug­hout the entire product lifecycle—from engi­nee­ring, proto­ty­p­ing, and indus­tria­liza­tion to mass produc­tion, logi­stics, and life­cy­cle management. 

Gimv is a Euro­pean invest­ment firm listed on Euron­ext Brussels with 45 years of expe­ri­ence in the private equity busi­ness. The company mana­ges a port­fo­lio of appro­xi­m­ately 2.2 billion euros and curr­ently holds stakes in about 60 compa­nies. Coll­ec­tively, the port­fo­lio compa­nies gene­rate reve­nue of appro­xi­m­ately 5 billion euros and employ more than 20,000 people. GOF has advi­sed Gimv on seve­ral tran­sac­tions in the past.
The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to regu­la­tory approvals. 

Legal advi­sors to Metis Group (Gimv): Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich

Dr. Sebas­tian Olk (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A), Maxi­mi­lian Spind­ler, LL.M. (Colum­bia) (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A; both lead coun­sel), Thomas Becker (Of Coun­sel, IP/IT), Tobias Trawin­ski (Senior Asso­ciate), Timo Hoff­mann (Asso­ciate, both Corporate/M&A)
addworx legal, Munich: Andreas Ege (Part­ner), Henning Timm (Coun­sel, both Employ­ment Law)
Blom­stein, Berlin: Dr. Max Klasse (Part­ner; Anti­trust Law), Dr. Leonard Frei­herr von Rummel, LL.M. (Stel­len­bosch Univer­sity) (Part­ner; Foreign Trade Law)
Reius, Hamburg: Panu Siemer (Part­ner), Robert Mayer (Coun­sel, both Real Estate Law)
Kind & Drews, Düssel­dorf: Dr. Ernesto Drews (Part­ner, Tax Law) 

About Gütt Olk Feldhaus

Gütt Olk Feld­haus is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm foun­ded in 2011 and head­quar­te­red in Munich. GOF provi­des compre­hen­sive advice on commer­cial and corpo­rate law to inter­na­tio­nal and dome­stic corpo­ra­ti­ons, finan­cial inves­tors, and family-owned busi­nesses and entre­pre­neurs. Its prac­tice areas focus on corpo­rate law, M&A, private equity, and finan­cing, inclu­ding liti­ga­tion. — www.gof-partner.com

Munich/Neuss — Orrick advi­sed the former majo­rity share­hol­ders of Hager & Meisin­ger, a global provi­der of premium dental instru­ments and work­flow solu­ti­ons head­quar­te­red in Neuss, on the sale of a control­ling stake to Apheon, a private equity inves­tor active throug­hout Europe.

Apheon will be working with the former share­hol­ders and co-CEOs of Hager & Meisin­ger, Dr. Burkard Höchst and Sebas­tian Voss. Both will retain a signi­fi­cant stake in Apheon and will conti­nue to play an active role in shaping the group’s future development. 

With Apheon as a part­ner, Hager & Meisin­ger aims to grow more quickly, both orga­ni­cally and through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons. The focus is on expan­ding its presence in the U.S. and streng­thening its inter­na­tio­nal sales reach and distri­bu­tion partnerships. 

Hager & Meisin­ger was foun­ded in 1888 and is head­quar­te­red in Neuss. The group is a leading inde­pen­dent specia­list in high-precis­ion dental instru­ments. The Meisin­ger and Jota brands are united under the group’s umbrella. Through its inter­na­tio­nal distri­bu­tion network, the group supplies dentists and dental profes­sio­nals in more than 100 count­ries. Its verti­cally inte­gra­ted manu­fac­tu­ring faci­li­ties are loca­ted in Neuss and Rüthi, Switzerland. 

Apheon is a private equity inves­tor active throug­hout Europe with a focus on mid-market compa­nies. Since its foun­ding in 2005, Apheon has raised more than 5 billion euros in capi­tal. Its current port­fo­lio compri­ses appro­xi­m­ately 25 compa­nies with total reve­nue of around 4 billion euros and more than 25,000 employees. Apheon is advi­sed by Apheon Advi­sors, which has offices in Brussels, Milan, Madrid, Paris, Munich, and Amsterdam. 

The former majo­rity share­hol­ders of Hager & Meisin­ger were advi­sed by an Orrick team led by Munich-based private equity part­ner Dr. Chris­toph Bren­ner, who regu­larly advi­ses on complex private equity tran­sac­tions, parti­cu­larly in the tech­no­logy sector.

Legal coun­sel to the former majo­rity share­hol­ders of Hager & Meisin­ger: Orrick

Dr. Chris­toph Bren­ner (Lead Coun­sel, Part­ner, M&A and Private Equity, Munich), Maria Teodo­rescu (Lead Coun­sel, Mana­ging Asso­ciate, M&A and Private Equity, Munich), Dr. Stefan Renner (Part­ner, M&A and Private Equity, Düssel­dorf), Adrian Deng­ler (Coun­sel, M&A and Private Equity, Munich), Dr. Stefan Schul­tes-Schnitz­lein (Part­ner, Tax Law, Düssel­dorf), Cars­ten Enge­lings (Coun­sel, Tax Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Lars Mesen­brink (Part­ner, Anti­trust, Compe­ti­tion, and Invest­ment Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Bene­dikt Kamann (Mana­ging Asso­ciate, Anti­trust, Compe­ti­tion, and Invest­ment Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. André Zimmer­mann (Part­ner, Employ­ment Law, Düssel­dorf), Mari­anna Urban (Coun­sel, Labor Law, Düsseldorf).

Andernach/Munich — With this tran­sac­tion, CE Capi­tal Part­ners aims to streng­then Leis­ten Wagner’s core busi­ness and further deve­lop the company as a provi­der of high-quality wood solu­ti­ons for inte­rior design. The focus is on expan­ding sales and broa­de­ning the product range for trade­speo­ple, inte­rior desi­gners, and project clients. 

Leis­ten Wagner was foun­ded in 1865 by master carpen­ters Ferdi­nand and Wilhelm Wagner in Ander­nach on the Rhine and specia­li­zes in high-quality solid wood moldings. Drawing on its exper­tise in wood­wor­king, the company now manu­fac­tures not only solid wood moldings but also milled compon­ents for hard­wood floors, furni­ture, and doors, as well as deck systems. 

A HEUKING team led by Dr. Björn Biehl advi­sed CE Capi­tal Part­ners on its acqui­si­tion of Leis­ten Wagner, based in Andernach.

CE Capi­tal Part­ners is a private equity firm with offices in Hamburg and Zurich that provi­des compa­nies with equity capi­tal inde­pen­dent of banks, invest­ment funds, or the capi­tal markets. It invests in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries, parti­cu­larly in special situa­tions where rapid stabi­liza­tion and sustainable growth are criti­cal. — www.cec-partners.de

Advi­sors to CE Capi­tal Part­ners: HEUKING

Dr. Björn Biehl, M.Sc. in Finance (HEC Paris), (Lead Attor­ney, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)
Peter M. Schäff­ler (Tax Law, Munich)
Henrik Lay (Tax Law, Hamburg) 

www.heuking.de

The Good­Mills milling group is under­go­ing a stra­te­gic realignment and is selling Müller’s Mühle to the Italian company Euricom S.p.A. — At the same time, Aurora Mühlen is to be streng­the­ned as an inde­pen­dent unit under new management.

Good­Mills Deutsch­land will focus on its flour busi­ness going forward. The milling group Good­Mills Deutsch­land plans to realign its busi­ness and is selling Müller’s Mühle to a company that will, for the first time, operate its own faci­li­ties in Germany. The German supplier of rice and legu­mes is expec­ted to be sold by the end of 2026 to Euricom S.p.A., head­quar­te­red in Valle Lomel­lina near Pavia in nort­hern Italy. 

The tran­sac­tion is subject to the custo­mary regu­la­tory approvals.

Euricom is an inter­na­tio­nal, family-owned supplier of rice, legu­mes, and other grain-based products. To date, the company has not had its own subsi­diary, team, or faci­lity in Germany. Müller’s Mühle is expec­ted to provide Euricom with a finan­ci­ally strong plat­form in Germany for this purpose. Retai­ning the current manage­ment team, led by Mana­ging Direc­tor Arne Tiemann, ensu­res conti­nuity for custo­mers, busi­ness part­ners, and employees. — https://www.euricom.it/

Frank­furt am Main/Paderborn – Funds advi­sed by PINOVA and their co-inves­tors have sold their stake in the Raynet Group to Main Capi­tal Part­ners. As part of the tran­sac­tion, foun­der and CEO Ragip Aydin is reinves­t­ing a signi­fi­cant amount, and Raynet’s manage­ment is also buying back a stake in the acqui­ring company. 

A CMS team led by Dr. Peter Polke provi­ded PINOVA with compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice on the tran­sac­tion. PINOVA is a long-stan­ding client and regu­larly recei­ves advice from CMS, most recently regar­ding the acqui­si­tion of a stake in Kist + Esche­rich and the invest­ment in Ideal-tek in Switzerland. 

Raynet, head­quar­te­red in Pader­born, deve­lops soft­ware solu­ti­ons for IT visi­bi­lity, IT asset manage­ment, and cyber­se­cu­rity. The company employs more than 170 people and, in addi­tion to Germany, has a presence in the United States, Poland, Turkey, and the United King­dom, among other countries. 

Toge­ther with Main Capi­tal, Raynet plans to acce­le­rate its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, further deve­lop stra­te­gic part­ner­ships, and expand its product port­fo­lio to include rela­ted data manage­ment and secu­rity features. These orga­nic growth initia­ti­ves will be comple­men­ted by a targe­ted inter­na­tio­nal buy-and-build strategy. 

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is an inves­tor specia­li­zing in soft­ware compa­nies that mana­ges private equity funds in the Bene­lux count­ries, the DACH region, Scan­di­na­via, France, the United King­dom, and North America, and has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening and scaling soft­ware compa­nies inter­na­tio­nally. Its active port­fo­lio compri­ses appro­xi­m­ately 60 soft­ware compa­nies with a combi­ned work­force of over 15,000 employees. 

PINOVA is an inde­pen­dent private equity firm that invests in indus­trial tech compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries through the funds it mana­ges. The focus is on highly profi­ta­ble mid-market compa­nies with reve­nues between EUR 10 million and EUR 50 million in the segments of High-Tech Compon­ents, Inno­va­tive Mate­ri­als, and Smart Systems. PINOVA invests in compa­nies whose system-criti­cal products are deeply inte­gra­ted into their custo­mers’ value chains and that are charac­te­ri­zed by strong growth poten­tial, sustainable compe­ti­tive advan­ta­ges, and a leading market posi­tion in their respec­tive niches. —www.pinovacapital.com

Raynet is a global soft­ware provi­der that offers solu­ti­ons and comple­men­tary mana­ged services for the end-to-end manage­ment of IT projects and IT opera­tio­nal proces­ses. Foun­ded in 1999, the company is head­quar­te­red in Pader­born and has addi­tio­nal offices in Germany, the U.S., Poland, Turkey, and the U.K.

Advi­sors: Pinova: CMS

Led by Dr. Peter Polke, Part­ner in Frank­furt am Main
https://cms.law/

Advi­sors to Main Capi­tal Part­ners: McDer­mott Will & Schulte

Holger H. Ebers­ber­ger, LL.M., Alex­an­dra Prato (Coun­sel; both lead coun­sel, Private Equity, Munich), Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger (lead coun­sel, Finance, Munich), Dr. Thomas Diek­mann, Dr. Manuel Weiß (Coun­sel; both Private Equity, Munich), Dustin Schwerdt­fe­ger (Finance, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Florian Schie­fer (Tax Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Ulrich Flege (Real Estate and Commer­cial Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Laura Stamm­witz (Anti­trust Law, Frank­furt), Abdel Abdel­lah (Coun­sel, Employ­ment Law, Paris); Asso­cia­tes: Macha Dinga, Tobias Thie­mann (both Private Equity, Munich), Dr. Svenja Hefner (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Lorenz Schwo­jer (Finance, Munich), Matthias Bosbach, Markus Hunken­schrö­der (both Finance, Düssel­dorf), Bastiaan Wolters (Finance, Frank­furt), Dr. Merlyn von Hugo, LL.M., OEC. (Tax Law, Frank­furt), Yves Kandel (Real Estate Law, Düssel­dorf), Caro­lin Schu­ma­cher (Anti­trust Law, Colo­gne), Atha­na­sia Eleft­he­ria­dou, LL.M. (Labor Law, Düssel­dorf), Eva Kanela (Tran­sac­tion Lawyer, Munich).

www.mcdermottlaw.com/de

Berlin – amberra and NRW.BANK advi­sed on the 9 million euro Series A funding round for syte GmbH. The round was led by amberra, the ventu­ring studio of the Volks­ban­ken Raiff­ei­sen­ban­ken Coope­ra­tive Finan­cial Group. — NRW.BANK parti­ci­pa­ted as a new inves­tor through its venture capi­tal fund, NRW.Venture. Exis­ting inves­tors, inclu­ding compa­nies from the Schwarz Group, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), vent.io, and Vantage Value, also inves­ted again.

syte is a PropTech startup foun­ded in Müns­ter in 2021 that is deve­lo­ping an AI-based plat­form for land and real estate analy­sis. The plat­form combi­nes various geogra­phic, real estate, and land data with analy­ses gene­ra­ted by the company’s proprie­tary AI. This enables project deve­lo­pers, banks, real estate agents, plan­ners, and housing indus­try compa­nies to assess at an early stage what deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial exists, what legal requi­re­ments apply, and whether cons­truc­tion or reno­va­tion projects are econo­mic­ally viable. Accor­ding to the company, syte maps more than 62 million parcels of land in Germany and is used by more than 200 customers. 

With this fresh capi­tal, syte intends to drive the tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment of its plat­form and prepare for expan­sion into addi­tio­nal Euro­pean markets. The focus is on further auto­ma­ting the early plan­ning phase of cons­truc­tion and real estate projects, from asses­sing deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial to revie­w­ing buil­ding codes and conduc­ting feasi­bi­lity analy­ses. In the long term, the goal is to digi­tally map the entire process leading up to the actual cons­truc­tion of a property. 

About the amberra Fund

The BaFin-regis­tered amberra Fund was estab­lished in March 2024. The first closing of the amberra Fund took place in August 2024, and the final closing—with the target volume of 100 million euros reached—took place at the end of Febru­ary 2026. The coope­ra­tive finan­cial group’s joint invest­ment vehicle forms the foun­da­tion for port­fo­lio development.
amberra is a stra­te­gic inves­tor. Many members of our team have foun­ded compa­nies them­sel­ves. Our foun­ders bene­fit from these experiences—from honest analy­sis of pitch decks to solid capi­tal and CFO advi­sory services when things get tight. A key factor for colla­bo­ra­tion is the stra­te­gic fit with the finan­cial group. Our stra­te­gic focus is on Series A invest­ments in the four areas of living, health, sustaina­bi­lity, and the regio­nal economy. — www.amberra.de

Consul­tant amberra and NRW.BANK: YPOG

Dr. Martin Scha­per (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Tim Walter (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Laura Franke (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Project Lawyer, Cologne
Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Cologne
Paul Haren­berg (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Janic Kaba Salce­das (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Konstan­tina Natha­nail (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Char­lotte Petrasch (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin

www.ypog.de

Frank­furt am Main/Munich — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) is inves­t­ing in Vected GmbH (Vected) and acqui­ring a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake in the company. The invest­ment is part of the company’s “Long-Term Invest­ments” stra­tegy. These invest­ments are always struc­tu­red using funds from the balance sheet. Foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor Wolf­gang Schö­berl will conti­nue to lead the company. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. The tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual regu­la­tory approvals. 

A tech­no­logy specia­list with a unique posi­tion in Europe

Vected was foun­ded in 2012 by Wolf­gang Schö­berl. The core of the busi­ness is the deve­lo­p­ment, manu­fac­ture, and cali­bra­tion of ther­mal imaging devices, as well as their inte­gra­tion into ready-to-use end products. Vected deve­lops and manu­fac­tures ther­mal imaging tech­no­logy, parti­cu­larly for criti­cal mili­tary appli­ca­ti­ons, as well as for dual-use purpo­ses. The company offers in-depth exper­tise with a fully inte­gra­ted system “Made in Germany.” This includes proprie­tary image-proces­sing soft­ware and the use of AI for image opti­miza­tion and object recognition. 

Vecte­d’s product port­fo­lio includes porta­ble ther­mal imaging devices, vehicle-moun­ted solu­ti­ons, and drones. In addi­tion, Vected deve­lops and manu­fac­tures custom solu­ti­ons based on the company’s exten­sive port­fo­lio of patents. 

The Growing Importance of Optro­nics for the Euro­pean Defense Strategy

Euro­pean defense budgets have been rising since 2022, and with them, the volume of procu­re­ment for vehic­les, sensors, and recon­nais­sance products. Optro­nic solu­ti­ons, in parti­cu­lar, are beco­ming incre­asingly important in both estab­lished systems and new appli­ca­ti­ons. Ther­mal imaging tech­no­lo­gies often play a crucial role in ensu­ring opti­mal visi­bi­lity even under chal­len­ging condi­ti­ons. This high-tech sector is covered by only a few compa­nies in Europe. Conse­quently, there is dispro­por­tio­na­tely high demand for solu­ti­ons such as those offe­red by Vected, which are charac­te­ri­zed by tech­no­lo­gi­cal leader­ship, high-quality imagery, and excep­tio­nal relia­bi­lity. The Euro­pean market for uncoo­led infrared systems is valued at appro­xi­m­ately 1.1 billion euros and, accor­ding to indus­try experts, is expec­ted to grow by 12 percent annu­ally through 2030. For vehicle-moun­ted systems, growth projec­tions are signi­fi­cantly higher. 

Vected also manu­fac­tures its ther­mal imaging devices and elec­tro­nic modu­les exclu­si­vely in Germany and, as a true “Made in Germany” company, is ideally posi­tio­ned to meet the requi­re­ments of Euro­pean procu­re­ment agen­cies for a Euro­pean supply chain. On the custo­mer side, too, the company bene­fits from high barriers to entry: In-depth exper­tise built up over deca­des, along with its quali­fi­ca­ti­ons and deep inte­gra­tion into custo­mers’ end products, make Vected a relia­ble supplier that can scale quickly along­side its custo­mers. This strong posi­tio­ning is also reflec­ted in the company’s deve­lo­p­ment, as it is curr­ently in a phase of signi­fi­cant growth. 

Invest­ments using on-balance-sheet funds enable long-term partnerships
DBAG’s “Long-Term Invest­ments” stra­tegy focu­ses on mino­rity stakes finan­ced with on-balance-sheet funds. This allows for a holding period that extends beyond the typi­cal dura­ti­ons of private equity funds. This results in grea­ter flexi­bi­lity in stra­te­gic direc­tion and in support­ing the growth of port­fo­lio compa­nies. As is custo­mary, the invest­ment in Vected was reviewed in accordance with DBAG’s guide­lines for respon­si­ble inves­t­ing prior to the invest­ment decision. 

Jannick Hune­cke, Member of the Execu­tive Board of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, says: “Ther­mal imaging tech­no­logy was an abso­lute niche topic for many years. Today, it is a highly rele­vant compo­nent in procu­re­ment. Vected is one of the few Euro­pean market play­ers that has maste­red the entire process—from sensor tech­no­logy and image proces­sing to hard­ware and cali­bra­tion. And it does so with a supply chain that depends neither on U.S. export licen­ses nor on compon­ents from outside Europe. That’s a compe­ti­tive advan­tage that’s very diffi­cult to replicate.”

“Demand for our products is high, and with DBAG, we can expand the neces­sary infra­struc­ture. We are prepa­ring the company for further growth. Toge­ther with DBAG, we aim to expand our produc­tion capa­city and further profes­sio­na­lize the company,” says Wolf­gang Schö­berl, foun­der and CEO of Vected.

Next Phase of Growth: Profes­sio­na­liza­tion and Capacity

Toge­ther with manage­ment, DBAG aims to posi­tion the orga­niza­tion for the coming years. The focus is on expan­ding the busi­ness in terms of person­nel and capa­city. In addi­tion, the orga­niza­tion will undergo further profes­sio­na­liza­tion and scaling. By 2030, the team is expec­ted to grow signi­fi­cantly, and at the same time, the product port­fo­lio will be further expan­ded to tap into new growth potential. 

“master. And to do so with a supply chain that depends neither on U.S. export licen­ses nor on compon­ents from outside Europe. That’s an advan­tage that’s very diffi­cult to replicate.” 

“Demand for our products is high, and with DBAG, we can expand the neces­sary infra­struc­ture. We are prepa­ring the company for further growth. Toge­ther with DBAG, we aim to expand our produc­tion capa­city and further profes­sio­na­lize the company,” says Wolf­gang Schö­berl, foun­der and CEO of Vected.

Next Phase of Growth: Profes­sio­na­liza­tion and Capacity

Toge­ther with manage­ment, DBAG plans to posi­tion the orga­niza­tion for the coming years. The focus is on expan­ding the busi­ness in terms of person­nel and capa­city. In addi­tion, the orga­niza­tion will be further profes­sio­na­li­zed and scaled up. By 2030, the team is expec­ted to grow signi­fi­cantly, and at the same time, the product port­fo­lio will be further expan­ded to tap into new growth potential. 

About DBAG

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), which has been publicly traded since 1985, is one of Germany’s most renow­ned private equity firms. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs), with an empha­sis on well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies with growth poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. Key sectors include manu­fac­tu­r­ers of indus­trial goods, indus­trial service provi­ders, and Indus­try­Tech companies—that is, compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics, and digitalization—as well as compa­nies in the busi­ness services, IT services, soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­men­tal, energy, and infra­struc­ture sectors. DBAG has also been active in Italy since 2020 and has been repre­sen­ted by its own office in Milan since 2021. The assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group total appro­xi­m­ately 2.8 billion euros. ELF Capi­tal comple­ments DBAG’s range of flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses by provi­ding private debt finan­cing. — www.dbag.de

Grün­wald near Munich / Zurich – SOLUTIO AG (“SOLUTIO”), with the support of Wilshire Advi­sors LLC (“Wilshire”), is prepa­ring to launch a new fund aimed exclu­si­vely at insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in Switz­er­land. The target volume is appro­xi­m­ately 150 million euros. The fund is inten­ded to provide access to a private markets segment that is expan­ding due to rising defense budgets, the protec­tion of criti­cal infra­struc­ture, tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty, and secu­rity-rela­ted aero­space technologies. 

Wilshire’s role will be to support the fund’s exter­nal Alter­na­tive Invest­ment Fund Mana­ger (AIFM) as an invest­ment advi­sor. “Follo­wing the opening of our office in Zurich a little over a year ago, Switz­er­land is a natu­ral market for this stra­tegy,” says Robert Massing, CEO of SOLUTIO AG. “Insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors are incre­asingly focu­sing their invest­ments on secu­rity, resi­li­ence, and tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty. At the same time, the range of investa­ble funds has broa­dened in recent years. With this new product, we aim to select the most attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for our clients.” 

The fund is inten­ded to invest in selec­ted target funds and cover three key areas: defense and secu­rity, resi­li­ent infra­struc­ture and tech­no­lo­gies, and aero­space. The target volume is expec­ted to be around 150 million euros. The plan­ned geogra­phic focus is Europe, inclu­ding Israel; invest­ments in North America are also planned. 

The new fund is being deve­lo­ped as part of the stra­te­gic part­ner­ship between SOLUTIO and Wilshire. It combi­nes SOLUTIO AG’s exper­tise in struc­tu­ring and mana­ging funds in the German-spea­king insti­tu­tio­nal market with Wilshire’s global invest­ment plat­form, rese­arch capa­bi­li­ties, and expe­ri­ence in due dili­gence proces­ses and mana­ger selection. 

“The secu­rity and resi­li­ence market is young, frag­men­ted, and dyna­mic,” says Todd Cass­ler, Chief Reve­nue Offi­cer at Wilshire. “The growing number of specia­li­zed private equity and venture capi­tal funds is opening up nume­rous new invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. At the same time, the demands on due dili­gence, fund selec­tion, risk assess­ment, and port­fo­lio cons­truc­tion are incre­asing.” The fund is to be struc­tu­red as an insti­tu­tio­nal fund and mana­ged by an exter­nal Alter­na­tive Invest­ment Fund Mana­ger (AIFM). Wilshire will provide invest­ment advice for the fund; howe­ver, invest­ment decis­i­ons will remain solely with the AIFM. 

About SOLUTIO AG

SOLUTIO AG deve­lops and struc­tures invest­ment port­fo­lios for insti­tu­tio­nal investors
and family offices in German-spea­king count­ries and Switz­er­land. The company focuses
on real assets and private markets, inclu­ding private equity, infra­struc­ture, private debt,
real estate, and specia­li­zed stra­te­gies in colla­bo­ra­tion with international
invest­ment part­ners. — www.solutio.ag

About Wilshire

Wilshire is a global finan­cial services firm and part­ner to appro­xi­m­ately 300
leading insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors and finan­cial inter­me­dia­ries. The company helps
its clients improve their long-term invest­ment results. Wilshire advi­ses clients
on assets tota­ling more than 1.6 tril­lion U.S. dollars and mana­ges assets totaling
220 billion U.S. dollars (as of June 30, 2026). Wilshire is head­quar­te­red in the U.S. and has
offices world­wide. — www.prosek.com

Berlin — Venture capi­tal inves­tor Head­line has laun­ched a new fund, Head­line EU VIII, with a volume of $400 million. This is the eighth gene­ra­tion of Euro­pean funds for the early-stage venture capi­tal inves­tor. — YPOG advi­sed Head­line on the struc­tu­ring of the Head­line EU VIII fund. Inves­tors include KfW, the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund, family offices, and compa­nies such as the Otto Group. 

Head­line opera­tes as a globally posi­tio­ned venture capi­tal inves­tor with Euro­pean roots and an invest­ment focus that extends from Europe to the U.S., South America, and Asia. Its Euro­pean invest­ment acti­vi­ties date back to the early 2000s. With in-house teams in Berlin, Hamburg, Luxem­bourg, Paris, London, San Fran­cisco, São Paulo, Taipei, and Tokyo, Head­line combi­nes deep local roots with the reach of a global player. Its Euro­pean port­fo­lio includes, among others, Mistral, Black Forest Labs, and Bioptimus. 

Head­line EU VIII is desi­gned to support Euro­pean start­ups in the seed phase and during Series A funding rounds. A key focus is on compa­nies in the AI sector. In addi­tion, the Global Growth Fund enables invest­ments start­ing with Series B funding to support port­fo­lio compa­nies through later stages of growth. 

“Successfully comple­ting a fund­rai­sing round of this magni­tude in the early-stage segment amid the current market condi­ti­ons unders­cores inves­tors’ endu­ring confi­dence in Head­line and the team’s approach to Euro­pean early-stage invest­ments. With Head­line EU VIII, the team is consis­t­ently conti­nuing its commit­ment to Euro­pean foun­ders,” says Stephan Bank, part­ner at YPOG.

This advi­sory enga­ge­ment builds on a long-stan­ding part­ner­ship between YPOG and Head­line: For many years, YPOG has supported Head­line in struc­tu­ring nume­rous fund vehic­les, inclu­ding the prede­ces­sor fund Head­line EU VII, which had a volume of 320 million euros.

Consul­tant Head­line: YPOG

Dr. Stephan Bank ( Lead, Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Lenn­art Lorenz (Regu­la­tory), Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. Sebas­tian Schwarz (Tax), Part­ner, Berlin
Benja­min von Mangoldt (Funds), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Niklas Ulrich (Regu­la­tory), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Hamburg
Valen­tin Schmidt (Tax), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Camilla Shaver­dov (Tax), Asso­ciate, Berlin

London/Bielefeld — Arcus Infra­struc­ture Part­ners (“Arcus”), an invest­ment firm specia­li­zing in infra­struc­ture invest­ments, has acqui­red SK Pharma Logi­stics GmbH (“SK Pharma”), a provi­der of logi­stics solu­ti­ons for the health­care indus­try in Germany, through its Arcus Euro­pean Infra­struc­ture Fund 4. SK Pharma’s exis­ting manage­ment team will retain a stake in the company. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to the custo­mary regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted to close in the fourth quar­ter of 2026. POELLATH provi­ded legal coun­sel to SK Pharma’s manage­ment regar­ding a manage­ment equity stake as part of the transaction. 

SK Pharma, based in Biele­feld, is one of the leading specia­li­zed logi­stics provi­ders for the health­care indus­try in Germany. With a network of eight warehouse loca­ti­ons in northwes­tern Germany, the company has appro­xi­m­ately 85,000 m² of tempe­ra­ture-control­led warehouse space and more than 100,000 pallet spaces. SK Pharma’s custo­mer base includes phar­maceu­ti­cal manu­fac­tu­r­ers, importers, whole­sa­lers, and other compa­nies in the health­care sector. In addi­tion to its GMP- and GDP-compli­ant warehousing and distri­bu­tion infra­struc­ture, the company offers a wide range of comple­men­tary services and enables close opera­tio­nal, regu­la­tory, and digi­tal inte­gra­tion with its custo­mers’ proces­ses. The German market for outsour­ced phar­maceu­ti­cal logi­stics is expe­ri­en­cing struc­tu­ral growth, driven by demo­gra­phic trends, incre­asing outsour­cing, and rising regu­la­tory requi­re­ments. With its specia­li­zed infra­struc­ture and many years of indus­try exper­tise, SK Pharma is excep­tio­nally well-posi­tio­ned in this market. 

Arcus is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment firm focu­sed on mid-sized infra­struc­ture compa­nies with sustainable growth poten­tial, parti­cu­larly in the digi­tal, trans­por­ta­tion and logi­stics, indus­trial, and energy sectors.

Manage­ment Consul­tant for SK Pharma: POELLATH

Dr. Bene­dikt Hohaus (Part­ner, Manage­ment Buyouts, M&A/Private Equity)
Silke Simmer, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Manage­ment Buyouts, M&A/Private Equity)
Nata­lie Tafel­ski (Asso­ciate, Manage­ment Buyouts, M&A/Private Equity) 

www.pplaw.de

Munich/Paderborn – Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”) announ­ces the acqui­si­tion of Raynet GmbH (“Raynet”), a German provi­der of soft­ware solu­ti­ons for IT visi­bi­lity, IT asset manage­ment, and cyber­se­cu­rity, from PINOVA. The tran­sac­tion repres­ents a signi­fi­cant step into an attrac­tive and rapidly growing market charac­te­ri­zed by strong struc­tu­ral growth drivers, attrac­tive recur­ring reve­nue, and rising demand for the manage­ment and protec­tion of complex IT environments. 

Raynet, head­quar­te­red in Pader­born, helps large enter­pri­ses disco­ver, manage, and protect complex IT envi­ron­ments. The AI-powered Raynet One plat­form combi­nes disco­very capa­bi­li­ties with a proprie­tary tech­no­logy cata­log to trans­form frag­men­ted tech­no­logy data into a centra­li­zed and relia­ble source of infor­ma­tion for IT manage­ment and cyber­se­cu­rity. With appro­xi­m­ately 170 employees, Raynet holds a strong market posi­tion in the DACH region, has a presence throug­hout Europe, and is expan­ding its opera­ti­ons in North America. The company serves custo­mers across a wide range of indus­tries through direct sales and part­ner networks. 

The incre­asing comple­xity of IT land­scapes, rising cyber thre­ats, and regu­la­tory requi­re­ments are driving the demand for grea­ter trans­pa­rency and control over enter­prise IT. The growing importance of high-quality data for AI appli­ca­ti­ons further rein­forces this need. With its combi­na­tion of IT visi­bi­lity, IT asset manage­ment, and cyber­se­cu­rity solu­ti­ons, Raynet is ideally posi­tio­ned to meet these evol­ving requirements. 

Toge­ther with Main, Raynet plans to acce­le­rate its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, further deve­lop stra­te­gic part­ner­ships, and expand its product port­fo­lio to include rela­ted data manage­ment and secu­rity capa­bi­li­ties. These orga­nic growth initia­ti­ves will be comple­men­ted by a targe­ted inter­na­tio­nal “buy-and-build” strategy. 

Sven van Berge Henegou­wen, Mana­ging Part­ner and Head of DACH at Main, said: “Raynet’s combi­na­tion of IT visi­bi­lity, IT asset manage­ment, and secu­rity capa­bi­li­ties addres­ses the growing need for compa­nies to under­stand and control incre­asingly complex IT envi­ron­ments. We are impres­sed by the company’s proprie­tary tech­no­logy port­fo­lio, the capa­bi­li­ties of Raynet One, and the team’s expertise.”

Ragip Aydin, foun­der and CEO of Raynet, said: “We’ve been prepa­ring Raynet for this moment—both tech­no­lo­gi­cally and strategically—for many years. Now we’re shif­ting into high gear. With Main Capi­tal Part­ners, we have a strong part­ner at our side who shares our vision, under­stands soft­ware, and knows how to scale tech­no­logy compa­nies internationally.”

Joern Pelzer, a part­ner at PINOVA, added: “Over the past five years, Raynet has evol­ved into a soft­ware provi­der with an inter­na­tio­nal reach. The successful launch and ongo­ing deve­lo­p­ment of Raynet One have laid a solid foun­da­tion for future growth. With its deep soft­ware exper­tise and proven inter­na­tio­nal ‘buy-and-build’ expe­ri­ence, we believe Main Capi­tal Part­ners is the ideal part­ner to usher in the next phase of growth on this foundation.”

Home

Chem­nitz — plas­mo­tion, a German deep-tech company that deve­lops and manu­fac­tures indus­trial machi­nery and proprie­tary elec­tro­lytes for the plasma-elec­tro­ly­tic surface treat­ment of metal compon­ents, has secu­red new finan­cing tota­ling 3 million euros, led by the Cotton­wood Tech­no­logy Fund and supported by the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil (EIC) fund. The invest­ment will support plas­mo­ti­on’s next phase of indus­trial growth, inclu­ding the contin­ued commer­cia­liza­tion of its proprie­tary plasma poli­shing tech­no­lo­gies, the scaling of its stan­dard machine plat­forms, and the expan­sion of its busi­ness with indus­trial custo­mers in Europe and around the world. 

plas­mo­tion is head­quar­te­red in the Chem­nitz region, one of Germany’s tradi­tio­nal centers for advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring and mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring. The company is a spin-off of the TU Berg­aka­de­mie Frei­berg and deve­lops a new gene­ra­tion of auto­ma­ted tech­no­lo­gies for the surface treat­ment of metal components. 

Its tech­no­logy combi­nes elec­tro­che­mis­try and plasma physics to polish, deburr, clean, and modify metal surfaces—without conven­tio­nal mecha­ni­cal poli­shing or aggres­sive chemi­cal proces­ses. A key diffe­ren­tia­tor is the JETPEP tech­no­logy deve­lo­ped by plas­mo­tion, which makes it possi­ble to apply plasma-elec­tro­ly­tic poli­shing selec­tively to speci­fic areas of a compo­nent. Using a control­led elec­tro­lyte jet, this process allows for the treat­ment of complex geome­tries and indi­vi­dual surfaces without having to immerse and polish the entire compo­nent. This opens up appli­ca­tion possi­bi­li­ties for large and complex compon­ents, as well as for manu­fac­tu­ring envi­ron­ments where diffe­rent parts have diffe­rent surface requirements. 

plas­mo­tion combi­nes proprie­tary elec­tro­lyte formu­la­ti­ons, process exper­tise, in-house mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, and auto­ma­tion into an inte­gra­ted solu­tion. The water- and salt-based elec­tro­lytes are desi­gned for a wide range of metals and alloys, inclu­ding stain­less steels, tita­nium, alumi­num, copper, and specialty alloys. 

The tech­no­logy enables surface rough­ness levels of up to appro­xi­m­ately Ra 0.02 µm while simul­ta­neously combi­ning poli­shing, debur­ring, and clea­ning. Exis­ting and vali­da­ted appli­ca­ti­ons range from medi­cal tech­no­logy and precis­ion engi­nee­ring to jewelry and tool­ma­king, as well as semi­con­duc­tor equip­ment and other state-of-the-art manu­fac­tu­ring industries. 

Indus­tria­liza­tion of a New Approach to Surface Finishing

Many high-quality metal compon­ents still require labor-inten­sive mecha­ni­cal poli­shing or conven­tio­nal elec­tro­che­mi­cal proces­ses that involve multi­ple produc­tion steps. Plasmotion’s goal is to replace these complex process chains with highly auto­ma­ted and repro­du­ci­ble finis­hing proces­ses that can be directly inte­gra­ted into indus­trial manu­fac­tu­ring. The unique combi­na­tion of plasma physics, elec­tro­che­mis­try, and fluid dyna­mics makes this possi­ble through unmat­ched geome­tric accuracy. 

The company’s port­fo­lio includes the dive.pro systems for dive-based plasma poli­shing, as well as the jet.pro systems for spot proces­sing, which are based on plasmotion’s JETPEP plat­form. Both systems operate enti­rely without the use of hazar­dous subs­tances and can ther­e­fore be easily inte­gra­ted into a CNC manu­fac­tu­ring environment—without the need for special floo­ring or protec­tive equipment. 

Vincent Step­pu­tat, co-foun­der and CEO of plas­mo­tion, said: “We never inten­ded to build labo­ra­tory equip­ment. Every plas­mo­tion machine is desi­gned from the very first sketch for high-quality manufacturing—as a stan­dard machine that a custo­mer quali­fies once and then deploys shift after shift on the produc­tion floor. Our dive.pro systems are alre­ady doing exactly that in our custo­mers’ manu­fac­tu­ring faci­li­ties. With Cotton­wood and the EIC Fund by our side, we will now bring JETPEP to the same level of indus­trial matu­rity and expand plas­mo­tion internationally.”

Patrick Claes­sen, a part­ner at Cotton­wood Tech­no­logy Fund, said: “plas­mo­tion is exactly the kind of indus­trial deep-tech company Cotton­wood likes to invest in: complex science trans­la­ted into a tech­no­logy that solves a very speci­fic manu­fac­tu­ring problem. Surface finis­hing may seem like a rela­tively simple step in manu­fac­tu­ring, but for high-precis­ion compon­ents, it can be one of the most labor-inten­sive, costly, and diffi­cult proces­ses to auto­mate. We see signi­fi­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties to scale this tech­no­logy globally.”

The new funding will be used to bring the jet.pro and jet.pro 3D systems into series produc­tion, expand the manu­fac­tu­ring of plasmotion’s stan­dard machi­nes and elec­tro­lytes, and grow sales and appli­ca­tion deve­lo­p­ment in Europe and inter­na­tio­nally. This funding comes at a time when Euro­pean indus­try is incre­asingly focu­sing on advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring, auto­ma­tion, resource effi­ci­ency, and redu­cing depen­dence on labor-inten­sive produc­tion processes. 

About the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil (EIC) Fund

The Euro­pean Commission’s Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil Fund is a deep-tech inves­tor that invests across all tech­no­logy sectors. The EIC Fund aims to bridge a criti­cal funding gap and support compa­nies in deve­lo­ping and commer­cia­li­zing disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies. With its exten­sive network of inves­tors and stra­te­gic part­ners, it shares risk and enga­ges market players.

Munich – YPOG advi­sed Perso­nio on its acqui­si­tion of Circula, an expense manage­ment plat­form. The tran­sac­tion expands Personio’s offe­rings to include expense manage­ment and brings toge­ther HR, payroll, and expense proces­ses on a single platform. 

Perso­nio is a leading Euro­pean plat­form for human resour­ces manage­ment and payroll proces­sing for small and medium-sized busi­nesses. Foun­ded in Munich in 2015, the company serves more than 16,000 busi­nesses that coll­ec­tively employ 1.6 million people. Perso­nio has more than 1,500 employees at 6 loca­ti­ons across Europe.

Circula was foun­ded in Berlin in 2017 and offers a plat­form for expense manage­ment. It covers travel expen­ses, corpo­rate cards, accounts paya­ble, and employee bene­fits. More than 3,000 compa­nies and 250,000 users use Circula. 

The goal of the tran­sac­tion is to conso­li­date both compa­nies’ offe­rings in the areas of human resour­ces manage­ment, payroll, and expense manage­ment onto a single inte­gra­ted plat­form. This is inten­ded to create the first Euro­pean plat­form to combine these product offe­rings under a single provi­der. Both compa­nies plan to further deepen the inte­gra­tion of their data and busi­ness proces­ses. Finan­cial details were not disclosed. 

“Perso­nio is setting the pace for inno­va­tion in Germany. This tran­sac­tion demons­tra­tes that German tech­no­logy compa­nies are not only acqui­si­tion targets but also acqui­rers and conso­li­da­tors, and that exper­tise and value crea­tion remain in Germany and Europe. We thank the Perso­nio team for their contin­ued trust in yet another project of great stra­te­gic importance,” says Dr. Johan­nes Janning, part­ner at YPOG.

A YPOG team compri­sing members from all offices advi­sed Perso­nio on the nego­tia­tion of the tran­sac­tion docu­men­ta­tion, legal and tax due dili­gence, and the struc­tu­ring of the acqui­si­tion. YPOG had previously advi­sed Perso­nio in May 2026 on the acqui­si­tion of the recrui­ting AI startup aurio and in July 2025 on the restruc­tu­ring of its global employee stock owner­ship program. 

Perso­nia Consul­tant: YPOG

Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Cologne
Jörg Schr­ade (Tax), Part­ner, Munich
Dr. Tim Walter (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Janic Kaba Salce­das (Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Nina Ahlert (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Paul Haren­berg (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Dr. Jacob Schrei­ber (Tax), Senior Asso­ciate, Munich
Dr. Lutz Schrei­ber (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Hamburg
Matthias Kres­ser (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Miriam Peter (Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Florian Witt­ner (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Char­lotte Petrasch (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Helena Dierckx (Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Lea Ossmann-Magiera (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Laura Franke (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Project Lawyer, Cologne

The inter­nal team was led by Malgosia Zietara-Miller (Gene­ral Coun­sel) and supported by Dr. Katrin Geiger (Head of Corpo­rate and Risk).

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers. The leading law and tax advi­sory firm supports foun­ders, inves­tors, compa­nies, and funds in Germany and inter­na­tio­nally in brin­ging visio­nary ideas to life within the tech ecosys­tem and in dyna­mic future markets.
YPOG advi­ses on the struc­tu­ring of venture capi­tal and private equity funds, finan­cing rounds, and complex tran­sac­tions, as well as on regu­la­tory and tax issues rela­ted to digi­tal assets and finan­cial inno­va­tion. As a stra­te­gic part­ner, YPOG deve­lops prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons of the highest legal quality. The firm combi­nes legal and tax exper­tise with legal tech, digi­tal work­flows, and AI-based systems to deli­ver effi­ci­ent and scalable advice. 

www.ypog.com

Frank­furt am Main — RMG Mess­tech­nik GmbH has been sold to Dresser Utility Solu­ti­ons GmbH. Dresser Utility Solu­ti­ons GmbH is a subsi­diary of the U.S.-based Dresser Utility Solu­ti­ons LLC. HEUKING provi­ded compre­hen­sive advi­sory services to RMG Mess­tech­nik GmbH in connec­tion with the sale. 

The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to the custo­mary regu­la­tory appr­ovals and other closing conditions.

RMG is a global provi­der of gas measu­re­ment tech­no­logy. Its product port­fo­lio includes ultra­so­nic and turbine gas meters, gas chro­ma­to­graphs, volume conver­ters, data loggers, commu­ni­ca­tion devices, and gas meter tech­no­logy. The company is head­quar­te­red in Butz­bach (Hesse). In addi­tion to its loca­ti­ons in Germany, RMG has bran­ches in the United States, India, China, Austria, and Dubai. 

With more than a century of expe­ri­ence in deve­lo­ping inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons, Dresser Utility Solu­ti­ons is an estab­lished market leader in safe and relia­ble infra­struc­ture tech­no­lo­gies that support utili­ties world­wide. Dresser’s port­fo­lio includes gas meter­ing tech­no­logy, digi­tal meters and soft­ware, pres­sure and flow control solu­ti­ons, and products for the repair of gas and water infra­struc­ture. Toge­ther, these solu­ti­ons cover the entire life­cy­cle of utility infrastructure—from meter­ing and control to repair and maintenance. 

Consul­tant, RMG Mess­tech­nik GmbH: HEUKING

Ulrich Weide­mann (Lead Coun­sel, Corpo­rate Law / M&A, Frank­furt), Frank Holl­stein (Corpo­rate Law / M&A, Frank­furt), Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (Anti­trust Law, Hamburg), Klaus Weinand-Härer (Tax Law, Frank­furt), Thors­ten A. Wieland (Trade­mark, Design, and Copy­right Law, Frank­furt) , Patrick Schulz, LL.M. (Univer­sity of Cape Town), (Trade­mark, Design & Copy­right Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Philip Kemper­mann, LL.M. (IP, Media & Tech­no­logy, Düssel­dorf), Julian Rosen­feld (IP, Media & Tech­no­logy, Düsseldorf). 

Munich/Zurich — Ener­gy­Tech company Reverion has raised over USD 175 million in its Series B funding round. — The funding round was led by Kembara, a Euro­pean growth fund focu­sed on deep tech and climate tech­no­lo­gies, as the lead inves­tor. In addi­tion to exis­ting inves­tors, new parti­ci­pants include Alli­anz, KfW Capi­tal, Aurum Impact, and Carbon Equity. Exis­ting inves­tors Extan­tia, Energy Impact Part­ners, UVC Part­ners, the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil Fund (EIC Fund), alfa8, and Possi­ble Ventures have parti­ci­pa­ted again. 

Under the leader­ship of Munich-based part­ner Sebas­tian Frech, GÖRG provi­ded legal coun­sel to the Ener­gy­Tech company Reverion in connec­tion with its Series B finan­cing round tota­ling USD 175 million.

Reverion builds highly effi­ci­ent fuel cell power plants that gene­rate elec­tri­city from gas, enable flexi­ble energy storage through rever­si­bi­lity, and can operate with nega­tive CO₂ emis­si­ons. With the capi­tal raised, Reverion plans to further scale up indus­trial mass produc­tion and estab­lish a new produc­tion faci­lity in Germany with an annual manu­fac­tu­ring capa­city of 250 mega­watts and up to 800 jobs. 

With the successful Series B funding round, Reverion is taking the next step in its evolu­tion from a deep-tech startup to an inter­na­tio­nally scaling tech­no­logy company. The funding is inten­ded, in parti­cu­lar, to enable large-scale indus­trial produc­tion and the expan­sion into new markets. Demand for the tech­no­logy is growing, parti­cu­larly from energy-inten­sive indus­tries and data centers. 

Reverion, a spin-off of the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich (TUM), has lever­a­ged deca­des of rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment in the field of solid-oxide elec­tro­che­mi­cal cell tech­no­logy to deve­lop a highly effi­ci­ent and rever­si­ble gas-to-elec­tri­city system that is modu­lar, controll­able, and captures its own CO₂. The company’s products can be opera­ted with various types of gas (natu­ral gas, biogas, synthe­sis gas, hydro­gen) to gene­rate elec­tri­city with unpre­ce­den­ted effi­ci­ency and, in the reverse process, produce e‑methane—a feature that is unique worldwide. 

“For DeepT­ech compa­nies, the scaling phase is when it beco­mes clear whether tech­no­lo­gi­cal excel­lence will trans­late into an indus­tri­ally successful busi­ness model. Reverion’s Series B finan­cing is an important next step in this regard,” said Sebas­tian Frech, a part­ner at Görg.

The GÖRG team advi­ses the spin-off from the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich not only on finan­cing matters but also on various contrac­tual and opera­tio­nal issues—particularly with regard to supplier and custo­mer contracts.

Reverion GmbH Consul­tants: GÖRG Part­ner­ship of Attor­neys mbB

Sebas­tian Frech (Lead, Part­ner, Venture Capi­tal / M&A, Munich)
Max Zeis­ler (Senior Asso­ciate, Venture Capi­tal / M&A, Munich)
Judith Burg­graf, LL.M. (Asso­ciate, Venture Capi­tal / M&A, Munich)
Moritz von Limburg, LL.M. (UCT) (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Venture Capi­tal / M&A, Munich)
Dr. Adal­bert Rödding, LL.M. (Part­ner, Tax Law, Cologne)
Dr. Karl-Georg Küsters, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Tax Law, Cologne)
Mete­han Uzun­çak­mak, LL.M. (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Anti­trust Law / Invest­ment Control, Cologne) 

About KEMBARA

Kembara provi­des capi­tal to help scale Euro­pe’s leading deep-tech compa­nies. Kembara part­ners with estab­lished science and engi­nee­ring compa­nies on the verge of a breakth­rough, leads growth rounds, and supports the deve­lo­p­ment of global market leaders. — www.KEMBARA.vc

About GOERG

GÖRG is one of Germany’s leading inde­pen­dent busi­ness law firms. — With over 370 profes­sio­nals in the fields of legal, tax, and audi­ting services across its five offices in Berlin, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg, Colo­gne, and Munich, we advise promi­nent dome­stic and inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons, medium-sized compa­nies, finan­cial inves­tors, and publicly traded corpo­ra­ti­ons across all sectors of the economy and the public sector. — www.goerg.de