Author: Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a. M./ Kropf­mühl — The Frank­furt, Munich and Brussels offices of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP have advi­sed Alterna Capi­tal Part­ners (“Alterna”) on the sale of its indi­rect 40% share­hol­ding in Graphit Kropf­mühl GmbH to the co-share­hol­der AMG Mining GmbH, a subsi­diary of AMG Criti­cal Mate­ri­als N.V..

Graphit Kropf­mühl GmbH is active in the mining, extra­c­tion, refi­ning, refi­ning, marke­ting and distri­bu­tion of natu­ral graphite. The company opera­tes its own mine at its head­quar­ters in Kropf­mühl and holds majo­rity inte­rests in graphite mines in Sri Lanka. The tran­sac­tion was comple­ted on March 12, 2025. 

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP has been provi­ding legal advice to Alterna on various issues in connec­tion with the indi­rect invest­ment in Graphit Kropf­mühl GmbH since 2017.

Advi­sor Alterna Capi­tal: Weil

The Weil team was led by Frank­furt part­ner Dr. Chris­tian Tapp­ei­ner (photo) and compri­sed part­ners Britta Grauke (Frank­furt), Tobias Geer­ling (Munich) and Niklas Maydell (Brussels), coun­sel Dr. Kars­ten Krumm, Gero Pogrzeba (both Frank­furt) and Stef­fen Giolda (Munich) as well as asso­cia­tes Dennis Simon, Alex­an­der Roth­stein, Dr. Vero­nika Koch, Corne­lia Kirch­bach-Lecht, Alex­an­der Reich (all Frank­furt) and Eva Bart­helm­ann (Munich).

About Weil

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,100 lawy­ers. Weil has offices in New York, Boston, Brussels, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Los Ange­les, Miami, Munich, Paris, San Fran­cisco, Washing­ton, D.C. and Sili­con Valley. In Germany, the firm has two offices and around 60 lawyers/tax advi­sors in Frank­furt and Munich. The focus here is on provi­ding specia­li­zed advice to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients on cross-border private equity and M&A tran­sac­tions, high-profile liti­ga­tion manda­tes, complex restruc­tu­rings and finan­cings as well as tax struc­tu­ring. — www.weil.com

Munich — Muta­res SE & Co. KGaA has ente­red into final nego­tia­ti­ons with the listed Korean company Hwase­ung Corpo­ra­tion to acquire 67% of the shares in Hwase­ung Special Rubber (Taicang) Co., Ltd. (“HSR”) and Hwase­ung Auto Parts (Taicang) Co., Ltd. (“HST”). This poten­tial acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in a leading auto­mo­tive supplier in China is an important mile­stone for Muta­res’ global expan­sion and targe­ted growth stra­tegy in Asia. Hwase­ung Corpo­ra­tion today announ­ced the poten­tial acqui­si­tion on the Korean stock exch­ange. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be signed in the fourth quar­ter of 2025.

Signi­fi­cant synergies

The target compa­nies are known for their essen­tial rubber seal­ing and hose products, which they supply to well-known car manu­fac­tu­r­ers such as GM, VW, Hyun­dai, Kia and Xiaomi. With two state-of-the-art produc­tion faci­li­ties and around 600 employees, the compa­nies gene­ra­ted sales of over EUR 100 million in 2024 — HSR and HST are an ideal fit for Amaneo’s China busi­ness and unlock signi­fi­cant syner­gies in the value chain. The inte­gra­tion inclu­ding SMA China and SFC China will result in addi­tio­nal cost bene­fits, opera­tio­nal effi­ci­en­cies and a streng­the­ned compe­ti­tive posi­tion in the worl­d’s most dyna­mic auto­mo­tive market. 

Muta­res’ expan­sion into the Chinese auto­mo­tive sector streng­thens its posi­tion as an opera­tio­nal leader in the Auto­mo­tive & Mobi­lity segment, extends the Group’s track record and opens up new oppor­tu­ni­ties for colla­bo­ra­tion with leading Asian and inter­na­tio­nal OEMs. The decis­ion of a promi­nent Korean-listed seller to enter into such a tran­sac­tion with Muta­res reflects the Group’s global posi­tion as a relia­ble and value-crea­ting owner with a proven track record of opera­tio­nal excel­lence, trans­for­ma­tion and sustainable growth. 

Johan­nes Laumann, CIO of Muta­res, comm­ents: “Our expan­sion into Asia is an important mile­stone for Muta­res in the Auto­mo­tive & Mobi­lity segment. We are hono­red by the trust of our Korean part­ners and look forward to brin­ging our opera­tio­nal exper­tise to the Chinese market. This acqui­si­tion demons­tra­tes our commit­ment to inter­na­tio­nal growth and diver­si­fi­ca­tion and will create value for all stakeholders.”

Menlo Park, Cali­for­nia — Sequoia, the US VC firm that backed Klarna and Stripe, has laun­ched two early-stage funds and expres­sed its confi­dence in Euro­pean foun­ders: “Euro­pe’s startup pool has never been stron­ger”. The two new funds are a USD 750 early-stage fund for Series A start-ups and a USD 200 seed fund. 

Sequoia has a long history of making early-stage invest­ments in high-profile tech­no­logy compa­nies, such as inves­t­ing in Apple and YouTube. In a post about the funds on its website, the US VC firm said it will target foun­ders from “all back­grounds from around the world”. 

The post conti­nues to look at emer­ging themes obser­ved by Sequoia’s early stage inves­tors. Luciana Lixan­dru, Part­ner, said: “I look forward to meeting foun­ders who use Europe as their product and engi­nee­ring center but want to conquer the world. Euro­pe’s foun­der pool has never been so large.”

“A new wave of repeat inves­tors and gradua­tes of brea­kout scaleups bring hard-won judgment, top-notch product taste and the muscle memory to go from zero to global.” Sequoia’s Euro­pean invest­ments include Swedish fintech Klarna, German fintech Trade Repu­blic and German drone startup Stark.

Sequoia part­ner Roelof Botha said: “I am drawn to dynamo foun­ders — poly­maths with an insa­tia­ble appe­tite for lear­ning who combine inter­di­sci­pli­nary insights.”

About Sequoia

Sequoia Capi­tal Opera­ti­ons, LLC (commonly known simply as Sequoia) is an Ameri­can venture capi­tal firm head­quar­te­red in Menlo Park, Cali­for­nia, specia­li­zing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage invest­ments in private compa­nies across tech­no­logy sectors. As of Janu­ary 2025, the firm had appro­xi­m­ately $56 billion USD in assets under manage­ment. — www.sequoia.com

Berlin / Hamburg — Quan­tum Systems is acqui­ring the AI specia­list Spleen­lab. With this acqui­si­tion, Quan­tum Systems streng­thens its tech­no­lo­gi­cal base in the field of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and posi­ti­ons itself stra­te­gi­cally for the further deve­lo­p­ment of auto­no­mous systems in defense technology.YPOG provi­ded Quan­tum Systems with compre­hen­sive legal advice on this transaction.

Spleen­lab, based in Thurin­gia, Germany, deve­lops AI-based soft­ware solu­ti­ons for safe navi­ga­tion and decis­ion-making for auto­no­mous aircraft. By inte­gra­ting Spleen­lab tech­no­logy, Quan­tum Systems is expan­ding its exper­tise in edge AI and real-time data proces­sing in parti­cu­lar in order to further increase the perfor­mance and opera­tio­nal safety of its drone systems under deman­ding conditions. 

“With the inte­gra­tion of Spleen­la­b’s proven VISIONAIRY® AI into Quan­tum Systems, we are acce­le­ra­ting the tran­si­tion from inno­va­tion to mission — for intel­li­gent, soft­ware-defi­ned unman­ned systems and true multi-domain supe­rio­rity,” comm­ents Martin Kark­our, CRO Quan­tum Systems GmbH.

YPOG has alre­ady advi­sed Quan­tum Systems on various acqui­si­ti­ons and finan­cing rounds in the past, not least on the EUR 160 million Series C finan­cing round in May 2025.

About Quan­tum Systems

Quan­tum Systems is a leading German manu­fac­tu­rer of civil and mili­tary AI-supported drone systems. Foun­ded in 2015 and based in Munich, the company employs over 700 people and is repre­sen­ted inter­na­tio­nally at seve­ral loca­ti­ons, inclu­ding Austra­lia, Ukraine, Roma­nia, the United King­dom and the USA. Its custo­mers include govern­ments, minis­tries of defense, civi­lian autho­ri­ties and compa­nies worldwide. 

Consul­tant Quan­tum Systems: YPOG

Dr. Adrian Haase (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Hamburg
Benja­min Müller (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Miriam Peer (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Tax), Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. Jacob Schrei­ber (Tax), Senior Asso­ciate, Munich Martin Acker (Tax), Asso­ciate, Hamburg Dr. Bene­dikt Flöer (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Berlin Jacob Schrei­ber (Tax), Senior Asso­ciate, Munich
Martin Acker (Tax), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Berlin
Anna Eick­meier (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Lea Ossmann-Magiera (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin

Nurem­berg — GÖRG provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to TECHNO-EINKAUF GmbH on the sale of its block of shares in NÜRNBERGER Betei­li­gungs-AG as part of the public take­over by Vienna Insu­rance Group (VIG).

The shares of NÜRNBERGER Betei­li­gungs-AG are curr­ently traded in the Scale segment of the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange and on other German stock exch­an­ges. On August 8, 2025, NÜRNBERGER Betei­li­gungs-AG announ­ced in an ad hoc announce­ment that Vienna Insu­rance Group had ente­red into an exclu­sive due dili­gence process to review the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity share­hol­ding in NÜRNBERGER Beteiligungs-AG. 

Toge­ther with three other compa­nies, TECHNO-EINKAUF GmbH holds a share package of around 19%. The due dili­gence phase was follo­wed by nego­tia­ti­ons on the obli­ga­ti­ons to offer the directly and indi­rectly held share packa­ges of the larger share­hol­ders to the Vienna Insu­rance Group. 

Follo­wing the conclu­sion of nego­tia­ti­ons, TECHNO-EINKAUF GmbH also issued a binding letter of commit­ment. It is expec­ted that Vienna Insu­rance Group will publish the offer docu­ment for the public take­over offer announ­ced on Octo­ber 17, 2025 in the course of this week. 

Advi­sor TECHNO-EINKAUF GmbH: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB

Dr. Matthias Terlau (lead, part­ner, banking and banking regu­la­tory law, Cologne)
Dr. Lutz Pospiech (part­ner, stock corpo­ra­tion and capi­tal markets law, Munich)
Lena Feldle (senior asso­ciate, M&A, Munich)
Niklas Lamberz (asso­ciate, banking and banking regu­la­tory law, Cologne)

About GÖRG

GÖRG is one of the leading inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firms in Germany.
With over 370 profes­sio­nals in the fields of legal advice, tax advice and audi­ting at our five offices in Berlin, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich, we advise well-known dome­stic and foreign compa­nies, medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as finan­cial inves­tors and listed groups from all sectors of the economy and the public sector. — www.goerg.de

Munich/Vienna — MP Corpo­rate Finance, a leading inter­na­tio­nal M&A advi­sory firm specia­li­zing in the Euro­pean indus­trial sector, has exclu­si­vely advi­sed Fide­lium Part­ners on the sale of its port­fo­lio company ALUni­ted. The buyer of the majo­rity stake in ALUni­ted — consis­ting of ALUni­ted A/S (Denmark) and ALUni­ted SAS (France) — is the Chinese listed company APALT (SZSE:002540). With this acqui­si­tion, APALT, a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of light­weight alumi­num compon­ents, makes its first tran­sac­tion outside the Chinese home market and achie­ves an important mile­stone in its global expan­sion strategy. 

With around 225 employees at its two plants in France and Denmark, ALUni­ted produ­ces struc­tu­ral alumi­num parts. A parti­cu­lar focus is on the extru­sion and further proces­sing of profiles for premium OEMs. Since Novem­ber 2021, ALUni­ted has been part of the port­fo­lio of Fide­lium Part­ners, an inter­na­tio­nal private equity firm head­quar­te­red in Munich, as part of a carve-out. ALUni­ted most recently gene­ra­ted sales of around EUR 70 million. 

Market entry into the Euro­pean premium auto­mo­tive segment

With its tech­no­lo­gi­cal specia­liza­tion and estab­lished market posi­tion in Denmark and France, ALUni­ted repres­ents an attrac­tive plat­form for APAL­T’s market entry in Europe. APALT is regarded as one of the leading verti­cally inte­gra­ted manu­fac­tu­r­ers of alumi­num compon­ents for the global auto­mo­tive, rail­road, buil­ding tech­no­logy and indus­trial sectors. With state-of-the-art produc­tion capa­ci­ties at a total of three loca­ti­ons in China, APALT is pursuing a clear growth stra­tegy: the acqui­si­tion of ALUni­ted marks a stra­te­gi­cally important step towards ancho­ring itself in the Euro­pean value chain, parti­cu­larly with regard to premium vehicle manu­fac­tu­r­ers. APALT employs around 3,600 people and most recently gene­ra­ted annual sales of around EUR 920 million. 

Cross-border tran­sac­tion in the wake of global indus­trial shifts

The take­over of ALUni­ted by APALT is an exam­ple of the incre­asing inter­de­pen­dence between Euro­pean indus­trial compa­nies and Asian market play­ers, as Robert Aigner-Lütter­felds, Mana­ging Part­ner at MP, knows. “New OEMs from China are ente­ring the Euro­pean market at high speed, putting estab­lished value crea­tion struc­tures under pres­sure. At the same time, many Euro­pean suppli­ers are facing key trans­for­ma­tion tasks. In this envi­ron­ment, inter­na­tio­nal stra­te­gic part­ner­ships are beco­ming incre­asingly important,” explains the expert for the metal­wor­king (auto­mo­tive) indus­try in Europe. 

Accor­ding to Aigner-Lütter­felds, Chinese play­ers are speci­fi­cally looking for Euro­pean plat­forms in order to build up produc­tion capa­ci­ties closer to the OEMs based here: “The merger of APALT and ALUni­ted fits seam­lessly into this deve­lo­p­ment and under­lines how cross-border M&A between Europe and Asia is incre­asingly influen­cing conso­li­da­tion in the auto­mo­tive supply industry.

The acqui­si­tion marks the seventh successful tran­sac­tion for MP Corpo­rate Finan­ce’s auto­mo­tive deal team in the past twelve months. The experts are made up of specia­li­zed sub-sector teams for the auto­mo­tive indus­try in the areas of metal, plas­tics and elec­tro­nics. “In addi­tion to the current market uncer­tain­ties in the Euro­pean auto­mo­tive indus­try, the special features of this deal were above all the cultu­ral diffe­ren­ces between the Chinese buyer and the Euro­pean target. Here it was important to create the basis for a trus­ting deal through trans­pa­rency, a focus on detail and many years of expe­ri­ence in the indus­try,” comm­ents Robert Aigner-Lütterfelds. 

Domi­nik Beck, foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of Fide­lium Part­ners, adds: “We are grateful for MP’s conti­nuous support throug­hout the entire tran­sac­tion process. The profes­sio­na­lism and commit­ment, but also the expe­ri­ence of the entire team in support­ing complex, inter­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tions contri­bu­ted signi­fi­cantly to the successful conclusion.”

About MP Corpo­rate Finance

MP Corpo­rate Finance is the leading inter­na­tio­nal M&A consul­tancy specia­li­zing in the indus­trial sector. As an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner, MP supports medium-sized compa­nies and manage­ment teams, private equity decis­ion-makers as well as entre­pre­neu­rial confi­dants in complex tran­sac­tions on both the sell and buy side and provi­des support in the context of capi­tal procu­re­ment, buy-and-build stra­te­gies, carve-outs or throug­hout the entire private equity life­cy­cle. MP was foun­ded in Vienna in the 1990s by Roman Göd and Gregor Nischer as the first Euro­pean M&A firm with a sector-focu­sed advi­sory approach. Today, the company employs more than 85 expe­ri­en­ced hands-on experts at five loca­ti­ons world­wide — in Vienna, Frank­furt, London, Istan­bul and Chicago — making it the largest indus­trial M&A team in Europe. With its unique sector focus, MP has successfully advi­sed on more than 700 indus­trial tran­sac­tions invol­ving invest­ment compa­nies, SMEs and corpo­ra­ti­ons. — www.mp-corporatefinance.com

Paris — Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”) and Ship­pingbo are part­ne­ring to support the specia­li­zed logi­stics manage­ment solu­ti­ons provi­der in the company’s next phase of growth. The tran­sac­tion repres­ents Main’s third plat­form invest­ment in France in 2025, follo­wing the opening of its Paris office in Febru­ary this year. 

Ship­ping­bo’s manage­ment team will conti­nue to provide opera­tio­nal leader­ship and retain a signi­fi­cant stake in the company, under­li­ning their strong commit­ment to the shared vision of buil­ding a leading inter­na­tio­nal unified logi­stics platform.

Ship­pingbo was foun­ded in 2016 and is head­quar­te­red in Toulouse, France. The company offers a compre­hen­sive, cloud-based logi­stics manage­ment plat­form that combi­nes order manage­ment (OMS), warehouse manage­ment (WMS) and trans­por­ta­tion manage­ment (TMS) in one inte­gra­ted solu­tion. The soft­ware enables e‑commerce brands, logi­stics service provi­ders and retail­ers to auto­mate fulfill­ment proces­ses, opti­mize warehouse proces­ses and effi­ci­ently control trans­port flows via a central interface. 

Ship­ping­bo’s plat­form is charac­te­ri­zed by scala­bi­lity, flexi­bi­lity and seam­less inte­gra­tion within the entire supply chain ecosys­tem. The company’s solu­ti­ons enable supply chain play­ers to connect and auto­mate all process steps, support­ing robust omnich­an­nel stra­te­gies through unified logi­stics capa­bi­li­ties. Ship­pingbo employs around 80 people at its head­quar­ters in Toulouse and serves around 1,000 direct custo­mers from various indus­tries — inclu­ding consu­mer goods, 3PL logi­stics, sports & leisure and food & beverage. Key custo­mers include brands such as Venom, Teddy Smith, and Weber Indus­tries as well as logi­stics service provi­ders (3PL) such as DHL, Deret and Stef. 

Although the majo­rity of sales are curr­ently gene­ra­ted in France, Ship­pingbo has clear inter­na­tio­nal ambi­ti­ons with a growing custo­mer base and market presence in Spain, Belgium and Switzerland.

Acce­le­ra­ted growth through product inno­va­tion, inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and a targe­ted buy-and-build strategy 

Through the colla­bo­ra­tion with Main, Ship­pingbo aims to acce­le­rate growth through conti­nuous product inno­va­tion, inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and a targe­ted buy-and-build stra­tegy to further streng­then its posi­tion as a specia­li­zed soft­ware provi­der in the logi­stics chain. The common goal is to expand Ship­ping­bo’s func­tional coverage (OMS, WMS, TMS), deve­lop comple­men­tary modu­les and part­ner­ships and streng­then the go-to-market stra­tegy to better serve the growing Euro­pean custo­mer base. The manage­ment team — consis­ting of the foun­ding part­ners with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in logi­stics soft­ware — will retain a signi­fi­cant stake and toge­ther with Main will lead the next phase of growth. 

Jonas Kruip, Co-Head France & Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at Main Capi­tal Part­nerssaid: “We are deligh­ted to part­ner with Marc, Romain and the entire Ship­pingbo team to support them in their next phase of growth. As supply chains become incre­asingly digi­tal, data-driven and custo­mer-centric, inte­gra­ted OMS, WMS and TMS solu­ti­ons are criti­cal for compa­nies seeking effi­ci­ency, visi­bi­lity and scala­bi­lity across the supply chain. Ship­ping­bo’s scalable and modern plat­form is ideally posi­tio­ned to meet these requi­re­ments. We look forward to working closely with the manage­ment team to drive inno­va­tion and grow the company’s inter­na­tio­nal foot­print both orga­ni­cally and inor­ga­ni­cally. Ship­pingbo is our third plat­form invest­ment in France since the opening of our Paris office earlier this year and under­lines our strong commit­ment to support­ing and deve­lo­ping the French soft­ware ecosystem.”

Marc Heiri­cher, foun­der and CEO of Ship­pingbo, added: “We are very proud of this stra­te­gic agree­ment with Main Capi­tal to support us in this new chap­ter. Main’s expe­ri­ence in the soft­ware sector and in accom­pany­ing scale-ups on their growth path will allow us to signi­fi­cantly acce­le­rate Ship­ping­bo’s deve­lo­p­ment. This new part­ner­ship confirms our vision and provi­des us with addi­tio­nal resour­ces to further inno­vate intern­ally, streng­then our part­ner network and imple­ment a buy-and-build stra­tegy to further deve­lop our posi­tion as an estab­lished, unified logi­stics plat­form for omnich­an­nel commerce in France and internationally.”

About Ship­pingbo

Ship­pingbo, head­quar­te­red in Toulouse, France, deve­lops a SaaS plat­form specia­li­zing in e‑commerce logi­stics, combi­ning Order Manage­ment (OMS), Warehouse Manage­ment (WMS) and Trans­port Manage­ment (TMS). The solu­tion is offe­red as an inte­gra­ted suite or as stand-alone modu­les to adapt to exis­ting orga­niza­ti­ons and systems. It covers the entire order to deli­very process: stan­dar­diza­tion of orders and stock levels across all chan­nels, control of warehouse proces­sing, ship­ping via inte­gra­ted carri­ers, label crea­tion, ship­ment track­ing and fault manage­ment as well as returns proces­sing. The system is desi­gned for scala­bi­lity and inter­ope­ra­bi­lity and inte­gra­tes with ERP, CMS, market­place and exis­ting WMS/OMS/TMS systems and part­ner networks via stan­dard connec­tors and an open API. Ship­pingbo is desi­gned for multi-warehouse opera­ti­ons and supports e‑commerce merchants, DNVBs, retail­ers, manu­fac­tu­r­ers, suppli­ers and logi­stics service provi­ders by provi­ding centra­li­zed opera­tio­nal visi­bi­lity and unified proces­ses across loca­ti­ons, chan­nels and part­ners. — https://www.shippingbo.com

About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor in the Bene­lux, DACH, France, the Nordics and the US with appro­xi­m­ately €6.5 billion in assets under manage­ment. Main has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams of its port­fo­lio compa­nies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to drive profi­ta­ble growth and build leading soft­ware groups. As a leading soft­ware inves­tor with private equity funds active in Northwest Europe and North America, Main employs around 90 people in offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp, Paris and an affi­lia­ted office in Boston. Main mana­ges an active port­fo­lio of over 50 soft­ware compa­nies with a total of around 15,000 employees. Through the Main Social Insti­tute, Main supports students with scho­lar­ships for IT and compu­ter science programs at tech­ni­cal univer­si­ties and univer­si­ties of applied scien­ces. — www.main.nl

Munich — The posi­tive trend in funding commit­ments conti­nues: In the first nine months of the current year, LfA Förder­bank Bayern has supported the Bava­rian economy with loans tota­ling around EUR 1.6 billion. Almost EUR 1.45 billion of this flowed into LfA’s core busi­ness with program-linked deve­lo­p­ment loans. Compared to the same period last year, this is an increase of almost 50 percent. Around 100,000 jobs were secu­red with the help of the funding. 

Demand for the deve­lo­p­ment loan programs increased noti­ce­ably in all of the LfA’s deve­lo­p­ment areas. The start-up and growth loan (GuW) had the highest total funding volume. In the LfA’s stan­dard program for finan­cing start-ups, company succes­si­ons and the entire finan­cing requi­re­ments of SMEs and free­lan­cers, loans total­ling over EUR 670 million were approved. 

Compared to the previous year, demand for inno­va­tion and digi­ta­liza­tion funding more than doubled to a total of around 365 million euros. Both the former Inno­va­tion Loan 4.0 and its succes­sor products, the Inno­va­tion Loan and Digi­tiza­tion Loan, which were intro­du­ced in July, were very well recei­ved. With three funding levels each, the LfA now offers even better finan­cing condi­ti­ons for compa­nies and free­lan­cers in Bava­ria. The follo­wing prin­ci­ple applies: the more deman­ding the project, the more favorable the inte­rest rates. 

There was also a strong over­all increase in demand for promo­tio­nal offers for energy and climate protec­tion. For the Rege­ne­ra­tive Energy Loan alone — LfA’s special offer for invest­ments in the gene­ra­tion of elec­tri­city and hydro­gen based on rene­wa­ble ener­gies as well as corre­spon­ding storage systems — the funding volume in the first three quar­ters of the year was over EUR 85 million. The reasons for this multi­pli­ca­tion in demand are, on the one hand, the product impro­ve­ments made in spring and, on the other, the lower EU refe­rence inte­rest rate since July. As of Octo­ber 30, there will be a further impro­ve­ment in the energy loan family: the heating energy loan — for the pipe­line-based expan­sion of the heating and cooling supply — will be expan­ded to include a vari­ant in which loans of up to 50 million euros can be applied for in future. 

Bava­ria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs and Chair­man of the LfA Board of Direc­tors Hubert Aiwan­ger: “The contin­ued strong upward trend in loan commit­ments from LfA Förder­bank Bayern is a good sign. Bava­ria’s compa­nies are taking a bold approach to their future and inves­t­ing in future-orien­ted topics such as inno­va­tion, digi­ta­liza­tion and rene­wa­ble ener­gies despite all the uncer­tain­ties. The expan­ded funding oppor­tu­ni­ties are neces­sary and helpful. They come at the right time and provide new impe­tus, espe­ci­ally in diffi­cult econo­mic times.”

Dr Bern­hard Schwab, CEO of LfA, explains: “The increase in our lending for inno­va­tion, digi­ta­liza­tion and rene­wa­ble ener­gies under­pins the strong commit­ment of compa­nies to invest in inno­va­tion and a sustainable future. The high demand for finan­cing in the field of rene­wa­ble ener­gies, which signi­fi­cantly support the path to energy- and cost-effi­ci­ent busi­ness, is parti­cu­larly plea­sing. LfA Förder­bank Bayern is once again proving its rele­vance for the Bava­rian economy.”

LfA has been the state-owned specia­list bank for the promo­tion of SMEs in Bava­ria since 1951. As a rule, the deve­lo­p­ment loans are applied for at the compa­nies’ prin­ci­pal banks and are gran­ted through them. In order to streng­then Bava­ria as a busi­ness loca­tion, the LfA also supports infra­struc­ture projects. LfA funding advice: 089 / 21 24 — 10 00 — www.lfa.de

Munich — Danish RegTech has closed a €30 million Series B finan­cing. The round is co-led by Acton Capi­tal and Black­Fin Tech, with parti­ci­pa­tion from West Hill Capi­tal and CIBC Inno­va­tion Banking. The aim is to massi­vely expand its presence in Germany, in parti­cu­lar the Munich office, which is expec­ted to grow to 30 employees by the end of 2026. Forma­lize offers a plat­form that covers DORA and NIS2 in one inte­gra­ted system. 

DORA is running, NIS2 is coming — Germany is under pressure

The regu­la­tory requi­re­ments for cyber­se­cu­rity are incre­asing rapidly: since Janu­ary 2025, around 3,600 finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons have had to imple­ment the EU’s DORA regu­la­tion. At the same time, the upco­ming NIS2 direc­tive will affect around 29,000 compa­nies, mainly from the SME sector. 

“When regu­la­tory requi­re­ments meet a massive shortage of skil­led workers, auto­ma­tion goes from being an option to a neces­sity. That’s why the German market is now an abso­lute prio­rity for us,” says Jakob Lilholm, CEO of Forma­lize.

Germany has missed the EU imple­men­ta­tion dead­line and infrin­ge­ment procee­dings are alre­ady under­way. Accor­ding to esti­ma­tes, the imple­men­ta­tion costs in the first year amount to 4.5 billion euros, plus possi­ble fines of up to 10 million euros. 

There is also a massive shortage of skil­led workers. Accor­ding to studies, there is a shortage of around 120,000 cyber­se­cu­rity experts in Germany. A gap that will be very diffi­cult to close in the short term. 

Auto­ma­ted compli­ance instead of a shortage of specialists

Forma­lize offers a plat­form that covers DORA and NIS2 in one inte­gra­ted system. This is an advan­tage for compa­nies that need to imple­ment both sets of regu­la­ti­ons at the same time. 

Since its foun­da­tion in 2021, Forma­lize has acqui­red over 8,000 custo­mers world­wide, inclu­ding McDo­nal­d’s, Star­bucks and, in the DACH region, Deve­ley, Emma and Der Grüne Punkt. The DACH region alre­ady accounts for 25% of annual recur­ring reve­nue. German custo­mers include MDR, Rhein­Land Versi­che­run­gen, Honda Finan­cial Services and the Munich District Office. 

“It is beco­ming incre­asingly diffi­cult for small and medium-sized compa­nies in the EU to meet all the requi­re­ments impo­sed on them by regu­la­ti­ons. Forma­lize impres­sed us with a supe­rior solu­tion that allows compa­nies to have the requi­red proces­ses and data under control. No other solu­tion came close to Forma­li­ze’s ability to capture the speci­fics of all count­ries and indus­tries while making the solu­tion easy to use,” says Fritz Oidt­mann, Mana­ging Part­ner at Acton Capi­tal.

About Forma­lize

Foun­ded in 2021, Forma­lize is a compli­ance soft­ware company that helps compa­nies manage complex regu­la­tory and risk-rela­ted requi­re­ments. Its plat­form auto­ma­tes compli­ance proces­ses for NIS2, DORA, ISO27001, GDPR and more. Forma­lize serves over 8,000 custo­mers and has offices in Copen­ha­gen, Aarhus, Madrid and Milan. The company has raised a total of €50 million to date and employs more than 160 people. 

About Acton Capital

Acton Capi­tal is an inter­na­tio­nal venture capi­tal firm based in Munich and Vancou­ver. Since 1999, the team has been inves­t­ing in tech­no­logy-based busi­ness models from Europe and North America. With over two deca­des of expe­ri­ence and a deep under­stan­ding of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, Acton Capi­tal has helped over 100 start-ups build successful busi­nesses. — www.actoncapital.com

About Black­Fin

Black­Fin Capi­tal Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent private equity and venture capi­tal firm inves­t­ing in Euro­pean finan­cial services and tech­no­logy compa­nies with over €4.3 billion in assets under manage­ment as of Decem­ber 2024. Its venture team has backed more than 20 of Euro­pe’s fastest growing fintech, insur­tech and regtech compa­nies from Series A to Series C. Black­Fin was foun­ded in 2009 and has offices in Paris, London, Frank­furt, Amster­dam and Brussels. — www.blackfin.com

Frank­furt am Main / Greven — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner (VREP) is provi­ding the Grei­wing Group with mezza­nine finan­cing. The specia­list for bulk goods and silo logi­stics is using the funds to streng­then its capi­tal base and to finance further growth steps. 

The GREIWING logi­stics Group (Grei­wing), head­quar­te­red in Greven, is one of the leading specia­list logi­stics compa­nies in Germany. The family-owned company offers compre­hen­sive services for the trans­por­ta­tion, storage and hand­ling of free-flowing and bulk goods at over 20 loca­ti­ons nati­on­wide. With around 1,200 employees, Grei­wing has a well-estab­lished struc­ture and a strong market posi­tion in silo logi­stics. Its custo­mers include renow­ned German and inter­na­tio­nal indus­trial companies. 

Grei­wing has successfully estab­lished itself as a quality provi­der in recent years through conti­nuous invest­ment in modern invest­ment tech­no­logy, digi­tal control systems and sustainable logi­stics solu­ti­ons. The aim of the new finan­cing part­ner­ship is to conti­nue on this growth path and to broa­den the exis­ting capi­tal base in a targe­ted manner. 

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner, comm­ents on the transaction:
“We are deligh­ted to be able to support the Grei­wing Group in its corpo­rate growth as a mezza­nine part­ner in the coming years. Grei­wing has successfully posi­tio­ned itself as a Germany-wide reco­gni­zed specia­list for free-flowing and poura­ble goods. Thanks to its flexi­ble struc­ture, mezza­nine capi­tal is curr­ently expe­ri­en­cing a renais­sance in the finan­cing mix — and has also proved to be an ideal solu­tion for Grei­wing to provide opti­mal support for further growth.”

Jürgen Grei­wing, Mana­ging Part­ner of the Grei­wing Group, adds: “We have been working toge­ther with the insti­tu­ti­ons of the coope­ra­tive finan­cial group for many years on a basis of trust, which is why we were deligh­ted to have found a mezza­nine lender with expe­ri­ence in the SME sector within the coope­ra­tive network in VR Equi­typ­art­ner. Mezza­nine finan­cing comple­ments our tradi­tio­nal bank finan­cing and streng­thens our equity side, allo­wing us to imple­ment invest­ment projects flexi­bly. We greatly appre­ciate the part­ner­ship-based approach of VR Equitypartner.”

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the contract.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner at a glance

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equi­typ­art­ner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 40 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 400 million.
— www.vrep.de.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner tran­sac­tion team: Tim Feld, Jens Schöf­fel, Chris­toph Simmes, Jens Osthoff, Dr. Clau­dia Willershausen

Advi­sors VREP: Grant Thornton

Legal: Dr. Mathias Reif, Boris Kröpsky, Jessica Marx
Tax: Dr. Stefan Hahn, Dr. Nico­las Brüg­gen, Julian Tolksdorf
Commer­cial: Stephane Müller, Thomas Nacken
Finan­cial: Tim Gonner­mann, Simone Rees, Dijana Dulovic

Berlin — The Berlin-based PropTech company Arbio Group GmbH (Arbio) has raised 36 million US dollars in a Series A finan­cing round. The finan­cing round was led by Eura­zeo, with parti­ci­pa­tion from Open Ocean and exis­ting inves­tors Atlan­tic Labs as well as renow­ned angel inves­tors such as Phil­ipp Freise and Justin Reizes (KKR), Johan­nes Reck and TaoTao (GetY­our­Guide) and Din Bise­vac (Buena). Arbio recei­ved legal advice on this tran­sac­tion from GÖRG. 

Arbio is a Berlin-based company deve­lo­ping an AI-native opera­ting system for the Euro­pean short-term rental market. With a combi­na­tion of tech­no­logy, auto­ma­tion and opera­tio­nal services, Arbio helps owners manage their proper­ties more effi­ci­ently and improve guest expe­ri­en­ces. With the new funding, Arbio aims to acce­le­rate its acqui­si­tion stra­tegy, enhance its AI capa­bi­li­ties and drive expan­sion into new Euro­pean markets. The company curr­ently mana­ges over 1,000 units in Germany, Austria and the UK and relies on auto­ma­ted proces­ses in sales, opera­ti­ons and guest communication. 

A GÖRG team led by Munich-based part­ner and venture capi­tal expert Sebas­tian Frech provi­ded Arbio with compre­hen­sive legal advice on the finan­cing round.

Advi­sor Arbio Group GmbH: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB

Sebas­tian Frech (Photo © Goerg; Lead, Part­ner, M&A / VC, Munich)
Dr. Chris­tian Bürger (Part­ner, Anti­trust, Cologne)
Dr. Matthias Terlau (Part­ner, Regu­la­tory, Cologne)
Dr. Karl-Georg Küsters, LL.B., LL.M. Taxa­tion (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Tax, Cologne)
Dr. Julian Stas­sek (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Employ­ment Law, Munich)
Mete­han Uzun­çak­mak, LL.M. (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Anti­trust, Cologne)
Nico­laos Urschel (Senior Asso­ciate, Regu­la­tory Law, Cologne)
Max Zeis­ler (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A / Venture Capi­tal, Munich) 

GÖRG is one of the leading inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firms in Germany. With around 370 profes­sio­nals at our five offices in Berlin, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich, we advise well-known dome­stic and foreign compa­nies from all sectors of indus­try, commerce, real estate, media and services in all core areas of commer­cial law in natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal projects. — www.goerg.de

Paris/ Marseile/ Munich — Inves­tors announce that Ipsen (Euron­ext: IPN; ADR: IPSEY) has ente­red into a defi­ni­tive agree­ment to acquire its port­fo­lio company ImCheck Thera­peu­tics for EUR 350 million at closing in a tran­sac­tion valued at up to USD 1 billion.

EQT Life Scien­ces inves­ted in the company in 2017 as part of a consor­tium of inves­tors and has since provi­ded exten­sive support, inclu­ding at board level. GIMV is also part of the inves­tor consortium.

Vincent Brichard (photo © eqt), Venture Part­ner at EQT Life Scien­ces and board member at ImCheck Thera­peu­tics, said: “We are very proud to have supported ImCheck on its path to this signi­fi­cant acqui­si­tion by Ipsen. The tran­sac­tion unders­cores the strength of ImCheck’s plat­form and the company’s excep­tio­nal leader­ship and team. It is also a testa­ment to our ability to unco­ver hidden gems and support trans­for­ma­tive biotech companies.”

ImCheck Thera­peu­tics, based in Marseille, France, is pionee­ring the field of immuno-onco­logy thera­pies by targe­ting buty­ro­phi­lins, a novel group of immu­no­re­gu­la­tory prote­ins. Its lead drug, ICT01, is curr­ently being tested in pati­ents with acute myeloid leuk­emia (AML) who are not suita­ble for stan­dard treat­ment. The initial results of the Phase I/II trial show promi­sing respon­ses. ICT01 is a first-in-class mono­clonal anti­body direc­ted against BTN3A, an important immu­no­re­gu­la­tory mole­cule that is widely expres­sed in many types of cancer. 

Pierre d’Epen­oux, CEO of ImCheck Thera­peu­tics, said: “This tran­sac­tion is an excep­tio­nal mile­stone for ImCheck and shines a spot­light on the pionee­ring science of French univer­si­ties. EQT Life Scien­ces’ support went far beyond finan­cing — their stra­te­gic advice and confi­dence in my leader­ship skills were criti­cal to our success.”

Toge­ther with the sale of Amolyt Pharma to Astra­Ze­neca in 2024, EQT Life Scien­ces has thus achie­ved two successful exits from its port­fo­lio as part of the “France 2030” invest­ment program — a govern­ment initia­tive to promote the most promi­sing French biotech inno­va­tions. This under­lines EQT Life Scien­ces’ exper­tise in iden­ti­fy­ing leading Euro­pean biotech compa­nies and deve­lo­ping them into global success stories. 

The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the end of the first quar­ter of 2026, subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding regu­la­tory appr­ovals in accordance with French and US regulations.

About EQT Life Sciences

EQT Life Scien­ces was foun­ded in 2022 follo­wing the inte­gra­tion of LSP, a leading Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm in life scien­ces and health­care, into the EQT plat­form. As LSP, the firm has raised more than EUR 3.0 billion (USD 3.5 billion) and supported the growth of over 150 compa­nies since it began inves­t­ing over 30 years ago. With a dedi­ca­ted team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment profes­sio­nals with back­grounds in medi­cine, science, busi­ness and finance, EQT Life Scien­ces is commit­ted to back­ing the brigh­test inven­tors whose ideas can make a real diffe­rence to pati­ents’ lives. — www.eqt.com

About ImCheck Therapeutics 

ImCheck Thera­peu­tics is deve­lo­ping a new gene­ra­tion of immu­no­the­ra­peu­tic anti­bo­dies targe­ting buty­ro­phi­lins, a novel super­fa­mily of immune modu­la­tors. By unlo­cking the poten­tial of γ9δ2 T cells, ImCheck’s inno­va­tive approach has the poten­tial to revo­lu­tio­nize treat­ments in the fields of onco­logy, auto­im­mune dise­a­ses and infec­tious diseases. 

The lead clini­cal-stage program, ICT01, has advan­ced into late-stage clini­cal trials and demons­tra­tes a unique mecha­nism of action that modu­la­tes both innate and adap­tive immu­nity. These “first-in-class” acti­vat­ing anti­bo­dies may provide supe­rior clini­cal outco­mes compared to first-gene­ra­tion immu­no­the­rapy approa­ches, parti­cu­larly in meaningful combi­na­ti­ons with immune check­point inhi­bi­tors and immu­no­mo­du­la­tory cancer drugs. In addi­tion, ImCheck’s pipe­line compounds are progres­sing towards clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment for auto­im­mune and infec­tious diseases. 

The company bene­fits from the pionee­ring rese­arch of Prof. Daniel Olive (Insti­tut Paoli Calmet­tes, INSERM, CNRS, Univer­sity of Aix-Marseille), a world-leading expert in γ9δ2‑T cells and buty­ro­phi­lins, as well as the exper­tise of an expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team and the commit­ment of leading French, Euro­pean and US inves­tors, inclu­ding Kurma Part­ners, Eura­zeo, Bpifrance through its Inno­bio 2 and Large Venture funds, Andera Part­ners, Pfizer Ventures, Gimv, EQT Life Scien­ces, Early­bird, Welling­ton Part­ners, Pureos Bioven­tures, Invus, Agent Capi­tal, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund, Alex­an­dria Venture Invest­ments and Blood Cancer United (previously LLS)®. — www.imchecktherapeutics.com

Berlin / Hamburg — YPOG advi­sed lead inves­tor Venrock Health­care Capi­tal Part­ners on the successful Series C finan­cing round of the Martins­ried-based biotech company Tubu­lis. The round amounts to EUR 308 million (USD 361 million) and is one of the largest private finan­cing rounds for a Euro­pean biotech company this year. 

In addi­tion to Venrock Health­care Capi­tal Part­ners, other well-known new inves­tors such as Welling­ton Manage­ment and Ascenta Capi­tal also parti­ci­pa­ted. Exis­ting inves­tors such as Nextech Invest, EQT Life Scien­ces, Frazier Life Scien­ces, Andera Part­ners, Deep Track Capi­tal, Bayern Kapi­tal, Fund+, HTGF, OCCIDENT and Seven­ture Part­ners also supported the round. 

Tubu­lis is deve­lo­ping a pipe­line of novel, indi­ca­tion-speci­fic anti­body drug conju­ga­tes (ADCs) that are highly targe­ted and tole­ra­ble thanks to a combi­na­tion of proprie­tary plat­form tech­no­lo­gies and biolo­gi­cal exper­tise. The new funding will prima­rily be used to acce­le­rate the clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment of the lead ADC candi­date TUB-040 (for ovarian and lung cancer). TUB-040 is curr­ently in a Phase I/IIa trial and was gran­ted fast-track status by the US FDA in June 2024. In addi­tion, the funding will be used to expand Tubu­lis’ pipe­line, inclu­ding the clini­cal ADC candi­date TUB-030 (for advan­ced solid tumors) and seve­ral precli­ni­cal programs. The company also plans to expand its tech­no­logy plat­forms and estab­lish a US subsidiary. 

“Tubu­lis’ finan­cing round is a strong signal for the inno­va­tive power of the Euro­pean biotech ecosys­tem,” says Dr. Benja­min Ullrich, Co-Mana­ging Part­ner at YPOG. “With the support of leading inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors such as Venrock Health­care Capi­tal Part­ners, a company is streng­the­ned that has the poten­tial to signi­fi­cantly change cancer therapy with its novel ADC tech­no­lo­gies. For YPOG, this is another exam­ple of our growing role at the inter­sec­tion of life scien­ces, deep tech and venture capital.” 

Legal advice was provi­ded in close coope­ra­tion with the US law firm Cooley under the leader­ship of James Schnei­der, part­ner in the Boston office.

Consul­tant Tubu­lis: YPOG

Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Stefan Rich­ter (Tax), Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Caro­lin Raspé (Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons), Part­ner, Munich
Dr. Emma Peters (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Tobias Lovett (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Pia Meven (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Anna Eick­meier (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
There­sia M.R. Hein­rich (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Konstan­tina Natha­nail (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Silke Ricken (Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Chris­tian Busmann (Tax), Asso­ciate, Hamburg

About Venrock Health­care Capi­tal Partners

Venrock Health­care Capi­tal Part­ners (VHCP) is a health­care-focu­sed venture capi­tal fund group concen­t­ra­ting on late-stage invest­ments. It invests prima­rily in publicly traded small cap and priva­tely held late stage compa­nies — parti­cu­larly in the health­care and life scien­ces sectors, with a special focus on biotech­no­logy. VHCP focu­ses on compa­nies that deve­lop and commer­cia­lize inno­va­tive products and tech­no­lo­gies. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at venrock.com.

Düssel­dorf — Deloitte Legal has advi­sed FUNKE Medi­en­gruppe on the acqui­si­tion of the food plat­form Chef­koch from Gruner + Jahr, a company under the umbrella of RTL Deutsch­land. FUNKE Medi­en­gruppe thus streng­thens its posi­tion in the food segment of the German market. 

With the 100 percent take­over of Chef­koch GmbH, both the brand and the team of around 100 people are moving to FUNKE. The kochbar.de portal will also become part of FUNKE. Chef­koch GmbH will remain the opera­tor of the digi­tal offe­ring essen-und-trinken.de. The Chef­koch head­quar­ters in Bonn will thus become another loca­tion on the FUNKE map of Germany. Chris­tine Nieland will remain on board as Mana­ging Direc­tor and will conti­nue to manage the brand and the company toge­ther with her current manage­ment team. 

“Chef­koch is the top dog on the market and firmly estab­lished in peop­le’s minds as the best-known cont­act point for people inte­res­ted in cooking and baking. With the inte­gra­tion, we are taking our alre­ady strong food exper­tise to a whole new level — this will be a key growth area for FUNKE and fits in well with our strong target groups,” says Jesper Doub, Mana­ging Direc­tor of FUNKE Medien Natio­nal Brands in the press release. “We are consis­t­ently pursuing the path we have taken with the GALA, BRIGITTE and ELTERN brands and are inte­gra­ting further strong natio­nal brands, espe­ci­ally in the digi­tal sector, into
.”

About Chef­koch

Chef­koch reaches around 20 million unique users per month, making it the number 1 in the digi­tal food segment in Germany. Thanks to the large variety of recipes with over 360,000 recipes, nume­rous smart func­tions and the active commu­nity, Chef­koch is an indis­pensable compa­n­ion in the ever­y­day cooking lives of many users. This is also reflec­ted in the strong reach with more than 223 million monthly page impres­si­ons and inten­sive user loyalty with over 8 million regis­tered users. The bran­d’s social media
presence is also growing steadily: 1.4 million people follow the brand on Pinte­rest, Insta­gram has 751,000 follo­wers and Chef­koch has 335,000 follo­wers on TikTok. 

Advi­sor FUNKE Media Group: Deloitte Legal Germany

Dr. Michael von Rüden (Co-Lead, Part­ner), Dirk Hänisch
(Co-Lead, Part­ner), Horst Heinzl (Coun­sel), Chris­toph Meves (Coun­sel), Maxi­mi­lian Giep­mann (Asso­ciate) and Victo­ria Zahn (Asso­ciate, all Corporate/M&A, all Düssel­dorf), Nikola Werry (Part­ner, Digi­tal Law, Frank­furt), Jan Rudolph (Coun­sel, Digi­tal Law, Düssel­dorf), Alina Birgit Scheja (Asso­ciate, Digi­tal Law, Frank­furt), Claus Wilker (Employ­ment Law, Coun­sel, Hanover)

Munich — McDer­mott Will & Schulte has advi­sed the German-Dutch invest­ment company Rhein Invest on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in the fitness studio opera­tor MC Shape. The foun­der will retain a signi­fi­cant stake in the company. 

MC Shape, based in Nagold, Baden-Würt­tem­berg, was foun­ded in 2013 and now opera­tes 16 of its own and 21 fran­chise studios with more than 80,000 members. The focus is curr­ently on southern Germany; there are plans to expand its presence throug­hout Germany. 

Foun­ded in 2017 and based in Amster­dam, Rhein Invest invests in small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs) with a strong DNA.

McDer­mott advi­sed Rhein Invest under the lead manage­ment of part­ners Hanno Witt and Ludwig Zesch on all tran­sac­tion-rela­ted issues inclu­ding financing.

Advi­sor Rhein Invest: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Munich

Hanno M. Witt, LL.M. (Lead, Private Equity), Ludwig Zesch (Lead, Finance), Alex­an­dra Prato (Coun­sel, Private Equity), Fran­ziska Sauer (Coun­sel, Finance), Dr. Florian Schie­fer (Tax Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Claus Färber (Coun­sel, IP/IT and Data Protec­tion Law); Asso­cia­tes: Nicole Kaps, Julia Külzer, Dr. Armin Teymouri, Parsin Walsi, LL.M., Dr. Manuel Weiß (all Private Equity), Lorenz Schwo­jer (Finance), Andreas H. Janßen (Commer­cial, Colo­gne), Janek Joos­ten, Lenn­art Neumann (both Employ­ment Law, Düsseldorf)

Munich/Nuremberg — YAXI GmbH (“YAXI”), a start-up in the field of open banking, has gained Ernst REINER GmbH & Co KG (“REINER”) as an expe­ri­en­ced inves­tor and stra­te­gic part­ner for digi­tal secu­rity and high-quality home banking secu­rity solu­ti­ons. REINER’s invest­ment streng­thens YAXI’s growth and inno­va­tive power and marks an important step towards further posi­tio­ning the company as a leading infra­struc­ture provi­der for modern banking services. 

YAXI was foun­ded in 2022 by Dr. Vincent Haupert (CEO), Chris­to­pher Schramm (COO) and Andreas Stührk
(CTO). YAXI offers a secure and flexi­ble open banking infra­struc­ture that enablescompa­nies to offer their users payment and account infor­ma­tion tran­sac­tionswith the highest level of confi­den­tia­lity. The tech­no­logy deli­bera­tely dispen­ses with tradi­tio­nalserver infra­struc­tures and focu­ses on easy access, data protec­tion and user auto­nomy,without custo­mers incur­ring regu­la­tory licen­sing costs. A special
unique selling point of YAXI is that the tech­no­logy makes the tran­sac­tions cryp­to­gra­phi­cally secure
and traceable, so that neither the company nor the custo­mers ever have access to the
access data. As a result, unlike other provi­ders, YAXI does not require a PSD2 license.
The white label product is alre­ady being used successfully: Fliz­pay, for exam­ple, works with YAXI
and enables custo­mers of the neobro­ker Trade Repu­blic to top up their account
.

REINER, based in Furt­wan­gen in the Black Forest, is a family-run tech­no­logy company
with over 110 years of history. The REINER Group combi­nes precis­ion, inno­va­tion and
manu­fac­tu­ring exper­tise in the busi­ness areas of marking and precis­ion tech­no­logy. The REINER-Group includes the subsi­dia­ries REINER SCT and HORRAY. Toge­ther, thecompany stands for a strong network of mecha­nics, tech­no­logy and digi­ta­liza­tion.The company is repre­sen­ted world­wide with part­ners and has stood for quality, inno­va­tion andrelia­bi­lity from the Black Forest since 1913. As a pionee­ring provi­der of digi­tal. REINER comple­ments the YAXI ecosys­tem with its many years of exper­tise in the areas of authen­ti­ca­tion and secure data transmission. 

As part of the tran­sac­tion, REINER acqui­red shares from the foun­ders and inves­ted addi­tio­nal seven-digit capi­tal in YAXI as part of
a capi­tal increase. After comple­tion of the
tran­sac­tion, REINER will hold 55 percent of the shares in YAXI, while the remai­ning 45 percent will remain with the
three founders. 

YAXI will use the addi­tio­nal capi­tal speci­fi­cally for expan­sion in Europe and the further deve­lo­p­ment of
inno­va­tive secu­rity and payment solu­ti­ons. “With Reiner, we have a strong part­ner at
who enjoys an excel­lent repu­ta­tion as a relia­ble part­ner, espe­ci­ally in the banking and
secu­rity envi­ron­ment,” comm­ents Dr. Vincent Haupert on the tran­sac­tion. The foun­ders and the entire
team at YAXI welcome the new part­ner­ship as a stra­te­gic milestone. 

The Walberg & Cie. team led by Dr. Simon Sabel, Dr. Sebas­tian Binder and Marc Wies­ner, LL.M.
(Yale) provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the foun­ders of YAXI on the tran­sac­tion. The
advi­sory focus was on the legal and tax struc­tu­ring of the invest­ment as well as the
draf­ting and nego­tia­tion of the complete invest­ment docu­men­ta­tion, in parti­cu­lar the Investment
Agree­ment, the Share Purchase Agree­ment (SPA) and the Share­hol­ders’ Agree­ment (SHA). The
tran­sac­tion under­lines Walberg & Cie.‘s exper­tise in advi­sing on strategic
part­ner­ships between tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups and estab­lished family busi­nesses, where
the diffe­rent inte­rests and cultures of both types of compa­nies can be successfully combi­ned in
sustainable structures. 

Advi­sor YAXI GmbH: Walberg Law Tax Stra­tegy GmbH & Cie. KG

Dr. Simon Sabel, Mana­ging Part­ner, Attor­ney (Corpo­rate, M&A), Co-Lead
Dr. Sebas­tian Binder, Asso­ciate Part­ner, Tax Advi­sor (Tax), Co-Lead
Marc Wies­ner, LL.M. (Yale), Asso­ciate (Corpo­rate, M&A)

About Walberg & Cie.

Walberg & Cie. is a specia­li­zed legal and tax boutique based in Munich. The focus is on M&A, restruc­tu­ring and stra­te­gic invest­ments for inves­tors, entre­pre­neurs and compa­nies. The inter­di­sci­pli­nary team advi­ses on complex natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal transactions.

Berlin — GSK Stock­mann has advi­sed the Arsipa Group on the acqui­si­tion of digi­tal specia­list Bloom. The acqui­si­tion of the Berlin-based health tech start-up is an important compo­nent of Arsi­pa’s digi­tal stra­tegy. The group is thus expan­ding its market leader­ship in occu­pa­tio­nal health and safety and crea­ting the first digi­tal-native plat­form for occu­pa­tio­nal health and safety obli­ga­ti­ons in Germany and Austria. 

The Arsipa Group has been supported by Warburg Pincus as part of a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship since 2025. Arsi­pia focu­ses on occu­pa­tio­nal medi­cine, occu­pa­tio­nal safety, occu­pa­tio­nal psycho­logy and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. It has around 850 employees at more than 60 loca­ti­ons in Germany and Austria and supports over 22,000 companies. 

The combi­na­tion of perso­nal on-site support throug­hout Germany and a powerful soft­ware plat­form has now crea­ted a provi­der that offers end-to-end digi­tal, hybrid and analog occu­pa­tio­nal safety from a single source to meet the needs of all custo­mer groups.

Bloom Health­tech GmbH has been deve­lo­ping an AI-supported plat­form for the auto­ma­tion of occu­pa­tio­nal health and safety since 2021. This enables complex legal requi­re­ments to be imple­men­ted actively, effi­ci­ently and trans­par­ently. Bloom inte­gra­tes proces­ses into exis­ting systems, thus redu­cing the manual workload for HR depart­ments and offe­ring digi­tal, auto­ma­ted compli­ance manage­ment in occu­pa­tio­nal health and safety. 

Advi­sor Arse­pia GmbH: GSK Stockmann

Robert Korn­dör­fer (Lead Part­ner, Corpo­rate), Dr. Jörg Kahler (Part­ner, IP/IT), Stephan Wachs­muth (Local Part­ner, Tax Law), Nicole Depa­rade (Local Part­ner, Employ­ment Law), Clara López Hernando (Senior Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate), Katrin Zukovs­kaja (Asso­ciate, Employ­ment Law), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schnebbe (Asso­ciate, Data Protec­tion Law).

About Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus is a US private equity firm and is conside­red the pioneer in global growth invest­ments in the private equity sector. The inves­tor curr­ently mana­ges more than 86 billion US dollars and holds an active port­fo­lio of over 230 compa­nies, which is diver­si­fied across diffe­rent phases, sectors and regions.

Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Reed Smith has advi­sed the invest­ment company Family Trust on the sale of novia Group to the Swedish listed company Bufab AB. The sale of novia Group, an expert in global sourcing solu­ti­ons, to Bufab AB fina­li­zes Family Trus­t’s stra­tegy, initia­ted in July 2021, to consis­t­ently deve­lop novia Group into a compre­hen­sive one-stop store for global sourcing solu­ti­ons as part of group building. 

On the Reed Smith side, the tran­sac­tion was mana­ged by the Global Corpo­rate Group under the leader­ship of Dr. Niko­laus von Jakobs and Matthias Weingut.

Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs comm­ents on the tran­sac­tion: “We are very plea­sed that we were able to support Family Trust in the imple­men­ta­tion of its group-buil­ding stra­tegy. We would also like to thank you for the relia­ble and produc­tive coope­ra­tion on all sides, having alre­ady advi­sed Family Trust on previous deals.”

“The tran­sac­tion with Bufab is confir­ma­tion of the stra­te­gic work we have inves­ted in buil­ding and trans­forming the novia Group. We have streng­the­ned the company’s opera­tio­nal struc­ture and achie­ved a market-leading posi­tion with attrac­tive sales growth through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons,” says Family Trust part­ner Andreas Augus­tin about the tran­sac­tion, which aims to create an inte­gra­ted global sourcing cham­pion in a short space of time.

“The part­ner­ship with Family Trust has enab­led us to grow stra­te­gi­cally and has also supported us in the inte­gra­tion of our opera­ting units. The successful hando­ver to Bufab is now the logi­cal and promi­sing next step,” says Markus Bauer, Mana­ging Direc­tor of novia Group.

“With its attrac­tive posi­tion in the value chain and strong offe­ring to a diverse Euro­pean custo­mer base, the novia Group brings important new capa­bi­li­ties to the Bufab Group,” explains Erik Lundén, Presi­dent and CEO of the Bufab Group.

About Family Trust

Family Trust is an invest­ment company mana­ged by entre­pre­neurs. In addi­tion to signi­fi­cant own funds of the foun­ders, Family Trust invests the assets of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, family offices, wealthy entre­pre­neu­rial fami­lies and private indi­vi­du­als in successful medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. —https://familytrust.de

Advi­sor Family Trust: Reed Smith

Head Dr. Niko­laus von Jakobs and Matthias Wein­gut (both Part­ner, Munich);
Robert Werz­lau (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Munich), Nina Siewert (Part­ner, Tax, Frank­furt), Carina Kles­sing (Asso­ciate, Tax, Frank­furt), Dr. Michaela Westrup (Part­ner, Anti­trust, Munich), Celia Xu (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Shang­hai), Eric Lin (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Shang­hai), Kathe­rine Yang (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A, Shanghai).

The Vischer law firm supported the Reed Smith team with regard to ques­ti­ons of Swiss law.

About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms. The firm has been in exis­tence for more than 140 years and compri­ses >30 offices with 3,000 employees, inclu­ding 1,700 lawy­ers in Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Asia. — www.reedsmith.com

Meppen — Oppen­hoff has advi­sed the share­hol­ders of Re.Lion.Bat. Circu­lar GmbH on its sale to PreZero. The legal and commer­cial trans­fer to PreZero took place in October. 

The Re.Lion.Bat. Circu­lar GmbH joint venture between the DEPPE Group and Fahr­zeug-Werke LUEG AG has crea­ted an inte­gra­ted recy­cling process for lithium batte­ries and built Euro­pe’s largest battery recy­cling plant in Meppen, Emsland. LUEG has also estab­lished a decen­tra­li­zed logi­stics network for unloa­ding and dismant­ling via LUEG loca­ti­ons in Germany and abroad. 

Re.Lion.Bat.Circular GmbH curr­ently opera­tes Euro­pe’s largest recy­cling plant for lithium-ion batte­ries at its Meppen site. The state-of-the-art faci­lity can curr­ently process up to 30,000 tons of used batte­ries per year — with an appro­ved capa­city of 60,000 tons. 

The recy­cling process in Meppen is based on a ther­mo­me­cha­ni­cal process that first crus­hes used batte­ries and then sepa­ra­tes the mate­ri­als they contain. Plas­tics, ferrous and non-ferrous metals as well as the so-called black mass — a valuable mix of lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite — are effi­ci­ently reco­vered. The high reco­very rate and low-emis­sion tech­no­logy make the process parti­cu­larly envi­ron­men­tally friendly. 

The Oppen­hoff team led by Dr. Phil­ipp Hein­richs and Prof. Dr. Nefail Berja­se­vic, photo © Oppen­hoff (both Corporate/M&A) compri­sed Dr. Günter Seulen, Anto­nia Timpa­ni­dis, Julian Spruy­ten­burg (all Corporate/M&A), Marvin Roch­ner (Real Estate), Alex­an­dra Groth (Employ­ment Law), Dr. Patric Mau (IP), Marc Krischer, Daniel Gell­rich (both Tax), Holger Hofmann, Dr. Cars­ten Bormann and Maxi­mi­lian Broich (both Tax). Daniel Dohrn (anti­trust law), Dr. Patric Mau (IP), Marc Krischer, Daniel Gell­rich (both tax), Holger Hofmann, Dr. Cars­ten Bormann and Maxi­mi­lian Broich (all public law/environmental law).

About Oppen­hoff

The full-service law firm Oppen­hoff finds indus­try-speci­fic solu­ti­ons for corpo­rate groups, large owner-mana­ged compa­nies and finan­cial inves­tors. More than 100 attor­neys advise on all major areas of busi­ness and tax law. Oppen­hof­f’s M&A team, which has recei­ved nume­rous awards in indus­try hand­books, has been advi­sing natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies on tran­sac­tions and corpo­rate law matters for deca­des. Oppen­hoff has alre­ady advi­sed the DEPPE Group on the battery recy­cling joint venture with Fahr­zeug-Werke LUEG AG and the resul­ting Re.Lion.Bat. Circu­lar on the cons­truc­tion of the battery recy­cling plant. — Oppen­hoff & Part­ner Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter mbB (“Oppen­hoff”) is a part­ner­ship regis­tered in the part­ner­ship regis­ter of the Essen Local Court with the regis­tra­tion number PR 1850 and its regis­tered office in Colo­gne. — www.oppenhoff.eu

Berlin — Speed­in­vest, a leading Euro­pean venture capi­tal fund mana­ger, has laun­ched another conti­nua­tion vehicle with a volume of € 30 million. The anchor inves­tor of the new vehicle is Ion Paci­fic. A YPOG team led by Stephan Bank and Michael Fili­po­wicz advi­sed Speed­in­vest on the struc­tu­ring and launch of the new conti­nua­tion vehicle. 

The new vehicle directly follows Speed­in­ves­t’s first Conti­nua­tion Fund, which was successfully laun­ched in Septem­ber 2025 with the support of YPOG. It enables the acqui­si­tion of further selec­ted invest­ments from exis­ting Speed­in­vest funds and crea­tes liqui­dity for exis­ting inves­tors as well as addi­tio­nal growth poten­tial for the port­fo­lio companies. 

Speed­in­vest once again relied on the proven YPOG team led by part­ner Stephan Bank, which has been support­ing the venture capi­tal inves­tor in all aspects of fund struc­tu­ring for many years. “The launch of another conti­nua­tion vehicle under­lines Speed­in­ves­t’s inno­va­tive strength and the trust of its inves­tors,” says Stephan Bank. “The paral­lel imple­men­ta­tion of two complex conti­nua­tion vehic­les with diffe­rent inves­tors and port­fo­lios proves how profes­sio­nally and stra­te­gi­cally adept the Speed­in­vest team is,” adds Michael Filipowicz. 

Advi­sor Speed­In­vest: YPOG

Dr. Stephan Bank, photo © YPOG (Co-Lead, Funds/Transactions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Michael Fili­po­wicz (Co-Lead, Funds/Transactions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Niklas Ulrich (Funds), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Hamburg
Benja­min von Mangoldt (Funds/Transactions), Associate
Falk Bothe (Funds/Transactions), Associate

About Speed­in­vest
Speed­in­vest is a leading Euro­pean venture capi­tal mana­ger with more than €1.2 billion in assets under manage­ment and inves­tors based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris and Vienna.

Their dedi­ca­ted, indus­try-focu­sed teams are the first to fund Euro­pe’s most inno­va­tive tech start­ups, and in-house opera­ti­ons experts provide foun­ders with advice and support on growth, human resour­ces, market expan­sion and more. Bitpanda, GoStu­dent, Wayflyer, Coach­Hub, Moove and Tide are among their port­fo­lio of over 400 companies. 

About YPOG
YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice. The firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity and jointly crea­ting opti­mal solu­ti­ons. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion, Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in Germany for venture capi­tal, private equity, fund struc­tu­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons of distri­bu­ted ledger tech­no­logy (DLT) in finan­cial services. The firm and its part­ners are regu­larly reco­gni­zed by renow­ned publi­ca­ti­ons such as JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Cham­bers and Part­ners, Leaders League and Legal 500. YPOG employs more than 180 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists as well as a notary in its offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne, Munich, Cambridge and London. 

Further infor­ma­tion: www.ypog.law

Zug / Alkmaar — Snel­Start, a family-owned company and market leader in finan­cial manage­ment soft­ware for accoun­tancy firms, small busi­nesses and the self-employed in the Nether­lands, announ­ces a new part­ner­ship with BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”), a leading entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment company focu­sed on family and medium-sized businesses.

With a diver­si­fied client base of around 170,000 clients, inclu­ding over 5,000 accoun­ting firms, Snel­Start has built its strong market posi­tion through a distinctly client-centric market stra­tegy and conti­nuous inno­va­tion. Snel­Start is guided by the vision of helping entre­pre­neurs in an incre­asingly complex digi­tal world with tailor-made solutions. 

The stra­te­gic part­ner­ship is based on a shared vision: to further expand Snel­Star­t’s market leader­ship, acce­le­rate inno­va­tion and deli­ver value to custo­mers through tech­no­logy, service and opera­tio­nal excel­lence. Toge­ther, Snel­Start and BU aim to expand the company’s reach, further deve­lop the product plat­form and conti­nue to set the highest stan­dards in user-friend­li­ness and custo­mer satisfaction. 

Herman Wees­sies, co-owner and CEO of Snel­Startexplains: “For us as a family busi­ness, it is crucial to find the right part­ner for the next phase of Snel­Star­t’s growth. We were not just looking for an inves­tor, but a part­ner who would help us to further deve­lop the plat­form for our custo­mers. A part­ner who under­stands entre­pre­neurs, shares our values, belie­ves in our long-term inde­pen­dent deve­lo­p­ment and puts custo­mers at the center. With BU, we have found exactly this part­ner: an entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment company with deep soft­ware exper­tise, many years of expe­ri­ence and specia­liza­tion in working with family busi­nesses and a part­ner­ship mind­set focu­sed on sustainable growth. Toge­ther, we are ready to take Snel­Start to the next level.”

Norbert Heller, Part­ner at BU (photo © BU), adds: “Snel­Start is an excep­tio­nal company with an impres­sive growth trajec­tory and an entre­pre­neu­rial manage­ment team with a long-term vision and strong custo­mer focus. We are convin­ced of the company’s poten­tial and look forward to its contin­ued success. With our soft­ware exper­tise, colla­bo­ra­tive part­ner­ship and long-term perspec­tive, we aim to acce­le­rate Snel­Star­t’s deve­lo­p­ment and further streng­then its posi­tion as a market leader with a growing and satis­fied custo­mer base. The passion and commit­ment of Herman Wees­sies and his team is inspi­ring. We look forward to accom­pany­ing the Snel­Start team on this jour­ney in the future.”

b, adds: “BU has been active in the Nether­lands for over eight years and supports its part­ner compa­nies in their growth ambi­ti­ons in the region. With Snel­Start, we are taking the next step by brin­ging our exten­sive exper­tise in deve­lo­ping market leaders directly to the Nether­lands. The Nether­lands is home to many excel­lent hidden cham­pi­ons that are ready to take the next step in their growth through part­ner­ship — and BU is ideally posi­tio­ned to accom­pany them on this journey.”

The tran­sac­tion is still subject to the comple­tion of the consul­ta­tion process of the Snel­Start works coun­cil and the neces­sary regu­la­tory appr­ovals and procedures.

About Snel­Start

Foun­ded in 1982 and with multi­ple loca­ti­ons in the Nether­lands, Snel­Start is a fast-growing soft­ware solu­ti­ons provi­der that deve­lops intui­tive finan­cial manage­ment and accoun­ting soft­ware for the self-employed, small busi­nesses and accoun­tancy firms. With over four deca­des of expe­ri­ence, Snel­Start now helps almost 170,000 entre­pre­neurs to simplify their finan­cial proces­ses, increase effi­ci­ency and gain better insight into their busi­ness perfor­mance. — www.snelstart.nl

About BU Bregal Unternehmerkapital

BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) is a leading private equity firm with offices in Zug, Munich, Milan and London. With over €7 billion in assets under manage­ment (AuM), BU is the largest mid-cap inves­tor head­quar­te­red in the DACH region. With the mission to be the prefer­red part­ner for entre­pre­neurs and family busi­nesses, BU focu­ses on part­ner­ships with market leaders and “hidden cham­pi­ons” with strong manage­ment teams and growth poten­tial. Since its foun­da­tion in 2015, the funds advi­sed by BU have inves­ted in more than 150 compa­nies with over 29,000 employees. Around 10,000 jobs have been crea­ted in the process. BU supports entre­pre­neurs and fami­lies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to further deve­lop, inter­na­tio­na­lize and digi­ta­lize their compa­nies, helping them to create sustainable value respon­si­bly and with a view to the next gene­ra­tion. — www.bu-partners.com

Düsseldorf/ Müns­ter — NRW.BANK is parti­ci­pa­ting in the capi­tal increase of paXos Solar GmbH from Langen­feld as part of its NRW.SeedCap program. The fresh capi­tal will flow into the expan­sion of sales and produc­tion as well as the further deve­lo­p­ment of the next gene­ra­tion of the inno­va­tive multi-energy roof, which gene­ra­tes elec­tri­city and heat directly from the buil­ding enve­lope. The capi­tal increase of paXos Solar GmbH was supported by 15 equity inves­tors, inclu­ding two insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors — one of which is NRW.BANK.

“Inno­va­tions for climate-friendly energy gene­ra­tion such as paXos Solar show how tech­no­lo­gi­cal progress and sophisti­ca­ted archi­tec­ture go hand in hand in our cities,” says Johanna Anto­nie Tjaden-Schulte, Member of the Mana­ging Board of NRW.BANK.“With our parti­ci­pa­tion through the NRW.SeedCap program, we are speci­fi­cally support­ing the deve­lo­p­ment of sustainable solu­ti­ons from North Rhine-West­pha­lia that contri­bute to the successful trans­for­ma­tion of our state.” 

“With NRW.BANK, we have gained a part­ner who belie­ves in the energy of the future — decen­tra­li­zed, aesthe­tic and sustainable. Toge­ther, we are taking the multi-energy roof from NRW to the next level,” explains Kars­ten Birk­holz, Mana­ging Direc­tor of paXos Solar GmbH.

Successful finan­cing round for more growth

The capi­tal increase of paXos Solar GmbH was supported by 15 equity inves­tors, inclu­ding two insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors — one of which is NRW.BANK. The aim of the capi­tal measure is to further acce­le­rate the growth of the company, which was foun­ded in 2020. The funds will be used to expand sales, increase effi­ci­ency in produc­tion and invest in rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment for the next gene­ra­tion of products. With the fresh capi­tal, the company is setting the course for the scaling of its sustainable energy solutions. 

Inte­gra­ted energy system for the buil­dings of the future

paXos Solar GmbH deve­lops, produ­ces and distri­bu­tes the so-called multi-energy roof, an inte­gra­ted roof system that combi­nes photo­vol­taics and solar ther­mal energy in an archi­tec­tu­rally appe­al­ing way. This gene­ra­tes both elec­tri­city and heat directly via the roof surface — a space-saving and aesthe­tic solu­tion that meets the growing demands for sustainable, subsi­dizable and high-quality energy concepts for new buil­dings and renovations. 

About NRW.BANK — Deve­lo­p­ment Bank for North Rhine-Westphalia

NRW.BANK is the deve­lo­p­ment bank for North Rhine-West­pha­lia. In close part­ner­ship with its owner, the state of North Rhine-West­pha­lia, it helps to streng­then SMEs and start-ups, create afforda­ble housing and improve public infra­struc­ture. NRW.BANK offers people, compa­nies and muni­ci­pa­li­ties in NRW tailor-made finan­cing and advi­sory services. It works with finan­cing part­ners, in parti­cu­lar all banks and savings banks, on a non-compe­ti­tive basis. In order to streng­then the trans­for­ma­tion proces­ses, it provi­des targe­ted promo­tio­nal impe­tus — towards a sustainable, climate-neutral and digi­tal NRW. —www.nrwbnk.de

Duder­stadt — The prosthe­sis manu­fac­tu­rer Otto­bock has successfully gone public for the third time! — The share price is successfully above the issue price (up to 66 euros). This makes the IPO the largest in Germany so far in 2025 in a diffi­cult environment. 

At 72 euros, the first price was still around 9% above the issue price. At the offer price, Otto­bock expec­ted a market capi­ta­liza­tion of around 4.2 billion euros; based on the first price, this was around 4.6 billion euros. The company is wholly owned by the Näder family. 

With 9,300 employees world­wide, Otto­bock gene­ra­ted sales of around 1.4 billion euros and an adjus­ted opera­ting result (EBITDA) of 321 million euros in 2024. In the first half of 2025, sales rose by 14% to EUR 760 million, while adjus­ted EBITDA impro­ved by around a third to EUR 175 million. 

Kühne Holding AG, owned by Hamburg billionaire and logi­stics entre­pre­neur Klaus-Michael Kühne, and the Small­cap World Fund of asset mana­ger Capi­tal Group subscri­bed shares worth 125 million euros and 115 million euros respec­tively as corner­stone inves­tors. Kühne Holding Ag thus holds approx. 3% of Ottobock. 

Otto­bock wants to pay off debt and invest in new technologies

The company plans to use the gross proceeds from the IPO to invest more heavily in future tech­no­lo­gies in parti­cu­lar, as well as to pay off debt and pursue oppor­tu­ni­ties in the areas of products & compon­ents and pati­ent care through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons. Prior to the IPO, Otto­bock had alre­ady secu­red purchase commit­ments from billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne and from a fund of the US invest­ment company Capi­tal Group. They wanted to secure shares worth 125 and 115 million euros respectively. 

Advi­sors Otto­bock: Fresh­field and Milbank

Colo­gne — The Colo­gne-based AI trans­la­tion service DeepL, which was foun­ded in 2017, is prepa­ring for an IPO in the USA. With natu­ral trans­la­ti­ons and global expan­sion, the Colo­gne-based startup could soon be valued at 5 billion dollars. 

The Colo­gne-based AI company DeepL is serious about its global ambi­ti­ons. The trans­la­tion specia­list, which has been compe­ting with Google Trans­late for years, is plan­ning an IPO in the USA. “Accor­ding to Bloom­berg, initial talks are alre­ady under­way with poten­tial advi­sors for the listing. The IPO could take place as early as 2026 and value DeepL at up to five billion dollars. 

Deepl raised USD 300 million in a finan­cing round in May 2024 and doubled its valua­tion to USD 2 billion at the time. The company employs more than 1,000 people, has offices in Germany, Japan and the USA and counts venture capi­ta­lists such as Index Ventures from London and Iconiq Growth from San Fran­cisco among its investors. 

Precis­ion AI from Cologne

DeepL has made a name for itself in high-precis­ion machine trans­la­tion since it was foun­ded in 2017 by Jaros­law Kuty­low­ski. DeepL offers AI-supported translations. 

Unlike many of its compe­ti­tors, the company focu­ses on natu­ral and nuan­ced trans­la­tion results that come amazin­gly close to human texts. Accor­ding to “Heise”, DeepL now employs over 1,000 people at loca­ti­ons in Colo­gne, Japan and the USA. — www.deepl.com

Munich — GÖRG has advi­sed the share­hol­ders of HR service provi­der comvaHRo GmbH, Stefan Franke and Marco Peine, on the entry of inves­tors Alpha VCX and Invest AG. A team led by Munich part­ner Dr. Bernt Paudtke provi­ded legal advice on the transaction. 

With the invest­ment of Alpha VCX and Invest AG, comvaHRo GmbH is stra­te­gi­cally posi­tio­ning itself for the next phase of growth. The company aims to signi­fi­cantly expand its posi­tion as the leading HR service provi­der in the DACH region by 2030. The plan is to selec­tively acquire and inte­grate comple­men­tary provi­ders and streng­then its presence in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 

In addi­tion to capi­tal, the new inves­tors also bring many years of expe­ri­ence in scaling HR service provi­ders and thus support the company’s expan­sion and buy-and-build strategy.

comvaHRo GmbH, based in Gras­brunn near Munich, has specia­li­zed in digi­tal HR trans­for­ma­tion since it was foun­ded in 2016. With a combi­ned soft­ware and service plat­form, the company offers solu­ti­ons for HR admi­nis­tra­tion, payroll accoun­ting, time recor­ding and appli­cant manage­ment as well as compre­hen­sive payroll services. Today, comvaHRo employs around 50 people at its sites in Gras­brunn near Munich and Hamm (North Rhine-West­pha­lia) and supports medium-sized and large compa­nies throug­hout the DACH region. 

GÖRG provi­ded compre­hen­sive corpo­rate law advice to the share­hol­ders in nego­tia­ting the inves­tors’ entry and the future joint cooperation.

Advi­sor to share­hol­der comvaHRo GmbH: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB
Dr. Bernt Paudtke (Lead, Part­ner, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)
Tobias Reichen­ber­ger (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)
Dr. Karl-Georg Küsters, LL.B., LL.M. Taxa­tion (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax, Cologne)
Jonas Bött­ger (Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich)

About Invest AG

Invest AG invests in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. We focus on profi­ta­ble compa­nies from a wide range of indus­tries. We usually invest between € 0.3 million (at least € 2.5 million in Germany) and € 40 million of our own funds (“equity tickets”) per tran­sac­tion. Toge­ther with our strong co-inves­tor network, we can also support much larger tran­sac­tions. — www.investag.at

Paris — Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”) and PRIM’X announce that Main has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in PRIM’X, a leading deve­lo­per of encryp­tion and data secu­rity soft­ware. The company prima­rily serves defense, govern­ment and secu­rity custo­mers in Europe. This tran­sac­tion repres­ents Main’s second plat­form invest­ment in France, follo­wing the opening of its Paris office in Febru­ary 2025. PRIM’X’s manage­ment team will remain opera­tio­nally active and retain a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake, ensu­ring conti­nuity and long-term commit­ment. The acqui­si­tion has been appro­ved by the rele­vant regu­la­tory authorities. 

PRIM’X was foun­ded in 2003 by CEO Serge Binet and has since specia­li­zed in encryp­tion and data secu­rity solu­ti­ons for compa­nies and (semi-)public insti­tu­ti­ons. From its loca­ti­ons in Lyon (head­quar­ters) and Paris, the company serves over 1,000 custo­mers world­wide. PRIM’X’s products are aimed at secu­rity-criti­cal sectors — custo­mers include govern­ment orga­niza­ti­ons and compa­nies from the defence, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, aero­space and finan­cial services sectors. 

PRIM’X enables its custo­mers to operate secu­rely, increase data secu­rity and meet the highest stan­dards of digi­tal sove­reig­nty. From a strong posi­tion in its home market of France, PRIM’X is now also active in Spain, the Nether­lands, Mexico and South Korea, where demand for confi­den­tial data manage­ment solu­ti­ons is growing signi­fi­cantly. PRIM’X is excel­lently posi­tio­ned to take advan­tage of these growth opportunities. 

Further growth through new sectors, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons and added value for customers.

In the next phase of growth, Main Capi­tal and PRIM’X will work toge­ther to further expand the company’s inter­na­tio­nal posi­tion, deepen exper­tise in exis­ting markets, enter new indus­tries and expand the product port­fo­lio with inno­va­tive and comple­men­tary solu­ti­ons. With Main’s local presence in the Bene­lux region, DACH region and Scan­di­na­via, among others, and its exper­tise in inter­na­tio­nal buy-and-build stra­te­gies, this part­ner­ship can acce­le­rate PRIM’X’s growth and inno­va­tion and further increase custo­mer value. 

Jonas Kruip, Co-Head Main France: “In a world where cyber thre­ats are beco­ming incre­asingly complex, high-quality data encryp­tion is not a luxury, but an abso­lute neces­sity. Protec­ting sensi­tive infor­ma­tion is crucial for trust in digi­tal systems. The acqui­si­tion of PRIM’X under­lines our commit­ment to secu­rity soft­ware and our willing­ness to colla­bo­rate with like-minded entre­pre­neurs. We look forward to support­ing PRIM’X’s manage­ment team in the next phase of growth — with a focus on orga­nic growth and targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons. Our goal is to jointly deve­lop new markets and sectors, streng­then the product port­fo­lio and drive innovation.”

Streng­thening natio­nal and Euro­pean digi­tal sovereignty.

With the stra­te­gic support of Main, PRIM’X further streng­thens its posi­tion in Europe and conti­nues to promote product certi­fi­ca­tion by reco­gni­zed cyber­se­cu­rity autho­ri­ties such as ANSSI (France), CCN (Spain) and AIVD (Nether­lands). This contri­bu­tes to the confi­dence in PRIM’X products at natio­nal and Euro­pean level. The deve­lo­p­ment acti­vi­ties based in France remain a central foun­da­tion for further growth and custo­mer support. 

Serge Binet, foun­der and CEO of PRIM’X: “Our new part­ner­ship with Main Capi­tal is a signi­fi­cant mile­stone in the deve­lo­p­ment of PRIM’X. With a streng­the­ned inter­na­tio­nal perspec­tive, we conti­nue our commit­ment to grow globally and invest in data secu­rity inno­va­tion to streng­then the digi­tal sove­reig­nty of govern­ments and busi­nesses. While PRIM’X has successfully grown inde­pendently to date, we see Main Capi­tal as a stra­te­gic part­ner that can help us acce­le­rate our growth and expand our reach. The entire manage­ment team remains actively invol­ved and leading this new phase of growth as we focus on tech­no­logy inno­va­tion and market expansion.”

About PRIM’X

PRIM’X is a leading soft­ware deve­lo­per specia­li­zing in encryp­tion and data secu­rity solu­ti­ons for busi­nesses and (semi-)governmental orga­niza­ti­ons. The company offers a wide range of proprie­tary soft­ware solu­ti­ons — inclu­ding file and folder encryp­tion, hard disk and laptop encryp­tion, email encryp­tion, encryp­tion during data trans­fer and within Micro­soft 365 cloud envi­ron­ments. PRIM’X was foun­ded in 2003 by the current CEO and serves over 1,000 custo­mers in Switz­er­land and abroad with around 50 employees from offices in Lyon and Paris. — www.primx.eu

About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading inves­tor in soft­ware compa­nies in the Bene­lux region, DACH, France, Scan­di­na­via and the USA with assets under manage­ment of around 6.5 billion euros. As a stra­te­gic part­ner, Main has been support­ing soft­ware compa­nies in profi­ta­ble growth and the deve­lo­p­ment of leading soft­ware groups for over twenty years. With offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp, Paris and a part­ner office in Boston, the team compri­ses 90 employees and mana­ges an active port­fo­lio of over 50 soft­ware compa­nies with a total of more than 12,000 employees. Through the Main Social Insti­tute, Main awards scho­lar­ships for IT and compu­ter science cour­ses. In April 2025, Main also announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of Paris-based Trace One. —- www.main.nl

Frank­furt am Main/Vienna (Ös) — Frank­furt-based private equity firm VR Equi­typ­art­ner (“VREP”) has sold its majo­rity stake in Evolit Consul­ting GmbH (“Evolit”), a Vienna-based IT service provi­der specia­li­zing in mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­ta­liza­tion. The buyer is Berlin-based FLEX Capi­tal, a private equity inves­tor specia­li­zing in medium-sized soft­ware compa­nies in the DACH region. 

Evolit Consul­ting GmbH, foun­ded in Vienna in 2011, is an IT service provi­der with a focus on mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­ta­liza­tion. The company offers custo­mi­zed soft­ware solu­ti­ons in areas such as ticke­ting, asset manage­ment, fleet manage­ment and logi­stics control. Evolit covers the entire IT life­cy­cle, from consul­ting and deve­lo­p­ment to opera­ti­ons manage­ment and main­ten­ance. In recent years, the company has estab­lished itself as a specia­li­zed provi­der of complex soft­ware solu­ti­ons and works with a wide range of soft­ware tools, programming languages and systems. 

VREP became the majo­rity share­hol­der of Evolit, which now has more than 100 employees, in 2019 and supported the manage­ment in streng­thening its market posi­tion and tapping into addi­tio­nal growth poten­tial by expan­ding its service port­fo­lio. Over the past six years, new subsi­dia­ries have been successfully estab­lished in Slova­kia and Switz­er­land and the service port­fo­lio has been diver­si­fied with the foun­ding of Evol.X in the field of CRM imple­men­ta­tion and Evo.People for the place­ment of highly specia­li­zed IT free­lan­cers. At the same time, smart­TOS was deve­lo­ped in-house as stan­dard soft­ware for the logi­stics sector. The targe­ted promo­tion of syner­gies between the subsi­dia­ries provi­ded further important impe­tus for growth. 

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor at VR Equi­typ­art­ner: “When we joined Evolit, our aim was to work with the manage­ment to increase value crea­tion and expand the range of services for custo­mers. Today, we can proudly say that Evolit has achie­ved an excel­lent market posi­tion by focu­sing on growth segments such as mobi­lity and infra­struc­ture and successfully tapping into chal­len­ging future topics. We would like to thank the entire team for their strong perfor­mance and the time spent toge­ther and wish them every success and all the best for the future.”

Paul Klein­rath, foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of Evolit, adds: “With VREP as an ideal part­ner, which has both strong roots in the SME sector and exten­sive know­ledge of the IT sector, we were able to successfully imple­ment our growth stra­tegy and drive forward important topics. Right from the start, the VREP team impres­sed us with its broad expe­ri­ence in the further deve­lo­p­ment of growth-orien­ted compa­nies and its profound indus­try exper­tise. The colla­bo­ra­tion has always been trus­ting and profes­sio­nal, and we are deligh­ted with the succes­ses we have achie­ved together.”

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the contract.

The VR Equi­typ­art­ner tran­sac­tion team:
Michael Vogt, Alex­an­der Bernin­ger, Luis Sche­rer, Jens Schöf­fel and Patrick Heinze

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:

M&A: Drake Star Part­ners (Ralf Phil­ipp Hofmann, Julian Wolf, Maxi­mi­lian von Bodman)
Legal: Grama Schwaig­ho­fer Vond­rak Rechts­an­wälte (Dr. Bernd Grama, Daniel Mathe, Julia Strimit­zer) and HEUKING (Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, Bene­dikt Raisch)
Commer­cial: Singu­lar Group (Dennis Jung, Henri­ette Jemeljanow)
Finan­cial: Grant Thorn­ton (Klaus Schaldt, Marius Fett)

About FLEX Capital

FLEX Capi­tal is a private equity firm specia­li­zing in boot­strap­ped inter­net and soft­ware compa­nies in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. It provi­des part­ner­ship, entre­pre­neu­rial and opera­tio­nal support for the typi­cal German Mittel­stand. — www.flex.capital

Ludwigs­ha­fen — Bäcker Görtz GmbH (“Bäcker Görtz”), a port­fo­lio company of the private equity fund FSN Capi­tal VI advi­sed by FSN Capi­tal, has acqui­red a stake in the long-estab­lished bakery company papperts GmbH (“papperts”). The merger of Bäcker Görtz and papperts will create one of the leading bakery groups in Germany. 

At the same time, this lays the foun­da­tion for a value crea­tion stra­tegy geared towards inor­ga­nic growth in the German bakery sector — with the aim of streng­thening estab­lished bakery compa­nies through colla­bo­ra­tion and ensu­ring their long-term deve­lo­p­ment. The foun­ders and previous owners of papperts will remain part of the newly formed group. POELLATH advi­sed Bäcker Görtz on the tax aspects of the acquisition. 

Based in Eichen­zell (near Fulda), papperts GmbH is one of the leading bakery compa­nies in Germany with over 160 specia­list stores in Hesse, Bava­ria and Thurin­gia. Papperts stands for genuine craft­sman­ship, high-quality baked goods made from regio­nal ingre­di­ents and a modern produc­tion infra­struc­ture. Around 1,900 employees provide fresh bread, rolls, pastries and savory snacks every day — always with the aim of ensu­ring quality and conti­nuity across generations. 

FSN Capi­tal was foun­ded in 1999 and is today one of the leading private equity firms in Nort­hern Europe. With assets under manage­ment of around EUR 4 billion, the private equity funds advi­sed by FSN Capi­tal invest prima­rily in medium-sized compa­nies in Nort­hern and Central Europe — parti­cu­larly in the DACH region and Scan­di­na­via. The invest­ment focus is on high-growth compa­nies in the busi­ness services, indus­try, IT & soft­ware and infra­struc­ture sectors. 

Consul­tant Bäcker Görtz GmbH: POELLATH 

Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax; photo © pplaw), Dr. Saskia Bardens (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax)