Author: Tatjana Anderer

Munich — The Gimv port­fo­lio company KÖBERL Group with Fink Gebäu­de­tech­nik GmbH & Co KG conso­li­da­tes the main loca­tion Munich in the pipe clea­ning and sewage tech­no­logy by acqui­ring the estab­lished specia­list compa­nies Rohr­rei­ni­gungs — Service RRS GmbH and THG Abwas­ser­tech­nik GmbH. The mana­ging part­ner, Andreas Stau­ber, remains on board and takes a stake in the KÖBERL Group. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the transaction.

The aim of the KÖBERL Group is to build up a leading full-service provi­der in buil­ding tech­no­logy and faci­lity manage­ment in Germany. Rohr­rei­ni­gungs — Service RRS GmbH (herein­af­ter also “RRS”) and THG Abwas­ser­tech­nik GmbH (herein­af­ter also “THG”) expand this attrac­tive busi­ness divi­sion of Fink Gebäu­de­tech­nik. This will make the Group a leading provi­der in this segment in the grea­ter Munich area as well. The specia­li­zed compa­nies are known for their custo­mer proxi­mity as well as tech­ni­cal compe­tence, avai­la­bi­lity paired with the most modern tech­ni­cal equip­ment. This merger not only increa­ses the recur­ring reve­nue of the KÖBERL Group, but also repres­ents an ideal stra­te­gic addition.

Andreas Stau­ber explains the merger: “Both RRS and THG have enjoyed an excel­lent repu­ta­tion in the grea­ter Munich area for seve­ral deca­des. I am ther­e­fore very plea­sed to have found a strong part­ner for the future of both compa­nies in the KÖBERL Group, which not only values today’s strong market posi­tion but also intends to conti­nue growing toge­ther. In parti­cu­lar, I am looking forward with great anti­ci­pa­tion to the syner­gies with Fink Gebäu­de­tech­nik that are still to be lever­a­ged. Within the frame­work of a very inten­sive process, the entre­pre­neu­rial approach of the KÖBERL Group, with Gimv as an expe­ri­en­ced and finan­ci­ally strong invest­ment company in the back­ground, was ulti­m­ately decisive.”

Armin and Karl Köberl, mana­ging part­ners of the KÖBERL Group, comment: “With RRS as well as THG we welcome two more members to the KÖBERL Group. Both compa­nies belong to the most renow­ned compa­nies in the field of pipe clea­ning and sewer reha­bi­li­ta­tion in the Munich area and comple­ment our port­fo­lio in the field of buil­ding services but also buil­ding manage­ment. This enables us to respond even better to the wishes and requi­re­ments of our custo­mers and part­ners. We are very much looking forward to an exci­ting and inte­res­t­ing coope­ra­tion that will further increase the Group’s potential.”

“With RRS and THG, we are plea­sed about excel­lently fitting new addi­ti­ons to the group and are proud that the part­ner­ship approach of the KÖBERL Group with Mr. Köberl has convin­ced”, says Maja Marko­vic (photo © GIMV), part­ner of Gimv and advi­sory board member of the KÖBERL Group. “The merger is another important stra­te­gic step for the Group towards beco­ming a leading full-service provider.”

About the KÖBERL Group

The agile group of compa­nies is a growing tech­ni­cally-savvy full-service provi­der of buil­ding tech­no­logy and faci­lity manage­ment services for resi­den­tial and commer­cial proper­ties as well as indus­trial custo­mers in Germany with around 650 employees. In addi­tion to tech­ni­cal buil­ding equip­ment for heating, air condi­tio­ning, venti­la­tion and refri­ge­ra­tion, the Group focu­ses on tech­ni­cal buil­ding manage­ment and inte­gra­ted faci­lity manage­ment. https://koeberl.group/.

About pipe clea­ning service RRS GmbH and THG Abwas­ser­tech­nik GmbH

RRS and THG have been provi­ding pipe and drain clea­ning and sewer reha­bi­li­ta­tion services prima­rily to private house­holds, muni­ci­pa­li­ties and indus­trial compa­nies for over 50 years. Both compa­nies are among the longest-serving compa­nies in this segment in the grea­ter Munich area. For years, nume­rous orders in the field of pipe clea­ning and sewer reha­bi­li­ta­tion have been hand­led by an expe­ri­en­ced and well-coor­di­na­ted team of about 30 employees. www.rrs-abwassertechnik.de and www.thg-abwassertechnik.de.

About GIMV

For over 40 years, Gimv has been iden­ti­fy­ing entre­pre­neu­rial and inno­va­tive compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and, as a Euro­pean invest­ment company, support­ing them on their way to market leader­ship. Listed on Euron­ext Brussels, Gimv curr­ently has a port­fo­lio of around EUR 1.5 billion in invest­ments in more than 60 holdings, which toge­ther realize sales of more than EUR 3.1 billion and employ 19,000 people. www.gimv.com.

Schaan, Liech­ten­stein — FMA Holding AG (“FMA Group”) announ­ces the acqui­si­tion of NOX Systems AG (“NOX”), a leading deve­lo­per and manu­fac­tu­rer in the field of secu­rity tech­no­logy, with a focus on intru­sion detec­tion and access control systems, head­quar­te­red in Vaduz, Liech­ten­stein. The FMA Group thus under­lines its strong growth with another stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion. NOX brings to the group not only outstan­ding deve­lo­p­ment exper­tise in the field of safety systems, but also a new mecha­tro­nic product and a strong custo­mer base. The company’s foun­der, Sven Sauter, will remain with the company in his current role as Mana­ging Director.

NOX products are widely used to support access control, intru­sion detec­tion systems and video surveil­lance. Further­more, the products have a special repu­ta­tion, espe­ci­ally with larger inter­na­tio­nal custo­mers, due to the flexi­bi­lity, indi­vi­dua­lity and holi­stic offer. NOX is able to meet all the secu­rity needs of these custo­mers. Custo­mers include, for exam­ple, banks, muse­ums and other buil­dings that have parti­cu­larly high secu­rity requirements.

“We are deligh­ted about this promi­sing merger,” says NOX Mana­ging Direc­tor Sven Sauter. “We have had trus­ting and valuable discus­sions over time, which have convin­ced me that we have found the right further deve­lo­p­ment for NOX. This step is a posi­tive sign for our employees, custo­mers, suppli­ers and other busi­ness part­ners. We are convin­ced to streng­then our growth with the FMA Group as a strong part­ner. I look forward to actively shaping this path as Mana­ging Director.”

Through the acqui­si­tion of NOX, the FMA Group expands its busi­ness model with a strong product port­fo­lio in the field of safety tech­no­logy. As a result, the FMA Group grows to three compa­nies with a total of four produc­tion sites and appro­xi­m­ately 120 employees, thus streng­thening its posi­tion as a mecha­tro­nics group in the DACH region. NOX will remain as an opera­ting unit under the manage­ment of Sven Sauter.

“The busi­ness model is comple­men­tary to FMA and allows a stra­te­gic further deve­lo­p­ment from “manu­fac­tu­ring service provi­der of mecha­tro­nic assem­blies” to “mecha­tro­nics group with own and third-party products” with a versa­tile engi­nee­ring know-how”, says mana­ging direc­tor of FMA, Erich Trink­ler. “By being geogra­phi­cally close, we hope to mutually bene­fit from this busi­ness combi­na­tion and increase mutual growth.”

About NOX Systems AG

NOX Systems AG was foun­ded in 2001 by Sven Sauter. In a very short time, the company succee­ded in beco­ming a sought-after specia­list for secu­rity systems in the Euro­pean market. The products convince with inno­va­tive spirit and almost unli­mi­ted possi­bi­li­ties. Custo­mer wishes and speci­fic requi­re­ments are always incor­po­ra­ted into the deve­lo­p­ment process, resul­ting in a modu­lar product range that offers maxi­mum perfor­mance and relia­bi­lity, while being precis­ely tail­o­red to the respec­tive custo­mer requi­re­ments. The company is head­quar­te­red in Vaduz, Liech­ten­stein. For more infor­ma­tion, visit: www.noxsystems.com

About FMA Mecha­tro­nic Solu­ti­ons AG

Foun­ded in 1955 and head­quar­te­red in Schaan, Liech­ten­stein, the company star­ted with the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of simple mecha­ni­cal parts. Since the take­over by Stefan Dürr in the 1990s, FMA has deve­lo­ped into a renow­ned mecha­tro­nics service provi­der. As such, FMA supplies custo­mers in the semi­con­duc­tor indus­try, water manage­ment, medi­cal tech­no­logy and the alumi­num indus­try, among others. Since 2019, FMA has been majo­rity-owned by the multi-family holding company Liberta Part­ners. For more infor­ma­tion, visit: www.fma.li

About Liberta Partners

Liberta Part­ners was foun­ded in 2016 and is a multi-family holding company based in Munich. Liberta Part­ners invests in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries with clear opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, espe­ci­ally in succes­sion situa­tions and corpo­rate spin-offs. These are actively deve­lo­ped as part of the long-term “100% Core & Care” concept and bene­fit from Liberta Part­ners’ inno­va­tive entre­pre­neu­rial under­stan­ding. Liberta Part­ners’ team curr­ently consists of 20 employees working in M&A, corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment and legal, as well as an active indus­try advi­sory board. www.liberta-partners.com

Landshut/Munich — Bayern Kapi­tal, one of the most expe­ri­en­ced and active inves­tors in the German high-tech finan­cing land­scape, is inves­t­ing in tado°. The Munich-based scale-up is the Euro­pean market leader for intel­li­gent indoor climate manage­ment and deve­lops energy-effi­ci­ent ther­mo­stats to opti­mize energy consump­tion in resi­den­tial buil­dings. The inves­ted funds come from the ScaleUp-Fonds Bayern, the largest of the invest­ment funds mana­ged by Bayern Kapi­tal. Other inves­tors in the finan­cing round with a total volume of EUR 43 million include Kiko Ventures, Swis­scanto and Trill Impact Ventures as lead inves­tor; previous inves­tors, inclu­ding Noven­tic and Target Part­ners, among others, also parti­ci­pa­ted in the round.

With energy prices rising across Europe, house­holds are incre­asingly looking for ways to reduce high energy costs. An effec­tive method for cost reduc­tion and energy saving is promi­sed by the effi­ci­ent services and products of tado GmbH. Since its foun­ding in 2011, the Munich-based company has been deve­lo­ping consu­mer-friendly and energy-effi­ci­ent ther­mo­stats that are compa­ti­ble with over 95% of all house­holds in Europe across manu­fac­tu­r­ers and can be instal­led by consu­mers them­sel­ves. The energy-saving features reduce custo­mers’ heating costs by an average of 22%. By combi­ning smart ther­mo­stats with time-varia­ble energy rates, a home’s energy use can be shifted to times when energy prices are low. To acce­le­rate its market entry in this area, tado° recently acqui­red aWAT­Tar, a pioneer in energy load shif­ting and time-varia­ble energy offers. Toge­ther, the two compa­nies are now plan­ning to signi­fi­cantly expand their bund­led offe­ring to reduce costs and CO2 emis­si­ons for customers.

tado° sold around three million smart ther­mo­stats by the end of 2022 and doubled its busi­ness with smart ther­mo­stats and service offe­rings in 2022. The step into profi­ta­bi­lity is now to follow in 2023. In order to reach even more house­holds, tado° is plan­ning to work more closely with housing asso­cia­ti­ons that manage a large number of apart­ments for this purpose. A new, adapted product line is to be laun­ched for this market segment this year.

Chris­tian Deil­mann, Co-Foun­der and Chief Product Offi­cer at tado°, comm­ents, “As the market leader in smart indoor climate manage­ment, now is the right time to bring our unique energy manage­ment offe­rings to the mass market. We look forward to strong part­ner­ships with the new investors.”

“With tado°, we have inves­ted in a company that makes the problem of high energy consump­tion in resi­den­tial buil­dings, espe­ci­ally through heating and cooling, more effi­ci­ent and addres­ses it with a sustainable and cost-saving approach,” explains Monika Steger (photo © Bayern Kapi­tal), Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal. “The strong reve­nue growth of the past years proves that with the closed finan­cing round, tado° has the tools to become one of the worl­d’s leading play­ers for intel­li­gent indoor climate manage­ment. We look forward to support­ing the company in its further expan­sion plans.”

Bava­ria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Hubert Aiwan­ger says: “Espe­ci­ally in times of crisis, we need inno­va­tive ideas. tado° has its finger on the pulse with its energy-effi­ci­ent ther­mo­stats. We ther­e­fore support such ambi­tious high-tech compa­nies with our ScaleUp Fund Bava­ria. We thus help you as a co-invest­ment part­ner to realize large finan­cing rounds in parti­cu­larly capi­tal-inten­sive expan­sion phases.”

The ScaleUp Fund Bava­ria was initia­ted by the Bava­rian state govern­ment in July 2021 and has since been mana­ged by Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, a wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern. A prere­qui­site for parti­ci­pa­tion by the ScaleUp Fund Bava­ria is a demons­tra­bly successful, scalable busi­ness model based on an inno­va­tive tech­no­logy, ideally secu­red by property rights, with sustainable unique selling points and clear compe­ti­tive advan­ta­ges. Like all funds mana­ged by Bayern Kapi­tal, ScaleUp-Fonds Bayern never invests in compe­ti­tion, but exclu­si­vely in close coope­ra­tion and always on equal terms with private investors.

About tado°

tado° is the Euro­pean market leader for intel­li­gent indoor climate manage­ment. As the only cross-manu­fac­tu­rer plat­form, tado°‘s Smart Ther­mo­stats and Services are compa­ti­ble with any type of heating or cooling system. Custo­mers bene­fit from energy-saving tech­no­lo­gies such as geofen­cing and window-open detec­tion and varia­ble-time rates. tado° was foun­ded in 2011 and has its company head­quar­ters in Munich. With 180 employees, tado° is revo­lu­tio­ni­zing the way energy is used at home, for more comfort, effi­ci­ency and in harm­ony with nature. www.tado.de

About Bayern Kapital

Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, is the venture/growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria. It accom­pa­nies inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies in the Free State through various growth phases, from seed to later stage, with equity capi­tal in the amount of 0.25 to 25 million euros. Bayern Kapi­tal often fills gaps in the VC sector in proven consor­tium constel­la­ti­ons with private inves­tors (busi­ness angels, family offices and corpo­rate ventures).

Bayern Kapi­tal mana­ges specia­li­zed invest­ment funds with a volume of around 700 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion in 1995 on the initia­tive of the state govern­ment, the wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern has so far inves­ted around 400 million euros of its own equity capi­tal in around 300 start-ups and scale-ups in sectors such as life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 8,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. The active port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 80 companies.

Examp­les of nume­rous ground­brea­king success stories that Bayern Kapi­tal has been invol­ved in early on include EOS (today the worl­d’s leading tech­no­logy provi­der in indus­trial 3D prin­ting of metals and plas­tics), Proglove, Fazua, SimS­cale, Scom­pler, egym, Parcel­lab, Cobrai­ner, Quan­tum Systems, Casavi, Theva, Riskme­thods, Tubu­lis, Cata­lym, Immu­nic, Sirion and many more.
www.bayernkapital.de

Frank­furt a. M. — The sale of Onven­tis to Keen­sight by Main Capi­tal Part­ners is another very successful exit for Main and under­lines the track record of top quar­tile returns. Main Capi­tal inves­ted in Onven­tis in 2019, helping the company become a leading source-to-pay (S2P) provi­der for mid-market compa­nies. Keen­sight, a reco­gni­zed tech­no­logy-focu­sed inves­tor specia­li­zing in pan-Euro­pean growth buyouts, will support Onven­tis in its next phase of growth.

Foun­ded in 2000 and head­quar­te­red in Stutt­gart, Germany, the company’s offe­ring mana­ges the source-to-pay proces­ses of direct and indi­rect mate­ri­als in stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal purcha­sing. Keen­sight, who have been inte­res­ted in the spend manage­ment soft­ware space for years, iden­ti­fied Onven­tis as a market leader early on and reco­gni­zed that Onven­tis stood out for its strong product offe­ring, clear stra­te­gic vision and seam­less execu­tion. Keen­sight will support Onven­tis on its jour­ney to beco­ming an inter­na­tio­nal SaaS cham­pion in the midmar­ket. Throug­hout the part­ner­ship, the entire Onven­tis manage­ment team will remain on board and co-invest with Keen­sight Capital.

During the Main invest­ment period, the company evol­ved from a company focu­sed on the DACH region to a leading pan-Euro­pean provi­der of spend manage­ment soft­ware with local offices in the Nether­lands, Sweden and Austria. During this period, the company became an attrac­tive Rule-of-40 company with a strong focus on recur­ring reve­nue growth and an increase in total reve­nue of more than 2.0x. In addi­tion, Main Capi­tal supported Onven­tis with two stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons in the areas of spend analy­tics and invoice manage­ment to expand the group’s product offe­ring and streng­then its inter­na­tio­nal presence. These achie­ve­ments were also recently reco­gni­zed by Spend Matters, which ranked Onven­tis as one of the top ‘Provi­ders to Watch’.

Frank Schmidt, CEO of Onven­tis, commen­ted, “Onven­tis has a promi­sing future ahead of it and we look forward to start­ing this new chap­ter with Keen­sight as our new part­ner. We believe their exper­tise will drive our growth and look forward to working toge­ther. We would like to expressly thank Main Capi­tal Part­ners for the good coope­ra­tion and their support in the rapid imple­men­ta­tion of our jointly defi­ned growth strategy.”

Yuri Mikhalev, Part­ner at Keen­sight Capi­tal, added: “We are proud to welcome Onven­tis to our port­fo­lio and look forward to working with the team to streng­then the group’s growth and expand the company’s offe­ring and geogra­phic reach. We iden­ti­fied this company as a leading cloud procu­re­ment provi­der, and Onven­tis’ alre­ady outstan­ding market posi­tio­ning, strong brand and attrac­tive profile convin­ced us of the company’s high caliber.”

Sven van Berge Henegou­wen (Photo © Main Capi­tal Part­ners), Mana­ging Part­ner at Main Capi­tal Part­ners, concluded, “We congra­tu­late Onven­tis on ente­ring the next phase of growth with Keen­sight. The company has shown great promise over the past few years and we are proud to have supported Onven­tis with two very stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons that signi­fi­cantly increase custo­mer value. We wish the company, manage­ment and employees all the best for the future.”

About Onven­tis

Onven­tis has been a cloud pioneer for the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of procu­re­ment and finance proces­ses since 2000. Onven­tis Buyer cloud soft­ware is an all-in-one procu­re­ment system that helps compa­nies with all procu­re­ment opera­ti­ons to achieve finan­cial control, process effi­ci­ency, and cost savings while comply­ing with corpo­rate poli­cies and laws. Onven­tis Buyer stream­li­nes and auto­ma­tes all proces­ses from procu­re­ment source to payment, inclu­ding colla­bo­ra­tion with suppli­ers in the network. The Onven­tis network connects busi­ness proces­ses of buyers and suppli­ers — simply and secu­rely. World­wide, more than 1,000 compa­nies with appro­xi­m­ately 450,000 users in the Onven­tis network handle an annual procu­re­ment volume of over 10 billion euros with more than 50,000 suppliers.

About Keen­sight Capital

Keen­sight Capi­tal (“Keen­sight”), one of Euro­pe’s leading growth buyout firms, is dedi­ca­ted to helping entre­pre­neurs execute their growth stra­te­gies. For over 20 years, the Keen­sight Capi­tal team has used its know­ledge of invest­ment and growth indus­tries to make long-term invest­ments in profi­ta­ble compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and reve­nues of between €10 million and €400 million. Drawing on its exper­tise in tech­no­logy and health­care, Keen­sight iden­ti­fies the best invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in Europe and works closely with manage­ment teams to deve­lop and execute their stra­te­gic vision. Keen­sight Capi­tal’s success has earned it a Gold Award from the Private Equity Exch­ange & Awards for the last six conse­cu­tive years, for the best Euro­pean Growth Private Equity Fund.

About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor in the Bene­lux, DACH region and the Nordic count­ries. Main has nearly 20 years of expe­ri­ence streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams of its port­fo­lio compa­nies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to realize sustainable growth and build excel­lent soft­ware groups. Main employs 60 people and has offices in The Hague, Stock­holm, Düssel­dorf, Antwerp and the USA (Boston). As of Octo­ber 2021, Main has over €2.2 billion in assets under manage­ment. Main has inves­ted in more than 150 soft­ware compa­nies to date. These compa­nies have crea­ted jobs for about 9000 employees.