Author: Tatjana Anderer

Munich/ Frank­furt a. M. — Bridge­point, one of the worl­d’s leading growth inves­tors in the mid-market, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in iC Consult, the worl­d’s largest vendor-inde­pen­dent provi­der of iden­tity secu­rity services, head­quar­te­red in Munich. As part of this tran­sac­tion, Bridge­point is ente­ring into a part­ner­ship with the foun­der and CEO of iC Consult, Jürgen Bier­mann, and the manage­ment of iC Consult. Bier­mann and the manage­ment team will retain a stake in the company, while Carlyle will sell its entire holding.

The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding the neces­sary regu­la­tory appr­ovals, and is expec­ted to take place in the third quar­ter of 2026. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further details of the transaction. 

Foun­ded in 1997, iC Consult has grown to become the worl­d’s largest inde­pen­dent iden­tity secu­rity specia­list with more than 850 employees world­wide in North America, Europe and Asia. The company offers a compre­hen­sive port­fo­lio of consul­ting, imple­men­ta­tion, inte­gra­tion and mana­ged services to help orga­niza­ti­ons secure access to criti­cal IT systems and data. As a core compo­nent of modern cyber secu­rity archi­tec­tures, IAM ensu­res that the right users and systems have access to the right resour­ces at the right time. 

iC Consult supports major custo­mers from various indus­tries world­wide, inclu­ding finan­cial services, the auto­mo­tive and manu­fac­tu­ring indus­tries and the public sector. The services are firmly ancho­red in the custo­mers’ IT envi­ron­ments and form the basis for long-term custo­mer relationships. 

In recent years, the company has recor­ded strong growth — its Euro­pean busi­ness grew by around 20 percent annu­ally between 2020 and 2025. The company has also expan­ded its presence in the USA during this period. iC Consult opera­tes in a large and fast-growing market: The market for IAM services in Europe is esti­ma­ted at around €2.5 billion with expec­ted double-digit growth rates, driven by incre­asing cyber thre­ats, regu­la­tory requi­re­ments and the rapid proli­fe­ra­tion of digi­tal iden­ti­ties, inclu­ding those rela­ted to agen­tic AI. 

In part­ner­ship with Bridge­point and under the leader­ship of Jürgen Bier­mann, iC Consult will focus on driving its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, streng­thening its mana­ged services offe­ring and further inves­t­ing in AI-enab­led capa­bi­li­ties. In addi­tion, the company will moder­nize and further deve­lop its service port­fo­lio, conti­nue to grow through selec­tive acqui­si­ti­ons and build a scalable global IAM platform. 

Bridge­point has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in tech­no­logy and cyber secu­rity services and has assis­ted a number of specia­li­zed compa­nies, inclu­ding Infi­ni­gate, a value-added distri­bu­tor specia­li­zing in cyber secu­rity, and DataEx­pert, a specia­list in digi­tal foren­sics and cyber secu­rity services, and also has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in scaling inter­na­tio­nal tech­no­logy and services companies.

Jürgen Bier­mann, foun­der and CEO of iC Consult, said: “Today marks the begin­ning of an exci­ting new chap­ter for iC Consult. As an entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner, Bridge­point brings capi­tal, deep indus­try exper­tise and a strong track record in scaling busi­nesses inter­na­tio­nally. We share a clear goal of further streng­thening our posi­tion as the worl­d’s leading inde­pen­dent iden­tity secu­rity specia­list, expan­ding our global presence and trans­forming iC Consult into a truly AI-native company. Toge­ther, we will make targe­ted invest­ments in our people, our skills and our plat­form to deli­ver sustainable value to our clients — espe­ci­ally at a time when the rapid, AI-driven growth of digi­tal iden­ti­ties makes iden­tity secu­rity more important than ever.”

Chris­to­pher Brack­mann, Part­ner at Bridge­point and respon­si­ble for invest­ments in the DACH region, added: “iC Consult is an outstan­ding company in a struc­tu­rally attrac­tive and dyna­mi­cally growing market. Its leading posi­tion in the field of iden­tity secu­rity and its strong roots in Germany make the company an ideal part­ner for Bridge­point. We look forward to shaping the next phase of growth toge­ther with Jürgen and his team and to consis­t­ently driving forward the further expan­sion of a leading plat­form for iden­tity security.”

Maciej Chrys­tow­ski, Direc­tor in Bridge­poin­t’s tech­no­logy team, added: “iC Consult is charac­te­ri­zed in parti­cu­lar by its outstan­ding tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise in a highly complex and busi­ness-criti­cal area of cyber secu­rity. With the growth acce­le­ra­ted by AI and the incre­asing comple­xity of digi­tal iden­ti­ties, iden­tity secu­rity is beco­ming even more important. We see considera­ble poten­tial to moder­nize and further deve­lop the plat­form in a targe­ted manner — inclu­ding by expan­ding capa­bi­li­ties for secu­ring agent-based AI. At the same time, we want to streng­then the mana­ged services offe­ring and selec­tively use M&A opti­ons to further streng­then the company’s inter­na­tio­nal presence.”

Consul­tant Bridgepoint:
Canac­cord Genuity and Piper Sand­ler (finance), Kirk­land & Ellis (legal), Altman Solon (commer­cial), EY Parthe­non (finance, tax, IT & cyber and ESG) and Marsh (insu­rance due diligence).

Consul­tant iC Consult and Carlyle:
Lincoln Inter­na­tio­nal (Finance), Latham & Watkins (Legal), McKin­sey & Company (Commer­cial) and PwC (Finance).

Consul­tant IC Consult: Poellath

Dr. Bene­dikt Hohaus (Part­ner, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/PE, Munich)
Silke Simmer (Coun­sel, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/PE, Munich)
Ida Süß (Senior Asso­ciate, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/PE, Munich)
www.pplaw.com

About Bridge­point

Bridge­point is one of the worl­d’s leading mid-market inves­tors specia­li­zing in private equity, infra­struc­ture, credit, secon­da­ries and private wealth. With over USD 98 billion in assets under manage­ment and a strong local presence in Europe, North America and Asia, Bridge­point combi­nes global reach with local market know­ledge and sector exper­tise to consis­t­ently deli­ver strong returns across cycles. 

About iC Consult

iC Consult is the worl­d’s largest inde­pen­dent provi­der of iden­tity secu­rity services. With over 850 experts and a global presence in North America, Europe and Asia — inclu­ding near­sho­ring and offs­ho­ring capa­bi­li­ties — we help the worl­d’s biggest brands protect and manage their digi­tal identities. 

We deli­ver custo­mi­zed iden­tity solu­ti­ons at the highest level — through in-depth exper­tise, conti­nuous inno­va­tion and state-of-the-art tech­no­lo­gies. As a trus­ted part­ner of over 30 leading iden­tity and cyber secu­rity vendors — and reco­gni­zed by leading analysts — we offer vendor-inde­pen­dent support to solve any iden­tity chall­enge. — Our end-to-end port­fo­lio includes all profes­sio­nal and mana­ged iden­tity secu­rity services: consul­ting, archi­tec­ture, imple­men­ta­tion, inte­gra­tion, support and opera­ti­ons. We help orga­niza­ti­ons drive key initia­ti­ves such as Zero Trust, Iden­tity Threat Detec­tion & Response and AI Secu­rity — inclu­ding the manage­ment and protec­tion of agen­tic AI envi­ron­ments and the use of GenAI to moder­nize their iden­tity infrastructure.

Lauterhofen/Nuremberg — Concen­tro Manage­ment AG has successfully advi­sed the share­hol­ders of Hein Verpa­ckun­gen GmbH on the sale of their company as M&A advi­sor. The buyer is Anta­lis S.A., a leading Euro­pean whole­sa­ler for paper, pack­a­ging and visual commu­ni­ca­tion solu­ti­ons. With the acqui­si­tion, Anta­lis S.A. is streng­thening its posi­tion in the fast-growing corru­ga­ted pack­a­ging segment and in the area of point-of-sale solu­ti­ons and is further expan­ding its value crea­tion in Europe. 

Since 2020, Anta­lis S.A. has been part of the Japa­nese Koku­sai Pulp & Paper Group, one of the worl­d’s leading paper and pack­a­ging groups. The stra­te­gic owner­ship struc­ture enables Anta­lis S.A. to have a very long-term invest­ment hori­zon, realize opera­tio­nal syner­gies across conti­nents and syste­ma­ti­cally expand its Euro­pean busi­ness — a decisive factor for the acqui­si­tion of Hein Verpackungen. 

Hein Verpa­ckun­gen GmbH, based in Lauter­ho­fen, is an estab­lished manu­fac­tu­rer of pack­a­ging and display solu­ti­ons. Foun­ded in 1928, the company is an estab­lished medium-sized company in the Nurem­berg metro­po­li­tan region. Its custo­mers include well-known compa­nies from the retail, elec­tro­nics and auto­mo­tive sectors. 

Concen­tro supported the sellers in the M&A process, from the prepa­ra­tion and struc­tu­ring of the tran­sac­tion to the acqui­si­tion of pros­pec­tive buyers and the successful closing with Anta­lis. “We are deligh­ted that we were able to support the share­hol­ders of Hein Verpa­ckun­gen with their company succes­sion. In Anta­lis, we have found a capa­ble part­ner who will ensure the stra­te­gic further deve­lo­p­ment of the company,” says Michael Raab, foun­der and respon­si­ble part­ner at Concen­tro. “We are parti­cu­larly plea­sed that we were able to realize a tailor-made solu­tion for the Hein family of entre­pre­neurs with an inter­na­tio­nally posi­tio­ned group of compa­nies,” adds project mana­ger Barbara Hamela. 

The tran­sac­tion under­lines the ongo­ing trend towards verti­cal inte­gra­tion in the Euro­pean pack­a­ging market, parti­cu­larly in the area of sustainable and custo­mi­zed pack­a­ging solutions.

Consul­tant Hein Verpa­ckun­gen GmbH: Project team Concen­tro Manage­ment AG

— Michael Rabb | Mana­ging Partner
— Emanuel Häuser | Senior Consultant
— Johan­nes Eisen­beiß | Senior Consultant

About Concen­tro Manage­ment AG

Concen­tro Manage­ment AG is a medium-sized consul­ting company specia­li­zing in trans­pa­rency (corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment), tran­sac­tions (corpo­rate finance/M&A consul­ting) and turn­arounds. With over 45 employees at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, Concen­tro works in an imple­men­ta­tion and success-orien­ted manner. The aim is to gene­rate added value for the custo­mer through an indi­vi­dual consul­ting service. — www.concentro.de

Munich / Vienna / Amers­fo­ort (NL) — The listed indus­trial holding company Hydra­tec Indus­tries N.V. (“Hydra­tec”) has sold the Euro­pean mobi­lity busi­ness of its wholly-owned subsi­diary Helvoet Groep to Callista Asset Manage­ment 34 GmbH (“Callista”). The tran­sac­tion includes the Helvoet compa­nies in Belgium and Poland and is part of a stra­te­gic realignment of Hydra­tec. — MP Corpo­rate Finance advi­sed Hydra­tec exclu­si­vely and compre­hen­si­vely on the sale and in parti­cu­lar assis­ted in mana­ging the auction process and struc­tu­ring the tran­sac­tion. The tran­sac­tion marks the 78th successful tran­sac­tion in the auto­mo­tive & mobi­lity sector for MP Corpo­rate Finance. 

Dutch Helvoet Group stream­li­nes portfolio
Helvoet Groep is an inter­na­tio­nal supplier of precis­ion compon­ents made of engi­nee­ring poly­mers with a long-estab­lished market posi­tion in the mobi­lity sector. The Euro­pean mobi­lity busi­ness sold as part of the tran­sac­tion repres­ents around one third of Helvoe­t’s sales. The Group has strong engi­nee­ring exper­tise and an estab­lished produc­tion presence in Western and Eastern Europe. Hydra­tec, the listed Dutch parent company (Euron­ext Amster­dam, ticker: HYDRA), is dive­s­t­ing its Euro­pean Mobi­lity acti­vi­ties in order to focus more stron­gly on its core activities. 

Specia­li­zed carve-out inves­tor pursues growth stra­tegy at Helvoet

The buyer of the Euro­pean mobi­lity acti­vi­ties is Callista Asset Manage­ment 34 GmbH, an invest­ment vehicle belon­ging to the Callista Group. The Callista Group, based in Munich, is a private equity inves­tor specia­li­zing in carve-outs and trans­for­ma­tion. The compe­ti­tive posi­tion of Helvoet Belgium and Helvoet Poland is to be sustain­ably expan­ded through targe­ted opera­tio­nal measu­res and the streng­thening of exis­ting custo­mer relationships. 

Port­fo­lio stream­li­ning and carve-outs are defi­ning trends in auto­mo­tive M&A

The tran­sac­tion is an exam­ple of a deve­lo­p­ment that MP Corpo­rate Finance is incre­asingly obser­ving in the Euro­pean auto­mo­tive market: Indus­trial groups are making targe­ted use of dive­st­ments to shar­pen their stra­te­gic profile and sustain­ably increase share­hol­der value. MP’s team of experts navi­ga­ted through a complex situa­tion in the struc­tu­ral chal­lenges of the auto­mo­tive market. 

“The current M&A envi­ron­ment in the auto­mo­tive indus­try is charac­te­ri­zed by struc­tu­ral change, selec­tive acti­vity and a clear focus on port­fo­lio opti­miza­tion. Carve-outs have estab­lished them­sel­ves as a trend and are at the center of the stra­te­gic realignment of many OEMs and suppli­ers. In this chal­len­ging envi­ron­ment, we were able to achieve a very good result for Hydra­tec through intel­li­gent deal struc­tu­ring and tight manage­ment of the auction process,” explains Chris­to­pher Bräuer, Mana­ging Direc­tor & Share­hol­der at MP Corpo­rate Finance.

“MP provi­ded us with excel­lent support throug­hout the entire carve-out process from start to finish. MP’s in-depth auto­mo­tive exper­tise, combi­ned with its many years of carve-out expe­ri­ence, ensu­red a smooth process and led to the desi­red result,” commen­ted Bart Aangen­endt and Everien Slijk­huis, Co-CEOs of Hydra­tec.

About MP Corpo­rate Finance

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

About Hydra­tec Indus­tries N.V.: https://www.hydratec.nl

About Helvoet: https://helvoet.com/

About Callista: https://www.callista-pe.de/

Munich / Lüne­burg — Liberta Part­ners has advi­sed on the acqui­si­tion of Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH (“Arco”) by Medas facto­ring GmbH (“Medas”). With this acqui­si­tion, Medas conti­nues its stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment within the buy & build stra­tegy and streng­thens its posi­tion in the market for private medi­cal billing. 

Medas facto­ring GmbH acqui­res Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH, ther­eby conso­li­da­ting its leading posi­tion in the market for private medi­cal billing. Toge­ther, Medas and Arco will serve more than 2,000 prac­ti­ces and faci­li­ties nati­on­wide. — Arco is an estab­lished provi­der of private medi­cal billing based in Lüne­burg. The company has a strong custo­mer base, high service quality and distinc­tive consul­ting exper­tise. Toge­ther, Medas and Arco will serve more than 2,000 prac­ti­ces and faci­li­ties nati­on­wide. The merger expands the Group’s regio­nal presence, comple­ments its service profile and crea­tes addi­tio­nal poten­tial for further growth. 

For Medas, the acqui­si­tion is a targe­ted step to further deve­lop the Group stra­te­gi­cally. Arco comple­ments Medas with a strong cultu­ral and profes­sio­nal fit as well as addi­tio­nal reach in the market. At the same time, the acqui­si­tion expands the basis for the further digi­ta­liza­tion of the busi­ness model, the scaling of proces­ses and the consis­tent imple­men­ta­tion of the buy & build strategy. 

Dr. Peter Franke, Part­ner at Liberta Part­ners, says: “The acqui­si­tion of Arco is a great success for Medas. It also under­lines how Liberta Part­ners, toge­ther with the manage­ment, is unlo­cking poten­tial through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons. In addi­tion to our digi­tal initia­ti­ves, this is a further step in the stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment of Medas. We would like to thank Mr. Ahrens for his trust.”

Vale­rie Zylka, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Medas facto­ring GmbH, and Ruvan Pili­ma­ta­l­auwe, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Medas Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, add: “With Arco, we are gaining a company that perfectly comple­ments Medas both profes­sio­nally and cultu­rally. The acqui­si­tion broa­dens our custo­mer base, streng­thens our market presence and crea­tes an even better basis for the stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment of the group toge­ther with Liberta Partners. 

Klaus and Jens-Roland Ahrens, the foun­ders of Arco, explain: “It was crucial for us to find a part­ner who could further deve­lop Arco in our inte­rests and who also had the right stra­te­gic perspec­tive. With Medas and Liberta Part­ners, we have found exactly this constel­la­tion. From the outset, the discus­sions were based on trust, part­ner­ship and a solu­tion-orien­ted approach — and the imple­men­ta­tion was driven forward in a targe­ted manner in a short space of time.”

About Medas facto­ring GmbH

Medas facto­ring GmbH has specia­li­zed in private medi­cal billing for over 45 years and serves more than 1,500 clients throug­hout Germany. Medas combi­nes high billing quality and sound GOÄ exper­tise with effi­ci­ent proces­ses to relia­bly reli­eve practices. 

About Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH

Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH was foun­ded in Lüne­burg in 1998 and specia­li­zes in private medi­cal billing. The company stands for service-orien­ted support, high consul­ting quality and perso­nal custo­mer proximity. 

About Liberta Partners

Liberta Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment company based in Munich that acqui­res and deve­lops medium-sized compa­nies in the DACH region over the long term. The focus is on succes­sion situa­tions and corpo­rate spin-offs. With a clear buy & build approach and its own corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment team, Liberta Part­ners supports its port­fo­lio compa­nies in sustainable and successful corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment. The main focus is on the digi­ta­liza­tion of the busi­ness model, the further deve­lo­p­ment of struc­tures and proces­ses and the imple­men­ta­tion of clear growth strategies.

Frank­furt am Main / Hano­ver — ox8 Corpo­rate Finance exclu­si­vely advi­sed the share­hol­ders of Vision­maxX Group (“Vision­maxX”) on the sale of a majo­rity stake to NORD Holding.

Vision­maxX was foun­ded in 2004 by Stef­fen Konrad and Jens Schlerf and has since deve­lo­ped into the leading IT part­ner for medi­cal prac­ti­ces with a focus on the dental sector in Germany. The compre­hen­sive service port­fo­lio ranges from IT infra­struc­ture and tele­ma­tics services to prac­tice soft­ware inte­gra­tion and IT secu­rity. With its sister company Vision­Care, the Group is alre­ady actively tapping into the care sector, ther­eby laying the foun­da­ti­ons for a cross-sector growth stra­tegy in outpa­ti­ent healthcare. 

Toge­ther with the foun­ders Stef­fen Konrad and Jens Schlerf, NORD Holding aims to deve­lop the Vision­maxX Group into the central digi­tal IT infra­struc­ture plat­form for the outpa­ti­ent health­care sector in the DACH region. Growth is to be driven both orga­ni­cally through expan­sion into neigh­bor­ing specia­list groups and care areas as well as through targe­ted part­ner­ships and acquisitions. 

“We are at the begin­ning of a new phase — for our company and for the digi­ta­liza­tion of the health­care sector as a whole. NORD Holding is a very entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner and gives us the means and reach to create what we had in mind from the outset: a company that makes ever­y­day life in medi­cal prac­ti­ces easier in the long term,” says Stef­fen Konrad.
Jens Schlerf adds: “We built Vision­maxX because we are convin­ced that doctors need a part­ner to whom they can fully entrust their IT — so that they can concen­trate on their pati­ents. With NORD Holding, we now have the support to bring this vision to the entire outpa­ti­ent health­care sector.”

Mario Sabljo (photo), Part­ner at NORD Holding, says: “Vision­maxX is exactly the kind of company that NORD Holding invests in: an inno­va­tive quality company with clear market leader­ship, a well-coor­di­na­ted foun­ding team and a market that is growing struc­tu­rally.” — Stef­fen Konrad empha­si­zes: “Throug­hout the entire process, the ox8 team showed excep­tio­nal commit­ment and dyna­mism, which gave us the feeling of being opti­mally supported at all times.”

About Vision­maxX Group

Vision­maxX was foun­ded in 2004 and is today the leading specia­li­zed mana­ged service provi­der for IT services in German medi­cal prac­ti­ces with a focus on the dental sector. The company offers a compre­hen­sive port­fo­lio of IT infra­struc­ture, tele­ma­tics, IT secu­rity and digi­tal prac­tice solu­ti­ons. With its sister company Vision­Care GmbH, the group is also active in the care sector. Vision­maxX employs around 150 people. — www.visionmaxx.net

About NORD Holding

NORD Holding is one of the first and most renow­ned German invest­ment compa­nies and has been successfully active as an equity part­ner for SMEs in the DACH region for over 55 years. The focus is on the Direct Invest­ments and Fund Invest­ments divisions.
The Direct Invest­ments divi­sion focu­ses on estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies that have a rele­vant market posi­tion or have the poten­tial to achieve this through joint further deve­lo­p­ment. NORD Holding curr­ently holds majo­rity inte­rests in more than 15 medium-sized compa­nies and mana­ges assets of around € 4.0 billion, inclu­ding the fund of funds busi­ness. The Fund Invest­ments divi­sion targets the micro and small-cap segment of SME-orien­ted private equity funds in Europe (primary, secon­dary and co-invest­ments) and regu­larly acts as an anchor investor.
— www.nordholding.de

About ox8 Corpo­rate Finance

ox8 Corpo­rate Finance was foun­ded in 2018 by expe­ri­en­ced M&A experts and is an inde­pen­dent corpo­rate finance boutique based in Frank­furt. ox8 supports tech­no­logy and growth-orien­ted SMEs in the DACH region in finan­cing and sales proces­ses and advi­ses on the sell-side and buy-side in mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons (M&A) and on raising capi­tal (growth capital).
ox8 sees itself as a consul­tant at eye level for visio­nary entre­pre­neurs, passio­nate mana­gers, stra­te­gic buyers and finan­cial inves­tors. In-depth indus­try exper­tise, an inter­na­tio­nal network and first-class tran­sac­tion proces­sing form the basis for high stan­dards of client orien­ta­tion and quality.
— www.ox8-cf.com

Munich — The Euro­pean defense tech sector is rapidly deve­lo­ping into one of the most dyna­mic segments for venture capi­tal invest­ments. Driven by geopo­li­ti­cal tensi­ons and increased secu­rity aware­ness, the invest­ment volume has increased more than eight­fold since 2021, from €344 million to €2.8 billion (2025). At the same time, the first leading compa­nies — parti­cu­larly from Germany — are estab­li­shing themselves. 

In 2025, the volume of venture capi­tal inves­ted in Euro­pean defense tech start-ups and scale-ups reached around 2.8 billion euros. In compa­ri­son: in 2021, the volume was still at 344 million euros. At the same time, the number of tran­sac­tions rose from 52 to 154 deals (source: FCF Defen­seTech Venture Capi­tal Report 2026). 

“We are seeing a clear struc­tu­ral shift in inves­tor beha­vior. Defense and dual-use topics are now an inte­gral part of many venture capi­tal stra­te­gies,” says Florian Theyer­mann, Mana­ging Direc­tor Venture&Growth I DeepT­ech at FCF. Germany is the leader in Europe with around €2.2 billion in invest­ments (2021–2025); at the same time, a first wave of conso­li­da­tion is begin­ning and IPOs of VC-finan­ced defense tech compa­nies are also expec­ted in the future. 

Start-ups drive inno­va­tion in the defense sector

Market dyna­mics are incre­asingly being shaped by start-ups and scale-ups, which react faster and more flexi­bly to tech­no­lo­gi­cal requi­re­ments than estab­lished defense compa­nies. Topics such as tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty, mili­tary resi­li­ence and digi­tal secu­rity have been incre­asingly in focus since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war. 

At the same time, a large propor­tion of invest­ments are concen­tra­ted on a small number of leading compa­nies. Start-ups such as Helsing, TEKEVER, Quan­tum Systems, Iceye and Desti­nus account for around 60% of the venture capi­tal inves­ted since 2021. 

“The market clearly follows a ‘the (early) winner-takes-it-all’ logic: capi­tal flows speci­fi­cally into compa­nies with proven scala­bi­lity,” says Arno Fuchs (photo), CEO & foun­der of FCF.

First wave of conso­li­da­tion begins

The leading Defen­seTech compa­nies are incre­asingly acting as conso­li­da­tors them­sel­ves. In the past three years, around 15 acqui­si­ti­ons have been made by these emer­ging cham­pi­ons — inclu­ding both start-ups and a few estab­lished compa­nies. The M&A acti­vity of estab­lished play­ers remains mode­rate in comparison. 

There are also signs of move­ment on the capi­tal market: While IPOs have so far mainly been carried out by estab­lished compa­nies such as Renk, Hensoldt or TKMS, IPOs by VC-finan­ced Defen­seTech compa­nies can also be expec­ted in the medium term.

Germany at the top in Europe

Germany plays a leading role in the Euro­pean defense tech ecosys­tem. With around 2.2 billion euros in venture capi­tal finan­cing between 2021 and 2025, Germany leads Europe in terms of invest­ment volume. Compa­nies such as Helsing and Quan­tum Systems are making a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to estab­li­shing the loca­tion as an inno­va­tion hub for DefenseTech. 

View the FCF Defen­seTech Venture Capi­tal Report 2026 –> here.

About FCF

FCF Fox Corpo­rate Finance (FCF) is “The Finan­cing Specia­list” for advi­sing, struc­tu­ring and placing debt and equity finan­cing in German-spea­king count­ries. — FCF is active in the two busi­ness divi­si­ons FCF Mittel­stand and FCF Venture & Growth: 

- FCF Mittel­stand advi­ses clients from the upper mid-market, in parti­cu­lar family busi­nesses and their share­hol­ders, on the deve­lo­p­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of finan­cing proces­ses in the context of (re-)financing, invest­ment and acqui­si­tion situa­tions as well as chan­ges in the share­hol­der structure.
— FCF Venture & Growth advi­ses clients in German-spea­king and Euro­pean count­ries, in parti­cu­lar compa­nies from the deep & clean tech and health­care & life scien­ces sectors, on the deve­lo­p­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of capi­tal increa­ses, share place­ments, venture debt, promo­tio­nal and asset-based financing.

FCF main­ta­ins close rela­ti­onships with all rele­vant lenders, finan­ciers and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in Germany, Europe and world­wide. Special exper­tise lies in the coope­ra­tion with family offices and high-net-worth inves­tors. — FCF was foun­ded in 2005 by Arno Fuchs and has one of the largest and most crea­tive teams with over 30 employees. Since its foun­da­tion, FCF has comple­ted more than 250 tran­sac­tions with a volume of over EUR 15 billion. — www.fcf.de

Munich/ Berlin/ Foster City, Calif. (USA) — YPOG, with two sepa­rate teams, provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the share­hol­ders Venrock Health­care Capi­tal Part­ners and Evotec SE on the sale of the biotech company Tubu­lis to Gilead for a total purchase price (inclu­ding all earn-out payments) of USD 5 billion. — The purchase price consists of an imme­dia­tely paya­ble cash compo­nent of USD 3.15 billion and perfor­mance-based payments of up to USD 1.85 billion. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the second quar­ter of 2026. 

Munich-based Tubu­lis is a clini­cal-stage biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on the deve­lo­p­ment of next-gene­ra­tion anti­body-drug conju­ga­tes (ADCs). The company’s proprie­tary plat­form tech­no­lo­gies enable the targe­ted deli­very of highly potent drugs to tumor cells. Leading deve­lo­p­ment programs include TUB-040, an ADC for the treat­ment of ovarian cancer and other solid tumors, which is curr­ently in clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment. In addi­tion, Tubu­lis has a tech­no­logy plat­form that is geared towards the deve­lo­p­ment of new ADC gene­ra­ti­ons and offers broad appli­ca­tion poten­tial in oncology. 

“The agree­ment to acquire Tubu­lis is a signi­fi­cant mile­stone for Gilead in the field of onco­logy. The company brings a clini­cal-stage drug candi­date that repres­ents a poten­tial new treat­ment option for ovarian cancer, as well as a next-gene­ra­tion ADC plat­form and a promi­sing early-stage pipe­line,” said Daniel O’Day, Chair­man and Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer of Gilead Sciences.

Evotec first inves­ted in Tubu­lis in the Series B finan­cing round in May 2022 and then again in the Series B2 finan­cing round in March 2024. Venrock most recently supported the company as lead inves­tor in the Series C finan­cing round.

“The sale of Tubu­lis marks another important mile­stone for the Euro­pean biotech­no­logy indus­try. The tran­sac­tion under­lines the contin­ued high inte­rest of stra­te­gic inves­tors in inno­va­tive onco­logy plat­forms and shows that Euro­pean rese­arch can be successfully trans­la­ted into global tran­sac­tions,” says Dr. Martin Scha­per, Part­ner at YPOG.

Tubu­lis is deve­lo­ping custo­mi­zed anti­body-drug conju­ga­tes with outstan­ding biophy­si­cal proper­ties that have demons­tra­ted sustained tumor deli­very and long-lasting anti­tu­mor acti­vity in precli­ni­cal models as well as in initial clini­cal proof-of-concept studies in plati­num-resistant ovarian cancer. The two lead programs from the growing pipe­line, TUB-040, targe­ting NaPi2b, and TUB-030, targe­ting 5T4, are curr­ently being evalua­ted in the clinic in high-risk solid tumors. Tubu­lis will soli­dify its leader­ship posi­tion by conti­nuing to drive inno­va­tion in all areas of ADC design utili­zing its proprie­tary plat­form tech­no­lo­gies. — www.tubulis.com

About Venrock Health­care Capi­tal Partners

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

About Evotec

Evotec is a life science company driving the future of drug disco­very and deve­lo­p­ment. By combi­ning scien­ti­fic inno­va­tion with AI-enab­led tech­no­lo­gies and advan­ced plat­forms, Evotec acce­le­ra­tes the deve­lo­p­ment of new thera­pies in a more effi­ci­ent, precise and scalable way.
Evotec’s capa­bi­li­ties span small mole­cu­les, biolo­gics, cell thera­pies and rela­ted moda­li­ties and are supported by proprie­tary plat­forms such as Mole­cu­lar Pati­ent Data­ba­ses, PanO­mics and iPSC-based dise­ase models. Evotec colla­bo­ra­tes with the worl­d’s leading phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies, nume­rous biotech compa­nies, acade­mic insti­tu­ti­ons and other health­care partners.
With a broad port­fo­lio of proprie­tary rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment projects, Evotec focu­ses on key thera­peu­tic areas such as onco­logy, cardio­vas­cu­lar and meta­bo­lic dise­a­ses, neuro­logy and immu­no­logy. The Company employs more than 4,800 people world­wide at sites in Europe and the US. — www.evotec.com

Advi­sor Venrock Health­care Capi­tal Part­ners: YPOG

Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Emma Peters (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Oliver Junk (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Cologne

Team Evotec: YPOG

Dr. Martin Scha­per (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Cologne
Ciro D’Ame­lio (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin

YPOG advi­sed Venrock on this tran­sac­tion toge­ther with the US law firm Cooley LLP.

About YPOG

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

Mannheim/ Zug (CH) — The inves­tor Legian Invest­ment Part­ner AG has acqui­red the Health Dialog divi­sion from vita­group AG. As part of a respon­si­ble succes­sion plan for the previous main share­hol­der and SAP co-foun­der Dr. Hans-Werner Hector, vita­group AG has sold the Health Dialog divi­sion to Legian Invest­ment Part­ner AG, an inves­tor with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector. 

The aim of the tran­sac­tion is to secure the successful deve­lo­p­ment of Health Dialog in the long term and at the same time open up new growth oppor­tu­ni­ties. The company is consciously focu­sing on conti­nuity: the entire Health Dialog manage­ment team will remain on board and will conti­nue on its current course toge­ther with the new part­ner. The two estab­lished loca­ti­ons in Mann­heim and Chem­nitz will also remain central hubs for further deve­lo­p­ment, with Mann­heim remai­ning the company’s head­quar­ters. The previous Mana­ging Direc­tor Emek Altun is also sending a strong signal of trust and future viability. 

Gregor Hilver­kus and Dirk Mühl, Legian Invest­ment Part­ner AG, commen­ted: “We are very impres­sed by the perfor­mance of Health Dialog in recent years and look forward to support­ing Emek Altun and his team in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company as shareholders.”

Kamilo Kolarz, CEO of vita­group AG, empha­si­zes: “I am very plea­sed for Health Dialog to have found a perfect part­ner for sustainable soli­dity and further growth in Legian. We deli­bera­tely opted for an expe­ri­en­ced inves­tor with proven exper­tise in the health­care indus­try. The decis­ion in favor of Legian — and not a direct market parti­ci­pant as a new share­hol­der — is a clear sign that we want to further expand our leading role as an inde­pen­dent service provi­der and inno­va­tor in healthcare.” 

The Health Dialog helps people to gain direct and easy access to their opti­mal outpa­ti­ent care. The sensi­ble combi­na­tion of analog and digi­tal services impro­ves pati­ent care regard­less of time and loca­tion. With over 300 medi­cal staff and conti­nuous avai­la­bi­lity, the Tele­me­di­cal Center (TMZ) offers compre­hen­sive services for statu­tory health insu­rance compa­nies and asso­cia­ti­ons of statu­tory health insu­rance physi­ci­ans — from the medi­cal emer­gency service to the medi­cal on-call service to the appoint­ment service. The health­Match care plat­form is the comple­men­tary digi­tal access for pati­ents to their opti­mal care, regard­less of time and place. 

About Legian Invest­ment Part­ner AG

Legian Invest­ment Part­ner is a medium-sized invest­ment advi­sory firm based in Switz­er­land. We offer compa­nies a good new home for succes­sion plan­ning or the sale of parts of a group. We invest in econo­mic­ally sound compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries (DACH region) with a turno­ver of up to €100 million. Our goal is the sustainable and value-orien­ted further deve­lo­p­ment of our port­fo­lio compa­nies for the mutual bene­fit of share­hol­ders, employees and custo­mers. As long-term inves­tors, we act as a spar­ring part­ner for manage­ment in stra­te­gic corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment, secure access to equity and debt capi­tal and provide support for follow-up acquisitions.
— www.legian.ch

Advi­sor Legian Invest­ment Part­ner AG: HEUKING

Mark Ross­broich, LL.M. (King’s College London), Dr. Oliver von Rosen­berg, LL.M. (George­town Univer­sity Law Center) (both lead), Chris­to­pher Klei­nert (all M&A / Private Equity), Dr. Lutz Martin Keppe­ler (IT / data protec­tion), all Cologne;
Fabian G. Gaffron, Simon Pommer, LL.M. (both tax law), Sandra Pfis­ter LL.M. (Sydney), Beli­ar­dis Ehlert-Gasde (both finance), all Hamburg;
Chris­toph Hexel (employ­ment law), Düsseldorf.
— www.heuking de 

Zug / Nurem­berg — Funds advi­sed by BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) acquire a majo­rity stake in A.Eberle GmbH & Co KG (“A.Eberle”), a leading provi­der of measu­re­ment, regu­la­tion and control tech­no­logy for appli­ca­ti­ons in the field of elec­tri­cal energy infra­struc­ture. BU will support A.Eberle as a long-term part­ner to acce­le­rate its inter­na­tio­nal growth, drive product deve­lo­p­ment and further expand the company’s posi­tion as a tech­no­logy leader in grid stabi­lity and power quality. A.Eberle’s manage­ment team is re-inves­t­ing in the company as part of the tran­sac­tion and will drive the long-term growth stra­tegy toge­ther with BU. 

A.Eberle was foun­ded in 1980 and is head­quar­te­red in Nurem­berg. The company is a leading provi­der of measu­re­ment and control tech­no­logy for power grids and deve­lops specia­li­zed hard­ware and soft­ware solu­ti­ons for moni­to­ring, control­ling and opti­mi­zing power quality. In parti­cu­lar, the port­fo­lio includes solu­ti­ons in the areas of voltage regu­la­tion, earth fault loca­tion and power quality and makes a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to the stabi­lity, effi­ci­ency and inte­gra­tion of rene­wa­ble ener­gies in power grids. Its custo­mers are prima­rily energy suppli­ers and medium-sized and large indus­trial compa­nies, mainly in Europe. A.Eberle is charac­te­ri­zed by a high level of tech­ni­cal exper­tise, prono­un­ced engi­nee­ring compe­tence and custo­mer-speci­fic solu­ti­ons and is an estab­lished part­ner with an inter­na­tio­nal presence. 

The market for grid tech­no­logy is bene­fiting from struc­tu­ral growth drivers such as the expan­sion and digi­ta­liza­tion of elec­tri­city grids, the incre­asing inte­gra­tion of rene­wa­ble ener­gies and rising demand for elec­tri­city, inclu­ding from elec­tro­mo­bi­lity and data centers. In this envi­ron­ment, A.Eberle is very well posi­tio­ned as an inno­va­tive tech­no­logy provi­der with long-stan­ding custo­mer relationships. 

Lothar Mayer, majo­rity owner of A.Eberle, comm­ents: “During the process, I got to know a part­ner in BU who shares my entre­pre­neu­rial values and has an under­stan­ding of our busi­ness. From the very begin­ning, the colla­bo­ra­tion was charac­te­ri­zed by trust and an open, cons­truc­tive exch­ange. I am convin­ced that BU, toge­ther with the manage­ment team, will provide the right impe­tus to further deve­lop A.Eberle sustain­ably and lead it successfully into the next phase of growth.”

Stefan Hoppert, CEO of A.Eberle, adds: “With BU, we are gaining a part­ner who will support us in driving forward our tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment in a targe­ted manner and further scaling our solu­ti­ons. Toge­ther, we want to streng­then our inno­va­tive power and conti­nue to offer our custo­mers effi­ci­ent and relia­ble solu­ti­ons for the chal­lenges of modern power grids.”

Felix Werdin, Part­ner at BU, says: “A.Eberle is an excel­lently posi­tio­ned company in a struc­tu­rally fast-growing market. The incre­asing requi­re­ments for stable and effi­ci­ent elec­tri­city grids offer considera­ble poten­tial. Toge­ther with A.Eberle’s expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team, we would like to build on the company’s successful deve­lo­p­ment and support it in its next growth phase.”

The parties agreed on the main terms of the tran­sac­tion in April 2026; closing is expec­ted to take place during the second quar­ter of 2026 once the usual regu­la­tory and prac­ti­cal requi­re­ments have been met. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial terms. 

About A.Eberle

A.Eberle GmbH & Co. KG was foun­ded in 1980 and opera­tes in the field of measu­re­ment and control tech­no­logy for the energy sector as well as for medium-sized and large indus­trial compa­nies. Our products and services secure and improve the avai­la­bi­lity of the energy supply at all voltage levels and support the inte­gra­tion of rene­wa­ble energy sources into the grids. All of A.Eberle’s efforts can be summa­ri­zed by the term “voltage quality”. — https://www.a‑eberle.de/.

About BU Bregal Unternehmerkapital

BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) is a leading private equity firm with offices in Zug, Munich, Amster­dam, Milan and London. With more than €7 billion assets under manage­ment (AUM), BU is the largest mid-cap inves­tor head­quar­te­red in the DACH region. The funds advi­sed by BU focus on invest­ments in mid-cap compa­nies in the DACH region and neigh­bor­ing markets. With the mission to be the prefer­red part­ner for entre­pre­neurs and family busi­nesses, BU focu­ses on part­ner­ships with market leaders and “hidden cham­pi­ons” with strong manage­ment teams and growth poten­tial. Since its foun­da­tion in 2015, the funds advi­sed by BU have inves­ted in more than 160 compa­nies with almost 32,000 employees. More than 11,000 jobs have been crea­ted in the process. BU supports entre­pre­neurs and fami­lies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to further deve­lop, inter­na­tio­na­lize and digi­ta­lize their compa­nies, helping them to create sustainable value respon­si­bly and with a view to the next generation.

Heidelberg/ Frank­furt a. M. — GÖRG has advi­sed the share­hol­der of zetVi­si­ons GmbH, a leading German soft­ware provi­der for company-wide invest­ment and master data manage­ment, on the sale of the company to the Vola­ris Group.

zetVi­si­ons GmbH is a specia­li­zed soft­ware provi­der based in Heidel­berg. The company has been deve­lo­ping and imple­men­ting solu­ti­ons for invest­ment and master data manage­ment for over 20 years. Its custo­mers include nume­rous DAX, MDAX and SDAX groups, medium-sized compa­nies and public legal enti­ties. Based on more than 400 successfully comple­ted projects in various indus­tries, zetVi­si­ons offers in-depth exper­tise in the field of inter­na­tio­nal legal entity management. 

With the acqui­si­tion of zetVi­si­ons, Vola­ris is further expan­ding its German port­fo­lio in a high-growth segment. As a subsi­diary of the Cana­dian company Constel­la­tion Soft­ware Inc., Vola­ris focu­ses on support­ing soft­ware compa­nies in verti­cal markets in their development. 

A GÖRG team led by part­ner Dr. Markus Söhn­chen compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed the share­hol­der of
zetVi­si­ons GmbH on legal issues rela­ting to the sale process.

Advi­sor to share­hol­der zetVi­si­ons GmbH: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB

Dr. Markus Söhn­chen (Lead, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)
Dr. Gerhard Gündel (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)
Dr. Andrea Kirsch (Part­ner, Data Protec­tion, Berlin) Dr. Florian Schmit­sch (Part­ner, IP/IT, Frank­furt am Main) Andrea Kirsch (Part­ner, Data Protec­tion, Berlin)
Dr. Florian Schmitz (Part­ner, IP/IT, Frank­furt am Main)
Dr. Valen­tin Zipfel (Asso­ciate Part­ner, IP/IT, Frank­furt am Main)
Timo Jans (Senior Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)

About GÖRG

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

Munich — The commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Alpha­Pet Ventures GmbH, a leading European
digi­tal brand plat­form for premium pet food, on the acqui­si­tion of the Berlin-based brand Tier­lieb­ha­ber. The acqui­si­tion streng­thens Alpha­Pe­t’s posi­tion in the fast-growing animal health segment and conti­nues its successful buy-and-build strategy. 

Tier­lieb­ha­ber was foun­ded in 2016 and has estab­lished itself as the leading German brand for nutri­tio­nal supple­ments and func­tional snacks for pets. The company stands for natu­ral, high-quality products for preven­tive animal health and distri­bu­tes its range via digi­tal chan­nels and B2B part­ner­ships. The previous share­hol­ders have sold their shares as part of the tran­sac­tion. The manage­ment team will remain on board and will drive the future deve­lo­p­ment of the company. 

For Alpha­Pet, the acqui­si­tion repres­ents an important stra­te­gic step in the targe­ted expan­sion of its exis­ting brand port­fo­lio to include the Health & Well­ness segment. Tier­lieb­ha­ber ideally comple­ments the exis­ting range and streng­thens the posi­tion in the func­tional animal health products segment in parti­cu­lar. With this acqui­si­tion, Alpha­Pet is conti­nuing its expan­sion stra­tegy and further expan­ding its leading posi­tion in the Euro­pean market for premium pet food and animal health. 

The tran­sac­tion was finan­ced through a combi­na­tion of equity and debt. Patria Invest­ments acted as lead inves­tor, supported by Venture Stars and exis­ting share­hol­ders of Alpha­Pet. The debt finan­cing was provi­ded by CVC.

Advi­sor Alpha­Pet Ventures GmbH: LUTZ | ABEL

Phil­ipp Hoene (lead, Munich), Constanze Hach­mann (Hamburg), Lars Dieball and Roman Krug (both Munich, all M&A) as well as Ute Schenn and Simon Kopp (Stutt­gart, Commer­cial), Corne­lius Renner and Jonas Klei­ne­b­rahm (Berlin, IP/IT) as well as Clau­dia Knuth and Jasper Barkow­ski (Berlin, Employ­ment). The advice covered all aspects of the tran­sac­tion, inclu­ding struc­tu­ring, contract nego­tia­ti­ons and implementation. 

Alpha­Pet was also advi­sed by A&O Shear­man (Debt Finan­cing Legal) and Deloitte and
SONNTAG (Tax) advised.

The seller, Tier­lieb­ha­ber, was legally advi­sed by GÖRG under the leader­ship of Dr. Phil­ipp Grzimek.

About LUTZ | ABEL

The commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL advi­ses on all matters of commer­cial law with around 110 lawy­ers and offices in Munich,
Hamburg, Stutt­gart, Berlin and Frank­furt am Main. — www.lutzabel.com.

Milan/ Munich/ Osna­brück — KME Group has comple­ted the repurchase of Cunova with Morgan Lewis of Para­gon. Morgan Lewis has advi­sed KME Group S.p.A. on a €300 million finan­cing and restruc­tu­ring for the repurchase of Cunova GmbH from Para­gon Part­ners. The finan­cing was provi­ded by an affi­liate of Apollo Global Manage­ment, Inc. 

Since Janu­ary 31, 2022, Cunova has opera­ted under a new share­hol­der struc­ture in which the invest­ment company The Para­gon Fund III held 55% of the shares, while the KME Group remained a share­hol­der with a 45% stake in the newly foun­ded company.

The tran­sac­tion compri­ses a combi­ned equity and debt finan­cing and is part of a compre­hen­sive, multi-stage restruc­tu­ring of KME’s indus­trial busi­ness. The finan­cing consists of a five-year €150 million term loan and €150 million worth of prefer­red stock and the issu­ance of warrants to funds mana­ged by Apollo. The tran­sac­tion supports KME’s acqui­si­tion of the remai­ning shares in Cunova, the inte­gra­tion of certain aero­space and foundry assets into the company and the refi­nan­cing of exis­ting loans of appro­xi­m­ately €170 million. 

The tran­sac­tion, first announ­ced on Decem­ber 23, 2025, crea­tes an inte­gra­ted indus­trial plat­form for copper-based specialty products and streng­thens the Group’s capi­tal struc­ture and future growth opportunities.

KME is a global manu­fac­tu­rer of copper and copper alloy products for custo­mers in a wide range of indus­tries. — www.kme.com

Cunova GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Osna­brück, Germany, is a global indus­trial supplier of specia­li­zed copper and copper alloy products, parti­cu­larly for conti­nuous casting, mari­time appli­ca­ti­ons and indus­trial high-tech applications.

Advi­sor KME Group: Morgan Lewis (Munich)

Dr. Florian Harder (Lead), Dr. Chloé Lignier (both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Jann Jetter (Tax), Dr. Michael Masling (Frank­furt, Anti­trust), Steven Miller (Orange County, Finance), Ulises R. Pin (Washing­ton, TMT), Matthew Riehle (Pitts­burgh, Finance), Chris­tian Contardo (Of Coun­sel, Washing­ton, Inter­na­tio­nal Trade); Asso­cia­tes: Sven Opper­mann, Hein­rich Stirtz, Joice Zhang (all Corporate/M&A), Emma Drago­mi­rova (Tax), Jasmeen Bahous (Brussels, Anti­trust), Leetal Weiss (Los Ange­les, TMT), Paulina Gerling (Tran­sac­tion Lawyer).

About Morgan Lewis

Morgan Lewis stands for outstan­ding service, legal inno­va­tion and excep­tio­nal commit­ment to its clients. With more than 2,200 lawy­ers, the firm provi­des highly quali­fied legal advice to multi­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and start-ups in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. — www.morganlewis.com

GSK Stock­mann has advi­sed the Arsipa Group on the acqui­si­tion of Dr. med. Wörner Medi­zin-Diagnos­tik-Sicher­heit GmbH (MDS Wörner). MDS Wörner is merging with ascatu GmbH, which is part of the Arsipa Group. As a result, ascatu secu­res the succes­sion of an estab­lished occu­pa­tio­nal and company medi­cal prac­tice in the Rhine-Neckar metro­po­li­tan region and takes over the care of an estab­lished custo­mer base from indus­try, trade and the service sector. 

GSK Stock­mann provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the Arsipa Group on the tran­sac­tion with a team led by Berlin part­ner Robert Korn­dör­fer. With the merger , the occu­pa­tio­nal health provi­der ascatu is expan­ding its depth of support in the Rhine-Neckar region and will be able to support even more compa­nies locally in the future. MDS Wörner was foun­ded almost 20 years ago in Eppel­heim and offers a wide range of occu­pa­tio­nal health services in Heidel­berg and the surroun­ding area. The team of expe­ri­en­ced specia­lists and medi­cal assistants will be fully trans­fer­red to ascatu GmbH. 

The Arsipa Group is a group of compa­nies specia­li­zing in health, safety and well-being in the work­place. With curr­ently more than 1,100 employees at over 70 loca­ti­ons in Germany and Austria, the Arsipa Group supports around 35,000 companies. 

GSK Stock­mann has alre­ady advi­sed the Arsipa Group on various tran­sac­tions in the health­care sector in recent months.

Advi­sor ascatu: GSK Stockmann

Robert Korn­dör­fer (lead, part­ner, corpo­rate), Nicole Depa­rade, Foto (local part­ner, employ­ment law), Dr. Martin Hossen­fel­der (coun­sel, data protec­tion law), Clara López Hernando (senior asso­ciate, corpo­rate); asso­cia­tes: Ricarda Jost (corpo­rate law) Katrin Zukovs­kaja (employ­ment law), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schnebbe (data protec­tion law).
— www.gsk.de

Frank­furt — Kirk­land & Ellis has advi­sed Arse­nal Capi­tal Part­ners, a private equity invest­ment firm specia­li­zing in buil­ding market-leading indus­trial growth and health­care compa­nies, on the sale of ATP adhe­sive systems AG (“ATP”) to Henkel AG & Co. KGaA (“Henkel”), a German manu­fac­tu­rer of indus­trial and consu­mer goods.

The tran­sac­tion was comple­ted on April 1, 2026.

ATP was foun­ded in 1988 and specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­ture of high-perfor­mance, predo­mi­nantly solvent-free adhe­sive tapes. Head­quar­te­red in Switz­er­land with produc­tion sites in Germany, the USA and the UK, ATP serves a wide range of indus­tries and deli­vers to over 60 count­ries world­wide. The company employs around 700 people and gene­ra­ted sales of around 270 million euros in the 2025 finan­cial year. 

Arse­nal first inves­ted in ATP in 2022. During Arse­nal’s owner­ship, the company expan­ded its manu­fac­tu­ring foot­print by inves­t­ing in addi­tio­nal specialty tape capa­city at its German site, stra­te­gi­cally acqui­ring Neschen Coating GmbH in Germany and estab­li­shing a new manu­fac­tu­ring faci­lity in the US. In addi­tion, ATP expan­ded its port­fo­lio of high-perfor­mance, water-based adhe­sive tech­no­lo­gies and inves­ted in inno­va­tion and manu­fac­tu­ring capa­bi­li­ties to support its contin­ued growth trajec­tory. —- www.arsenalcapital.com. Further infor­ma­tion can be found here.

Advi­sor to Arse­nal Capi­tal Part­ners: Kirk­land & Ellis, Frankfurt

Dr. Tobias Larisch (lead), Sebas­tian Pitz (both private equity/M&A); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Mattias Prange, Alex­an­der Herzog, Jan Ditrich, Konstan­tin Huber, Chiara Schmid (Munich), Dr. Pablo Tretow (Munich), Elisa­beth Wolf (Munich, all private equity/M&A)

Kirk­land & Ellis, USA: Brendan Head (Chicago), Jason Grover (Salt Lake City, both Private Equity/M&A); Asso­cia­tes: Jake Moel­ler (Salt Lake City, Private Equity/M&A), Marshall Ring­wood (Salt Lake City, Transactional)

About Kirk­land

With more than 4,000 lawy­ers in 23 cities in the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Kirk­land & Ellis is one of the leading law firms for high-cali­ber legal services. The German team specia­li­zes in private equity, M&A, restruc­tu­ring, corpo­rate and capi­tal markets, finan­cing and tax. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit kirkland.com.

Zug (Switz­er­land) — INVISION VI (“INVISION”) has sold its stake in AK Group AG (“AK Group”), inclu­ding the subsi­dia­ries SkySale Schweiz GmbH (opera­tor of the e‑commerce plat­form Apfelkiste.ch) and Marein AG, to the listed company mobi­le­zone holding ag (“mobi­le­zone”). The tran­sac­tion under­lines the successful deve­lo­p­ment of the AK Group under the parti­ci­pa­tion of INVISION and gene­ra­tes an attrac­tive return for the INVISION VI Fund and its investors. 

The tran­sac­tion price (enter­prise value) is around CHF 180 million. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the end of June 2026.

Value crea­tion during the INVISION invest­ment period

INVISION acqui­red a stake in the AK Group in 2021 and has supported the company as an active and entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner ever since. Working closely with foun­der Pierre Droigk and the rest of the manage­ment team, key stra­te­gic mile­sto­nes were achie­ved: the Apfelkiste.ch e‑commerce plat­form was syste­ma­ti­cally expan­ded and the product range exten­ded to over 60,000 imme­dia­tely available products. The plat­form was successfully diver­si­fied and expan­ded beyond the core busi­ness through targe­ted trend reco­gni­tion and product range expan­sion. The acqui­si­tion of Marein AG in 2024 was also a stra­te­gi­cally important step that signi­fi­cantly streng­the­ned the Group’s exper­tise in retail bran­ding and sourcing. INVISION actively promo­ted the further deve­lo­p­ment of the orga­niza­tion by recrui­ting Marc Isler as opera­tio­nal CEO and expan­ding the manage­ment team, among other things. In addi­tion, profes­sio­nal report­ing struc­tures were intro­du­ced and central value-added func­tions such as marke­ting and IT were inter­na­li­zed. The origi­nal busi­ness plan was signi­fi­cantly exceeded. 

The AK Group curr­ently employs around 100 people and gene­ra­ted sales of over CHF 100 million with EBITDA of around CHF 20 million in 2025. There are no plans for chan­ges in opera­tio­nal manage­ment, employees or locations.

Comm­ents on the transaction

Pierre Droigk, foun­der and former Group CEO of the AK Group, explains: “INVISION has been a valuable part­ner for us, provi­ding us not only with capi­tal, but above all with stra­te­gic spar­ring and opera­tio­nal support. Toge­ther we have deve­lo­ped Apfel­kiste into one of the leading e‑commerce plat­forms in Switz­er­land. With mobi­le­zone, we are now embar­king on an exci­ting new chap­ter in which we can combine our strengths and further expand the custo­mer experience.”

Chris­tian Hemm­rich, Part­ner at INVISION, comm­ents: “We are proud of the deve­lo­p­ment of the AK Group achie­ved toge­ther with Pierre and the entire team. A successful, foun­der-led e‑commerce company has become a profes­sio­nally posi­tio­ned and diver­si­fied group with sales of over CHF 100 million. The sale to mobi­le­zone repres­ents an excel­lent stra­te­gic fit and enables AK Group to realize its full poten­tial as part of a listed group. We would like to thank Pierre, Marc and the entire team for the great colla­bo­ra­tion over the past few years and wish them all the best for the future. 

About the AK Group

AK Group AG, based in Switz­er­land, compri­ses the e‑commerce plat­form Apfelkiste.ch and Marein AG, a specia­list in retail bran­ding and sourcing. Apfelkiste.ch is a leading Swiss online plat­form for smart­phone access­ories and life­style products with over 60,000 imme­dia­tely available products. Marein, foun­ded in 1979 and part of the AK Group since 2024, specia­li­zes in trend scou­ting, product sourcing and private labels in the craft, crea­tive and life­style sectors. The AK Group employs around 100 people. —- www.apfelkiste.ch

About Invi­sion

Since its foun­da­tion in 1997, INVISION has deve­lo­ped into one of the leading mid-market invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region. The focus is on succes­sion plan­ning and growth capi­tal. INVISION has inves­ted in over 80 compa­nies and helped to realize and sustain­ably secure value increa­ses for various invest­ments. INVISION sees itself as an entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner for foun­ders, entre­pre­neurs and manage­ment teams. When making invest­ments, INVISION places parti­cu­lar empha­sis on under­stan­ding the speci­fic needs of compa­nies and entre­pre­neurs and deve­lo­ping indi­vi­dual solutions.
The AK Group is an invest­ment from the INVISION VI fund. — www.invision.ch

About mobi­le­zone

Foun­ded in 1999, mobi­le­zone holding ag is the leading inde­pen­dent Swiss tele­com specia­list. The regis­tered shares of mobi­le­zone holding ag (MOZN) are traded on the SIX Swiss Exch­ange AG. mobi­le­zone employs around 600 people at its sites in Rotkreuz and Urnäsch and in around 125 of its own stores throug­hout Switz­er­land. —- www.mobilezoneholding.ch

Berlin, London, Milan, Luxem­bourg — Luxem­bourg-based Join Capi­tal has laun­ched its third fund with the aim of raising €235 million to support Euro­pean deep-tech start-ups working on defense, dual-use, secu­rity and space tech­no­lo­gies. The Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund (EIF) has commit­ted €50 million — its largest invest­ment in the defense sector to date. 

Foun­ded in 2017, Joint Capi­tal invests in pan-Euro­pean venture capi­tal funds from its offices in Berlin, London and Milan. The company focu­ses on start-ups that offer asym­me­tric tech­no­lo­gi­cal advan­ta­ges and thus streng­then Euro­pe’s stra­te­gic auto­nomy. The port­fo­lio spans the enter­prise, indus­trial, space and defense sectors, with 36 compa­nies funded to date. There have been five successful exits. 

Fund III will support around 25 start-ups, helping them to scale solu­ti­ons that enhance mili­tary capa­bi­li­ties while offe­ring commer­cial appli­ca­ti­ons. The invest­ment will be made through the InvestEU Defence Equity Faci­lity, a €175 million initia­tive co-finan­ced by the Euro­pean Defence Fund and aimed at mobi­li­zing private funding for disrup­tive defence tech­no­lo­gies. The faci­lity is expec­ted to mobi­lize more than 500 million euros for Euro­pean companies. 

“This invest­ment is not just about finan­cing. The EIF’s credi­bi­lity also acts as a seal of appr­oval, signal­ing to other inves­tors the rele­vance of the aero­space and secu­rity and defense sector. With this support, we are confi­dent that further invest­ments will follow, helping Europe to build a robust ecosys­tem for inno­va­tive defense solu­ti­ons,” explains Marjut Falk­stedt, Mana­ging Direc­tor of the EIF (Photo: EIF).

About EIF

The Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund (EIF) is part of the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank Group. Its main task is to faci­li­tate access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs) in Europe. Its offe­ring includes venture and growth capi­tal, guaran­tees and micro­fi­nance products tail­o­red to this market segment. In this way, it promo­tes EU objec­ti­ves in the areas of inno­va­tion, rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment, entre­pre­neur­ship, growth and employ­ment. —www.eib.org

Munich, March 13, 2026 — The Berlin-based tech­no­logy company Qdrant has raised USD 50 million in a Series B finan­cing round. Qdrant intends to use the fresh capi­tal to acce­le­rate the further deve­lo­p­ment of its tech­no­logy plat­form and drive its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion. The commer­cial law firm Green­Gate Part­ners advi­sed Qdrant on this transaction. 

Qdrant is deve­lo­ping a powerful open source vector data­base for arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) appli­ca­ti­ons. The tech­no­logy enables compa­nies to effi­ci­ently manage large amounts of unstruc­tu­red data — inclu­ding text, images, audio and video — and search it in the form of high-dimen­sio­nal vector embeddings. 

In recent years, vector data­ba­ses have become a central infra­struc­ture compo­nent of modern AI appli­ca­ti­ons. They form the basis for nume­rous areas of appli­ca­tion, inclu­ding seman­tic search, recom­men­da­tion systems, anomaly detec­tion and retrie­val augmen­ted gene­ra­tion (RAG).

The funds from the finan­cing round will be inves­ted in parti­cu­lar in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the plat­form, the expan­sion of the engi­nee­ring and product teams and the global distri­bu­tion of Qdran­t’s vector search infra­struc­ture. This will further posi­tion the company as an important buil­ding block in the rapidly growing global AI tech­no­logy ecosystem. 

Advi­sor Qdrant: Green­Gate Partners

René Spitz, LL.M., photo © Green­gate (Corpo­rate, Lead Part­ner, Munich)
Ricarda Neukam, LL.M. (IT/IP, Salary Part­ner, Munich)
Constan­tin Forst­ner (Corpo­rate, Senior Asso­ciate, Munich)
Carl von Sydow (Corpo­rate, Asso­ciate, Munich) 

About Green­Gate Partners

Green­Gate Part­ners and its corpo­rate team specia­lize in the M&A and venture capi­tal sector, among others. The legal advice is compre­hen­sive and ranges from the foun­da­tion, through the indi­vi­dual finan­cing rounds, to the exit. Green­Gate Part­ners repea­tedly provi­des bench­marks in the German market. The firm advi­ses dome­stic and foreign venture capi­tal funds, stra­te­gic inves­tors, busi­ness angels as well as foun­ders, start-ups and
mana­gers. — www.greengate.legal

Munich/ Frank­furt a. M. / Lithua­nia — ETNA Capi­tal, a Danish private equity firm focu­sed on invest­ments in defense, cyber secu­rity and criti­cal infra­struc­ture protec­tion, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Brolis Defence Group, UAB (“Brolis”). The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the second quar­ter of 2026, subject to regu­la­tory approvals. 

A WEIL team led by Dr. Kamyar Abrar advi­sed coun­sel Dr. Julia Schö­fer (Private Equity, Munich) toge­ther with part­ner Susanne Decker (Private Equity, Frank­furt) ETNA Capi­tal on this transaction.

On the Lithua­nian side, SERAINEN has the ETNA Capi­tal on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in UAB Brolis Defense Group , on the Lithua­nian side. This is the largest private equity invest­ment in the defense sector in the Baltic States to date and the first invest­ment by ETNA Capi­tal, which was estab­lished last year. 

With the support of ETNA Capi­tal, Brolis intends to acce­le­rate product and tech­no­logy deve­lo­p­ment, expand its indus­trial capa­ci­ties and expand inter­na­tio­nally, ther­eby contri­bu­ting to Euro­pe’s tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty and resi­li­ence in the defense and secu­rity sector. Follo­wing the tran­sac­tion, the foun­ders will remain inves­ted with a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake of around 40% and will conti­nue to run the company toge­ther with ETNA Capital. 

The tran­sac­tion unders­cores Weil’s strong private equity prac­tice in the defense and secu­rity tech­no­logy sector and demons­tra­tes the firm’s exper­tise in advi­sing on complex, stra­te­gi­cally signi­fi­cant invest­ments invol­ving sensi­tive tech­no­lo­gies and multi­na­tio­nal regu­la­tory issues.

ETNA Capi­tal, foun­ded in 2025 and backed by leading Danish pension funds, is a pan-Euro­pean private equity firm head­quar­te­red in Copen­ha­gen with an addi­tio­nal office in Munich. The company focu­ses on invest­ments that streng­then Euro­pean resi­li­ence in stra­te­gi­cally criti­cal sectors, combi­ning private equity exper­tise with deep indus­try know­ledge and opera­tio­nal experience. 

Head­quar­te­red in Vilnius, Lithua­nia, Brolis is a leading deve­lo­per and manu­fac­tu­rer of advan­ced sensor tech­no­lo­gies in the fields of elec­tro-optics, lasers and infrared. Foun­ded in 2011, the company opera­tes as a supplier to the defense sector and secu­rity agencies. 

WEIL acted as lead coun­sel to ETNA Capi­tal in all legal aspects of the tran­sac­tion, inclu­ding advice on regu­la­tory matters.

Team: Led by private equity part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrar (Frank­furt) and coun­sel Dr. Julia Schö­fer (private equity, Munich) toge­ther with part­ner Susanne Decker (private equity, Frank­furt) and compri­sed part­ner Niklas Maydell (anti­trust, Brussels), part­ner Tom Richards and part­ner Kai Zhang (both finance, London), part­ner Neil Rigby (anti­trust, London), part­ner Shawn B. Cooley (Regu­la­tory, Washing­ton, D.C.), coun­sel Stef­fen Giolda (Regu­la­tory, Munich) and asso­cia­tes Alex­an­der Roth­stein (Private Equity, Frank­furt), Alex­an­der Reich (Tax, Frank­furt), Hans-Chris­tian Mick (Finance, Frank­furt), Álvaro Salgado and Lucy Peck­ham (both Anti­trust, London/Brussels). WEIL worked closely with Sorai­nen as Lithua­nian legal coun­sel. — www.weil.com

About Weil

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,200 lawy­ers. Weil has offices in New York, Austin, Boston, Brussels, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, Los Ange­les, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, San Fran­cisco, Washing­ton, D.C. and Sili­con Valley. In Germany, the Ameri­can law firm has two offices in Frank­furt and Munich. The focus here is on provi­ding specia­li­zed advice to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients on cross-border private equity and M&A tran­sac­tions, high-profile liti­ga­tion manda­tes, complex restruc­tu­rings and finan­cings as well as tax structuring.

About ETNA Capital

ETNA (foun­ded 2025) is a private equity firm dedi­ca­ted to streng­thening Euro­pean resi­li­ence by inves­t­ing in defense, cyber­se­cu­rity and criti­cal infra­struc­ture protec­tion compa­nies. Our invest­ment mandate extends across Europe. — We bring leading indus­try exper­tise and an exten­sive network and have an in-house value crea­tion team to support and deve­lop the compa­nies we invest in — with the aim of buil­ding world-class busi­nesses. www.etna.capital

Munich/ Hamburg/Berlin — The Munich-based defense tech company Tytan has raised EUR 30 million as part of its Series A finan­cing round. The finan­cing round was led by Armira and the Nato Inno­va­tion Fund (NIF). YPOG acted as legal advi­sor to the venture capi­tal inves­tors Lake­star and Magne­tic on their parti­ci­pa­tion in the Series A finan­cing round of Tytan Tech­no­lo­gies. In addi­tion to Lake­star and Magne­tic, Visio­na­ries Club, OTB Ventures and D3 also parti­ci­pa­ted as exis­ting investors. 

Tytan was foun­ded in 2023 by Balász Nagy (31) toge­ther with Batu­han Batu­han Yumurt­acı. Tytan deve­lops AI-control­led inter­cep­tor drones to defend against unman­ned aerial vehic­les and is now expan­ding its port­fo­lio to become a more compre­hen­sive provi­der of air defense solu­ti­ons. The fresh capi­tal will be used in parti­cu­lar to expand produc­tion capa­ci­ties, deve­lop addi­tio­nal air defense products and expand the work­force. Tytan plans to signi­fi­cantly increase its produc­tion capa­ci­ties by the end of 2026. 

Tytan is one of the fastest-growing Euro­pean “New Defense” compa­nies. In addi­tion to exis­ting orders in the mili­tary envi­ron­ment, the company’s solu­ti­ons are alre­ady being used in real opera­tio­nal scena­rios. The addi­tion of further indus­try-expe­ri­en­ced perso­na­li­ties to the manage­ment and advi­sory board under­lines Tytan’s ambi­tion to estab­lish itself as a Euro­pean provi­der of scalable air defense technology. 

“Tytan is exem­plary for a new gene­ra­tion of Euro­pean defense tech compa­nies with high tech­no­lo­gi­cal depth and a clear scaling stra­tegy. The fact that Lake­star and Magne­tic are support­ing the company over seve­ral finan­cing phases shows their long-term trust in the team and tech­no­logy,” says Dr. Adrian Haase, Part­ner at YPOG. 

YPOG has been advi­sing Lake­star and Magne­tic since the pre-seed phase and also supported the inves­tors in the seed finan­cing of Tytan. YPOG regu­larly advi­ses natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal venture capi­tal inves­tors on finan­cing rounds in the defense, dual-use and deep tech sectors. 

About Armira

Armira is a leading Euro­pean invest­ment holding company specia­li­zing in long-term part­ner­ships with entre­pre­neur-led and family-owned “hidden cham­pi­ons”. The company has more than €5 billion in assets under manage­ment and is backed by a broad base of entre­pre­neurs, entre­pre­neu­rial fami­lies and long-term inves­tors. Armira provi­des capi­tal for the entire life cycle of a company, from mino­rity invest­ments to promote growth to majo­rity investments. 

About the NATO Inno­va­tion Fund

The NATO Inno­va­tion Fund is a €1 billion venture capi­tal fund backed by 24 NATO member nati­ons that invests in deep tech compa­nies to address defense, secu­rity and resi­li­ence chal­lenges. The fund invests inde­pendently, with 24 nati­ons support­ing the success of its port­fo­lio and enab­ling deep tech entre­pre­neurs to access both commer­cial and govern­ment markets. 

About Lake­star

Lake­star (CH) is one of Euro­pe’s leading venture capi­tal invest­ment plat­forms. Since its foun­ding by Klaus Hommels in 2012, Lake­star has been known for back­ing some of Euro­pe’s most successful unicorns. The company has raised more than USD 3 billion through various products and funds and actively mana­ges a port­fo­lio of invest­ments in eight diffe­rent early-stage and growth funds. Lake­star has recently laun­ched a dual-use/­re­si­li­ence fund. — www.lakestar.com

About Magne­tic

Magne­tic is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm that finan­ces trans­for­ma­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in syste­mi­cally rele­vant indus­tries. Magne­tic uses its capi­tal and exper­tise to support outstan­ding foun­ders at the inter­sec­tion of new tech­no­lo­gies and econo­mic systems. The company invests early and sees itself as a long-term capi­tal part­ner. —- https://mgntc.com/

Consul­tant Lake­star and Magne­tic: YPOG

Dr. Adrian Haase (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Hamburg
Alex­an­dra Tafel (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Gerrit Breet­holt (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Benja­min Müller (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Miriam Peer (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Hamburg

www.ypog.com

Munich/ Berlin — Interloom, a Munich-based plat­form for a know­ledge infra­struc­ture for AI agents that captures expert know­ledge and converts it into a perma­nent memory for AI agents, raises a seed funding round of 14.2 million euros. The invest­ment was led by DN Capi­tal, with parti­ci­pa­tion from Bek Ventures and exis­ting inves­tor Air Street Capital. 

“AI agents are rapidly moving to the front lines, but without a company’s speci­fic busi­ness know­ledge, they won’t have the answers or the ability to auto­mate anything,” says Fabian Jakobi, foun­der and CEO of Interloom. “We base their decis­i­ons on successful solu­ti­ons from the past — ensu­ring their work is guided by real opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence and driven by expert over­sight — crea­ting a memory that stays with the busi­ness forever.” 

Recent reports from EU start­ups high­light seve­ral simi­lar deals in this segment, inclu­ding happy­ho­tel (Germany, €6.5 million to deve­lop AI agents for hotel reve­nue manage­ment), Equixly (Italy, €10 million to scale AI-driven API secu­rity test­ing), Contents (Italy, €5.9 million to expand its AI work­flow plat­form), Rapi­data (Switz­er­land, €7.2 million to scale human feed­back infra­struc­ture for AI) Block­brain (Germany, EUR 17.5 million for the further deve­lo­p­ment of AI agents for compa­nies), Elyos AI (UK, EUR 11.1 million for the auto­ma­tion of field service work­flows), Toyo (UK, EUR 3.6 million for the deve­lo­p­ment of secure AI agents) and Plato (Germany, EUR 12.2 million for the auto­ma­tion of sales and ERP workflows).

Toge­ther, these finan­cing rounds amoun­ted to around EUR 74 million, reflec­ting the steady inflow of capi­tal into infra­struc­ture and appli­ca­ti­ons for enter­prise AI. Germany stands out as a parti­cu­larly active market, with seve­ral finan­cing rounds taking place in the same category. 

In this envi­ron­ment, Interloom’s focus on captu­ring tacit orga­niza­tio­nal know­ledge and turning it into persis­tent opera­tio­nal memory is in line with a broa­der trend to improve relia­bi­lity and context-aware­ness in enter­prise AI implementations.

“Our expe­ri­ence with enter­prise AI agent plat­forms like Cognigy has shown us the importance of context. An agent is only as good as the speci­fic know­ledge it can draw on. The problem is that context is dyna­mic, poorly docu­men­ted and lives on the front line in the day-to-day decis­i­ons of know­led­geable employees. Interloom excel­led by buil­ding an enter­prise context graph that conti­nuously captures real decis­i­ons and how orga­niza­ti­ons actually work, ” adds Guy Ward Thomas, Part­ner at DN Capi­tal (Photo: DN Capital).

Foun­ded in 2024, Interloom helps orga­niza­ti­ons capture the opera­tio­nal know­ledge of their experts and trans­form it into a memory layer for AI agents. By analy­zing how real work is perfor­med across systems and teams, the plat­form builds an enter­prise memory that enables orga­niza­ti­ons to auto­mate and conti­nuously improve complex workflows. 

While AI agents are making rapid progress, Interloom belie­ves that compa­nies are strugg­ling to deploy them in real-world opera­ti­ons because these systems lack a funda­men­tal compo­nent: know­ledge of how work is actually done.

These crucial expe­ri­en­ces remain stored in the minds of employees and get lost in milli­ons of emails, tickets and call logs. — Interloom wants to provide this miss­ing storage layer. Opera­tio­nal experts solve complex problems toge­ther with AI. Once an expert has solved a case, Interloom ensu­res that future employees and AI agents have access to this information. 

Interloom is alre­ady solving this problem for leading compa­nies such as Zurich Insu­rance, JLL and Fiege, proces­sing milli­ons of cases to close this “context gap”.

Advi­sor DN Capi­tal and Bek Ventures on the finan­cing of Interloom: V 14

Alexis von Krue­de­ner, Simo­nié Schlombs, Lasse Rambow, Dr. Simon Pfefferle

About V14

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

Munich — The Munich-based private equity firm GREENPEAK Part­ners (“GREENPEAK”) has successfully comple­ted various natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal acqui­si­ti­ons via its plat­forms ATHAGORAS, enco­viva and VITAIRA. POELLATH provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to Green­peak and its plat­forms. In addi­tion, the VITAIRA Group recei­ved compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice on the estab­lish­ment and stra­te­gic struc­tu­ring as a buy & build platform. 

GREENPEAK is a Munich-based private equity company and is one of the leading buy & build specia­lists. As an entre­pre­neu­rial inves­tor, the company invests in the estab­lish­ment and deve­lo­p­ment of plat­forms and actively supports them in their growth and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment. — https://www.greenpeak-partners.com/news/

Consul­tant GREENPEAK and its plat­forms ATHAGORAS, enco­viva and VITAIRA: POELLATH

Dr. Tim Jung­in­ger, LL.M. (Part­ner, Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax, Munich)
Dr. Domi­nik Gerli­cher, LL.M. (Coun­sel, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Michael de Toma (Coun­sel, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, Munich)
Michael Andreas Haase (Coun­sel, Corpo­rate, Frank­furt aM)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Frank­furt aM)
Lukas Fell­höl­ter (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Nicole Kalten­berg (Senior Asso­ciate, Employ­ment Law, Munich)
Jannis Lührs (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax, 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 commer­cial and tax law firm with over 180 legal and tax profes­sio­nals in Berlin, Frank­furt and Munich. We stand for excel­lent advice on tran­sac­tions and asset manage­ment — legal and tax from a single source. 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 law firm in our selec­ted specia­list areas . — www.pplaw.com

Frank­furt a.M. — As part of the tran­sac­tion, Würth is taking over the MRS head­quar­ters in Rott­weil as well as the company loca­ti­ons in Croa­tia, Poland and Turkey. MRS Elec­tro­nic will become part of the Würth Group, but will remain an inde­pen­dent company within Würth Elek­tro­nik ICS. — McDer­mott Will & Schulte advi­sed Würth Elek­tro­nik ICS GmbH & Co KG, a subsi­diary of the Würth Group, on the acqui­si­tion of the MRS Elec­tro­nic Group. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to the appr­oval of the rele­vant anti­trust authorities. 

MRS Elec­tro­nic has been deve­lo­ping and produ­cing control, commu­ni­ca­tion and networ­king solu­ti­ons for elec­tro­nic vehicle systems for over 25 years, inclu­ding compact control­lers, relays, gate­ways, HMI displays and test systems for power semi­con­duc­tors. There has been a close supplier and deve­lo­p­ment part­ner­ship between MRS Elec­tro­nic and Würth Elek­tro­nik ICS for over 15 years 

Würth Elek­tro­nik ICS, head­quar­te­red in Niedern­hall-Wald­zim­mern and with bran­ches in France, the UK, Italy, the USA and India, is a system provi­der of elec­tro­me­cha­ni­cal and elec­tro­nic solu­ti­ons for signal and power distri­bu­tion, func­tion control, display and opera­ting solu­ti­ons. Its main custo­mers include well-known manu­fac­tu­r­ers of cons­truc­tion and agri­cul­tu­ral machi­nery and commer­cial vehic­les. In 2025, the Würth Elek­tro­nik Group gene­ra­ted sales of EUR 1.06 billion. 

Advi­sor Würth Elek­tro­nik ICS GmbH & Co KG: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Frankfurt

Dr. Chris­tian Marz­lin (Lead), Florian Lech­ner, Isabelle Suzanne Müller(Counsel; all Corporate/M&A), Dr. Laura Stamm­witz, Carina Kant (Düsseldorf/Cologne; both Anti­trust), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Clos­ter­meyer (Real Estate), Dr. Heiko Kermer (Tax), Stef­fen Woitz, LL.M. (IP/IT, Munich), Dr. Chris­tian Dries­sen-Rolf (Employ­ment Law); Asso­cia­tes: Jenni­fer Rogal­ski (Corporate/M&A), Matthias M. Bosbach (Finance, Düssel­dorf), Caro­lin Schu­ma­cher (Anti­trust Law, Colo­gne), Carina Schüt­ze­berg (Real Estate Law) 

McDer­mott Will & Schulte, USA: Meir Lewit­tes (Corporate/M&A/Private Equity, New York), Gregory Helt­zer, Anthony Ferrara (both Anti­trust, Washing­ton, DC), Timo­thy Carson (Coun­sel, Anti­trust, Washing­ton, DC), Raymond Paretzky(Counsel, Inter­na­tio­nal Trade, Washing­ton, DC); Asso­ciate: Mitch DaSilva (Tran­sac­tions, New York)

McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Paris: Frédé­ric Pradel­les; Asso­ciate: Mary Hecht (both Antitrust)

About McDer­mott Will & Schulte

McDer­mott Will & Schulte is a leading inter­na­tio­nal commer­cial law firm with more than 1,750 lawy­ers in over 20 offices in Europe, North America and Asia. In Germany, the firm has offices in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main, Colo­gne and Munich. Our teams cover the entire spec­trum of commer­cial law with their exper­tise. The German prac­tice is mana­ged by McDer­mott Will & Schulte Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP. — www.mwe.com/de/

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) is inves­t­ing in Hipp Tech­no­logy Group (“Hipp”), a leading deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring part­ner for medi­cal tech­no­logy with a focus on implan­to­logy, surgi­cal instru­ments and surgi­cal instru­ment systems in the ortho­pae­dic and dental indus­try. DBAG Fund VIII, a fund advi­sed by DBAG, will acquire the majo­rity of the shares repre­sen­ted by the Swiss invest­ment company Endura AG from the previous owners as part of a manage­ment buy-out. 

Simi­lar to the invest­ment in MAIT, the tran­sac­tion was agreed via DBAG’s own network ahead of a poten­ti­ally broad-based struc­tu­red sales process. Foun­der and CEO Markus Hipp will retain a signi­fi­cant stake in the company and will conti­nue to actively shape the next growth phase. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Specia­list for implan­to­logy and high-precis­ion components

The Hipp Tech­no­logy Group is a specia­li­zed deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring part­ner for the ortho­pae­dic and dental indus­try. The company deve­lops and manu­fac­tures implants, bone proces­sing tools, surgi­cal instru­ments and complete system compon­ents for robot-assis­ted surgi­cal systems for leading medi­cal tech­no­logy companies.
Hipp has exten­sive exper­tise in implan­to­logy and supports its custo­mers along the entire value chain — from deve­lo­p­ment and proto­type produc­tion to series produc­tion, sterile pack­a­ging and dock-to-stock solutions. 

The company also has exten­sive exper­tise in the high-precis­ion machi­ning of deman­ding mate­ri­als such as tita­nium and special alloys. These skills are also used in other tech­no­lo­gi­cally deman­ding indus­tries. For exam­ple, the Group manu­fac­tures precis­ion and system compon­ents for appli­ca­ti­ons in the aero­space indus­try, for litho­gra­phy and laser proces­sing systems and for sensor applications. 

The Group employs around 350 people at five loca­ti­ons and has long-stan­ding rela­ti­onships with leading OEM custo­mers worldwide.

Growth through struc­tu­ral market trends

The invest­ment follows DBAG’s stra­tegy of making targe­ted invest­ments in compa­nies opera­ting in struc­tu­rally attrac­tive markets. The market for ortho­pae­dic implants bene­fits from long-term growth drivers such as demo­gra­phic change, incre­asing outsour­cing by OEMs and rising regu­la­tory requi­re­ments. Hipp is excel­lently posi­tio­ned in this envi­ron­ment. The company has modern, highly auto­ma­ted produc­tion capa­ci­ties, a high level of verti­cal inte­gra­tion and exten­sive regu­la­tory exper­tise — inclu­ding with regard to the requi­re­ments of the U.S. Food and Drug Admi­nis­tra­tion (FDA) and the Euro­pean Medi­cal Device Regu­la­tion (MDR).

“Hipp is a true hidden cham­pion in a resi­li­ent market: the company supplies essen­tial products for opera­ti­ons that are perfor­med thou­sands of times a day around the world,” says Tom Alzin, Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG. He adds: “Markus Hipp is an excep­tio­nal entre­pre­neur. Toge­ther we see considera­ble poten­tial to further acce­le­rate the inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion — espe­ci­ally in the US as the worl­d’s largest medi­cal tech­no­logy market — and to further streng­then Hipp as a prefer­red part­ner of global OEMs.” 

Conti­nuity and long-term growth strategy
Since its foun­da­tion in 1993, Hipp has deve­lo­ped from a specia­li­zed contract manu­fac­tu­rer into an inter­na­tio­nally active contract manu­fac­tu­ring orga­niza­tion and an estab­lished supplier of implants, surgi­cal instru­ments and sterile surgi­cal instru­ment systems.

With DBAG Fund VIII as the new majo­rity share­hol­der, this growth course is to be consis­t­ently contin­ued. In addi­tion to expan­ding exis­ting custo­mer rela­ti­onships, the focus is on inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion in parti­cu­lar. The company is also exami­ning stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons in order to further expand its tech­no­lo­gies, exper­tise and market presence. 

Markus Hipp, foun­der and CEO of the Hipp Tech­no­logy Group, says: “For our custo­mers in the medi­cal tech­no­logy sector, quality, precis­ion and relia­bi­lity are the basis for pati­ent safety.” He adds: “In DBAG, we have found a part­ner who under­stands the German SME sector very well and at the same time shares our company’s entre­pre­neu­rial values. I parti­cu­larly appre­ciate the prono­un­ced under­stan­ding of values and the short decis­ion-making proces­ses. For our employees and our company, the invest­ment of DBAG Fund VIII is a stable and future-orien­ted solu­tion to further deve­lop the great poten­tial of our group and to drive both strong orga­nic growth and targe­ted stra­te­gic acquisitions.” 

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), which has been listed on the stock exch­ange since 1985, is one of the most renow­ned private equity compa­nies in Germany. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on medium-sized compa­nies with a focus on well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. The sector focus is on produ­cers of indus­trial goods, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the busi­ness services, IT services, soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture sectors. DBAG has also been active in Italy since 2020 and has had its own office in Milan since 2021. The assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to around 2.7 billion euros. ELF Capi­tal comple­ments DBAG’s range of flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs with private debt capi­tal. — www.dbag.de

Frank­furt a. M. — Will­kie advi­ses CVC Capi­tal Part­ners on the sale of 37% of its shares in Synte­gon to a group of inves­tors mana­ged by Apollo Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP advi­ses CVC Capi­tal Part­ners (“CVC”) on the sale of 37% of its shares in Synte­gon to a group of inves­tors mana­ged by Apollo.

CVC reta­ins a majo­rity stake with the remai­ning 63% of the shares. Follo­wing the successful trans­for­ma­tion of Synte­gon, this tran­sac­tion marks the start­ing point for the next growth phase. At the same time, it under­lines CVC’s approach of driving sustainable,
posi­tive corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment through long-term, part­ner­ship-based enga­ge­ment and the targe­ted selec­tion of stra­te­gic co-inves­tors. The Apollo team shares the stra­te­gic vision of CVC and Synte­gon and streng­thens the proven part­ner­ship with new momen­tum and local exper­tise for the important North Ameri­can market The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory appr­ovals. The parties have agreed to keep the finan­cial details of the agree­ment confi­den­tial. Will­kie previously advi­sed CVC on the acqui­si­tion of Syntegon. 

Advi­sor to CVC: Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP

The Will­kie team compri­sed part­ners Georg Linde (PE, Frank­furt), Dr. Nils Röver (PE, Munich/Hamburg, both lead), Jacob Ahme (PE, Munich/Hamburg), Dr. Sebas­tian Häfele (PE, Munich), Daniel Gendron, Timo­thy Sawyer (both Finance, London), Anne Kleff­mann (Employ­ment, Munich), Dr. Richard Roeder (Compli­ance, Munich), Jan Wilms (Finance, Frank­furt), Dr. Bettina Bokeloh (Tax, Frank­furt), Dr. Georg Weiden­bach (Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Tyler Born (Corpo­rate, Chicago), Simon Weiss (Capi­tal Markets, Frank­furt) and Coun­sel Martin Waśkow­ski (Employ­ment), Jan Voll­kam­mer (Anti­trust), Henning Aufder­haar (Real Estate, all Frank­furt) as well as Asso­cia­tes Nils Bock, Melina Terwes­ten (both PE, Frank­furt), Dr. Florian Kalb­fleisch, Nils Hörnig, Zeno Wirtz (all PE, Munich), Hiral Jain (Finance, London), Sascha Wink­ler (Employ­ment Law, Frank­furt), Jannis Strot­mann (Finance, Munich), Shuman Zhou (Corpo­rate, Chicago), Michael Wies­ner (PE, Munich), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schlutz (Compli­ance, Frank­furt), Tom Piepen­b­rock (Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Fabiola Haas (PE, Munich), Laurin Havlik (Compli­ance, Munich), Andreas Mild­ner (Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Kari Prochaska (Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, Media & Privacy, London), Dillon Lehr (Corpo­rate, Chicago), David Mohl (Execu­tive Compen­sa­tion & Employee Bene­fits, Washing­ton), Alice Luciani (Corpo­rate, Paris), Denise Klasen (PE, Frank­furt), Sean Presteg­ord (Corpo­rate, New York), Ify White-Thorpe (IP, New York), Sophie Wollen­we­ber (PE, Frank­furt), Dr. Phil­ipp Stein­hau­sen (Finance, Frank­furt), Chris­to­pher Selwyn (Corpo­rate, London), Madi­son Wiles-Haff­ner (IP, New York), Patrick Kemper (PE, Frank­furt), Cara Hunt (Liti­ga­tion, New York), Sarah Bibas (Corpo­rate, Paris), Martin Kalb­henn (Capi­tal Markets, Frank­furt), Ceci­lia Pozzetti (Employ­ment, Milan), Isabella Zanetti (Corpo­rate, Milan), Ali Barc­zak (Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, Media & Privacy, Washing­ton) and Laura Liis­tro (Corporate/ Milan).

Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP provi­des leading legal solu­ti­ons to complex, busi­ness-criti­cal issues that span markets and indus­tries. Our appro­xi­m­ately 1,300 lawy­ers in 16 offices world­wide provide inno­va­tive, prag­ma­tic and sophisti­ca­ted legal services in around 45 areas of law. Find out more at www.willkie.com.

Frank­furt a.M. — 1AVista Reisen GmbH, one of Germany’s leading river cruise opera­tors, is setting the course for the future and is arran­ging its corpo­rate succes­sion with VR Equity Part­ner as a stra­te­gic inves­tor. — HEUKING provi­ded the share­hol­ders with legal and tax advice on the succes­sion plan and the entry of VR Equity Part­ner as a stra­te­gic investor. 

Foun­der and share­hol­der Hubert Schulte-Schmel­ter, who has provi­ded stra­te­gic support to the company in recent years, is reti­ring from the company comple­tely. The opera­tio­nal manage­ment remains in the proven hands of the three mana­ging direc­tors Hagen Mesters, Sascha Gülden­meis­ter, Raphael Dombrow­ski and Manuel Klou­bert as autho­ri­zed signa­tory. Raphael Dombrow­ski and Manuel Klou­bert join the company as new share­hol­ders, ther­eby expan­ding the owner­ship structure. 

VR Equity Part­ner, a private equity company specia­li­zing in succes­sion plan­ning for medium-sized compa­nies and a subsi­diary of DZ Bank, has acqui­red a mino­rity stake in the newly foun­ded holding company as a stra­te­gic part­ner. With this step, 1AVista Reisen is comple­ting a plan­ned gene­ra­tio­nal change that will ensure conti­nuity and stabi­lity while opening up new growth pros­pects. The parti­ci­pa­tion of VR Equity Part­ner secu­res addi­tio­nal finan­cial resour­ces for plan­ned invest­ments and contri­bu­tes many years of exper­tise in succes­sion processes. 

1AVista Reisen GmbH, based in Colo­gne, was foun­ded in 2007 and has since estab­lished itself as one of Germany’s leading river cruise opera­tors. The company specia­li­zes in river crui­ses on the rivers of Europe as well as on selec­ted long-distance routes such as the Nile. 

VR Equity Part­ner is a private equity company based in Frank­furt am Main that specia­li­zes in SME succes­sion plan­ning and growth finan­cing. The company supports owner-mana­ged medium-sized compa­nies with chan­ges of owner­ship and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment steps. VR Equity Part­ner pursues a part­ner­ship-based approach and atta­ches parti­cu­lar importance to preser­ving estab­lished corpo­rate cultures and exis­ting manage­ment structures. 

Advi­sor to the share­hol­ders of 1AVista Reisen GmbH: HEUKING

Dr. Marc Scheu­ne­mann, LL.M., Düsseldorf/Frankfurt, Dr. Timo Piller, (both lead), Düsseldorf,
Dr. Ulrich Jork, Munich,
Robert Clev, LL.M. (all Corporate/M&A), Düssel­dorf, Michael Below (public law), Düsseldorf,
Kers­tin Deiters (employ­ment law), Cologne,
Dr. Tilman Span­cken (real estate law), Düsseldorf,
Dr. Rein­hard Siegert, Ruth Jung­kind (both anti­trust law), both Munich,
Klaus Weinand-Härer, Sebas­tian Eibich (both tax law), both Frankfurt 

An ARQIS team led by part­ner Dr. Lars Laeger provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to VR Equi­typ­art­ner on the acqui­si­tion of the mino­rity stake. VR Equi­typ­art­ner once again relies on the advice of ARQIS. Dr. Laeger and his team recently advi­sed VREP on the sale of Zimmer & Hälbig to VINCI Energies. 

Advi­sor VR Equi­typ­art­ner: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Core team: Dr. Lars Laeger (Lead Part­ner), Benja­min Bandur (Coun­sel, Munich), Chris­tina Huck­schlag (Mana­ging Asso­ciate, all Tran­sac­tions), Part­ners: Dr. Fried­rich Gebert (Regu­la­tory), Johan­nes Landry (Finan­cing), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate), Tobias Neufeld (Tech Law), Lisa-Marie Niklas (HR Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP, Munich), Coun­sel: Chris­tian Judis (Compli­ance, Munich). Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate), Tobias Neufeld (Tech Law), Lisa-Marie Niklas (HR Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP, Munich), Coun­sel: Chris­tian Judis (Compli­ance, Munich), Jens Knip­ping (Tax), Fran­ziska Leub­ner (Munich), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (both HR Law), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial, Munich), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Hannah Düwel, Dr. Bern­hard Gröhe, Luise Schü­ling (all Regu­la­tory), Anselm Graf (Munich), David Hudde (both Tran­sac­tions), Johanna Klin­gen (Tech Law), Marius Mesen­brink (Japan Desk), Rolf Tichy (IP, Munich), Asso­cia­tes: Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial, Munich), Paulina Hütt­ner (IP, Munich), Sabine Müller (HR Law, Munich), Lia Papis­me­dova (Real Estate)
 

Stutt­gart / Bönnig­heim — BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft (BWK) has sold its stake in Xactools GmbH, based in Bönnig­heim, to the Swedish company Calpen Indus­tries AB. As part of the tran­sac­tion, Calpen Indus­tries AB is acqui­ring all shares in Xactools. 

Xactools was foun­ded in 2012 and deve­lops and manu­fac­tures custo­mer-speci­fic auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons in the field of measu­re­ment and test­ing tech­no­logy. The focus is on systems and special machi­nes for auto­ma­ted quality control in indus­trial manu­fac­tu­ring processes. 

BWK acqui­red a stake in Xactools in May 2018 as part of a succes­sion solu­tion. During the invest­ment phase, the diver­si­fi­ca­tion of the custo­mer base beyond the auto­mo­tive sector into the medi­cal tech­no­logy and tool­ma­king sectors was driven forward and the company’s commer­cial and finan­cial struc­tures were further deve­lo­ped in a targe­ted manner. — BWK has around EUR 300 million in invest­ment funds at its dispo­sal and curr­ently has around EUR 150 million inves­ted in 14 companies 

“In an incre­asingly chal­len­ging market envi­ron­ment, Xactools has posi­tio­ned itself very well thanks to its strong tech­no­lo­gi­cal foun­da­ti­ons and quali­fied employees. With Calpen Indus­tries, we are gaining a stra­te­gic owner who will support the long-term deve­lo­p­ment of the company and consis­t­ently pursue the succes­sion solu­tion,” says Dr. Ing. Bernd Berg­schnei­der, Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of BWK (Photo: BWK GmbH). “The deve­lo­p­ment of Xactools confirms our approach of provi­ding entre­pre­neu­rial support to medium-sized tech­no­logy compa­nies as part of succes­sion solu­ti­ons and setting them up speci­fi­cally for the next stage of growth,” adds Chris­tian Hieber, member of the BWK manage­ment team. 

Marvin Krebs, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Xactools GmbH, adds: “BWK has accom­pa­nied us as an entre­pre­neu­rial and long-term orien­ted share­hol­der, espe­ci­ally in the profes­sio­na­liza­tion of our commer­cial struc­tures and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment. We are buil­ding on this toge­ther with Calpen Indus­tries AB.”

About BWK GmbH

BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft (www.bwk.de), based in Stutt­gart, is one of the oldest German private equity compa­nies and pursues a long-term invest­ment approach. The company, which focu­ses on medium-sized compa­nies, was foun­ded in 1990 and employs 13 people. BWK has around 300 million euros in invest­ment funds at its dispo­sal and curr­ently has around 150 million euros inves­ted in 14 compa­nies. — www.bwk.de

Berlin — On-demand food deli­very company Flink has raised around 100 million US dollars in a finan­cing round. The main spon­sor of this finan­cing round is the invest­ment company Prosus, which is once again inves­t­ing in Flink along­side other exis­ting inves­tors. Prosus is alre­ady invol­ved in Deli­very Hero and Just Eat Takea­way. Btomor­row Ventures joins as a new inves­tor. Herbert Smith Freeh­ills Kramer advi­sed Btomor­row Ventures, the corpo­rate venture capi­tal arm of British Ameri­can Tobacco, on this investment. 

The new finan­cing is inten­ded to drive forward Flin­k’s targe­ted expan­sion in its core markets of Germany and the Netherlands.

Flink, based in Berlin, has estab­lished itself as the market leader for on-demand grocery deli­very in Germany and the Nether­lands since it was foun­ded in 2021. The company reaches more than 22.5 million custo­mers in its core markets and employs over 10,000 people. 

Btomor­row Ventures was foun­ded in 2020 and mana­ges 350 million pounds in two stra­te­gic invest­ment funds. The company works with start-ups that are gene­rally in the pre-Series A to Series B+ finan­cing phase. 

Advi­sor to Btomor­row Ventures: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills Kramer

Corporate/M&A: Gregor Klenk (Part­ner, lead, Frank­furt), Dylan Doran Kennett (Part­ner, London), Chris­toph Hempel (Senior Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Employ­ment law: Julia Ickstadt (Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)

About Herbert Smith Freeh­ills Kramer

Herbert Smith Freeh­ills Kramer (HSF Kramer) was formed in June 2025 from the merger of Herbert Smith Freeh­ills and Kramer Levin, estab­li­shing itself as one of the worl­d’s leading global commer­cial law firms. With 2,700 lawy­ers in 26 offices, HSF Kramer offers compre­hen­sive legal advice in all major regi­ons of the world. HSF Kramer is excel­lently posi­tio­ned to assist clients in reali­zing their ambi­tious projects and, in parti­cu­lar, to support them in complex tran­sac­tions and legal dispu­tes. — hsfkramer.com

Düssel­dorf — ARQIS has advi­sed the manage­ment of UK-based Total­mo­bile Limi­ted, a leading provi­der of field service manage­ment soft­ware, in connec­tion with a manage­ment reinvest­ment follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of Total­mo­bile by Five Arrows and funds mana­ged by Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG). With the sale of Total­mo­bile, Bowmark Capi­tal reali­zes its exit. 

Foun­ded in Belfast in 1985, Total­mo­bile Limi­ted is a leading global provi­der of field service manage­ment soft­ware. By offe­ring a cloud-based field-first plat­form, Total­mo­bile enables process opti­miza­tion that goes hand in hand with increased effi­ci­ency for Total­mo­bi­le’s customers. 

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG is an inves­tor in well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies with growth poten­tial in the SME sector, prima­rily in the DACH region. The assets mana­ged and advi­sed by DBAG amount to around 2.6 billion euros. 

Five Arrows, Roth­schild & Co’s specia­list alter­na­tive invest­ments busi­ness, has €31 billion of assets under manage­ment globally. Five Arrows’ corpo­rate private equity busi­ness focu­ses on invest­ments in mid-market compa­nies with strong market posi­ti­ons in the data and soft­ware, tech­no­logy-enab­led busi­ness services and health­care sectors. 

An ARQIS team led by part­ner Dr. Mirjam Boche advi­sed the manage­ment of the Total­mo­bile Group on this tran­sac­tion. The advice included the nego­tia­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of a manage­ment parti­ci­pa­tion program. ARQIS worked closely with the lead law firm Mish­con de Reya, which ARQIS had consul­ted on ques­ti­ons of German law. 

Consul­tant Total­mo­bile Manage­ment: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Dr. Mirjam Boche (Lead Part­ner, Tran­sac­tions), Coun­sel: Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Back­haus (Tran­sac­tions), Jens Knip­ping (Tax)

Mish­con de Reya LLP (London)

Part­ners: Kevin McCar­thy, James Pater­son (both Tran­sac­tions), Mana­ging Asso­ciate: Karine Bashar­dust (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate: Eve Drys­dale (Corpo­rate Tax)

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 www.arqis.com.