Author: Tatjana Anderer

Munich/Halberstadt/London (UK) – Infle­xion, a leading Euro­pean private equity firm focu­sed on mid-market compa­nies, has agreed to acquire the Primed Group (“Primed”). Primed is a German specialty provi­der of high-quality medi­cal consu­ma­bles and steri­liza­tion services. The seller is Para­gon Part­ners, a private equity firm focu­sed on the DACH region. The invest­ment is being made through the Infle­xion Buyout Fund VI and marks Inflexion’s sixth invest­ment in the DACH region. 

Primed was foun­ded in 1946 and is head­quar­te­red in Halber­stadt. The company deve­lops, manu­fac­tures, and distri­bu­tes certi­fied single-use medi­cal supplies. Primed employs more than 450 people and opera­tes a verti­cally inte­gra­ted plat­form that covers the entire value chain—from the proces­sing of raw mate­ri­als to the sterile end product. The products, certi­fied in accordance with the Euro­pean Medi­cal Device Regu­la­tion (MDR), are used in hospi­tals and health­care faci­li­ties in over 70 count­ries. Primed also opera­tes HA2, one of Europe’s largest plat­forms for medi­cal sterilization. 

The global market for medi­cal consu­ma­bles is large and conti­nues to grow. For Primed, this provi­des a strong foun­da­tion for further expan­sion in Germany and inter­na­tio­nally. With Infle­xion as its new owner, Primed will conti­nue to invest in its core product line, acce­le­rate product deve­lo­p­ment, and expand its steri­liza­tion busi­ness. Infle­xion will also support manage­ment in its inter­na­tio­nal expansion—through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons and invest­ments in commer­cial capa­bi­li­ties to streng­then Primed’s direct access to custo­mers in key markets. The invest­ment unders­cores Inflexion’s commit­ment to part­ne­ring with leading health­care compa­nies in their local markets and support­ing their long-term success. 

For this tran­sac­tion, Infle­xion is colla­bo­ra­ting with health­care experts Wolf­gang Süßle and Justin Barnes; both will serve on Primed’s Board of Direc­tors. Wolf­gang Süßle has more than 25 years of expe­ri­ence in the health­care indus­try, inclu­ding 15 years as CEO and Presi­dent of Lohmann & Rauscher. Justin Barnes brings more than 25 years of expe­ri­ence in the medi­cal tech­no­logy sector. He has co-foun­ded seve­ral compa­nies and held execu­tive posi­ti­ons, inclu­ding as CEO of 30 Tech­no­logy and as a non-execu­tive direc­tor of Rayner. Toge­ther, they bring comple­men­tary exper­tise and a proven track record of growing health­care compa­nies to imple­ment Primed’s growth strategy. 

For Infle­xion, Primed is its third invest­ment in the health­care sector in the DACH region, follo­wing its mino­rity stake in Prote­ros and its invest­ment in Tier­arzt Plus Part­ner. Over­all, it is Inflexion’s sixth invest­ment in the DACH region. The acqui­si­tion further streng­thens Inflexion’s presence in the DACH region and follows the foun­ding of Mittel­stands-Asse­ku­ranz-Part­ner (“MAP”), the carve-out of Finanzen.net, and the invest­ment in dss+. 

Flor Kassai, Mana­ging Part­ner and Head of Buyouts at Infle­xion, said: “Primed enjoys an excel­lent repu­ta­tion thanks to its high-quality product port­fo­lio, its inte­gra­ted busi­ness model, and its long-stan­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships. We look forward to support­ing the team as the company enters its next phase of growth.”

Martin Preuss, Part­ner and Head of DACH, said: “Primed is an excel­lent exam­ple of the inno­va­tive, inter­na­tio­nally compe­ti­tive compa­nies we seek to part­ner with in Germany. We look forward to support­ing the manage­ment team as they build on the company’s strong foun­da­tion in Germany and conti­nue to expand internationally.”

Daniel Schiel, CEO of the Primed Group, said: “We are very plea­sed to have Infle­xion as our new part­ner. Infle­xion shares our long-term vision for Primed and brings signi­fi­cant expe­ri­ence in support­ing ambi­tious compa­nies through their next phase of growth. Toge­ther, we aim to build on Primed’s strong German roots, conti­nue to expand inter­na­tio­nally, invest in inno­va­tion, and relia­bly supply hospi­tals and health­care faci­li­ties world­wide with high-quality products.”

Edin Hadzic, Senior Part­ner at Para­gon, said: “As Primed’s first insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tor, we supported the company’s evolu­tion from an owner-led to a manage­ment-led orga­niza­tion and estab­lished it as a true growth plat­form. We are proud of what the team has built and wish Primed contin­ued success in its next phase with Inflexion.”

The tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual regu­la­tory approvals.

About Infle­xion

Infle­xion is a leading Euro­pean private equity firm focu­sed on mid-market compa­nies, with €20 billion in assets under manage­ment. It invests in fast-growing, entre­pre­neu­rial compa­nies led by ambi­tious manage­ment teams and works in part­ner­ship with them to acce­le­rate their growth. Inflexion’s flexi­ble approach allows for both majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments in compa­nies with an enter­prise value typi­cally ranging from €50 million to over €1 billion. 

With specia­li­zed teams and dedi­ca­ted capi­tal, Inflexion’s funds invest in six core sectors from offices in London, Manches­ter, Amster­dam, Frank­furt, Stock­holm, and New York. Every port­fo­lio company, regard­less of size or equity stake, recei­ves full access to Inflexion’s growth acce­le­ra­tion services in the areas of inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, acqui­si­ti­ons, digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, talent manage­ment, sales, and sustaina­bi­lity. In addi­tion, port­fo­lio compa­nies bene­fit from inter­na­tio­nal experts in South America, the Asia-Paci­fic (APAC) region, and India who are dedi­ca­ted to port­fo­lio deve­lo­p­ment and provide them with privi­le­ged access to these high-growth markets. 

Learn more at www.inflexion.com

Karlsruhe/Frankfurt am Main — LEA Part­ners (“LEA”), a leading inves­tor in soft­ware and service compa­nies in the DACH region, announ­ces the sale of refyne to Visual­Lo­gix, a port­fo­lio company of Insight Partners.

Head­quar­te­red in Frank­furt am Main, refyne combi­nes leading soft­ware and AI-powered solu­ti­ons for wood and metal cons­truc­tion into a unified plat­form that covers the entire process chain of manu­fac­tu­ring companies—from sales and quoting through design and engi­nee­ring to produc­tion and billing.

Since its incep­tion in June 2023, LEA has built refyne into the leading end-to-end soft­ware plat­form for wood and metal cons­truc­tion through a focu­sed buy-and-build strategy—in line with its stra­tegy to to invest in market-leading soft­ware compa­nies with a high propor­tion of recur­ring reve­nue. In a previously highly frag­men­ted soft­ware land­scape, five estab­lished specia­lists joined forces to form the refyne Group as part of a focu­sed buy-and-build stra­tegy and contin­ued their growth trajec­tory under the leader­ship of CEO Dr. Stefan Gutber­let. Key initia­ti­ves included the estab­lish­ment of a cross-group manage­ment struc­ture, the intro­duc­tion of the unified refyne brand, the acce­le­ra­tion of cloud migra­tion, and the expan­sion of inter­na­tio­nal sales. During the holding period, refyne more than doubled its reve­nue and evol­ved from a coll­ec­tion of indi­vi­dual specia­lists into one of the industry’s leading soft­ware groups—with more than 150 employees and over 25,000 users worldwide. 

Dr. Stefan Gutber­let, CEO of refyne: “Over the past few years, our team has trans­for­med a group of inde­pen­dent specia­lists into a unified plat­form and built refyne into a brand that our indus­try trusts. LEA has shared this vision from the very begin­ning and supported us as a true entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner. With Visual­Lo­gix and Insight Part­ners, we have now found the right part­ners to scale our end-to-end approach internationally—with the same commit­ment to our customers.”

Jan Huber, Prin­ci­pal at LEA Part­ners: “refyne is a prime exam­ple of our invest­ment focus: verti­cal soft­ware provi­ders with deep indus­try exper­tise and clear market leader­ship. The result is a plat­form that funda­men­tally simpli­fies the work­flows of an entire indus­try. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Stefan and the entire refyne team—we wish them every success as they take their next step in inter­na­tio­nal growth along­side Visual­Lo­gix and Insight Partners.”

The tran­sac­tion marks the first exit from the Mittel­stands­part­ner II/II‑A Fund.

About refyne

refyne is a leading soft­ware plat­form for the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of wood and metal cons­truc­tion. Under the refyne brand, specia­lists CAD-PLAN, flixo, Triviso, N.CAD, and Trun­CAD bundle their solu­ti­ons and inte­grate CAD, CAM, and ERP into a seam­less process—from sales and design through produc­tion to billing. Head­quar­te­red in Frank­furt am Main, the group employs more than 150 people and serves over 25,000 users world­wide. www.refyne-group.com

About LEA Partners

With more than 2 billion EUR in commit­ted capi­tal, LEA—as an entre­pre­neu­rial equity partner—supports foun­ders and manage­ment teams at various stages of deve­lo­p­ment in their growth and in achie­ving a leading market posi­tion. Since 2002, the 40-member team based in Karls­ruhe has successfully supported more than 140 tech­no­logy companies.
Learn more at www.leapartners.de

About Insight Partners

Insight Part­ners is a global inves­tor that invests in high-growth tech­no­logy, soft­ware, and inter­net compa­nies driving change in their industries—from start­ups to scale-ups. As of Decem­ber 31, 2025, the firm had regu­la­tory assets under manage­ment of over $90 billion. Insight Part­ners has inves­ted in more than 900 compa­nies world­wide; over 55 port­fo­lio compa­nies have since gone public. Insight is head­quar­te­red in New York City and has a global presence with leader­ship teams in London, Tel Aviv, and the Bay Area. Insight’s mission is to iden­tify, fund, and successfully part­ner with visio­nary leaders—providing tail­o­red, hands-on soft­ware exper­tise throug­hout their entire growth jour­ney, from initial invest­ment to IPO. For more infor­ma­tion about Insight and its invest­ments, visit www.insightpartners.com or follow @insightpartners on X. 

Tübingen/Geleen (NL) — SHS Capi­tal has signed a binding agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in Basic Pharma Holding B.V., a Nether­lands-based phar­maceu­ti­cal deve­lo­per and full-service CDMO (contract deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring orga­niza­tion). The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close shortly. 

Basic Pharma is a specia­li­zed deve­lo­per and manu­fac­tu­rer of nasal sprays and semiso­lid phar­maceu­ti­cals. The inte­gra­ted “License & Supply” model—which combi­nes in-house product deve­lo­p­ment, proprie­tary dossiers, regu­la­tory affairs, phar­ma­co­vi­gi­lance, and GMP manufacturing—sets the company apart in the Euro­pean market; in terms of produc­tion capa­city, Basic Pharma ranks among the leading Euro­pean nasal spray CDMOs. 

The company has grown signi­fi­cantly in recent years, driven by strong demand for its nasal sprays, creams, and newly laun­ched prescrip­tion products, and bene­fits from a very loyal custo­mer base consis­ting of white-label and private-label distri­bu­tors as well as gene­ric drug companies.

Succes­sion Plan for the Founders

The invest­ment by SHS Capi­tal provi­des a struc­tu­red succes­sion plan for foun­der and CEO Bob Kool, who is reinves­t­ing along­side SHS Capi­tal, and aims to acce­le­rate Basic Pharma’s next phase of growth through inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, conti­nuous product deve­lo­p­ment, and selec­tive buy-and-build transactions.

Foun­ded in 2003 by phar­macist Bob Kool, Basic Pharma has evol­ved from a local contract manu­fac­tu­rer into an inte­gra­ted phar­maceu­ti­cal plat­form that combi­nes in-house product deve­lo­p­ment, regu­la­tory affairs, phar­ma­co­vi­gi­lance, and GMP manu­fac­tu­ring at its site in Geleen, the Nether­lands, and serves an inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base across prescrip­tion (Rx) and over-the-coun­ter (OTC) drugs as well as inves­ti­ga­tio­nal products. A key diffe­ren­tia­tor is the company’s ability to deve­lop, regis­ter, and out-license product dossiers: Under the “License & Supply” model, intern­ally deve­lo­ped products are licen­sed to distri­bu­tors and phar­maceu­ti­cal part­ners, while Basic Pharma reta­ins exclu­sive manu­fac­tu­ring and dossier rights. This fosters long-term custo­mer rela­ti­onships and strong recur­ring reve­nue. Basic Pharma holds a leading posi­tion in the Dutch nasal spray market and, thanks to a lean and highly effi­ci­ent produc­tion struc­ture, offers its products at compe­ti­tive prices, inclu­ding internationally. 

SHS Capi­tal intends to support Basic Pharma as a growth part­ner in the coming years. The joint value-crea­tion plan focu­ses on streng­thening the highly successful core busi­ness, enhan­cing opera­tio­nal excel­lence, profes­sio­na­li­zing the orga­niza­tion, and acce­le­ra­ting inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, parti­cu­larly in Euro­pean markets with attrac­tive pricing dyna­mics. Further­more, Basic Pharma is well-posi­tio­ned as a plat­form for selec­tive buy-and-build tran­sac­tions in the frag­men­ted Euro­pean CDMO land­scape. Foun­der Bob Kool will conti­nue to support the company and remain asso­cia­ted with it as a share­hol­der and member of the advi­sory board. 

“Over more than two deca­des, we have built Basic Pharma into an inte­gra­ted phar­maceu­ti­cal plat­form with a strong team and loyal, long-stan­ding custo­mers,” says Bob Kool, foun­der and CEO of Basic Pharma. “It was very important to me to place the future of my life’s work in the right hands. In SHS, we have found an extre­mely expe­ri­en­ced and specia­li­zed health­care private equity fund that truly under­stands our busi­ness, values our employees, and shares our ambi­ti­ons. I am very plea­sed that the next chap­ter of Basic Pharma will be writ­ten toge­ther with such a compe­tent part­ner, and I look forward to conti­nuing to support the company during this exci­ting phase.” 

“Basic Pharma is exactly the kind of company we’re looking for: a specia­li­zed Euro­pean health­care cham­pion with a diffe­ren­tia­ted busi­ness model, its own drug candi­da­tes, and signi­fi­cant, untap­ped inter­na­tio­nal poten­tial,” says Dr. Corne­lius Maas, a part­ner at SHS Capi­tal. “We look forward to support­ing the team in the next phase of growth—both orga­ni­cally and through selec­tive acquisitions.” 

About Basic Pharma

Basic Pharma Holding B.V. is a Nether­lands-based phar­maceu­ti­cal deve­lo­per and full-service CDMO compri­sing Basic Pharma Manu­fac­tu­ring, Basic Pharma Tech­no­lo­gies, and Inter­dos Pharma. The company deve­lops, regis­ters, and manu­fac­tures prescrip­tion and over-the-coun­ter (OTC) medications—including nasal sprays, creams, oint­ments, liquid dosage forms, and pre-filled syringes—as well as inves­ti­ga­tio­nal drugs for clini­cal trials. Through Inter­dos Pharma, the group also provi­des services in the areas of regu­la­tory affairs, phar­ma­co­vi­gi­lance, QA/QC, and Quali­fied Person for both inter­nal and exter­nal clients. All products are manu­fac­tu­red at the company’s GMP-certi­fied faci­lity in Geleen (Nether­lands). Basic Pharma employs more than 250 people and serves an inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base of distri­bu­tors and phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies throug­hout Europe. — https://basicpharma.nl/

About SHS Capital

SHS Capi­tal is a private equity firm foun­ded in 1993 that invests in health­care compa­nies in Europe. Its invest­ments focus on expan­sion finan­cing, chan­ges in owner­ship, and succes­sion plan­ning. “Buil­ding Euro­pean Health­care Cham­pi­ons” is the invest­ment philo­so­phy that guides SHS in finan­cing and deve­lo­ping its port­fo­lio compa­nies. The Tübin­gen-based inves­tor takes both mino­rity and majo­rity stakes. The natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors in the SHS funds include pension funds, fund-of-funds, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices, stra­te­gic inves­tors, entre­pre­neurs, and the SHS manage­ment team. The AIF’s equity or equity-like invest­ment amounts to up to €50 million. Volu­mes excee­ding this amount can be reali­zed through a network of co-inves­tors. In its invest­ment decis­i­ons, SHS places great empha­sis on ESG conside­ra­ti­ons and is ther­e­fore commit­ted to the UN PRI guide­lines. — http://www.shs-capital.eu

Berlin — The DeepT­ech startup NextGO Epi was advi­sed by the law firm V14 during its pre-seed funding round of over EUR 2 million. NextGO Epi is curr­ently the only company in Europe that manu­fac­tures indus­trial-grade gallium oxide epitaxial wafers (a semi­con­duc­tor mate­rial). Led by Vireo Ventures, Ultra­tech Capi­tal Part­ners, IBB Ventures, and busi­ness angel Boris Habets parti­ci­pa­ted in the funding round. 

With the new capi­tal, NextGO Epi aims to expand its sales opera­ti­ons inter­na­tio­nally, grow its team, and acce­le­rate product development.

NextGO Epi Advi­sor: V14

Florian Kozok, Sinje Clausen

The V14 Law Firm:

V14 is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media. — www.v14.de

Munich — HTGF port­fo­lio company Proxima Fusion has closed a funding round of 411 million euros, valuing the company at 2.4 billion euros and marking a mile­stone for our multi-stage VC plat­form. Led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures, with RWE and Google as stra­te­gic inves­tors, the round makes Proxima the best-funded fusion company in Europe. 

The round is led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures —with RWE and Google joining as stra­te­gic inves­tors. Google’s parti­ci­pa­tion as an inves­tor shows just how seriously Big Tech is taking this issue—the AI data centers of the future will need exactly this kind of elec­tri­city, around the clock and, ideally, CO₂-free.
Planck Power: Invest­ment in fusion has nearly quadru­pled in four years ($2.6 billion in 2025 alone), and Proxima is buil­ding on the Max Planck Institute’s Wendel­stein 7‑X (think: deca­des of cutting-edge German rese­arch as a head start)

The capi­tal is being inves­ted in Alpha, Proxima’s net-energy demons­tra­tor near Munich, which is being deve­lo­ped in colla­bo­ra­tion with the Free State of Bava­ria, the Max Planck Insti­tute for Plasma Physics, and RWE on the site of a former nuclear power plant in Gund­rem­min­gen. Alpha is inten­ded to vali­date key tech­no­lo­gies and pave the way for Stel­la­ris, the world’s first commer­cial stel­la­ra­tor fusion power plant. 

HTGF has been support­ing Proxima since its pre-seed phase in 2023; DTCF joined during the seed phase and played a key role in the Series A finan­cing round in 2025.

From Rese­arch to Indus­trial Implementation

Proxima Fusion is deve­lo­ping commer­cial fusion power plants based on its QI-HTS stel­la­ra­tor concept, buil­ding on the scien­ti­fic breakth­roughs of the Wendel­stein-7‑X program. The funding will go toward Alpha, Proxima’s net-energy demons­tra­tor near Munich, deve­lo­ped in colla­bo­ra­tion with the Free State of Bava­ria, the Max Planck Insti­tute for Plasma Physics, and RWE. Alpha is inten­ded to vali­date key tech­no­lo­gies and pave the way for Stel­la­ris, the world’s first commer­cial stel­la­ra­tor fusion power plant. 

“This funding demons­tra­tes that Germany and Europe are capa­ble of mobi­li­zing inter­na­tio­nal capi­tal for stra­te­gic future tech­no­lo­gies,” says Dr. Fran­cesco Sciort­ino, co-foun­der and CEO of Proxima Fusion. “The inter­na­tio­nal inves­tor commu­nity has sent a strong signal: it has confi­dence not only in Europe’s scien­ti­fic excel­lence, but also in our ability to build globally compe­ti­tive indus­trial compa­nies based on that excellence.” 

Romy Schnelle (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor of the DTCF and HTGF: “When we funded Proxima in the pre-seed phase, fusion was still just a scien­ti­fic ambi­tion for most people. Just three years later, with 411 million euros in funding and inves­tors like RWE and Google, it has become an indus­trial reality. Reco­gni­zing this shift early on and having the courage to fund it—that is exactly what our multi-stage VC plat­form stands for.” 

Johan­nes Weber, Part­ner at HTGF: “We’ve supported Proxima since the very first round—not in spite of, but because of its ambi­tion. Ground­brea­king deep tech that can spark a new econo­mic mira­cle in Germany and Europe is exactly what gets us out of bed in the morning. Proxima has a real chance to create an enti­rely new indus­try and supply chain with far-reaching econo­mic impli­ca­ti­ons. We couldn’t be prou­der to be part of this journey.” 

https://www.htgf.de/

Düssel­dorf — ARQIS provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to Constel­la­tion Capi­tal AG on the struc­tu­ring of the new faci­lity manage­ment plat­form, Altera Faci­lity Solu­ti­ons GmbH, as well as on its first acqui­si­tion, the purchase of DAV Gebäu­de­ser­vice GmbH. With this merger, Constel­la­tion Capital—through its Constel­la­tion VII fund—is laying the foun­da­tion for buil­ding a faci­lity manage­ment group in the DACH region. DAV will conti­nue to operate inde­pendently in the market and, as a foun­ding company of Altera, will play a central role within the group. DAV’s current mana­ging direc­tor and share­hol­der will remain invol­ved in opera­ti­ons and will acquire a stake in Altera as part of the transaction. 

CONSTELLATION CAPITAL AG is a Swiss invest­ment group foun­ded in 1992 and head­quar­te­red in Frei­en­bach on Lake Zurich. CONSTELLATION pursues a buy-and-build stra­tegy focu­sed on acqui­ring majo­rity stakes in mid-sized compa­nies in the busi­ness services, educa­tion & life­style, and health­care sectors within the DACH region. 

Altera Faci­lity Solu­ti­ons GmbH is set to become a leading faci­lity manage­ment services group in the German-spea­king world. The future compa­nies will bene­fit from shared struc­tures, proven opera­tio­nal stan­dards, and the profes­sio­na­liza­tion of proces­ses and systems. 

DAV Gebäu­de­ser­vice GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Biele­feld, is a leading regio­nal provi­der of infra­struc­ture-rela­ted faci­lity manage­ment services. Foun­ded in 1930, the company specia­li­zes in routine and specia­li­zed clea­ning, floor resto­ra­tion, and faci­lity services for indus­trial, commer­cial, and admi­nis­tra­tive properties. 

Dr. Laeger’s team regu­larly advi­ses Constel­la­tion on tran­sac­tions, most recently inclu­ding the acqui­si­tion of Abresch Indus­trie­ver­pa­ckung GmbH.

Advi­sor to Constel­la­tion Capi­tal AG: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Core Deal Team: Dr. Lars Laeger (Lead Part­ner), David Hudde (Mana­ging Asso­ciate, both Tran­sac­tions); Part­ners: Johan­nes Landry (Finan­cing), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate); Coun­sel: Chris­tian Judis (Compli­ance, Munich), Jens Knip­ping (Tax), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial, Munich), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (HR Law), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Anselm Graf (Tran­sac­tions, Munich), Johanna Klin­gen (Tech.Law), Diana Pucho­wezki (Real Estate), Rolf Tichy (IP, Munich), Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Lina Alami (Munich), Dr. Phil­ipp Treß (Berlin), Dr. Tim Weill (all HR.Law), Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial, Munich), Lia Papis­me­dova (Real Estate), Dr. Julia Wild­gans (IP, Munich)  

About ARQIS

ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firm that opera­tes inter­na­tio­nally. Around 80 lawy­ers and legal specia­lists advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on German, Euro­pean and Japa­nese commer­cial law. With its focus groups Tran­sac­tions, HR Law, Japan, Tech Law, Risk and Regu­la­tory, the firm is geared towards provi­ding its clients with compre­hen­sive advice. The law firm was foun­ded in 2006 and has offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo as well as a talent hub in Berlin. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at http://www.arqis.com.

Berlin — Farming smar­ter. Stenon announ­ced an €18 million Series B funding round to drive the expan­sion of its proprie­tary “Soil Intel­li­gence” tech­no­logy. The round was led by Pymwy­mic, the Euro­pean impact inves­tor, toge­ther with the DeepT­ech & Climate Fund (DTCF). Atlantic.vc has been support­ing the team since 2018 and is also parti­ci­pa­ting in this round. 

Follo­wing the funding round, Stenon aims to expand commer­ci­ally in Brazil and throug­hout the South Ameri­can market, in Central Asia, and in select Euro­pean count­ries. The company plans to launch a fully machine-inte­gra­ted, real-time nutri­ent analy­sis system later in 2026. 

“Real-time soil data is the infra­struc­ture of modern agri­cul­ture. Stenon has laid the ground­work for deli­ve­ring it on a large scale. Today, farmers make ferti­li­zer decis­i­ons worth milli­ons of euros based on soil data that is alre­ady weeks old. Stenon closes this gap right in the field—backed by a sensor system that’s truly diffi­cult to repli­cate and a scalable hard­ware-as-a-service (SaaS) model. “This is exactly the kind of deep-tech company DTCF invests in, and we look forward to support­ing the team as it grows,” said Dr. Achim Plum, Mana­ging Direc­tor at DTCF.

“What convin­ced me is that the Stenon team didn’t just deve­lop a better measu­re­ment tool. Using AI-powered real-time analy­sis and a smart SaaS model, it has crea­ted a true plat­form business—one with the poten­tial to bring about a lasting change in agri­cul­tu­ral ferti­liza­tion prac­ti­ces. This combi­na­tion of tech­ni­cal depth and commer­cial clarity is rare,” explains Günther Bogen­rie­der, Invest­ment Mana­ger at DTCF.

Nitro­gen Ferti­li­zer: The Inven­tion of the Century

In 1909, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch deve­lo­ped the Haber-Bosch process for produ­cing nitro­gen ferti­li­zer in a labo­ra­tory in Karls­ruhe. It is conside­red one of the most important disco­veries of the 20th century, as it drasti­cally increased crop yields and enab­led the planet to cope with a popu­la­tion explo­sion from 1.6 billion people at that time to over 8 billion today. Modern agriculture—the global food system—relies on nitro­gen ferti­li­zer; half of the entire food produc­tion system depends on it today. 

Nitro­gen ferti­li­zer has enab­led humanity’s unpre­ce­den­ted growth, but in doing so has caused syste­ma­tic envi­ron­men­tal damage. Today, the process consu­mes 2% of the world’s total energy and accounts for 1.3% of global energy-rela­ted CO₂ emis­si­ons. The produc­tion of nitro­gen ferti­li­zer is heavily depen­dent on natu­ral gas, which means that the global food supply is directly linked to one of the world’s most contro­ver­sial, vola­tile, and geopo­li­ti­cally sensi­tive commo­di­ties. Since 40% of global nitro­gen exports are control­led by just four count­ries (Russia, China, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia), the most vital part of our societies—food production—is expo­sed to extreme shocks. Just consider the Strait of Hormuz, the only mari­time corri­dor through which appro­xi­m­ately 30% of the global ferti­li­zer trade passes—a corri­dor that can alter the econo­mic viabi­lity of food produc­tion overnight. 

Syste­mic Depen­dence on Nitro­gen Fertilizer

And yet there is no way out. If synthe­tic nitro­gen were phased out without a repla­ce­ment, the global food system would collapse. Nitro­gen ferti­li­zer is one of the world’s most important raw mate­ri­als, as crop yields and food prices depend directly on it. 

The finan­cial pres­sure is alre­ady acute: Accor­ding to the Euro­pean Commis­sion, in April 2026, prices for nitro­gen ferti­li­zer across the Euro­pean Union were 71% above their 2024 average. In the first quar­ter of 2025, more U.S. farmers filed for bank­ruptcy than in any full year since 2021. A survey by the Ameri­can Farm Bureau Fede­ra­tion reve­a­led that 70% of U.S. farmers could not afford the ferti­li­zer they needed for the season. 

More than half of the nitro­gen applied is still lost due to subop­ti­mal utiliza­tion. The goal is not neces­s­a­rily to elimi­nate the need for nitro­gen ferti­li­zer enti­rely, but to mini­mize it. This can be achie­ved through the incre­asing profes­sio­na­liza­tion of agri­cul­ture. For deca­des, to deter­mine how much nitro­gen a field actually contai­ned, farmers had to take soil samples and wait weeks for the lab results. By the time the results were available, mois­ture and tempe­ra­ture had alre­ady alte­red the nitro­gen profile, and the data was outda­ted. Farmers had no choice but to apply ferti­li­zer based on gene­ral histo­ri­cal averages—the most expen­sive guess in modern agri­cul­ture, one that puts the entire econo­mic viabi­lity of their opera­ti­ons at risk. 

Incre­asing Yields and Redu­cing Risks in Agriculture

A century after Haber and Bosch brought their disco­very from the labo­ra­tory to the market in Germany, Stenon did the same, focu­sing on the problem of the effec­tive use of nitro­gen ferti­li­zer. Stenon began deve­lo­ping advan­ced sensor tech­no­lo­gies and data-driven solu­ti­ons for agri­cul­ture in 2018. Over the past ten years, the company has brought this tech­no­logy to market. Farms that use Stenon reduce their nitro­gen use by 20–40% while incre­asing their yields by 2–8%.

“While farmers have no control over the global supply of nitro­gen or its prices, they can control how precis­ely each kilo­gram is applied. By combi­ning real-time measu­re­ments of plant-available nitro­gen with insights into soil orga­nic carbon (SOC), we help our custo­mers make better short-term ferti­liza­tion decis­i­ons and deve­lop a longer-term perspec­tive on soil produc­ti­vity,” Niels Grab­bert, foun­der and CEO of Stenon.

About Stenon

Stenon was foun­ded in 2018 and is head­quar­te­red in Pots­dam. The company deve­lops real-time soil data infra­struc­tures for the agri­cul­tu­ral sector. Its Farm­Lab plat­form combi­nes proprie­tary opti­cal and elec­tri­cal sensor tech­no­logy, AI, and cloud soft­ware to measure key soil para­me­ters directly in the field and trans­late them into agro­no­mic decis­i­ons. The tech­no­logy is alre­ady being used in South America, Central Asia, and Europe, helping farmers increase their crop yields and reduce their use of nitro­gen fertilizer. 

About DeepT­ech & Climate Fund

The DeepT­ech & Climate Fund (DTCF) invests up to €50 million in high-growth deep-tech and climate-tech compa­nies in Germany and Europe. As an anchor inves­tor and part­ner of long-term orien­ted Euro­pean inves­tors, the DTCF supports compa­nies with long deve­lo­p­ment cycles and high finan­cing needs in imple­men­ting sustainable growth stra­te­gies and actively contri­bu­tes to the expan­sion of the tech­no­logy ecosys­tem. The fund acts as a bridge between inves­tors, medium-sized compa­nies, and inno­va­tive high-tech start­ups in the fields of climate, compu­ting, indus­try, and life scien­ces. Finan­ced by the German Future Fund and the ERP Special Fund, the DTCF plans to invest €1 billion in the coming years to streng­then the Euro­pean tech­no­logy ecosys­tem. — https://dtcf.de/

About Atlantic.vc

Atlantic.vc is a Berlin-based venture capi­tal firm that invests in outstan­ding teams and tech­no­lo­gies across Europe. Since its foun­ding in 2016, Atlantic.vc has supported over 150 teams as the lead inves­tor in their first funding rounds. — https://atlantic.vc/

Berlin – Project A is parti­ci­pa­ting in a EUR 500 million finan­cing round for the defense startup Stark. YPOG provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Project A on struc­tu­ring the invest­ment vehic­les and the Series C invest­ment in the Berlin-based defense startup Stark. The advi­sory services covered regu­la­tory, tax, and corpo­rate law issues, as well as tran­sac­tion support for the EUR 500 million finan­cing round. The round was led by Sequoia Capi­tal and Foun­ders Fund, among others. 

Stark is a defense tech­no­logy company foun­ded in 2024 and head­quar­te­red in Berlin. The company deve­lops soft­ware-driven, AI-powered unman­ned systems for Euro­pean and NATO armed forces—including loite­ring muni­ti­ons and swarm technology—that are opera­tio­nal even in highly conge­sted elec­tro­nic envi­ron­ments. Stark is one of the fastest-growing defense start­ups in Europe and colla­bo­ra­tes with the German Armed Forces (Bundes­wehr) and other NATO part­ner nati­ons, among others, which are alre­ady using systems such as the Virtus plat­form in procu­re­ment and test­ing programs. 

More than 80% of the newly raised capi­tal is to be inves­ted directly in rese­arch, deve­lo­p­ment, and the expan­sion of produc­tion capa­city in Europe—including addi­tio­nal rese­arch faci­li­ties in the field of elec­tro­nic warfare and scaling up produc­tion to seve­ral thousand systems per month. Most recently, Stark expan­ded into the United King­dom and Sweden, acqui­red the Berlin-based soft­ware company Pleno, and secu­red a contract from the German Armed Forces worth 268 million EUR. 

“This mandate demons­tra­tes how tran­sac­tion advi­sory and fund struc­tu­ring go hand in hand at YPOG—from struc­tu­ring invest­ment vehic­les and desig­ning tax struc­tures, to navi­ga­ting regu­la­tory frame­works, to nego­tia­ting with inves­tors,” says Dr. Stephan Bank, part­ner at YPOG (photo).

“We are plea­sed to support Project A in this signi­fi­cant finan­cing round for Stark. The tran­sac­tion marks another mile­stone in our long-stan­ding colla­bo­ra­tion, during which we have had the oppor­tu­nity to provide legal support to Project A on nume­rous tech­no­logy-driven invest­ments,” adds Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner, a part­ner at YPOG.

YPOG and Project A have a long-stan­ding part­ner­ship. The law firm has been advi­sing Project A for seve­ral years on nume­rous finan­cing rounds and tran­sac­tions and has also supported the venture capi­tal inves­tor from the very begin­ning in struc­tu­ring and setting up all of its invest­ment vehicles. 

Team YPOG:

Struc­tu­ring:
Dr. Stephan Bank (Lead, Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Helder Schnitt­ker (Lead, Tax Struc­tu­ring), Part­ner, Berlin
Lenn­art Lorenz (Regu­la­tory), Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. Saskia Bong (Co-Lead, Funds), Asso­ciate Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Dajo Sanning (Tax Struc­tu­ring), Asso­ciate Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. Wolf­ram Dickers­bach (Tax Struc­tu­ring), Senior Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Fran­ziska Wüst (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin

Tran­sac­tion:
Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Sarah Sostak (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin

www.ypog.com

Frank­furt am Main / Munich – The Frank­furt-based invest­ment firm VR Equi­typ­art­ner (VREP) is support­ing the growth stra­tegy of the Kaske Group, a Munich-based provi­der specia­li­zing in data, soft­ware, and AI solu­ti­ons for compa­nies in the health­care and life scien­ces indus­tries. The goal of the part­ner­ship is to further streng­then the group’s posi­tion as a leading tech­no­logy and growth part­ner for compa­nies in the indus­try and to estab­lish a leading data- and AI-driven plat­form for the Euro­pean market. 

Toge­ther with VREP, the Kaske Group’s manage­ment is laying the ground­work for the group’s next phase of growth. The plan calls for targe­ted invest­ments in sales, inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, and product deve­lo­p­ment to further expand the group’s tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise and tap into addi­tio­nal growth potential. 

The focus is parti­cu­larly on data-driven marke­ting, AI-powered soft­ware solu­ti­ons, and scalable direct-to-consu­mer (DTC) models for the health­care indus­try. By combi­ning tech­no­lo­gi­cal inno­va­tion, data-driven value crea­tion, and stra­te­gic expan­sion, the company aims to tap into new markets and acce­le­rate the inter­na­tio­nal scaling of its busi­ness model. In addi­tion to orga­nic growth, the part­ner­ship opens up attrac­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties for targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons and the further expan­sion of the platform. 

This part­ner­ship lays the foun­da­tion for the Kaske Group to move to the next stage of its deve­lo­p­ment and, in parti­cu­lar, to tap into the poten­tial offe­red by the combi­na­tion of unique data, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, and digi­tal sales chan­nels for the health­care industry.

Opera­ti­ons will remain unch­an­ged: Foun­der and CEO Fabian Kaske will conti­nue to lead the company and retain a signi­fi­cant stake. VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH is acqui­ring a stake in the company. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. 

Fabian Kaske, CEO of the Kaske Group, says: “Our USP is a unique data­base, a skil­led team, and the AI and soft­ware exper­tise to create real added value for our custo­mers. With VR Equi­typ­art­ner as a finan­ci­ally strong, long-term-orien­ted part­ner, we can build on this very advan­tage and grow faster than we could on our own. In addi­tion, VREP brings expe­ri­ence in scaling compa­nies and imple­men­ting targe­ted buy-and-build strategies.”

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner, adds: “The Kaske Group has posi­tio­ned itself as a leading provi­der in the Phar­ma­Tech indus­try and boasts strong diffe­ren­tia­tion and deep moats in a struc­tu­rally growing market. We were parti­cu­larly impres­sed by the manage­ment team, which is driving the Group’s deve­lo­p­ment with entre­pre­neu­rial fore­sight and strong execu­tion capa­bi­li­ties. We look forward to support­ing this manage­ment team as a long-term part­ner in reali­zing further growth opportunities.”

The Kaske Group 

Head­quar­te­red in Munich, the Kaske Group combi­nes one of the largest digi­tal health data­ba­ses in the DACH region with data-driven soft­ware, AI, and service solu­ti­ons. Foun­ded in 1997 by Dr. Roland Kaske as an agency, the company has evol­ved under Fabian Kaske into a soft­ware- and data-driven plat­form provi­der. The group includes, among others, Smile AI GmbH, Dr. Kaske GmbH & Co. KG, and Dr. Vital Digi­tal Solu­ti­ons GmbH. With over 100 clients and projects in 22 Euro­pean count­ries, the Kaske Group supports its clients end-to-end—from stra­te­gic data analy­sis through implementation. 

About VR Equitypartner

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria, and Switz­er­land. Drawing on deca­des of expe­ri­ence, the company provi­des targe­ted support to medium-sized family-owned busi­nesses in finding stra­te­gic solu­ti­ons to complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, busi­ness succes­sion, and chan­ges in owner­ship. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity equity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the umbrella orga­niza­tion for coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently prio­ri­ti­zes the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment over short-term exit stra­te­gies. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses appro­xi­m­ately 40 invest­ments with a total invest­ment volume of 400 million EUR. — www.vrep.de.

The VR Equi­typ­art­ner tran­sac­tion team: Michael Vogt, Daniel Schmidt, Luis Sche­rer, Jakob Notarp, Jens Schöf­fel, Chris­tof Schmitt, Frank Wildenberg

Advi­sors, Kaske Group:

M&A: 4GC
Legal: LARK
Finan­cial: AC CHRISTES & PARTNER

VREP Advi­sors:

Commercial/Tech: CODEX Part­ners (Clemens Beick­ler, Iryna Kurylyshyn)
Finan­cial: Radial (Wolf-Hein­rich Werling, Domi­nik Maier)
Legal/Tax: McDer­mott (Chris­tian Marz­lin, Heiko Kermer)

Berlin — Gaius Capi­tal (“Gaius”), a private equity inves­tor specia­li­zing in succes­sion plan­ning solu­ti­ons for small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses, has announ­ced the first closing of its debut fund, Gaius Nach­fol­ge­ka­pi­tal I. With commit­ments tota­ling EUR 40 million, appro­xi­m­ately 80% of the target hard cap has alre­ady been reached. At the same time, the co-invest­ment vehicle Gaius Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal I has been closed. Inves­tors include insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors and family offices from Germany, the United King­dom, and the United States, inclu­ding a French anchor inves­tor focu­sed on emer­ging managers. 

Gaius is an inde­pen­dent private equity inves­tor that invests in the micro- and small-cap segment in the DACH region and pursues a buy-and-build stra­tegy in part­ner­ship with mid-sized entre­pre­neurs. The goal is to estab­lish three succes­sion plat­forms by the end of 2026 in high-growth service sectors. The first plat­form, in the insu­rance brokerage sector, was laun­ched in Decem­ber 2025. The foun­ding partners—Jan Mickel, Joscha Radeck, and Dr. Lukas Klip­per —have more than ten years of expe­ri­ence in buil­ding compa­nies and deve­lo­ping succes­sion solu­ti­ons in part­ner­ship with busi­ness owners. —

With this first closing, Gaius is expan­ding its team in Berlin to closely support invest­ments and the deve­lo­p­ment of its port­fo­lio compa­nies. The approach is based on active colla­bo­ra­tion with owners and manage­ment, as well as targe­ted value crea­tion that goes beyond simply provi­ding capital. 

Advi­sor to Gaius: POELLATH
POELLATH provi­ded Gaius with compre­hen­sive advice on contrac­tual, tax, and regu­la­tory issues rela­ted to the fund’s struc­tu­ring and distri­bu­tion, as well as on inves­tor nego­tia­ti­ons, working with the follo­wing Berlin-based team:

Amos Veith, LL.M. (Part­ner, Lead, Invest­ment Funds, Legal and Tax)
Dr. Robert Eberius, LL.M. (Stel­len­bosch) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Co-Lead, Invest­ment Funds, Legal and Tax)
Pascal Erler, LL.M. (Bond) (Senior Asso­ciate, Invest­ment Funds, Legal and Tax) 

About Gaius Capital

Gaius Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent private equity firm foun­ded in Berlin in 2025 by its foun­ding part­ners Jan Mickel, Joscha Radeck, and Dr. Lukas Klip­per with the goal of helping mid-sized busi­ness owners find part­ner­ship-based solu­ti­ons for their succes­sion plan­ning. We combine inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons with prag­ma­tic implementation. 

When it comes to busi­ness succes­sion, we want to be part of a solu­tion based on part­ner­ship. We tailor our approach to the indi­vi­dual needs of busi­ness owners and offer a compre­hen­sive range of solutions—from a quick sale at fair market value to a flexi­ble, profit-maxi­mi­zing approach through the Gaius Seller Commu­nity. Our work is groun­ded in a deep appre­cia­tion for our part­ners’ entre­pre­neu­rial achie­ve­ments, as well as a strong sense of respon­si­bi­lity for the careful manage­ment of the capi­tal entrus­ted to us. — www.gaiuscapital.com

Munich — Invest­corp and NetRom are acqui­ring the Trivium Group. Through its tech­no­logy invest­ment arm, Invest­corp Tech­no­logy Part­ners, Invest­corp has estab­lished a new growth plat­form in the soft­ware sector, consis­ting of NetRom Soft­ware (“NetRom”) and Trivium eSolu­ti­ons (“Trivium”). The goal is to bring comple­men­tary soft­ware engi­nee­ring compa­nies toge­ther under one roof and acce­le­rate their growth. — POELLATH provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Invest­corp and NetRom on this transaction. 

NetRom, based in Utrecht (Nether­lands), is a leading near­shore soft­ware development
company with appro­xi­m­ately 460 employees and two deli­very centers in Roma­nia. Trivium is a German soft­ware consul­ting firm specia­li­zing in indus­trial AI
with appro­xi­m­ately 180 employees
and offices in Germany, the Nether­lands, and India. 

Advi­sors to Invest­corp and NetRom: Poellath 

Dr. Tim Jung­in­ger, LL.M. (Part­ner, Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Tax, Munich)
Dr. Sebas­tian Rosen­tritt, LL.M. (Asso­ciate Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (NYU) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust, Frank­furt am Main)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Frank­furt am Main)
Lukas Fell­höl­ter (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Nicole Kalten­berg (Senior Asso­ciate, Employ­ment Law, Munich)
Jannis Lührs (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax, Munich)
Dr. Alex­an­der Bokari (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Marvin Ritt­meier (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Lennard Salve­ter (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich) 

About POELLATH

POELLATH is a leading, inter­na­tio­nally networked busi­ness and tax law firm with over
180 legal and tax profes­sio­nals in Berlin, Frank­furt, and Munich. We
provide excel­lent advice on tran­sac­tions and asset management—covering both legal and tax
matters—all under one roof. Our specia­li­zed prac­tice groups not only know the law—
toge­ther with our clients, we shape best prac­ti­ces in the market. Natio­nal and
inter­na­tio­nal rankings regu­larly list us as a leading firm in our selected
prac­tice areas.
www.pplaw.com

Gärt­rin­gen / Bjer­ring­bro (Denmark) — The Danish company Grund­fos has acqui­red the German water treat­ment specia­list EUWA. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. The global busi­ness law firm Norton Rose Fulbright advi­sed Grund­fos on the acqui­si­tion of EUWA. The share­hol­der of the water treat­ment specia­list EUWA recei­ved advice from OPPENLÄNDER Rechts­an­wälte on corpo­rate law matters and in connec­tion with the M&A tran­sac­tion when selling his shares to the Danish pump and water tech­no­logy group Grundfos. 

Grund­fos is one of the worl­d’s leading provi­ders of pumps and water tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons. EUWA is a Germany-based specia­list in water treat­ment solu­ti­ons with parti­cu­lar exper­tise in the beverage industry. 

With the acqui­si­tion of the German water treat­ment specia­list EUWA, Grund­fos is streng­thening its own water treat­ment divi­sion. EUWA deve­lops and imple­ments water treat­ment solu­ti­ons for the brewing and beverage indus­tries and has instal­la­ti­ons in more than 110 count­ries world­wide. In light of growing chal­lenges in the areas of water supply and water treat­ment, relia­ble, sustainable, and effi­ci­ent water treat­ment for the beverage indus­try is beco­ming incre­asingly important from a stra­te­gic perspec­tive. — EUWA poss­es­ses exten­sive tech­no­lo­gi­cal and engi­nee­ring exper­tise and offers solu­ti­ons across the entire puri­fied water cycle. 

The acqui­si­tion fits seam­lessly into Grund­fos’ stra­te­gic focus on consis­t­ently expan­ding its water treat­ment busi­ness and further streng­thening its exper­tise in this area.

Lead part­ner Kars­ten Kühnle, Head of Corpo­rate, M&A, and Secu­ri­ties Germany at Norton Rose Fulbright, commen­ted: “We are very plea­sed to have advi­sed Grund­fos on this stra­te­gi­cally important acqui­si­tion. The tran­sac­tion unders­cores the contin­ued importance of inves­t­ing in inno­va­tive water and envi­ron­men­tal technologies.” 

About Grund­fos Holding A/S

Grund­fos Holding A/S, head­quar­te­red in Bjer­ring­bro, Denmark, is the parent company of the Grund­fos Group. The Grund­fos Group is repre­sen­ted by more than 100 compa­nies in more than 60 count­ries. In addi­tion, our products are sold in nume­rous count­ries through local distri­bu­tors. Grund­fos Holding A/S holds shares in all other compa­nies in the Grund­fos Group, either directly or indi­rectly. — www.grundfos.com

Grund­fos’s legal coun­sel: Norton Rose Fulbright 

Kars­ten Kühnle (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) also included Senior Asso­ciate Dr. Ariane Theis­sen (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) and Asso­ciate Felix Reiner (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt). The exten­ded team included part­ners Clau­dia Poslu­schny (Employ­ment Law, Munich), Chris­tian Wolf (Liti­ga­tion, Frank­furt), Clemens Rübel (IP, Munich), Holger Wolf (Real Estate/Finance, Frank­furt), Dr. Simon Wepp­ner (Tax Law, Düssel­dorf), Coun­sel Dr. Riccardo Mari­nello (Real Estate Law, Frank­furt), Torben Schlä­fer (Liti­ga­tion, Frank­furt), Senior Asso­ciate Tiffany Zilliox (IP, Munich), Michaela Bach­meier (Employ­ment Law, Munich), Nata­lia Filkina (Data Protec­tion Law, Frank­furt), Chris­tian Klein (Tax Law, Düssel­dorf), Maxi­mi­lian Schmitz (IP/Disputes, Munich), Sven Klüp­pel (Anti­trust Law, Frank­furt), Anne–Sophie Wilhelmy (Real Estate/Finance, Frank­furt), and Asso­ciate Hannah Diete­rich (Employ­ment Law, Munich). The team was supported on a global level by Norton Rose Fulbright colle­agues from China and Singapore.—

EUWA Consul­tant: OPPENLÄNDER

On the seller’s side, Dr. Felix Born and asso­ciate part­ner Julia Sauter, LL.M., led the legal team for the tran­sac­tion. — www.oppenländer.de

About Norton Rose Fulbright

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

Kippenheim/Stuttgart/Cologne – Blue Cap AG has signed a purchase agree­ment to acquire all shares in Janoschka AG. In connec­tion with the tran­sac­tion, GÖRG advi­sed Blue Cap on the syndi­ca­ted finan­cing. The sellers are members of the Janoschka family and Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH of Stutt­gart. Janoschka is an inter­na­tio­nally active provi­der of inte­gra­ted prepress solu­ti­ons for the pack­a­ging industry. 

Janoschka AG, head­quar­te­red in Kippen­heim, Baden-Würt­tem­berg, employs appro­xi­m­ately 1,500 people and opera­tes produc­tion faci­li­ties in twelve count­ries. The group compri­ses two units: Janoschka is respon­si­ble for graphic repro­duc­tion and the manu­fac­ture of prin­ting and embos­sing tools, while Linked2Brands opera­tes as a preme­dia produc­tion agency and provi­des support for pack­a­ging design and prepa­ra­tion. Toge­ther, the two units cover key steps in the prepress value chain for the pack­a­ging indus­try. Its custo­mers include, in parti­cu­lar, pack­a­ging manu­fac­tu­r­ers and brand owners in the FMCG sector. In fiscal year 2025, the company gene­ra­ted reve­nue of appro­xi­m­ately 90 million euros. 

From Blue Cap’s perspec­tive, Janoschka has an inter­na­tio­nal foot­print, a robust busi­ness model, and further poten­tial for growth. Key areas for this include auto­ma­tion, effi­ci­ency gains across the global produc­tion network, and grea­ter value capture. 

Foun­ded in 1976 by Manfred Janoschka, Janoschka is now conside­red the market leader in the inter­na­tio­nal prepress indus­try. SüdBG joined the company in 2017 as part of a capi­tal increase to finance the Janoschka Group’s inter­na­tio­nal growth and a simul­ta­neous manage­ment buyout, and, toge­ther with the foun­ding family and the super­vi­sory board, supported manage­ment in imple­men­ting its targe­ted growth stra­tegy. This included auto­ma­ting produc­tion and incre­asing the level of digi­tiza­tion throug­hout the value chain. In addi­tion, the inter­na­tio­nal produc­tion sites in Asia—particularly in Malay­sia, Viet­nam, and the Philippines—as well as in Turkey, Poland, and Mexico, were expan­ded to offer custo­mers world­wide compre­hen­sive tech­ni­cal exper­tise, inno­va­tions, solu­ti­ons, and services for gravure and flexo­gra­phic printing. 

During its part­ner­ship with SüdBG, Janoschka has expan­ded and broa­dened its service port­fo­lio. Janoschka now employs appro­xi­m­ately 1,500 people and gene­ra­tes reve­nue of over 90 million euros. 

The part­ners have agreed not to disc­lose the details.

Under the leader­ship of Part­ner Dr. Thomas Lange, GÖRG provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Blue Cap AG on the restruc­tu­ring of Janoschka AG’s syndi­ca­ted financing.

Advi­sors to Blue Cap AG: GÖRG Part­ner­ship of Attor­neys mbB

Dr. Thomas Lange (Lead Coun­sel, Part­ner, Finance, Colo­gne), Eva Geue­nich (Senior Asso­ciate, Finance, Colo­gne), Jannik Gese­kus (Asso­ciate, Finance, Cologne).

Advi­sor SüdBG:

M&A: IMAP M&A Consul­tants AG (Henning Graw, Chris­toph Gluschke, Phil­ipp Crocoll, Alex­an­der Köhler, Levin Kieselhorst)

Legal: Orrick, Herring­ton & Sutcliffe LLP (Dr. Chris­toph Bren­ner, Stefan Riedl, Maria Teodorescu)

About Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG)

SüdBG is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Baden-Würt­tem­berg (LBBW) and has been support­ing small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses for more than 50 years with custo­mi­zed equity and quasi-equity solu­ti­ons in the context of succes­sion plan­ning, growth finan­cing, and chan­ges in ownership.
As one of the leading private equity firms in the German-spea­king world and a long-term inves­tor, SüdBG has supported over 70 compa­nies over the past 10 years with appro­xi­m­ately 600 million euros and a broad network to foster sustainable corpo­rate development.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.suedbg.de.

Ratingen/Frankfurt –– Surface­Prep, a port­fo­lio company of Nautic Part­ners, has acqui­red the German company Kuhmi­chel Abra­siv GmbH. McDer­mott Will & Schulte provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Nautic Part­ners on this transaction. 

Kuhmi­chel Abra­siv, head­quar­te­red in Ratin­gen, is a leading company in the field of blas­ting and abra­sive mate­ri­als. With 120 employees at eleven loca­ti­ons across Europe, the company offers recy­cling solu­ti­ons for indus­trial waste. 

Nautic Part­ners is a U.S.-based mid-market private equity firm that focu­ses on three sectors: health­care, indus­tri­als, and services.

Surface­Prep is a leading global distri­bu­tor of abra­si­ves, specialty cera­mics, and surface finis­hing equip­ment, head­quar­te­red in Grand Rapids, Michi­gan, with 60 bran­ches in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Advi­sors to Nautic Part­ners: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Frankfurt

Dr. Chris­tian Marz­lin (lead), Dr. Bene­dikt von Schor­le­mer, Isabelle Suzanne Gvero (Coun­sel; all Private Equity), Dr. Heiko Kermer, Dr. Florian Schie­fer, Marcus Fischer (Coun­sel; all Tax Law), Dr. Laura Stamm­witz (Anti­trust Law), Dr. Johan­nes Honzen (Real Estate Law), Alex­an­der Klein (Finance), Dr. Alexa Ningel­gen (Public Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Chris­tian Dries­sen-Rolf (Labor Law); Asso­cia­tes: Jenni­fer Rogal­ski (Private Equity), Dr. Merlyn von Hugo, LL.M., OEC. (Tax Law), Tatjana Kuhlen, LL.M. (Real Estate Law), Bastiaan Wolters (Finance), Dr. Anja Bert­rand, Max Kütt­ner, Caro­lin Schu­ma­cher (all Anti­trust Law, Cologne/Düsseldorf), Dr. Thomas Hint­zen (Public Commer­cial Law, Düssel­dorf), Jan Ischreyt (Energy & Infra­struc­ture), Dr. Nils Stock, LL.M. (Tran­sac­tion Lawyer)
McDer­mott Will & Schulte, USA: Frede­ric L. Leven­son, Brad­ley Robert Burcoff (Private Equity, both lead coun­sel, Miami), Michael J. Bruno (Tax, Miami), Alex Cheng-Yi Lee (Tax, Washing­ton, D.C.), Gregory E. Helt­zer (Anti­trust, Washing­ton, D.C.), Nick Paul (Employ­ment Law, Chicago); Asso­cia­tes: Fadi Moha­med (Private Equity, Miami), Larissa Mussi (Tax, Dallas)
McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Brussels: Stéphane Dion­net (anti­trust); Asso­cia­tes: Emilia Bonine, Ángela Fernán­dez de la Puebla (both antitrust)
McDer­mott Will & Schulte, London: Elea­nor West (Private Equity), Rob Marshall (Tax Law), Devina Rana (Tran­sac­tions); Asso­cia­tes: Bella North, Nikita Panchal (both Transactions)
McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Paris: Sabine Naugès (Public Law); Asso­cia­tes: Andréa Londoño López (Sustaina­bi­lity, Impact & ESG)

Munich –– Kirk­land & Ellis advi­sed Bain Capi­tal on the exclu­sive agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in Ever­l­lence from the Volks­wa­gen Group (“Volks­wa­gen”).

Bain Capi­tal is acqui­ring a 51% stake in Ever­l­lence. Volks­wa­gen plans to remain a major share­hol­der with a 49% stake. The tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual closing condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding regu­la­tory approvals. 

Ever­l­lence (form­erly MAN Energy Solu­ti­ons) is a leading global provi­der of propul­sion, decar­bo­niza­tion, and effi­ci­ency solu­ti­ons for the mari­time, energy, and indus­trial sectors. Ever­l­lence gene­ra­tes reve­nue of appro­xi­m­ately 5 billion euros and employs about 16,000 people at more than 140 loca­ti­ons in Europe, Asia, and the Ameri­cas. The company holds a leading posi­tion in each of its core busi­ness areas and serves custo­mers in the global ship­ping, naval defense, power gene­ra­tion, and indus­trial proces­sing sectors. With more than 140 loca­ti­ons world­wide, it opera­tes one of the industry’s most exten­sive after­mar­ket service networks. 

Advi­sors to Bain Capi­tal: Kirk­land & Ellis, Munich

Prof. Dr. Benja­min Leyen­de­cker, Dr. Philip Goj, Dr. Sebas­tian Heim (all lead coun­sel, all Private Equity/M&A), Dr. Alex­an­der Längs­feld (Debt Finance), Dr. Michael Ehret (Tax); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Johan­nes Rowold, Dr. Marcus Comman­deur, Frede­rick Eggert, Dr. Jasper Wentz (Frank­furt), Dr. Pablo Tretow, Alex­an­der Stahl, Lionel Reich (all Private Equity/M&A), Dr. Barbara Dunkel, Dr. Laura Frömel, Alex­an­dros Peschos (all Debt Finance), Emanuel Götz (Tax).
Kirk­land & Ellis, London: Jacque­line Clover (Tech­no­logy & IP Tran­sac­tions); Asso­cia­tes: Erika Krum (Inter­na­tio­nal Trade & Natio­nal Secu­rity), Prasanth Kapi­lan (Tech­no­logy & IP Transactions)

About Kirk­land

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

Munich – Baker McKen­zie advi­sed Siemens Energy on the agree­ment to acquire the Camlin Group, a Nort­hern Ireland-based specia­list in grid moni­to­ring, data analy­sis, and plant digitalization.

The acqui­si­tion expands Siemens Energy’s digi­tal grid port­fo­lio against the back­drop of rising global invest­ment in power grids. Finan­cial details were not disc­lo­sed. The tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted to be comple­ted before the end of 2026. 

With the acqui­si­tion of the Camlin Group, Siemens Energy is expan­ding its capa­bi­li­ties and streng­thening its digi­tal profile in the areas of sensor-based moni­to­ring, data analy­sis, and soft­ware-enab­led grid intelligence.

Dr. Jakub Lorys, Corpo­rate Part­ner, commen­ted on the tran­sac­tion: “The energy tran­si­tion has long since ceased to be solely about gene­ra­tion; it is now very much about the intel­li­gence of the grids. With the acqui­si­tion of the Camlin Group, Siemens Energy is well-posi­tio­ned to navi­gate this trans­for­ma­tion, combi­ning sensor tech­no­logy, data analy­sis, and soft­ware to create the digi­tal back­bone of tomorrow’s power grids. We are proud to have advi­sed on a tran­sac­tion that lies precis­ely at the inter­sec­tion of indus­trial stra­tegy and tech­no­lo­gi­cal innovation.” 

Alex­an­der Gee, Corpo­rate Part­ner, who led the tran­sac­tion along­side Jakub Lorys, added: “The acqui­si­tion of a specia­li­zed tech­no­logy company with opera­ti­ons in multi­ple juris­dic­tions requi­res not only deep indus­try exper­tise but also seam­less coor­di­na­tion across various legal areas and natio­nal borders. Our team colla­bo­ra­ted across more than 25 offices to provide inte­gra­ted advice on M&A struc­tu­ring, regu­la­tory appr­ovals, and labor and tax law issues, enab­ling Siemens Energy to act decisi­vely and efficiently.” 

The cross-border, inter­di­sci­pli­nary Baker McKen­zie team was led by corpo­rate and M&A part­ners Dr. Jakub Lorys (Munich) and Alex­an­der Gee (London), with support from Niraj Visani (Senior Asso­ciate, London), Laura MacLach­lan (senior asso­ciate, London), Jack McCann (asso­ciate, London), Eli Clin­ton-Davis (asso­ciate, London), and Niall Elliott (asso­ciate, London).

The Baker McKen­zie team consis­ted of more than 50 attor­neys specia­li­zing in employ­ment law, tax law, anti­trust and compe­ti­tion law, intellec­tual property, and commer­cial tech­no­logy from more than 25 offices within the firm’s global network.

About Baker McKenzie

As one of Germany’s leading law firms, Baker McKen­zie advi­ses natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies and insti­tu­ti­ons on all areas of busi­ness law. In Germany, more than 200 attor­neys at our offices in Berlin, Düssel­dorf, Frankfurt/Main, and Munich repre­sent their clients’ inte­rests with proven profes­sio­nal exper­tise and inter­na­tio­nal expe­ri­ence. World­wide, we work toge­ther with our clients in more than 70 offices to deve­lop solu­ti­ons for an inter­con­nec­ted world. 

Munich — HRK LUNIS and Eyb & Wall­witz Join Forces: HRKL Group Acqui­res a Majo­rity Stake in Eyb & Wall­witz Vermö­gens­ma­nage­ment. — The global commer­cial law firm Norton Rose Fulbright advi­sed the HRKL Group on its acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Eyb & Wall­witz Vermö­gens­ma­nage­ment GmbH. 

As part of the tran­sac­tion, the inde­pen­dent asset mana­gers HRK LUNIS AG and Eyb & Wall­witz Vermö­gens­ma­nage­ment GmbH are merging under the umbrella of the joint holding company HRKL GmbH & Co. KG. With appro­xi­m­ately 11 billion euros in assets under manage­ment, this crea­tes one of the leading inde­pen­dent asset manage­ment groups in the German-spea­king world. 

The new struc­ture crea­tes addi­tio­nal growth oppor­tu­ni­ties and opens up poten­tial for further deve­lo­ping the product port­fo­lio and tapping into new custo­mer segments. In the future, in addi­tion to the invest­ment company Seven2 and the exis­ting share­hol­ders of HRK LUNIS, Dr. Georg von Wall­witz and Olivier Kuet­gens will also hold stakes in the holding company, ther­eby unders­coring their shared commit­ment to a long-term stra­te­gic part­ner­ship. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to the usual regu­la­tory approvals. 

Lead Part­ner Frank Henkel, Corporate/M&A, Munich, comm­ents: “The merger of HRK LUNIS and Eyb & Wall­witz crea­tes one of the leading inde­pen­dent asset manage­ment groups in the German-spea­king world. The tran­sac­tion lays a strong foun­da­tion for the further deve­lo­p­ment of both compa­nies. We are plea­sed to have supported HRK LUNIS in this stra­te­gi­cally signi­fi­cant step.”

HRK LUNIS Advi­sor: Norton Rose Fulbright

Led by Frank Henkel (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A) and Dr. Nico­las Daamen (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A).

The Norton Rose Fulbright team also included part­ners Dr. Chris­toph Ritzer (IT Law, Frank­furt), Clau­dia Poslu­schny (Employ­ment Law, Munich), and Dr. Tim Scha­per (Anti­trust Law, Hamburg), as well as coun­sel Johan­nes Diez (Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich), Coun­sel Dr. Michael Born (DCM/Banking Regu­la­tory Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Inge­mar Karteu­ser (IT Law, Frank­furt), Oliver Pols­ter (Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Hamburg), and Dr. Riccardo Mari­nello (Real Estate Law, Frank­furt); senior asso­cia­tes Michaela Bach­meier (Employ­ment Law, Munich), Andre Hart­mann (Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Frank­furt), and Sebas­tian Eisen­hut (Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Munich), as well as the asso­cia­tes Katrin Erlen­maier (IT Law, Frank­furt), Marcel Giess­ler (Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Hamburg), Pia Schwanke (Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Frank­furt), and Dr. Noby Cyriac (Anti­trust Law, Hamburg).

About Norton Rose Fulbright

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

Munich — EQT Life Scien­ces is plea­sed to announce its parti­ci­pa­tion in a Series A finan­cing round tota­ling 115 million U.S. dollars (86 million GBP) in RQ Bio, a UK-based biotech­no­logy company deve­lo­ping anti­body thera­pies to prevent influ­enza in high-risk groups and immu­n­o­com­pro­mi­sed indi­vi­du­als. The invest­ment was made through one of the funds mana­ged by EQT. 

The funding round was led by Frazier Life Scien­ces, with parti­ci­pa­tion from new inves­tors EQT Life Scien­ces, Forbion, Mono­graph, and Welling­ton Manage­ment, as well as exis­ting inves­tors Life­Arc, Oxford Science Enter­pri­ses, and Oxford Univer­sity Inno­va­tion. The Series A finan­cing will support the clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment of RQ Bio’s lead program, RQB01, and help advance the company’s broad pipe­line of thera­pies for other infec­tious diseases. 

RQ Bio was foun­ded in 2021

RQ Bio was foun­ded in 2021 by four leading scien­tists in the field of infec­tious dise­a­ses and is deve­lo­ping new anti­body thera­pies desi­gned to protect people from seaso­nal flu for an entire season with just a single treat­ment. The company’s flag­ship program is advan­cing toward clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment and is desi­gned to provide compre­hen­sive protec­tion for high-risk pati­ents, inclu­ding those who remain at risk despite exis­ting vacci­na­tion strategies. 

EQT Life Scien­ces will support RQ Bio in advan­cing its lead program, RQB01, into the clini­cal phase and further expan­ding its broa­der pipe­line. Drawing on its expe­ri­ence in support­ing inno­va­tive biotech­no­logy compa­nies through clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment, EQT Life Scien­ces will work along­side manage­ment and the inves­tor consor­tium to scale the company, streng­then its deve­lo­p­ment capa­bi­li­ties, and drive its long-term growth. 

Felice Verduyn-van Weegen, a part­ner at EQT Life Scien­ces, said: “Despite the avai­la­bi­lity of exis­ting treat­ments, influ­enza conti­nues to pose a signi­fi­cant burden on at-risk groups. RQ Bio’s approach—to provide long-lasting, season-long protec­tion with a single dose—addresses a clear unmet need among pati­ents who remain at the highest risk.”

Mike Westby, CEO of RQ Bio, said: “Influ­enza conti­nues to pose a serious and persis­tent threat to pati­ents whose immune systems cannot rely solely on vacci­na­tion. Our vision is to deve­lop a preven­tive therapy that provi­des relia­ble protec­tion for an entire flu season with a single dose. This funding will support the clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment of RQB01 and advance our proprie­tary approach to anti­body disco­very to build a pipe­line of thera­peu­tic candi­da­tes for the preven­tion of respi­ra­tory viral diseases.”

As part of the finan­cing, RQ Bio appoin­ted Chris­tian S. Schade as Execu­tive Chair­man. Most recently, he served as Presi­dent and CEO of Halda Thera­peu­tics, which was acqui­red by John­son & John­son in Decem­ber 2025 for $3.0 billion. He brings exten­sive leader­ship, board, and tran­sac­tion expe­ri­ence from across the biotech­no­logy sector. As Execu­tive Chair­man, he will work closely with the manage­ment team and the board of direc­tors to steer the company’s stra­tegy and support its contin­ued growth. 

About EQT Life Sciences

EQT Life Scien­ces was formed in 2022 through the inte­gra­tion of LSP, a leading Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm in the life scien­ces and health­care sectors, into the EQT plat­form. As LSP, the firm has raised more than 3.0 billion euros (3.5 billion U.S. dollars) since it began inves­t­ing over 30 years ago and has supported the growth of more than 150 compa­nies. With a dedi­ca­ted team of highly expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment profes­sio­nals with back­grounds in medi­cine, science, busi­ness, and finance, EQT Life Scien­ces supports the brigh­test inno­va­tors whose ideas can truly make a diffe­rence for pati­ents. — https://eqtgroup.com/private-capital/eqt-life-sciences

About RQ Bio

RQ Bio is a UK-based biotech company which is deve­lo­ping a long-acting mono­clonal anti­body against seaso­nal influ­enza with the aim of provi­ding immu­n­o­com­pro­mi­sed and high-risk pati­ents with imme­diate, effec­tive, and long-lasting protec­tion against severe viral dise­a­ses. The company is advan­cing the deve­lo­p­ment of its lead product, RQB01—a long-acting, highly effec­tive, and broadly active dual mono­clonal antibody—through clini­cal trials aimed at obtai­ning IND approval. 

RQ Bio was foun­ded in 2021 and has a highly expe­ri­en­ced team with a proven track record in deve­lo­ping long-acting anti­bo­dies against viral target mole­cu­les. RQ Bio is backed by a strong consor­tium of specia­li­zed investors—Frazier Life Scien­ces, EQT Life Scien­ces, Mono­graph, Welling­ton, Forbion, Life­Arc, Oxford Science Enter­pri­ses, and Oxford Univer­sity Innovation.

The Hague (NL) – Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”), a specia­li­zed Euro­pean inves­tor in enter­prise soft­ware, announ­ced today that Main Capi­tal IX and Main Foun­da­tion III have coll­ec­tively recei­ved capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling more than 5.25 billion euros. Main Capi­tal IX reached its hard cap of €4 billion, while Main Foun­da­tion III reached its hard cap of €1.25 billion. The total volume repres­ents more than double the size of their respec­tive prede­ces­sor funds and increa­ses Main’s assets under manage­ment to over €12 billion. Both funds were over­sub­scri­bed, unders­coring the contin­ued strong demand from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors for Main’s diffe­ren­tia­ted lower-mid-market stra­tegy in the enter­prise soft­ware sector. 

Throug­hout its history, Main has comple­ted 38 exits

Buil­ding on the successful fund­rai­sing efforts of recent years, Main once again recei­ved strong support from its exis­ting LP base, with a re-up rate of over 120%. In addi­tion to follow-on invest­ments from exis­ting inves­tors such as Hamil­ton Lane, both funds also secu­red signi­fi­cant new commit­ments from a broa­der global base of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. The new inves­tors were prima­rily from the United States, Asia, and the Middle East and include sove­reign wealth funds, public pension funds, and insu­rance compa­nies, among them well-known insti­tu­ti­ons such as the State Teachers’ Reti­re­ment System of Ohio, the Korean Teachers’ Credit Union, and Akade­mi­ker­Pen­sion. The pace and volume of capi­tal raised—despite a persis­t­ently chal­len­ging fund­rai­sing envi­ron­ment and geopo­li­ti­cal uncertainties—reflect Main’s consis­tent, strong invest­ment perfor­mance as well as its more than 20 years of specia­liza­tion in lower-mid-market enter­prise soft­ware buyouts. Over the course of its history, Main has comple­ted 38 exits, with a weigh­ted average gross return of 4.7x and a loss rate of well below 0.5%.

Main will conti­nue to consis­t­ently imple­ment its proven stra­tegy in the lower mid-market for enter­prise soft­ware and make equity invest­ments ranging from €5 million to €150 million in profi­ta­ble, resi­li­ent soft­ware compa­nies. The goal is to grow these compa­nies into larger, scalable, and cross-border soft­ware groups through orga­nic growth and selec­tive M&A acti­vi­ties. In doing so, Main will main­tain its clear focus on its core regions—Benelux, DACH, Scan­di­na­via, France, and North America. As a stra­te­gic expan­sion, Main will also actively pursue plat­form invest­ments in the United King­dom with the new funds. The British market is conside­red one of the most dyna­mic and mature enter­prise soft­ware markets in Europe and offers ideal condi­ti­ons for buil­ding long-term part­ner­ships with soft­ware foun­ders and entrepreneurs. 

Main places a special focus on the profound chan­ges that arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence is brin­ging about in the enter­prise soft­ware sector. AI is funda­men­tally trans­forming the deve­lo­p­ment, marke­ting, and scaling of soft­ware, crea­ting new growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in Main’s core segments—from Health­Tech and GovTech to Infra­struc­ture and PropTech. With its proprie­tary capa­bi­li­ties in Market Intel­li­gence & Perfor­mance Excel­lence and an active port­fo­lio of over 55 enter­prise soft­ware compa­nies, Main is excep­tio­nally well-posi­tio­ned to iden­tify sustainable value crea­tion poten­tial through AI and to support port­fo­lio compa­nies in inte­gra­ting AI into their products and proces­ses. Main is convin­ced that the inter­play of market conso­li­da­tion and AI-driven inno­va­tion makes the current envi­ron­ment one of the most attrac­tive in the company’s more than 20-year history. 

AI Unlocks Poten­tial for Growth and Value Creation

Charly Zwem­s­tra, foun­der and Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer of Main, says: “Main was among the first inves­tors in the Euro­pean soft­ware buyout sector, and over more than two deca­des, we have estab­lished a unique track record of buil­ding larger and more resi­li­ent soft­ware groups in the lower mid-market. Commit­ments of over €5 billion for Main Capi­tal IX and Main Foun­da­tion III are a strong endor­se­ment of our stra­tegy and the endu­ring trust of our limi­ted part­ner (LP) base. We see a turning point for the enter­prise soft­ware indus­try: AI is unlo­cking a new wave of growth and value crea­tion poten­tial, and Main’s in-depth indus­try exper­tise, proprie­tary data capa­bi­li­ties, and disci­pli­ned opera­tio­nal approach put us in an excel­lent posi­tion to realize these oppor­tu­ni­ties for our port­fo­lio compa­nies and investors.”

Jorn de Ruij­ter, Part­ner and Head of Fund Struc­tu­ring & Inves­tor Rela­ti­ons at Main, says: “The speed and scale with which we were able to secure over €5 billion in capi­tal commitments—more than double our previous combi­ned fund­rai­sing total—underscore Main’s long-term invest­ment perfor­mance and the strength of our LP rela­ti­onships. We are extre­mely proud of a re-up rate of over 120%. We thank both our exis­ting and new inves­tors for their trust. With Main Capi­tal IX and Main Foun­da­tion III, we are ideally posi­tio­ned to conti­nue driving conso­li­da­tion in the frag­men­ted Euro­pean and U.S. soft­ware markets, expand into the United King­dom, and capi­ta­lize on the oppor­tu­ni­ties presen­ted by AI in the enter­prise soft­ware industry.”

Main did not use a place­ment agent for the fund­rai­sing. Loyens & Loeff served as legal coun­sel.

About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a soft­ware inves­tor that mana­ges private equity funds in the Bene­lux count­ries, the DACH region, Scan­di­na­via, France, and North America, with over 12.0 billion EUR in assets under manage­ment. Main has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams of its port­fo­lio compa­nies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to drive profi­ta­ble growth and build leading soft­ware groups. Main employs appro­xi­m­ately 100 people at its offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp, Paris, and a branch office in Boston. Main’s active port­fo­lio compri­ses more than 55 soft­ware compa­nies with a combi­ned work­force of over 15,000 employees. Through the Main Social Insti­tute, Main supports students with scho­lar­ships for IT and compu­ter science programs at tech­ni­cal univer­si­ties and colleges.

Wies­ba­den – SCHUFA Holding AG is acqui­ring STRATECO GmbH and syste­ma­ti­cally expan­ding its KYC and compli­ance busi­ness to serve as a second stra­te­gic pillar along­side credit assess­ment. The goal is to streng­then its posi­tion as an inde­pen­dent, tech­no­logy-driven part­ner for corpo­rate clients. The “SCHUFA Compli­ance Suite” will inte­grate seam­lessly into the German finan­cial ecosys­tem and estab­lish itself as the de facto stan­dard for compli­ant and effi­ci­ent compli­ance solutions. 

The focus is on combi­ning the comple­men­tary exper­tise of Clari­Lab (KYCnow)—a SCHUFA subsi­diary estab­lished in 2020—and STRATECO under the umbrella of the “SCHUFA Compli­ance Suite.” While SCHUFA, through Clari­Lab, contri­bu­tes scalable, stan­dar­di­zed KYC proces­ses in parti­cu­lar, STRATECO comple­ments the offe­ring with 25 years of expe­ri­ence prima­rily in corpo­rate and invest­ment banking. This crea­tes an inte­gra­ted offe­ring that combi­nes data, tech­no­logy, and opera­tio­nal services across the entire KYC value chain and provi­des finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons with compre­hen­sive solu­ti­ons. At the same time, SCHUFA is actively support­ing the Euro­pean harmo­niza­tion of anti-money laun­de­ring efforts through this approach and addres­sing the growing demand for KYC services in the finan­cial sector. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. 

With this acqui­si­tion, STRATECO will become a wholly owned subsi­diary of SCHUFA and a sister company of ClariLab.

Anti-Money Laun­de­ring: SCHUFA Beco­mes the Go-To Part­ner for Banks

“By combi­ning STRATECO and KYCnow, we are crea­ting a unique, inte­gra­ted end-to-end solu­tion for our custo­mers that spans the entire KYC value chain. In this way, we are brin­ging toge­ther exper­tise and tech­no­logy to conti­nuously increase our coll­ec­tive impact in the fight against money laun­de­ring. Accor­ding to esti­ma­tes, more than 100 billion euros are ille­gally funneled into the finan­cial system in Germany every year,” says Tanja Birk­holz, CEO of SCHUFA Holding AG.

“Our anti-money laun­de­ring efforts and those of SCHUFA comple­ment each other perfectly,” says Laurence Dick­ler of STRATECO. “SCHUFA brings to the table, above all, the high quality of its data­base and the strong trust in its brand name. By combi­ning our efforts, we have the poten­tial to become the market leader,” adds Dickler. 

“The Euro­pean Anti-Money Laun­de­ring Regu­la­tion will bring about lasting chan­ges to the market and further increase the demand for high-quality data, smart tech­no­lo­gies, and effi­ci­ent proces­ses. Toge­ther with STRATECO and SCHUFA, we are laying the ground­work to support our custo­mers through this trans­for­ma­tion,” says Tobias Weber, CEO of KYCnow. 

Expan­ding into Higher Market Segments with STRATECO
Based in Bad Homburg, foun­ded 25 years ago, and employ­ing appro­xi­m­ately 160 full-time staff, STRATECO poss­es­ses exten­sive regu­la­tory and proce­du­ral exper­tise, in-depth expe­ri­ence in regu­la­tory consul­ting projects and mana­ged services enga­ge­ments, as well as a strong track record with Tier 1 and Tier 2 insti­tu­ti­ons. With this move, STRATECO expands SCHUFA’s port­fo­lio to include high-end case coverage in this highly criti­cal area. The two compa­nies have a long-stan­ding part­ner­ship. STRATECO gene­ra­tes appro­xi­m­ately 90 percent of its reve­nue from services rela­ted to compli­ance and regu­la­tory affairs. 

Clari­Lab, foun­ded six years ago, opera­tes the KYCnow tech­no­logy plat­form and has appro­xi­m­ately 700 custo­mers, inclu­ding 400 banks. The platform’s main func­tion is to effi­ci­ently auto­mate stan­dar­di­zed KYC proces­ses. The two compa­nies comple­ment each other perfectly and form an end-to-end KYC value chain. 

The acqui­si­tion is a response to market complexity

The acqui­si­tion is also a response to the incre­asing requi­re­ments for anti-money laun­de­ring in the wake of Euro­pean regu­la­tion and the new EU super­vi­sory struc­tures surroun­ding AMLA. These are leading to grea­ter comple­xity in data and proces­ses, as well as more frequent audits. 

With its approach, SCHUFA is speci­fi­cally posi­tio­ning itself as a natio­nal provi­der. Howe­ver, it alre­ady colla­bo­ra­tes with the German bran­ches of seve­ral inter­na­tio­nal finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons and will incre­asingly support its custo­mers in Euro­pean markets in the future. In this way, SCHUFA also helps safe­guard the sove­reig­nty of the German banking sector. 

SCHUFA

The Asso­cia­tion for Gene­ral Credit Protection—SCHUFA—helps people fulfill their finan­cial goals in a straight­for­ward, secure, and afforda­ble way. We work to ensure that people can conduct busi­ness quickly and conve­ni­ently and that compa­nies can place their trust in them—even without knowing them perso­nally. We reduce the risk of default for provi­ders of credit, goods, and services, which makes it possi­ble to do more busi­ness on favorable terms. In this way, we support growth and prospe­rity in Germany. SCHUFA is an important part of our economy. Using state-of-the-art tech­no­logy, we analyze and evaluate over 350,000 inqui­ries every day. This allows us to align the needs of consu­mers with the secu­rity requi­re­ments of provi­ders. We gene­rate credit scores and offer solu­ti­ons that help indi­vi­du­als and busi­nesses protect them­sel­ves against iden­tity theft and fraud. We make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to preven­ting money laun­de­ring and help limit the resul­ting econo­mic damage. We also provide a plat­form for the cross-indus­try exch­ange of sustaina­bi­lity data. SCHUFA employs appro­xi­m­ately 1,000 people and gene­ra­ted appro­xi­m­ately 293 million euros in reve­nue in the 2025 fiscal year. 

The SCHUFA commitment

SCHUFA has conti­nuously expan­ded its social commit­ment in recent years, contri­bu­ting to a trans­pa­rent finan­cial culture and debt preven­tion in Germany. As an infor­ma­tion service provi­der for busi­nesses and consu­mers, many projects focus prima­rily on educa­tion and data protec­tion. The most important projects at a glance: The annu­ally published Risk and Credit Compass exami­nes the consu­mer compe­tence and credit beha­vior of German citi­zens. The SCHUFA Consu­mer Advi­sory Board discus­ses current consu­mer issues and deve­lops recom­men­da­ti­ons for SCHUFA. The SCHUFA Ombuds­man acts as a neutral media­tor, addres­sing consu­mer concerns. With the educa­tio­nal initia­ti­ves “Wirt­schafts­Werk­statt – Nimm deine Finan­zen in die Hand” (Econo­mic Work­shop – Take Control of Your Finan­ces) and “SCHUFA macht Schule” (SCHUFA Goes to School), SCHUFA is commit­ted to deve­lo­ping finan­cial liter­acy among young people and young adults. Through the FIX study, SCHUFA advo­ca­tes for grea­ter finan­cial parti­ci­pa­tion, and as a part­ner of Special Olym­pics Germany, it is commit­ted to the inclu­sion and parti­ci­pa­tion of people with intellec­tual disabilities. 

Lein­fel­den-Echter­din­gen/­Mu­nich – Daim­ler Truck AG and KEYOU GmbH are part­ne­ring to offer trucks equip­ped with hydro­gen inter­nal combus­tion engi­nes. The goal of the colla­bo­ra­tion is to provide a tech­no­logy that is available in the short term, cost-effec­tive, and robust, and that effec­tively comple­ments exis­ting decar­bo­ni­zed power­trains. Exis­ting vehicle and engine vari­ants from Daim­ler Truck will serve as the tech­ni­cal foun­da­tion for rapid imple­men­ta­tion and market launch. KEYOU will be respon­si­ble for the hydro­gen retro­fit, with service provi­ders from the Munich-based company adap­ting the vehicle and engine. A market launch is still plan­ned for 2027. The parties have now signed a corre­spon­ding agreement. 

“Road freight trans­port requi­res diffe­rent propul­sion solu­ti­ons for diffe­rent opera­ting profiles. Hydro­gen can be used in both fuel cells and inter­nal combus­tion engi­nes. With KEYOU, we are colla­bo­ra­ting with a specia­li­zed part­ner to bring hydro­gen-powered inter­nal combus­tion engine tech­no­logy to market quickly and effi­ci­ently,” says Andreas Gorbach, Member of the Board of Manage­ment at Daim­ler Truck, respon­si­ble for Truck Technology.

Thomas Korn, CEO and co-foun­der of KEYOU GmbH: “The colla­bo­ra­tion with Daim­ler Truck is an important step for us in brin­ging our KEYOU-inside tech­no­logy to indus­trial appli­ca­tion. Toge­ther, we can signi­fi­cantly acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment and scaling of hydro­gen-based propul­sion solu­ti­ons in the commer­cial vehicle sector, ther­eby making a concrete contri­bu­tion to the decar­bo­niza­tion of heavy-duty transportation.”

Effi­ci­ency: Part­ner­ship Instead of In-House Development

Daim­ler Truck has exten­sive exper­tise in the deve­lo­p­ment of inter­nal combus­tion engi­nes and has been rese­ar­ching hydro­gen combus­tion for seve­ral years as part of its early-stage deve­lo­p­ment efforts. For the market launch, the company is deli­bera­tely rely­ing on a colla­bo­ra­tive model. 

KEYOU specia­li­zes in conver­ting exis­ting engine plat­forms to hydro­gen and takes an approach based on proven produc­tion vehic­les. This divi­sion of labor allows Daim­ler Truck to opti­mize deve­lo­p­ment efforts while enab­ling rapid time-to-market. 

In addi­tion to vehicle deve­lo­p­ment, KEYOU also places a strong empha­sis on long-term custo­mer support as a key aspect of the part­ner­ship. As a next step, KEYOU and Daim­ler Truck plan to hold discus­sions on how exis­ting service and main­ten­ance struc­tures could be utili­zed in the future to offer fleet opera­tors a high level of opera­tio­nal relia­bi­lity and availability. 

Through this colla­bo­ra­tion, both compa­nies are laying the ground­work for a long-term indus­trial part­ner­ship in the field of hydro­gen-based commer­cial vehicle power­trains. The colla­bo­ra­tion deli­bera­tely goes beyond a mere tech­no­lo­gi­cal partnership. 

Here’s How the Coope­ra­tion Model Is Implemented

The first vehicle will be the KEYOU HICE.40 trac­tor-trai­ler, which is sche­du­led to be laun­ched in 2027. — Under the agree­ment, Daim­ler Truck plans to sell Merce­des-Benz Actros L 1848 trac­tor trucks and engi­nes manu­fac­tu­red in Mannheim—based on the exis­ting 12.8‑liter engine platform—to KEYOU. The Munich-based company KEYOU is respon­si­ble for the tech­no­lo­gi­cal adapt­a­tion to a hydro­gen-powered inter­nal combus­tion engine. The tech­ni­cal conver­sion of the trucks and the inte­gra­tion of the KEYOU-inside engine will be carried out by quali­fied exter­nal service providers. 

The resul­ting KEYOU HICE.40 trac­tor-trai­ler is desi­gned for opera­tion with a gross vehicle weight of 40 metric tons and, accor­ding to the manu­fac­tu­rer, is expec­ted to achieve a range of up to 650 kilo­me­ters thanks to its 350-bar pres­su­ri­zed hydro­gen tech­no­logy. With an output of up to 350 kW and a Port Fuel Injec­tion (PFI) system, it is inten­ded to offer a proven and powerful solu­tion for deman­ding freight trans­port. In the future, the tech­no­logy can also be applied to other vehicle series. 

KEYOU then offers the vehic­les to customers—and, in the future, also in combi­na­tion with the emer­ging hydro­gen refue­ling station infra­struc­ture, which is supported, among other things, by funding programs from the Fede­ral Minis­try of Trans­por­ta­tion. — This could also help drive demand for hydro­gen and the corre­spon­ding infra­struc­ture. Daim­ler Truck supports the deve­lo­p­ment of hydro­gen refue­ling stati­ons capa­ble of dispen­sing both gaseous and liquid hydro­gen. This allows all common forms of H2 to be offe­red at a single station, just as we are accus­to­med to with gaso­line and diesel. This inte­gra­tion enables the deve­lo­p­ment of a stan­dar­di­zed infra­struc­ture while redu­cing costs through higher utiliza­tion rates. Today’s hydro­gen inter­nal combus­tion engi­nes require gaseous hydro­gen. Tech­ni­cally, howe­ver, a tran­si­tion to liquid hydrogen—as Daim­ler Truck alre­ady uses in its fuel cell trucks—is also conceiva­ble. This inte­gra­ted approach makes it easier for custo­mers to tran­si­tion to hydro­gen-based transportation. 

Start­ing in late 2027, hydro­gen-powered trucks can thus be intro­du­ced into the market on a scalable basis to make a sustainable and measura­ble contri­bu­tion to the decar­bo­niza­tion of road freight transport.

Two tech­no­lo­gies, one goal: decar­bo­ni­zing road freight transport

Daim­ler Truck is pursuing a dual stra­tegy to decar­bo­nize its vehicle port­fo­lio using battery-elec­tric and hydro­gen-based power­trains. Battery-elec­tric trucks are parti­cu­larly well-suited for predic­ta­ble routes, inclu­ding heavy-duty long-haul trans­port, and thus cover a large portion of custo­mers’ use cases. Fuel cell tech­no­logy offers advan­ta­ges, parti­cu­larly in flexi­ble and deman­ding long-haul trans­port. In combi­na­tion with liquid hydro­gen, this enables ranges of well over 1,000 km with short refue­ling times. 

The hydro­gen inter­nal combus­tion engine, in turn, is charac­te­ri­zed by high robust­ness, lower system comple­xity compared to fuel cells, and very little need for adapt­a­tion to exis­ting vehicle archi­tec­tures. It is also parti­cu­larly well-suited for appli­ca­ti­ons with high payloads. Due to its compact design and the ability to utilize exis­ting indus­trial infra­struc­ture, the tech­no­logy can be imple­men­ted cost-effec­tively. Trucks powered by fuel cells or hydro­gen combus­tion engi­nes thus repre­sent a sensi­ble comple­ment to battery-elec­tric trucks for customers. 

Hydro­gen will play a key role in the decar­bo­niza­tion of nume­rous econo­mic sectors, inclu­ding the steel indus­try and nearly all energy-inten­sive sectors. Further­more, exis­ting chal­lenges rela­ted to infra­struc­ture and energy avai­la­bi­lity unders­core the need for hydro­gen in road freight trans­port as well. As elec­tri­fi­ca­tion progres­ses in Europe, the power grid is beco­ming incre­asingly strai­ned. Expan­ding the high-voltage grid accor­din­gly invol­ves considera­ble time and expense. It would be faster and more cost-effec­tive to deve­lop elec­tri­city and hydro­gen infra­struc­ture in parallel. 

Against the back­drop of recent geopo­li­ti­cal deve­lo­p­ments and Europe’s contin­ued heavy reli­ance on impor­ted fossil fuels—currently more than 50 percent of its primary energy comes from coal, oil, and gas—hydrogen can help diver­sify the energy supply. As a globally trada­ble, rene­wa­ble, and virtually inex­haus­ti­ble energy source, hydro­gen has the poten­tial to increase secu­rity of supply and reli­eve pres­sure on the energy system. 

Further­more, hydro­gen can make an important contri­bu­tion to streng­thening compe­ti­ti­ve­ness in road freight trans­port: Europe’s indus­trial base, tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise, and manu­fac­tu­ring infra­struc­ture provide the foun­da­tion for further expan­ding Europe’s posi­tion in hydro­gen and fuel cell tech­no­logy and secu­ring long-term value creation.

Frank­furt am Main – Private equity inves­tor EOS Part­ners is the new majo­rity share­hol­der of the due dili­gence plat­form Drooms. As part of the tran­sac­tion, co-foun­der and former co-CEO Jan Hoff­meis­ter will leave the company after 25 years. J.F. Müller & Sohn AG is also exiting the company’s share­hol­der base. Alex­andre Grel­lier will conti­nue to lead Drooms as CEO. 

In addi­tion to capi­tal, EOS brings, in parti­cu­lar, expe­ri­ence in scaling high-growth tech­no­logy compa­nies. The firm focu­ses on buil­ding Euro­pean growth compa­nies in the areas of soft­ware/­tech-enab­led services, indus­trial tech, and health­care. Toge­ther with EOS, Drooms aims to further streng­then its market posi­tion, acce­le­rate its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, and conti­nue to drive digi­ta­liza­tion and AI-based auto­ma­tion throug­hout the entire tran­sac­tion process. The long-term goal is to become the leading Euro­pean plat­form for real asset investments. 

Drooms is built on a strong econo­mic foun­da­tion; as a result, it achie­ved record reve­nue and profits in 2024 and 2025 despite chal­len­ging times in the tran­sac­tion markets. In 2025, over­all growth of appro­xi­m­ately 20% was achie­ved, and recur­ring reve­nue (net reten­tion rate) also rose by 120%. 

“Choo­sing the right inves­tor was very important to us. We want to enter into a long-term growth part­ner­ship while uphol­ding our values, such as digi­tal sove­reig­nty, uncom­pro­mi­sing secu­rity, and EU-based data proces­sing. This model has been very successful and will now be scaled up in colla­bo­ra­tion with EOS Part­ners. This is evolu­tion in the fast lane, but not a revo­lu­tion. The fact that a German private equity firm is now inves­t­ing in a German tech­no­logy leader rounds out the big picture for us,” explains Alex­andre Grel­lier, CEO of Drooms.

“Drooms combi­nes tech­no­lo­gi­cal leader­ship, a strong AI product, and excep­tio­nally clear market posi­tio­ning,” says Phil­ipp Wege­ner, a part­ner at EOS. “The company is targe­ting a highly attrac­tive Euro­pean market with signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial. We look forward to support­ing Alex­andre Grel­lier and the entire team as they conti­nue on their growth trajectory.” 

Jan Hoff­meis­ter, co-foun­der of Drooms and, along­side Alex­andre Grel­lier, the company’s former CEO, has deci­ded to leave the company follo­wing the invest­ment by EOS Part­ners and to devote hims­elf to perso­nal projects. “I’ve built Drooms toge­ther with Alex­andre over the past 25 years. Buil­ding Drooms has been an extra­or­di­nary entre­pre­neu­rial jour­ney for me. I look forward to conti­nuing to follow Drooms’ success from the side­lines,” explains Jan Hoffmeister. 

“Jan played a key role in deve­lo­ping the idea for Drooms and our plat­form back then. Toge­ther, we’ve worked for 25 years to bring the company to where it is today. I hope to conti­nue coun­ting on his advice. We will conti­nue to follow the path we have char­ted in recent years,” says Grel­lier. “I would also like to thank our long-stan­ding part­ner and compa­n­ion, J.F. Müller & Sohn AG, for the past 15 years of excel­lent cooperation.” 

Drooms was advi­sed by Dr. Leube, Lead Part­ner at Simmons & Simmons, and Tobias Warkus, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Stifel Finan­cial Corp. EOS was advi­sed by GOF (Munich), NKF (Zurich), Altman Solon (Munich), Code&Co. (Berlin), KPMG (Munich), and EY (Stutt­gart, Zurich). 

About Drooms

Drooms is a leading Euro­pean plat­form that opti­mi­zes the prepa­ra­tion and execu­tion of tran­sac­tions for compa­nies in the real estate, corpo­rate finance, legal, and energy sectors. With more than two deca­des of expe­ri­ence and proprie­tary AI tech­no­logy, Drooms acce­le­ra­tes tran­sac­tions, auto­ma­tes work­flows, and ensu­res the highest level of confi­den­tia­lity as well as full GDPR compli­ance. With over 40,000 clients, inclu­ding Fortune 100 compa­nies such as the METRO GROUP, Evonik, JLL, JP Morgan, CBRE, UBS, Blackstone, KKR, Siemens, and Volks­wa­gen, Drooms has estab­lished itself as a trus­ted provi­der of busi­ness-criti­cal tran­sac­tion infra­struc­ture for real asset investments. 

About EOS Partners
EOS is a long-term private equity firm focu­sed on high-growth mid-market compa­nies in the soft­ware, tech-enab­led services, indus­trial tech, and health­care sectors. EOS supports compa­nies in buil­ding sustainable market leaders by provi­ding stra­te­gic exper­tise, opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment, and flexi­ble growth capital. 

Munich/Metzingen — LUTZ I ABEL advi­sed NEURA Robo­tics GmbH on its Series C finan­cing round of up to 1.4 billion U.S. dollars. The funding round is inten­ded to acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment of the worl­d’s leading physi­cal AI plat­form. The tran­sac­tion repres­ents one of the largest venture finan­cing rounds to date in the Euro­pean startup ecosystem.
Inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors from the tech­no­logy, semi­con­duc­tor, cloud infra­struc­ture, and indus­trial sectors parti­ci­pa­ted in the funding round, inclu­ding Tether, Qual­comm Tech­no­lo­gies, Inc., Amazon, NVIDIA, imec.xpand, Bosch, Schaeff­ler, the EIB, Lingotto, Giano Capi­tal, and Inter­Al­pen Partners. 

NEURA Robo­tics is a tech­no­logy company foun­ded in 2019 and head­quar­te­red in Metzin­gen. The company deve­lops cogni­tive robots and huma­noid robo­tic systems for indus­trial and other appli­ca­ti­ons. The company’s goal is to build a leading plat­form for “Physi­cal AI” that combi­nes robo­tics, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, sensor tech­no­logy, and soft­ware into an inte­gra­ted system architecture. 

NEURA is crea­ting a new cate­gory of AI infra­struc­ture in which cogni­tive robots conti­nuously learn, colla­bo­rate, and operate in real-world envi­ron­ments on a shared, intel­li­gent plat­form (Neur­averse). Unlike tradi­tio­nal robo­tics compa­nies, which rely on isola­ted machi­nes or limi­ted indus­trial auto­ma­tion, NEURA combi­nes robo­tics, AI, sensor tech­no­logy, edge compu­ting, and large-scale lear­ning infra­struc­ture into a unified plat­form archi­tec­ture that can be deployed worldwide. 

The funds are to be used in parti­cu­lar for the global roll­out of cogni­tive robots and huma­no­ids, the expan­sion of the Neur­averse plat­form, and the scaling of produc­tion capa­ci­ties. In addi­tion, NEURA Robo­tics plans to estab­lish a global network of so-called NEURA Gyms—large-scale trai­ning envi­ron­ments for coll­ec­ting motion and inter­ac­tion data under real-world conditions. 

Indus­try Trust: A Back­log of Over 1 Billion U.S. Dollars and a Global Part­ner Ecosystem

NEURA’s stra­te­gic part­ner­ships include leading indus­trial and AI compa­nies, such as Bosch, Schaeff­ler, Kawa­saki, Qual­comm Tech­no­lo­gies, Amazon, and NVIDIA, posi­tio­ning the company at the inter­sec­tion of robo­tics, indus­trial auto­ma­tion, and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. — The company’s current order back­log and stra­te­gic deploy­ment pipe­line exceed one billion U.S. dollars. As AI enters the physi­cal world, NEURA sees the next decisive compe­ti­tive advan­tage in combi­ning intel­li­gence with real-world inter­ac­tion, sensor tech­no­logy, and scalable infra­struc­ture. “In the future, people will no longer just ask what AI can tell them,” said David Reger, foun­der and CEO of NEURA Robo­tics. “They will ask what AI can physi­cally do.” 

About LUTZ | ABEL Rechts­an­walts PartG mbB 

The inter­di­sci­pli­nary team at LUTZ | ABEL, compri­sing experts from the areas of venture capital/M&A, finance, commer­cial law, IP, and regu­la­tory affairs, was led by Phil­ipp Hoene (lead coun­sel, VC/M&A, Munich) and included Constanze Hach­mann (VC/M&A, Hamburg), Roman Krug (VC/M&A, Munich), Dr. Sebas­tian Sumal­vico (Finance, Frank­furt am Main), Ute Schenn (Commer­cial, Stutt­gart), Dr. Corne­lius Renner (IP, Berlin), and Dr. Daniel Petzold (Anti­trust / FDI, Munich). — www.lutzabel.com

Other consul­tants (inclu­ding, among others):

• Tether: Skad­den, Arps, Slate, Meag­her & Flo; Lorenzo Corte (lead coun­sel, M&A, London), Dr. Matthias Schudlo (lead coun­sel), Dr. Xian­rui Wang, Chris­to­pher Schenk (all PE/M&A, Frank­furt am Main); In-house legal coun­sel: Sarah Kang, Sean Sawyer
• Qual­comm: DLA Piper; Simon Vogel (lead coun­sel), Maria Uhlig (both Corporate/Private Equity, Munich)
• Lingotto: Taylor Wessing; Maria Weiers, Lukas Beer­mann (both VC/M&A, Düsseldorf)
• NVIDIA: Orrick, Herring­ton & Sutcliffe; Dr. Johan­nes Rüberg (VC/M&A, Munich), Dr. Sven Greu­lich (VC/M&A, Düsseldorf)
• Prim­e­pulse / Vsquared: GvW Graf von West­pha­len; Titus Walek (VC/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)
• L‑Bank: PwC; Gerhard Wacker (Berlin/Nuremberg), Dr. Minkus Fischer (Stutt­gart), Stephan Söbbeke (Berlin) (all from Deals Legal), Dr. Georg Queis­ner (State Aid Law, Berlin)
• Schaeff­ler: Raue; Prof. Dr. Andreas Nelle, Dr. Aron Heidtke, Hinnerk Clau­sen, Dr. Nadine Hartung (all VC/M&A, Berlin)
• EIB: Noerr; Michael Schuh­ma­cher, Ana-Maria Mirceta (both Finance, Frank­furt am Main), Felix Blobel, Asina Roth (both PE/VC, Berlin)
• Notary: Dr. Jan-Chris­toph Stephan (Reut­lin­gen)

Frei­burg — The commer­cial law firm Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner advi­sed the share­hol­der of AirSphere GmbH on the sale of all shares in the company to the dorma­kaba Group.

AirSphere GmbH specia­li­zes in airport soft­ware. This prima­rily includes the “PaxCon­trol” and “Gate­Con­trol” soft­ware systems, which are desi­gned to auto­mate passen­ger check-in and hand­ling, parti­cu­larly at airports. 

dorma­kaba is one of the worl­d’s leading provi­ders of access and secu­rity solutions.

The share­hol­der of AirSphere GmbH was advi­sed by Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner, under the leader­ship of Dr. Meike Kapp-Schwoerer.

Advi­sor to the share­hol­der of AirSphere GmbH

Dr. Meike Kapp-Schwoe­rer, Part­ner, Frei­burg (Lead, M&A)
Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Fessel, Senior Asso­ciate, Frei­burg (M&A)

About Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Partner

Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner is one of the leading inde­pen­dent German commer­cial law firms. The firm’s appro­xi­m­ately 140 attor­neys, inclu­ding 57 part­ners, advise compa­nies world­wide from its offices in Frei­burg, Colo­gne, Frank­furt am Main, Berlin, Hamburg, Düssel­dorf, Alicante, and Brussels. Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner specia­li­zes in advi­sing clients on all areas of busi­ness law, parti­cu­larly commer­cial and corpo­rate law, as well as M&A tran­sac­tions. The firm has a total of appro­xi­m­ately 250 employees. — fgvw.de.

Munich — SKW Schwarz advi­sed the share­hol­ders of SAE GmbH on the sale of a majo­rity stake in the company to Xait, which is backed by Main Capi­tal Part­ners. With this first add-on acqui­si­tion since the start of its part­ner­ship with Main Capi­tal, Xait is streng­thening its posi­tion in the CPQ segment. 

SAE, head­quar­te­red in Weng, Germany, offers a modu­lar CPQ and vari­ant manage­ment plat­form for auto­ma­ting confi­gu­ra­tion, pricing, and quoting proces­ses. The plat­form is prima­rily used by indus­trial and manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies in the mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring sectors, as well as in the indus­trial equip­ment and auto­mo­tive industries. 

Head­quar­te­red in Stavan­ger, Norway, Xait is a global provi­der of soft­ware for colla­bo­ra­tive docu­ment editing and propo­sal crea­tion. The company serves more than 300 custo­mers, prima­rily in the (rene­wa­ble) energy, capi­tal goods, and busi­ness services sectors. 

Consul­tant, SAE GmbH: SKW Schwarz, Munich

Marion Anzin­ger (Lead), Dr. Stephan Morsch (both Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Dr. Daniel Meßmer (IT), Alex­an­der Möller (Employ­ment Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Stefan Pein­tin­ger (IP), Nicole Wolf-Thomann (Tax Law); Coun­sel: Eva Bona­cker (M&A), Peer Niklas Bolten (Real Estate Law, Berlin), Asso­cia­tes: Raluca-Ramona Calin (Corpo­rate Paralegal)

SKW Schwarz is an inde­pen­dent full-service law firm. With appro­xi­m­ately 120 attor­neys across three loca­ti­ons in Germany, the firm provi­des legal coun­sel in all rele­vant areas of busi­ness law. At the end of 2018, the firm foun­ded SKW Schwarz @ Tech GmbH, where attor­neys conso­li­date all legal tech acti­vi­ties across loca­ti­ons and prac­tice areas. — www.skwschwarz.de

Munich / Hano­ver – Liberta Part­ners (“Liberta”), a Munich-based multi-family holding company, is selling the Medas Group (“Medas”), inclu­ding its subsi­diary Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH (“Arco”), to funds advi­sed by NORD Holding. The tran­sac­tion marks an important mile­stone in the Medas Group’s contin­ued deve­lo­p­ment and lays the foun­da­tion for its next phase of growth. The tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory approval.

The Medas Group specia­li­zes in billing for private medi­cal prac­ti­ces and curr­ently serves more than 2,000 prac­ti­ces and faci­li­ties nati­on­wide. The group combi­nes high-quality service and strong consul­ting exper­tise with in-depth know­ledge of the GOÄ, perso­nal points of cont­act, and a compre­hen­sive range of digi­tal services and products. 

Liberta Part­ners acqui­red Medas in 2022 and has consis­t­ently digi­ti­zed and further deve­lo­ped its busi­ness model.

Nils von Wietz­low, a part­ner at Liberta Part­ners, says: “Over the past few years, Liberta has worked closely with Medas as an active and relia­ble part­ner, provi­ding compre­hen­sive support to manage­ment in digi­tiz­ing its busi­ness model, acqui­ring Arco, and driving stra­te­gic growth. We are very plea­sed to see how successfully the group has deve­lo­ped during this time. We are convin­ced that Medas has found the right part­ner for its next phase of growth in NORD Holding.”

Medas was foun­ded in 1980 and, over the course of more than 45 years, has become the leading specia­list in private medi­cal billing in Germany. Nati­on­wide, the group—including its subsi­diary Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH—now serves more than 2,000 medi­cal prac­ti­ces and faci­li­ties. With its compre­hen­sive port­fo­lio of services—including GOÄ consul­ting, billing review and prepa­ra­tion, facto­ring, and claims management—Medas enables doctors and medi­cal staff to focus on pati­ent care. Medas stands out for its excep­tio­nal service quality, in-depth exper­tise in hand­ling even the most complex billing cases, and speed driven by effi­ci­ent, digi­ti­zed processes. 

The market for RCM in the health­care sector is expe­ri­en­cing struc­tu­ral growth and remains highly frag­men­ted. Medas offers health­care provi­ders the key solu­tion to major chal­lenges in this area: the incre­asing shortage of skil­led person­nel in medi­cal prac­ti­ces, the growing need for digi­ta­liza­tion and AI-supported proces­ses, and confi­dence in navi­ga­ting regu­la­tory chan­ges to billing catalogs. 

“With Medas, we are expan­ding our health­care port­fo­lio to include an estab­lished market leader in a niche market that is chal­len­ging from a regu­la­tory stand­point but extre­mely attrac­tive. The combi­na­tion of a custo­mer base that has grown over deca­des, deep exper­tise in the GOÄ, and a clear path to digi­ta­liza­tion aligns perfectly with our invest­ment philo­so­phy. We look forward to working toge­ther,” says André Seidel, Part­ner at NORD Holding.

“Medas impres­sed us with its successful combi­na­tion of consul­ting exper­tise, highly auto­ma­ted proces­ses, and strong custo­mer loyalty. The market for complex medi­cal billing is expe­ri­en­cing struc­tu­ral growth and remains highly fragmented—ideal condi­ti­ons for an active buy-and-build stra­tegy,” adds David Wöss­ner, Prin­ci­pal at NORD Holding.

Vale­rie Zylka, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Medas, comm­ents: “In recent years, we have laid the foun­da­tion for a new phase of growth through consis­tent invest­ments in our digi­tal infra­struc­ture and the group’s first acqui­si­tion. With NORD Holding as our part­ner, we now intend to conti­nue this jour­ney and signi­fi­cantly expand our range of services—both orga­ni­cally and inorganically—in the best inte­rests of our customers.” 

The tran­sac­tion was mana­ged by the NORD Holding Health­care team in the first half of 2026 and unders­cores the firm’s deep sector exper­tise in the health­care indus­try. NORD Holding acqui­red the Medas Group from Liberta Part­ners. On behalf of NORD Holding, the tran­sac­tion was mana­ged by André Seidel, David Wöss­ner, Tim Haase, and Moritz Hagen­meyer. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory approval. 

About the Medas Group

The Medas Group has specia­li­zed in private medi­cal billing for over 45 years and serves more than 2,000 medi­cal prac­ti­ces and faci­li­ties nati­on­wide. It opera­tes through the compa­nies Medas Facto­ring GmbH and Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH and combi­nes a high level of profes­sio­nal quality and in-depth GOÄ exper­tise with service-orien­ted support, perso­nal cont­acts, and a compre­hen­sive range of digi­tal services. — www.medas.de

About NORD Holding

With a history span­ning more than 50 years and assets under manage­ment of €4.0 billion, NORD Holding is one of Germany’s leading private equity and asset manage­ment firms. Its focus is on the busi­ness areas of direct invest­ments and fund invest­ments. The direct invest­ment busi­ness focu­ses on struc­tu­ring and finan­cing corpo­rate succes­sion models, acqui­ring parts of corpo­rate groups or subsi­dia­ries, and provi­ding expan­sion finan­cing for medium-sized companies. 

The company curr­ently holds stakes in more than 16 compa­nies in Germany and other German-spea­king count­ries. The Fund Invest­ments divi­sion targets the small- and mid-cap segment of SME-focu­sed private equity funds in Europe. The focus here is on primary, secon­dary, and co-invest­ments. NORD Holding places a strong empha­sis on buyout mana­gers that are new to the market and opera­tio­nal invest­ment stra­te­gies, and also regu­larly acts as an anchor inves­tor. — www.nordholding.de

About Liberta Partners 

Liberta Part­ners is a private equity firm based in Munich that acqui­res and deve­lops mid-sized compa­nies in the DACH region. Its focus is on succes­sion plan­ning and corpo­rate spin-offs. With a clear buy-and-build approach and its own corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment team, Liberta Part­ners supports its port­fo­lio compa­nies in achie­ving sustainable growth and opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment. — www.libert-partners.com

Helsinki, Finland – ICEYE, the world’s leading provi­der of sove­reign intel­li­gence from space, has raised €450 million in a Series F funding round led by Gene­ral Atlan­tic, at a valua­tion of over 10 billion euros. — Other inves­tors include Soli­dium, Tesi, Varma, Ilma­ri­nen, Life­line Ventures, and Nokia from Finland, as well as the Qatar Invest­ment Autho­rity (QIA) and TCV. — Toge­ther with a secon­dary offe­ring, the total fund­rai­sing round exceeds 1 billion euros. 

The breadth of the inves­tor group reflects the reco­gni­tion that sove­reign and commer­cial access to space-based infor­ma­tion is essen­tial to natio­nal secu­rity and resi­li­ence worldwide.

To date, seven govern­ments across Europe have procu­red sove­reign satel­lite systems from ICEYE, making it the leading provi­der of space-based intel­li­gence. The proceeds from this funding round will drive the expan­sion of ICEYE’s global presence and deepen its intel­li­gence capa­bi­li­ties, enab­ling the company to meet growing demand and deli­ver sove­reign intel­li­gence systems and data to govern­ments and custo­mers on a new scale. 

Rafal Modrzew­ski, co-foun­der and CEO of ICEYE, said: “The cali­ber of the inves­tors who have chosen to support us on this scale reflects a shared convic­tion. Satel­lite intel­li­gence is ente­ring a new era, and now is the time to build it. ICEYE has built the world’s most advan­ced and proven capa­bi­lity to meet this demand. This funding will enable us to acce­le­rate the deli­very of new capa­bi­li­ties to govern­ments and custo­mers faster than ever before.”

Sascha Günther, Mana­ging Direc­tor, Head of DACH, and Co-Head of EMEA Tech­no­logy at Gene­ral Atlan­tic, said: “ICEYE has funda­men­tally rede­fi­ned Earth obser­va­tion. The company pionee­red the tran­si­tion to next-gene­ra­tion agile satel­lite fleets that offer grea­ter stra­te­gic capa­bi­lity with far grea­ter cost efficiency—and today opera­tes the world’s largest and most advan­ced SAR constel­la­tion on a verti­cally inte­gra­ted plat­form. Rafal and the team are driving ground­brea­king tech­no­lo­gies from inno­va­tion to large-scale commer­cial and opera­tio­nal success, and we are confi­dent that the global struc­tu­ral demand for ICEYE’s data will conti­nue to grow. We are proud to support remar­kable inno­va­tors like ICEYE as they push the boun­da­ries of what is possible.”

Nokia is joining the funding round as a new stra­te­gic inves­tor. Justin Hotard, Presi­dent and CEO of Nokia, said: “Modern defense incre­asingly depends on the combi­na­tion of trus­ted connec­ti­vity and real-time visi­bi­lity. Nokia and ICEYE bring comple­men­tary strengths that can help advance Europe’s defense, resi­li­ence, and tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty. This combi­na­tion is beco­ming incre­asingly important as govern­ments and indus­tries seek to build safer, more aware, and more adap­ta­ble criti­cal systems.”

This Series F round follows a period of signi­fi­cant momen­tum for ICEYE. In 2025, ICEYE simul­ta­neously scaled its growth, profi­ta­bi­lity, and cash generation—exceeding 250 million euros in reve­nue and 100 million euros in EBITDA, while buil­ding a contract back­log of over 1.5 billion euros. Produc­tion is curr­ently doubling, from 50 satel­li­tes per year today to a target of 100 per year by 2028 and beyond, supported by a corre­spon­ding launch cadence. 

Every sove­reign system that uses ICEYE not only streng­thens the nation that opera­tes it, but also a broa­der intel­li­gence network. ICEYE recently deli­vered a fully opera­tio­nal sove­reign space system to the Polish Armed Forces—one of the fastest sove­reign space deploy­ments in history, taking just 12 months from contract signing to opera­tio­nal readi­ness. This model is now being repli­ca­ted across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and the pace is accelerating. 

The tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual closing condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory approvals.

About ICEYE

ICEYE is the worl­d’s leading provi­der of sove­reign intel­li­gence from space. We offer conti­nuous moni­to­ring capa­bi­li­ties to detect and respond to chan­ges anywhere on Earth. 

ICEYE opera­tes the world’s largest and most advan­ced SAR (Synthe­tic Aper­ture Radar) satel­lite constel­la­tion. We provide our custo­mers with infor­ma­tion of unmat­ched quality, latency, and repea­ta­bi­lity in all weather condi­ti­ons, day and night. For govern­ments that choose to operate their own constel­la­tion, we provide this proven capa­bi­lity as a sove­reign system. Constel­la­ti­ons built by ICEYE serve custo­mers in the fields of defense and intel­li­gence, envi­ron­men­tal moni­to­ring, insu­rance, and emer­gency manage­ment. We enable rapid decis­ion-making that contri­bu­tes to a safer future. 

Origi­nally a Euro­pean company, foun­ded in Finland. ICEYE opera­tes world­wide with over 1,000 employees. — iceye.com/joinus

About Gene­ral Atlantic

Gene­ral Atlan­tic is a leading global inves­tor with more than four and a half deca­des of expe­ri­ence provi­ding capi­tal and stra­te­gic support to over 885 compa­nies throug­hout its history. Foun­ded in 1980, Gene­ral Atlan­tic remains a commit­ted part­ner to visio­nary foun­ders and inves­tors who seek to build dyna­mic compa­nies and create long-term value. Guided by the belief that entre­pre­neurs can be incre­di­ble agents of trans­for­ma­tive change, the firm combi­nes a colla­bo­ra­tive global approach, indus­try-speci­fic exper­tise, a long-term invest­ment hori­zon, and a deep under­stan­ding of growth drivers to colla­bo­rate with and scale inno­va­tive compa­nies around the world. The firm lever­a­ges its pati­ent capi­tal, opera­tio­nal exper­tise, and global plat­form to support a diver­si­fied invest­ment port­fo­lio that encom­pas­ses growth equity, credit, the energy tran­si­tion, and sustainable infra­struc­ture stra­te­gies. As of March 31, 2026, Gene­ral Atlan­tic had appro­xi­m­ately $126 billion in assets under manage­ment across all stra­te­gies, with more than 900 profes­sio­nals in 20 count­ries across five regi­ons. — www.generalatlantic.com.

Zurich/Munich/Copenhagen – Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen A/S (“Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen” or the “Company”), a leading provi­der of multi­di­sci­pli­nary tech­ni­cal instal­la­tion services in Switz­er­land and Denmark, was listed today on the Nasdaq in Copen­ha­gen for the first time. With this initial public offe­ring, which gene­ra­ted signi­fi­cant inte­rest among insti­tu­tio­nal and retail inves­tors inter­na­tio­nally, Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen has achie­ved a key mile­stone in its growth story with the support of FSN Capital. 

The offe­ring price was 2.00 euros per share, corre­spon­ding to a market capi­ta­liza­tion of appro­xi­m­ately 602 million euros follo­wing the comple­tion of the offe­ring. If the over-allot­ment option is exer­cised in full, 80,499,850 shares will be placed, repre­sen­ting appro­xi­m­ately 27 percent of the total share capi­tal. Follo­wing the initial public offe­ring, FSN Capi­tal VI will hold appro­xi­m­ately 47 percent of the shares, provi­ded the over-allot­ment option is exer­cised in full. 

Buy & Build Strategy

Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen was foun­ded in 2023 through the merger of eleven tech­ni­cal instal­la­tion compa­nies and has been pursuing an ambi­tious growth stra­tegy ever since: With the support of FSN Capi­tal, the group has to date comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of a total of 47 compa­nies, which—as inde­pendently opera­ting brands with their own manage­ment and custo­mer base—benefit from the group’s syner­gies and econo­mies of scale. In addi­tion to its home market of Denmark, the Swiss market has also played an important role in InstallatørGruppen’s buy-and-build stra­tegy since last year. With the 2025 acqui­si­ti­ons of A3 Haus­tech AG, W. Rokitzky AG, and Rohr Gebäu­de­tech­nik AG, as well as the most recent acqui­si­ti­ons of BP Elek­tro and Elek­tro Erti AG in 2026, five local Swiss play­ers are streng­thening the rapidly growing group. Since the group’s foun­ding, repor­ted reve­nue has risen from appro­xi­m­ately 187 million euros in 2023 to just under 495 million euros in 2025, with combi­ned reve­nue of 562 million euros and combi­ned adjus­ted EBITA of just under 55 million euros in 2025. 

“We are deligh­ted by the signi­fi­cant inte­rest in Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen and the trust placed in us by our new share­hol­ders. The stock market listing is a major mile­stone for our group and reflects the strong brand we have built toge­ther with our port­fo­lio compa­nies and employees. With our estab­lished market posi­tion in Switz­er­land and Denmark, we are ideally posi­tio­ned to conti­nue driving our group’s growth, parti­cu­larly through further acqui­si­ti­ons and expan­sion into new markets by 2027,” said Niels Eldrup Meidahl, co-foun­der and Group CEO of Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen. “In FSN Capi­tal, we have found a part­ner that has maste­red the art of buy-and-build in its enti­rety. The expe­ri­ence of the FSN team—particularly in guiding compa­nies through their initial public offerings—has had a decisive impact on our deve­lo­p­ment. We are very grateful for this part­ner­ship and the trust placed in us,” Meidahl continued. 

Robin Mürer, Co-Mana­ging Part­ner at FSN Capi­tal, added: “The initial public offe­ring is a strong endor­se­ment of InstallatørGruppen’s stra­tegy, busi­ness model, and long-term growth poten­tial. We are proud to have supported the group throug­hout its deve­lo­p­ment to date—including in Switz­er­land. Today’s listing not only marks an important step for Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen but also confirms the buy-and-build stra­tegy that FSN Capi­tal has consis­t­ently pursued —from Green Land­sca­ping in Fund III, through Instalco in Fund IV and Hånd­verks­grup­pen in Fund V, to Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen today. We have seen time and again that local cham­pi­ons in the busi­ness services sector can preserve their iden­tity and close ties to custo­mers while simul­ta­neously bene­fiting from the strength and oppor­tu­ni­ties of a larger group. Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen is a striking exam­ple of this convic­tion, and we look forward to accom­pany­ing the company into the next chap­ter of its growth story.”

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, since 2017, Munich. The four funds advi­sed by FSN Capi­tal have more than four billion euros under manage­ment; for its most recent Fund VI, 1.8 billion euros were raised for invest­ments in Scan­di­na­via and the DACH region. The funds make majo­rity invest­ments in growth-orien­ted compa­nies to support them on their path to contin­ued success 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, Bäcker Görtz, Ecovium, impreg, Lobs­ter, Swash Group, and TASKING, among others. — www.fsncapital.com

About Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen

Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen is a leading provi­der of multi­di­sci­pli­nary tech­ni­cal instal­la­tion services in Switz­er­land and Denmark. The group consists of inde­pendently opera­ting compa­nies that have a strong local presence and in-depth tech­ni­cal exper­tise. The group offers solu­ti­ons prima­rily in the fields of plum­bing, heating, venti­la­tion, and air condi­tio­ning; refri­ge­ra­tion; and elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring, as well as in selec­ted specialty areas such as sprink­ler systems, energy opti­miza­tion, buil­ding auto­ma­tion, fiber-optic infra­struc­ture, and solar systems. Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen serves as its custo­mers’ part­ner of choice in imple­men­ting the energy transition.