ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR SpA (“Ambi­enta”), one of Euro­pe’s largest asset mana­gers focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity, has reached an agree­ment to sell its port­fo­lio company SF-Filter Group (“SF-Filter”), Euro­pe’s leading provi­der of mobile and indus­trial filters, to funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”).

After Ambi­enta reco­gni­zed the importance of the filter indus­try in driving sustaina­bi­lity trends, the inves­tor acqui­red a majo­rity stake in SF-Filter in Janu­ary 2016. With Ambi­en­ta’s support, SF-Filter was successfully trans­for­med from an owner-mana­ged to a manage­ment-led company with an expe­ri­en­ced leader­ship team and a modern cross-natio­nal matrix organization.

SF-Filter is the leading Euro­pean distri­bu­tor of mobile and indus­trial (non-auto­mo­tive) filters for the secon­dary market: its 140,000 diffe­rent types of filters make an important contri­bu­tion to redu­cing pollutant emis­si­ons and energy consumption

Under the new owner­ship of Ambi­enta, an ERP system1 was intro­du­ced, inte­gra­ting all corpo­rate func­tions and count­ries; an online store was set up and expan­ded with the aim of cove­ring a large part of sales. The supply chain was rede­si­gned and opti­mi­zed by redu­cing the number of local warehou­ses while incre­asing the level of service to custo­mers. A consis­tent sustaina­bi­lity stra­tegy was pursued with signi­fi­cant impact on supply chain manage­ment and energy and water consump­tion, which were redu­ced by 6 percent and 31 percent, respec­tively. All econo­mic profits were inves­ted in the expan­sion of the company and invent­ories to create what is now the largest and most compe­ti­tive one-stop store for filter solu­ti­ons in Europe.

Head­quar­te­red in Bachen­bülach (Switz­er­land), SF-Filter today main­ta­ins distri­bu­tion and logi­stics centers in Germany, Austria, France and Poland, and also serves a number of export markets. The company supplies over 27,000 custo­mers in many Euro­pean count­ries with filters for oil, air, fuel, hydrau­lics, pneu­ma­tics, fluids, dust removal and air condi­tio­ning. The product range compri­ses more than 140,000 filter types, 40,000 of which are perma­nently in stock and available for deli­very at any time. Milan/London/Paris/Munich, 29 September
www.ambientasgr.com

In terms of Ambi­en­ta’s invest­ment stra­tegy, SF-Filter is an invest­ment with a focus on envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. In 2021 alone, SF-Filter’s products clea­ned 2,169 cubic kilo­me­ters of air, equi­va­lent to a column of air 37 kilo­me­ters high over the New York City borough of Manhat­tan. The company’s filters also puri­fied 5,292 million cubic meters of water, equi­va­lent to the annual water consump­tion of about 29 million house­holds. SF-Filter’s products remo­ved 26,266 tons of pollut­ants and ensu­red their proper dispo­sal. This is the same amount of hazar­dous waste that 141,000 EU citi­zens produce each year. In terms of impact on the United Nati­ons Sustainable Deve­lo­p­ment Goals (SDGs), SF-Filter’s opera­ti­ons contri­bute to SDG 6 (clean water and sani­ta­tion) and SDG 12 (sustainable consump­tion and production).

Stefano Bacci, Part­ner at Ambi­enta, said, “SF-Filter is a prime exam­ple of Ambi­en­ta’s invest­ment philo­so­phy: a first-time invest­ment in a company with a very strong envi­ron­men­tal focus that provi­des the foun­da­tion for growth and stabi­lity. Ambi­enta has trans­for­med the company through deep orga­niza­tio­nal and opera­tio­nal actions that have ulti­m­ately led to more growth and higher profitability.”

Daniel Infan­ger, CEO of SF-Filter Group, said: “We would like to thank Ambi­enta for their strong support in the stra­te­gic realignment of our company over the past years. Toge­ther, we have adopted a whole set of measu­res that have enab­led SF-Filter Group to further conso­li­date its leading posi­tion in Europe, increase its effi­ci­ency and custo­mer focus, and create sustainable value. The company is now stron­ger than ever and, with its new part­ner Equis­tone, excel­lently posi­tio­ned for the next steps in its growth.”
The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details of the transaction.

Ambi­enta was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by RW Baird (M&A sell-side), by Dechert, Niede­rer Kraft Frey and Wolf Theiss on legal due dili­gence, by KPMG on finan­cial and tax due dili­gence and by Roland Berger on commer­cial due diligence.

Stefan Maser, David Zahnd and Roman Emanuel Hegglin are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion on the part of Equis­tone.

Equis­tone was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Enqcor (M&A Advi­sory), Boston Consul­ting Group (Commer­cial), Alva­rez & Marsal (Finan­cial), Bär & Karrer (Legal & Tax), Latham & Watkins (Legal Germany), Howden (Insu­rance) and Houli­han Lokey (Debt Advisory).

About Ambi­enta
Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean inves­tor in envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity in private and public markets. From Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of more than 3 billion euros. The focus is on inves­t­ing in private and public compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. In the private equity sector, Ambi­enta has made 57 invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the worl­d’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a full range of sustainable products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds. www.ambientasgr.com

News

Düssel­dorf — ARQIS advi­sed Neodi­gi­tal Versi­che­rung AG (“Neodi­gi­tal”) on the expan­sion of its Series D finan­cing round to include HDI Versi­che­rung AG (“HDI”) as a new inves­tor and part­ner in a newly formed joint venture.

Neodi­gi­tal enters into a joint venture with HDI for the deve­lo­p­ment of a common claims plat­form. In addi­tion to estab­li­shing the joint venture, Neodi­gi­tal was also able to attract HDI as an addi­tio­nal inves­tor. Neodi­gi­tal and HDI are thus pooling their exper­tise: Neodi­gi­tal’s fully digi­tal, agile and highly auto­ma­ted process proces­sing comple­men­ted by the expe­ri­ence of one of Germany’s largest insu­rance compa­nies. On the one hand, the joint claims plat­form repres­ents an important step in HDI’s digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion process; on the other hand, the coope­ra­tion with one of the most important market leaders is another major mile­stone for Neodi­gi­tal in its still young company history.

The ARQIS team around Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze alre­ady supported the first closing of the Series D finan­cing round at Neodi­gi­tal in Janu­ary this year and has been advi­sing the foun­ding inves­tors since their entry.

Advi­sors to Neodi­gi­tal Versi­che­rung AG: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)
Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze, Foto (v. Arqis) (Lead, Corporate/Venture Capi­tal), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP); Coun­sel: Jens Knip­ping (Tax); Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Benja­min Bandur, Kamil Flak, Dr. Nima Hanifi-Atash­gah (all: Corporate/Venture Capi­tal), Nora Meyer-Strat­mann (IP); Asso­cia­tes: Seve­rin Stef­fens (Inter­nal Management/Project Manage­ment), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Back­haus, Chris­tos Chou­de­lou­dis, (all: Corporate/Venture Capi­tal), Jasmin Stucken­b­rock (Tax), Rolf Tichy (IP), Conrad Wiza (Corporate/Venture Capi­tal), Dr. Martina Beren­brin­ker (Labor Law); Legal Specia­lists: Hannah Potter (Corporate/Venture Capital)

About ARQIS
ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent busi­ness law firm opera­ting inter­na­tio­nally. The firm was foun­ded in 2006 in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo. Around 80 lawy­ers and legal specia­lists advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on German and Japa­nese busi­ness law. With the focus groups Tran­sac­tions, HR.Law, Japan, Data.Law and Risk, the firm is geared towards provi­ding holi­stic advice to its clients. www.arqis.com.

News

Munich — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Reed Smith provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Sphera Solu­ti­ons, an ESG port­fo­lio company of Blackstone, USA, on the acqui­si­tion of riskme­thods, a supply chain risk manage­ment soft­ware company based in Munich with subsi­dia­ries in the USA and Poland. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The acqui­si­tion was made as part of a struc­tu­red sales process. During the tran­sac­tion, Sphera/Blackstone was compre­hen­si­vely assis­ted by an inter­di­sci­pli­nary team from Reed Smith in all rele­vant legal areas inclu­ding tech & data and antitrust/foreign trade law. The Reed Smith team was led by part­ners Siddesh Bale (USA) and Dr. Andreas Jürgens; part­ner Dr. Andreas Jürgens was respon­si­ble for legal advice in Germany and said “we are very plea­sed that our global team was able to successfully assist Sphera and Blackstone in this tran­sac­tion, brin­ging not only our many years of M&A expe­ri­ence but also our exper­tise in this important ESG market.”

About Sphera Solutions
Sphera says it is the leading provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal, social and gover­nance (ESG) perfor­mance and risk manage­ment soft­ware, data and consul­ting services focu­sed on envi­ron­ment, health, safety and sustaina­bi­lity (EHS&S), opera­tio­nal risk manage­ment and product steward­ship. For more than 30 years, Sphera has served over 6,700 custo­mers and more than one million users in 80 count­ries to help orga­niza­ti­ons keep their people safe, their products sustainable and their opera­ti­ons productive.

About riskme­thods GmbH
riskme­thods says it enables orga­niza­ti­ons world­wide to iden­tify, analyze and miti­gate all types of supply chain risk manage­ment (SCRM). riskme­thods’ soft­ware uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and machine lear­ning to protect its clients’ supply chain network. Its soft­ware plat­form coll­ects supplier data and real-time infor­ma­tion, distin­gu­is­hes criti­cal signals from “noise,” and provi­des users with visi­bi­lity across multi­ple layers of their supply chain so they can miti­gate the risk of busi­ness disrup­tion and achieve supply chain visibility.
The company’s 200+ employees in 4 offices world­wide serve more than 225 enter­prise customers.

About Blackstone
Blackstone says it is the worl­d’s largest alter­na­tive invest­ment firm. The company’s objec­tive is to create posi­tive econo­mic impact and long-term value for inves­tors and the compa­nies in which it invests. Assets under manage­ment of $941 billion include, on a global basis, invest­ment vehic­les focu­sed on private equity,
Focus real estate, public debt and equity, infra­struc­ture, life scien­ces, growth equi­ties, non-invest­ment grade oppor­tu­ni­stic credit, real assets and secon­dary funds.

Reed Smit­h’s German team included:
Dr. Andreas Jürgens (Part­ner — Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt, Lead Partner)
Dr. Anette Gaert­ner (Part­ner — IP, Frankfurt)
Dr. Michaela Westrup (Part­ner — Anti­trust Law/Foreign Trade Law, Munich)
Daja Apetz-Dreier (Part­ner — Commercial/Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Munich)
Dr. Martin Bünning (Part­ner — Tax Law, Frankfurt)
Dr. Andreas Splitt­ger­ber (Part­ner- Tech & Data, Munich)
Dr. Simon Grie­ser (Part­ner — Finance, Frankfurt)
Chris­tian Leuth­ner (Part­ner — Tech & Data, Frankfurt)
Dr. Philip Schmidt (Coun­sel — Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt)
Judith Becker (Coun­sel — Labor Law, Munich)
Irmela Dölle (Asso­ciate — Tech & Data, Frankfurt)
Julia Hoeren (Asso­ciate — Commercial/Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Munich)
Elisa Saier (Asso­ciate — Labor Law, Munich)
Vincent Magotsch (Asso­ciate — Labor Law, Munich)
Dr. Maria Otter­mann (Asso­ciate — Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Munich)
Sebas­tian Bitter (Asso­ciate — Anti­trust Law, Munich)
Phil­ipp Johan­nes Berg­mann (Asso­ciate — Banking & Finance, Munich)
Anselm Reinerts­ho­fer (Asso­ciate — Banking & Finance, Munich)
Carina Park (Asso­ciate — Tax Law, Frankfurt)

Further­more, lawy­ers from the US offices as well as from London and Leeds, UK, advi­sed on this chal­len­ging transaction.

About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms with more than 1,700 lawy­ers in 30 offices in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.reedsmith.com

News

Munich — With the acqui­si­tion of InoNet, Euro­tech is ente­ring the DACH market for the first time, which is the worl­d’s largest market for indus­trial IoT appli­ca­ti­ons after the USA. Both compa­nies pursue the approach of offe­ring high added value to their deman­ding B2B custo­mers with high-quality products and services. The purchase price is EUR 9.45 million plus a plan­ned earn-out of up to 300,000 Euro­tech shares.

Rödl & Part­ner compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed InoNet Compu­ter GmbH from Tauf­kir­chen on the sale of all shares to the Italian Euro­tech S.p.A. on finan­cial, tax and legal tran­sac­tion issues and led the contract negotiations.

By exploi­ting syner­gies in the area of supply chains and tapping growth poten­tial through cross-selling acti­vi­ties, Euro­tech plans to further deve­lop the future German site. Espe­ci­ally in the emer­ging global edge AI market, InoNet provi­des a solid base for Euro­tech’s further expansion.

During the sale, InoNet was supported by an inter­di­sci­pli­nary team from Rödl & Part­ner for finan­cial, tax and legal sell-side advice. Part­ner Peter Längle was in charge of the over­all project manage­ment and led the M&A process inclu­ding the sales nego­tia­ti­ons. The legal advice, in parti­cu­lar the contract nego­tia­ti­ons, was provi­ded by part­ner Thomas Fräbel. Part­ner Matthias Zahn was respon­si­ble for the sell-side finan­cial support. The M&A Tax depart­ment was headed by part­ner Dr. Dagmar Möller-Gosoge.

About InoNet Compu­ter GmbH 

InoNet says it offers profes­sio­nal compu­ting solu­ti­ons for indus­try and B2B use. The focus is on the deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion of precon­fi­gu­red indus­trial PC solu­ti­ons as well as the design of solu­ti­ons for indi­vi­dual requi­re­ments. The company, based in Tauf­kir­chen near Munich, has been manu­fac­tu­ring indus­trial compu­ters since 1998, ensu­ring certi­fied manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses, compre­hen­sive quality manage­ment and also offers its custo­mers exten­sive main­ten­ance and service. With 80 employees, InoNet serves its more than 1,000 B2B custo­mers and gene­ra­ted reve­nues of €15.2 million in 2021.

About Euro­tech S.p.A.

Euro­tech says it is active in the design, deve­lo­p­ment and sales of edge compu­ting and Inter­net of Things (IoT) solu­ti­ons. Euro­tech’s services include services, soft­ware and hard­ware for system inte­gra­tors and enter­pri­ses. With these solu­ti­ons, Euro­tech offers its custo­mers access to compon­ents and soft­ware plat­forms for IoT, edge gate­ways for plant moni­to­ring, and high-perfor­mance edge compu­ters used in areas such as arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI). Head­quar­te­red in Amaro, Italy, the multi­na­tio­nal company looks back on 30 years of expe­ri­ence and achie­ves an annual turno­ver of appro­xi­m­ately 70 million euros with 7 subsi­dia­ries worldwide.

Advi­sor to the share­hol­ders of InoNet GmbH : Rödl & Part­ner GmbH 

Peter Längle, Part­ner (Corpo­rate Finance), Munich — over­all project manage­ment, nego­tia­tion manage­ment, Matthias Zahn, Part­ner (Tran­sac­tion Services), Munich — sell-side support manage­ment Finan­cial, Fabio Fran­zoi, Senior Asso­ciate (Tran­sac­tion Services), Munich — Finan­cial, Andreas Schu­bert, Asso­ciate (Tran­sac­tion Services), Munich — Financial

Thomas Fräbel, Part­ner, Attor­ney (M&A Legal), Munich — Sell-Side Support Legal and Purchase Agree­ment Nego­tia­ti­ons; Juliane Krafft, Senior Asso­ciate, Attor­ney (M&A Legal), Munich — Sell-Side Support Legal; Malte Kroll, Asso­ciate, Attor­ney (M&A Legal), Munich — Sell-Side Support Legal; Lara Kiefer, Asso­ciate, Attor­ney (M&A Legal), Munich — Sell-Side Support Legal, Dr. Dagmar Möller-Gosoge, Part­ner, Tax Advi­sor (M&A Tax), Munich — Sell-Side Support Tax; Dr. Susanne Kölbl, Part­ner, Tax Advi­sor (M&A Tax), Munich — Sell-Side Support Tax

Advi­sor to the Italian Euro­tech S.P.A.: SLB LAW

Sandra Bend­ler-Pepy, Part­ner and Oliver Baumann, Partner.

About SLB LAW
SLB LAW offers clients full-service consul­ting in all core areas of busi­ness law. In addi­tion to its proven exper­tise in M&A, the firm is known for its advice in banking and capi­tal markets law as well as employ­ment law.
From its head­quar­ters in Munich, SLB mainly advi­ses medium-sized compa­nies as well as German subsi­dia­ries of inter­na­tio­nal groups. The firm is distin­gu­is­hed by its inter­na­tio­nal exper­tise. This is reflec­ted above all in the Italian Desk, which focu­ses on cross-border consul­ting for Italian compa­nies in Germany and German compa­nies in Italy. In addi­tion, SLB is a foun­ding member of the inter­na­tio­nal network Mack­rell Inter­na­tio­nal and the exclu­sive German part­ner law firm of the Grimaldi Alliance.In addi­tion to the Italian law firm Lexia Avvo­cati, SLB LAW’s Italian Desk advi­sed the Italian buyer Euro­tech S.P.A. on this cross-border tran­sac­tion. SLB LAW’s Italian Desk has proven exper­tise in the field of German-Italian transactions.

News

Hamburg — A private equity fund initia­ted by Hamburg-based family office Lennertz & Co. is acqui­ring a mino­rity stake in Super­Vista AG, which opera­tes in Germany under the “brillen.de” brand. Lennertz & Co. and some of Super­Vista’s foun­ders and employees are parti­ci­pa­ting in the current finan­cing round in the double-digit million range.

With its unique digi­tal concept, the Bran­den­burg-based company combi­nes the cost effi­ci­ency of an online provi­der with the neces­sary custo­mer service of tradi­tio­nal opti­ci­ans’ stores. This enables the part­ner opti­ci­ans in the network to hold their own against the compe­ti­tion from the large opti­cal chain stores and online-only providers.

The Super­Vista concept is based on a close inte­gra­tion of online and offline, which builds on strong custo­mer acqui­si­tion through online marke­ting with the grea­test possi­ble digi­ta­liza­tion, start­ing with the offer of glas­ses, through their produc­tion to the hando­ver to the custo­mer on site. Inter­me­diary costs are elimi­na­ted enti­rely. Mean­while, the network of part­ner opti­ci­ans covers 7 count­ries with more than 1,700 stores inclu­ding the company’s own stores. The turno­ver of the Super­Vista Group was recently over EUR 200 million and conti­nues to grow in contrast to the industry.

“The Super­Vista busi­ness model is proof of how disrup­tion works in an indus­try, in this case in fruitful colla­bo­ra­tion with the many part­ner opti­ci­ans on the ground,” says Phil­ipp Lennertz, mana­ging part­ner of Lennertz & Co. “We are plea­sed to again have the oppor­tu­nity to parti­ci­pate in this great growth story in the current round of funding.” Lennertz & Co. had alre­ady held a stake in Super­Vista AG in an earlier phase and had sold its shares to the US invest­ment firm TCV, Super­Vista’s current anchor inves­tor, in 2016.

Matthias Kamp­pe­ter, foun­der of brillen.de: “Our unique busi­ness model and posi­tio­ning as a discoun­ter in the ophthal­mic optics indus­try has proven to be a successful concept for diffe­ren­tia­ting oursel­ves from the major compe­ti­tors for 10 years now. The current capi­tal increase enables us to further expand our network of part­ner opti­ci­ans and our own stores throug­hout Europe.”

About Lennertz & Co.

As an entre­pre­neu­rial and owner-mana­ged family office, Lennertz & Co. is exclu­si­vely focu­sed on the success of its clients’ invest­ments. The invest­ment recom­men­da­ti­ons are in line with the perso­nal prefe­rence of the clients. They bene­fit from the inde­pen­dence of Lennertz & Co. and the exclu­si­vity of the invest­ment opportunities.

Lennertz & Co. also has a large number of autho­riza­tion certi­fi­ca­tes from the German Fede­ral Finan­cial Super­vi­sory Autho­rity (BaFin) and is thus subject to nume­rous quali­ta­tive and quan­ti­ta­tive requi­re­ments of both BaFin and the Deut­sche Bundesbank.
Lennertz & Co. shares its clients’ demand for fast, profound and secure decis­i­ons. In order to thoroughly examine the emer­ging oppor­tu­ni­ties in the venture and growth capi­tal, private equity and block­chain segments for its clients, Lennertz & Co. has a compe­tent team at its dispo­sal that can look back on deca­des of expe­ri­ence. In addi­tion, the advi­sory board consists of renow­ned indus­try, venture capi­tal and private equity experts such as Prof. Dr. Hein­rich von Pierer, Prof. Dr. Klaus Wuche­rer, Stefan Theis, Daniel Thung, Daniel Milleg and Florian Heinemann.

About brillen.de

brillen.de is the German brand of the inter­na­tio­nal omnich­an­nel company Super­Vista AG, which is known for the produc­tion and sale of progres­sive and single vision glas­ses in high quality at low prices. The company star­ted in Germany in 2012 with 12 employees, a few part­ner opti­ci­ans and sales of less than EUR 1 million. Today, more than 1,300 company-owned employees work for the hybrid opti­cian in more than 1,700 affi­lia­ted or company-owned opti­cal stores in curr­ently seven count­ries with sales of more than EUR 200 million (2021). The largest markets are Spain and Italy, ahead of Poland and the United Kingdom.

News

Wetzlar/Klötze — Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor, in asso­cia­tion with sonn­tag corpo­rate finance one of Germany’s leading M&A consul­ting bouti­ques with a focus on medium-sized company succes­si­ons, has advi­sed Altmär­ker Solar­strom GmbH on its successful sale to Avacon Natur GmbH, a subsi­diary of one of the largest regio­nal energy suppli­ers Avacon AG and thus part of the E.ON Group. The previous sole share­hol­der and mana­ging direc­tor of Altmär­ker Solar­strom, Dirk Stehr, will devote hims­elf to new entre­pre­neu­rial chal­lenges and remain with the company as a consul­tant during the transition.

Altmär­ker Solar­strom GmbH was foun­ded in 2004 and focu­ses on plan­ning, consul­ting and instal­la­tion of turn­key photo­vol­taic systems as well as their main­ten­ance and remote data moni­to­ring. It is based in the Altmark­kreis Salz­we­del district in Saxony-Anhalt. The custo­mer base prima­rily includes commer­cial and private property owners in the imme­diate vici­nity of the company’s loca­tion, who bene­fit from the exper­tise and many years of expe­ri­ence of the solar specia­list. This includes profes­sio­nal services such as indi­vi­dual main­ten­ance solu­ti­ons, finan­cing and insu­rance support, and plant clea­ning. Altmär­ker Solar­strom curr­ently employs ten people.

Avacon Natur GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Sarstedt, repres­ents the rene­wa­ble energy divi­sion of Avacon AG, which is one of the largest regio­nal energy supply compa­nies in Germany with around 3,000 employees at 13 loca­ti­ons. Avacon offers regio­nal energy solu­ti­ons in the fields of elec­tri­city, gas, water, heating, cooling, mobi­lity and light­ing. The company also plans, builds and opera­tes modern, high-perfor­mance fiber-optic networks. Avacon is part of the E.ON Group, but at the same time also has a strong muni­ci­pal focus. More than 80 muni­ci­pa­li­ties and districts from the Dutch border to Saxony-Anhalt and from the North Sea coast to southern Hesse hold 38.5% of the shares in Avacon.

“I am plea­sed that we have found an effi­ci­ent, future-orien­ted part­ner in Avacon Natur for our custo­mers and employees, who will conti­nue the company and successfully expand it in the context of the current excel­lent market oppor­tu­ni­ties,” commen­ted Dirk Stehr, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Altmär­ker Solar. “The strong regio­nal approach on both sides was essen­tial for the solu­tion we have now found. The Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor team not only provi­ded us with profes­sio­nal support in our search for the right part­ner with their expe­ri­ence and the neces­sary indus­try know-how, but also actively supported us throug­hout the entire process with their perso­nal commit­ment and dedication.”

“The boom in the photo­vol­taic market had crea­ted a comfor­ta­ble start­ing posi­tion,” comm­ents Sebas­tian Wissig, project mana­ger at Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor. “In combi­na­tion with our active and struc­tu­red process, we were able to find the perfect part­ner for Mr. Stehr, even in these chal­len­ging times for him as well as for Altmär­ker Solar­strom, and successfully complete the tran­sac­tion process in well under 12 months of project time to devote to further entre­pre­neu­rial endeavors.”

About Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor and sonn­tag corpo­rate finance

Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor GmbH, in asso­cia­tion with sonn­tag corpo­rate finance GmbH, is one of the leading M&A consul­ting firms in the German SME sector. The team of almost 30 experts accom­pa­nies medium-sized entre­pre­neurs exclu­si­vely through the entire sales process. “Our task is to safe­guard life’s work,” is how we see oursel­ves. In doing so, custo­mers bene­fit from a unique approach that has won multi­ple awards from the busi­ness press, and which protects the iden­tity of their compa­nies to a special degree. Thanks to their excel­lent access to medium-sized compa­nies, Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor and sonn­tag corpo­rate finance have also estab­lished them­sel­ves as a strong part­ner at the side of renow­ned natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal major compa­nies and inves­tors in acquisitions.

www.nachfolgekontor.de, www.sonntagcf.com

About Altmär­ker Solar­strom GmbH
www.altmarksolar.de

About Avacon Natur GmbH
www.avacon.de

 

News

Frank­furt a.M. — Main Capi­tal Part­ners acqui­res Wanko Infor­ma­ti­ons­lo­gis­tik GmbH and FleetGO Group. The two compa­nies will be merged under the name FleetGO Group to form a new compre­hen­sive logi­stics soft­ware group. The manage­ment of both compa­nies took a mino­rity stake in the tran­sac­tion. McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­sed Main Capi­tal Part­ners on both tran­sac­tions. A team led by Norman Wasse and Dustin Schwerdt­fe­ger advi­sed Main Capi­tal first on the acqui­si­tion of Wanko Infor­ma­ti­ons­lo­gis­tik GmbH and subse­quently on the acqui­si­tion of FleetGO Group.

Wanko Infor­ma­ti­ons­lo­gis­tik is a logi­stics soft­ware part­ner for route plan­ning, warehouse manage­ment and tele­ma­tics, foun­ded in 1972. FleetGO provi­des modern tele­ma­tics solu­ti­ons for compa­nies. Foun­ded in 2010, the company main­ta­ins offices in Düssel­dorf and Istan­bul in addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Hattem, the Nether­lands. Both compa­nies have a substan­tial and well-estab­lished track record as market leaders in their respec­tive sectors. They both focus on the supply chain soft­ware market in Germany and the Nether­lands respectively.

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a stra­te­gic inves­tor focu­sed on enter­prise soft­ware in Bene­lux, DACH and Scan­di­na­via. The company mana­ges assets of around 2.2 billion euros.

The McDer­mott team led by part­ners Norman Wasse and Dustin Schwerdt­fe­ger, which is parti­cu­larly expe­ri­en­ced with soft­ware and tech tran­sac­tions, has alre­ady advi­sed Main Capi­tal on various tran­sac­tions and finan­cings, most recently on the acqui­si­tion and finan­cing of Form­So­lu­ti­ons and Data­Plan by mach­gruppe, Audimex by Swedish port­fo­lio company Blika Solu­ti­ons, and Cryptshare AG by its port­fo­lio company Point­s­harp. Just recently, the team also advi­sed on the dual tran­sac­tion to acquire Plato and IQS.

Advi­sors to Main Capi­tal Part­ners: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Norman Wasse, LL.M. (Lead, Corporate/M&A), Dustin Schwerdt­fe­ger (Finan­cing, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Gudrun Germa­kow­ski (Labor Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Johan­nes Honzen (Real Estate Law), Dr. Chris­tian L. Masch (IT/IP, Munich), Marcus Fischer (Coun­sel, Tax Law); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Marion von Grön­heim, Lisa Schick­ling (Wanko tran­sac­tion only), Isabelle Suzanne Müller (all Corporate/M&A), Lukas Deutz­mann (Labor Law, Cologne/Düsseldorf), Fran­ziska Leub­ner (Labor Law, Munich — Wanko tran­sac­tion only), Isabella Kätzl­meier (IT/IP, Munich), Hannah Henseling (Real Estate Law), Markus Hunken­schrö­der (Finan­cing, Düssel­dorf), Johanna Grei­ßel (Tax Law — FleetGO tran­sac­tion only), Feli­ci­tas Faber (Liti­ga­tion, Munich — FleetGO tran­sac­tion only), Doro­thea Zimny (Public Law, Düssel­dorf — FleetGO tran­sac­tion only)

Addi­tio­nally invol­ved in the FleetGO tran­sac­tion were: McDer­mott Will & Emery, London/Brussels
Calum Thom, Linda Zeman (both Lead, Corporate/M&A), Gary Howes (Coun­sel, Life Scien­ces), Paul McGrath (Employ­ment; all London), Hendrik Viaene (Anti­trust and Compe­ti­tion, Brussels); Asso­cia­tes: Chris Marshall, Rosie Mist, Emmy Clode (all Corporate/M&A), Char­lotte Moor­house (Employ­ment), Sanjeet Johal (Real Estate), Sarah Gabbai (Tax; all London), Hanne­lore Wiame (Anti­trust and Compe­ti­tion, Brussels)

HSA Lawy­ers: Gert-Jan van Dalen, Eva Roel­andt (Dutch law)

About McDer­mott Will & Emery

McDer­mott Will & Emery is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,200 lawy­ers in more than 20 offices in Europe, North America and Asia. Our lawy­ers cover the entire spec­trum of commer­cial and corpo­rate law with their advice. The German prac­tice is mana­ged by McDer­mott Will & Emery Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit: https://www.mwe.com/de/

 

News

Wies­ba­den / Oberts­hau­sen — Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH (“BMH”), the medium-sized invest­ment and venture capi­tal company of the State of Hesse, is inves­t­ing in Stör­te­bek­ker Shaving Access­ories GmbH (SSA). The young e‑commerce start-up revi­ves tradi­tio­nal shaving and beard care with quali­ta­tive zero-waste products and gene­ra­tes a “barber­shop feeling” for their custo­mers at home. In addi­tion to BMH as lead inves­tor, Inves­ti­ti­ons- und Struk­tur­bank Rhein­land-Pfalz (ISB) through its subsi­diary Venture-Capi­tal Rhein-Neckar (VC RN) and a co-inves­tor parti­ci­pa­ted in the finan­cing round in the upper six-figure range.

SSA was foun­ded by Martin Picard in 2017 as an Amazon store with the aim of assis­ting custo­mers as a barber in their own home. 2020 follo­wed the online store, through which the high-quality shaving and beard care products, such as razors, shaving brushes and knives are addi­tio­nally distri­bu­ted. The range is comple­men­ted by the complete range of access­ories: soaps, beard balm, shaving oil, combs and brushes thus complete the perso­nal shaving expe­ri­ence. In addi­tion to a video tuto­rial about beard care, the company will add more access­ories for men to its product range in the near future.

“The Stör­te­bek­ker brand is inten­ded to stand for mascu­li­nity, free­dom and rela­xa­tion among our custo­mers and to trans­form shaving from an “annoy­ing evil” into a posi­tive ritual,” descri­bes Martin Picard (photo), foun­der and CEO of SSA, his vision of the home barber­shop, adding, “In contrast to the widely used system razors, we rely on products that are also used in profes­sio­nal barber­shops. Our plas­tic-free products feature opti­mal shaving results with less skin irritation.”

The new finan­cial resour­ces in the upper six-figure range are to be used predo­mi­nantly for the expan­sion of sales acti­vi­ties to further sales plat­forms, the retail trade and barbershops.

“Despite boot­strap­ping, SSA has alre­ady shown an impres­sive sales and earnings deve­lo­p­ment in the first years due to the great perso­nal commit­ment of Martin Picard. We are plea­sed to be able to support the company in its further busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment and in the expan­sion of a strong brand,” says the respon­si­ble invest­ment mana­ger Dirk Pieper of BM H Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH, which mana­ges the Hessen Kapi­tal III (EFRE) GmbH fund, among others.

“We are very plea­sed to be able to accom­pany this promi­sing company on its growth path toge­ther with our colle­agues from Hesse,” said Mike Walber, Head of Venture Capi­tal at ISB.

About BMH

BMH Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH, based in Wies­ba­den, was foun­ded in 2001 and is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Hessen-Thürin­gen Giro­zen­trale (Helaba). Through Wirt­schafts- und Infra­struk­tur­bank Hessen (WIBank), BMH is actively invol­ved in the econo­mic deve­lo­p­ment acti­vi­ties of the State of Hesse. As a medium-sized invest­ment and venture capi­tal company, BMH bund­les public invest­ment inte­rests and finan­cing instru­ments for early-stage, growth and medium-sized compa­nies in Hesse. BMH curr­ently mana­ges seven invest­ment funds with a total inves­ted invest­ment volume of around 125 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion, BMH has inves­ted in a total of more than 500 compa­nies. The main areas of invest­ment include the soft­ware & IT, life scien­ces, mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring, indus­trial goods, profes­sio­nal services and e‑commerce sectors. More infor­ma­tion about BMH and its funds: www.bmh-hessen.de

About the ISB

Inves­ti­ti­ons- und Struk­tur­bank Rhein­land-Pfalz (ISB) is the deve­lo­p­ment insti­tu­tion of the state of Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate with head­quar­ters in Mainz and is respon­si­ble for econo­mic and housing deve­lo­p­ment. As part of the finan­cing of start-ups and young compa­nies, the venture capi­tal divi­sion of the deve­lo­p­ment bank curr­ently invests in the deve­lo­p­ment and market launch of inno­va­tive products, a process or services via ten invest­ment funds and also supports the compa­nies in an advi­sory capacity.

About the VC RN

VC RN is an invest­ment company foun­ded by the savings banks and coope­ra­tive banks from the Rhine-Neckar region and the ISB, which invests in inno­va­tive and high-growth compa­nies from the Rhine-Neckar region. The fund is mana­ged by the ISB’s Venture Capi­tal, Equity Invest­ments division.

 

News

Munich — Busi­ness law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus advi­sed HANNOVER Finanz and ARCUS Capi­tal AG on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in KDM Kontor Digi­tal Media and LuckyS­ha­re­man by Löwen­stark Group. The finan­cing was provi­ded by Nord­deut­sche Landesbank.

Through these acqui­si­ti­ons, the Löwen­stark Group is conti­nuing its growth stra­tegy in the market for online marke­ting services. KDM Kontor Digi­tal Media is one of the most expe­ri­en­ced media agen­cies in Germany, and the LuckyS­ha­re­man agency specia­li­zes in sustainable influen­cer marketing.

The owner-mana­ged invest­ment company HANNOVER Finanz is one of the first venture capi­ta­lists in Germany. With more than 40 years of expe­ri­ence, she mainly accom­pa­nies growth finan­cing and succes­sion plan­ning of solid medium-sized companies.

ARCUS Capi­tal is a Munich-based inde­pen­dent invest­ment company focu­sing on majo­rity invest­ments in medium-sized family-owned compa­nies in the DACH region.

In the past, Gütt Olk Feld­haus had advi­sed HANNOVER Finanz and ARCUS Capi­tal on the acqui­si­tion finan­cing of Löwen­stark Group.

Legal advi­sors to HANNOVER Finanz Group and ARCUS Capi­tal: Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich
Dr. Tilmann Gütt, LL.M. (London) (Part­ner, Banking/Finance, Lead), Chris­to­pher Krappitz, M.A. (Asso­ciate, Banking/Finance)

 

News

Colo­gne — BELGRAVIA & CO. exclu­si­vely advi­sed the main share­hol­ders of Schu­mag AG (“Schu­mag”, www.schumag.de) on the capi­tal increase against cash contri­bu­ti­ons with allo­ca­tion to exis­ting share­hol­ders and TPPI GmbH (“TPPI”) as addi­tio­nal, new main share­hol­der. The capi­tal increase was carried out by making full use of the Autho­ri­zed Capi­tal 2021.

SCHUMAG AG is a listed company with around 450 employees whose precis­ion products are “Made in Germany” and expor­ted world­wide. Schu­mag produ­ces highly complex precis­ion parts made of steel, which are supplied to custo­mers world­wide accor­ding to custo­mer drawings in various quan­ti­ties, even into the milli­ons. In the stan­dard parts sector, Schu­mag manu­fac­tures products for mold and tool making.

Aachen-based TPPI GmbH, which is backed by Aachen-based Profes­sor Dr. Thomas Prefi, joins regio­nally ancho­red major share­hol­ders as a further major share­hol­der in Schu­mag AG as part of the capi­tal increase. Prefi is an adjunct profes­sor at RWTH Aachen Univer­sity and co-foun­der of P3 Inge­nieur­ge­sell­schaft — the Umlaut Group, now part of Accenture.

Schu­mag CEO Johan­nes Wienands sees the commit­ment of TPPI as a further buil­ding block for the future stra­tegy: “With Profes­sor Dr. Thomas Prefi, we are gaining not only a strong share­hol­der, but also smart capi­tal in the best sense of the word. He knows from his own entre­pre­neu­rial expe­ri­ence how change proces­ses have to be desi­gned and, with his network, is also a strong driving force for our most important change areas of digi­tiza­tion and auto­ma­tion.” The capi­tal increase is inten­ded in parti­cu­lar to imple­ment Schu­mag AG’s growth strategy.

BELGRAVIA & CO. acted as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to the sellers.

News

Berlin — Berlin-based fintech topi, foun­ded in 2021, has raised $45 million, inclu­ding $15 million in equity. The round is again led by Crean­dum and Index Ventures with parti­ci­pa­tion from Sili­con Valley-based Triple­Point Capi­tal. This means that the start-up has raised almost 50 million US dollars in less than a year. topi’s tech­ni­cal infra­struc­ture enables resel­lers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers to offer hard­ware subscrip­ti­ons to busi­ness custo­mers. This will revo­lu­tio­nize the way compa­nies procure hard­ware and drive the tran­si­tion to a circu­lar economy.

topi enables retail­ers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers to offer their products as subscriptions

Globally, more than $3,700 billion* in capi­tal expen­dit­ures are made annu­ally. In the field of elec­tro­nic equip­ment alone, a wide variety of opera­ting resour­ces have to be procu­red, ranging from compu­ters, moni­tors, smart­phones or prin­ters to indus­try-speci­fic special machi­nery. Owner­ship of these physi­cal assets, howe­ver, invol­ves both finan­cial and opera­tio­nal costs for compa­nies. topi enables compa­nies to rent hard­ware, turning expen­sive invest­ments into low monthly opera­ting costs. In addi­tion, it helps compa­nies avoid obso­lete hard­ware, save time mana­ging exis­ting devices, improve opera­tio­nal flexi­bi­lity and opti­mize cash flow.

For manu­fac­tu­r­ers and retail­ers, hard­ware subscrip­ti­ons are compli­ca­ted and come with a variety of chal­lenges, such as: Risk and fraud manage­ment, refi­nan­cing, the inclu­sion of insu­rance offe­rings and the asso­cia­ted payment flows. With the subscrip­tion option embedded in the purcha­sing process, B2B resel­lers will be able to offer hard­ware-as-a-service in the online store, tele­sa­les and in stores. topis fraud and risk system checks custo­mers’ credit­wort­hi­ness in real time. Retail­ers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers are thus expan­ding their custo­mer base and impro­ving both the custo­mer expe­ri­ence and the loyalty of their customers.

“We are making the as-a-service models that have long been estab­lished for soft­ware the stan­dard for hard­ware as well,” explain Estelle Merle and Char­lotte Pallua, the foun­ders of topi. “Our subscrip­tion plat­form ensu­res that busi­ness custo­mers can protect their cash while their employees never have to work with outda­ted equip­ment again. We firmly believe that in the future, every retailer and manu­fac­tu­rer will also need to offer their products as a subscrip­tion model in order to remain competitive.”

Stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with GRAVIS

topi also announ­ces a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with GRAVIS. As one of the leading elec­tro­nics retail­ers in Germany, the company is the first to offer a subscrip­tion model with the fintech’s platform.

“We’ve been looking for a part­ner like topi for a long time,” says Jan Sper­lich, CEO of GRAVIS. “We are thril­led that our busi­ness custo­mers can now easily rent their IT equip­ment in real time and without complex proces­ses and bureau­cra­tic paper­work. Alre­ady during the pilot phase, almost half of our busi­ness custo­mers who rented hard­ware with topi have rented products again. We look forward to further colla­bo­ra­tion and expan­ding our offe­ring using topi’s platform.”

Jan Hammer and Julia Andre, part­ners at Index Ventures, join topi’s Board of Direc­tors. Says Andre, “Compa­nies want to focus on getting good results and not get bogged down by the comple­xity of equip­ment procu­re­ment. topi elimi­na­tes the confu­sion of vendors and costs that make opera­ting equip­ment leasing so diffi­cult, and offers a hard­ware subscrip­tion solu­tion for dealers that opens up unpre­ce­den­ted terms to their busi­ness custo­mers. We are impres­sed with the speed of imple­men­ta­tion at topi and believe they are in the opti­mal posi­tion to make this change happen at scale.”

Around 50 million tons of e‑waste end up in land­fills world­wide every year**, which is over 7 kg per person. Manu­fac­tu­r­ers need to think more long term and not just focus on the purchase, but consider how to give the product a second life or how to recy­cle them properly. At a time when the world is turning more and more to the circu­lar economy, topi will play a key role in redu­cing hard­ware waste.

“We believe topi will be one of the driving forces in resha­ping B2B payments,” said Simon Schmin­cke, gene­ral part­ner at Crean­dum, who also joins the board of direc­tors. “The idea is inno­va­tive, fills a gap that has exis­ted for far too long, and bene­fits ever­yone. In the end, it will be about imple­men­ta­tion. And in terms of that, topi has put toge­ther an incre­di­ble team, the likes of which we’ve rarely seen in a company at this stage.”

topi was foun­ded by Char­lotte Pallua and Estelle Merle, who met at Harvard Busi­ness School and have held leader­ship posi­ti­ons at Apple and Gold­man Sachs. Since its foun­ding last year, topi has grown into a company with 35 employees from 13 count­ries. The team comes from compa­nies such as Revo­lut, PayPal, GoCard­less, Checkout.com, N26, McKin­sey, BCG and Meta. Half of the leader­ship team and 60% of the tech team are female. topi is head­quar­te­red in Berlin, but is being built as a remote-first company to secure talent across Europe. Two thirds of the team work from other Euro­pean countries.

Notes: * S&P Global Market Intel­li­gence, global corpo­rate capi­tal expen­dit­ure, ** Statista, Global e‑waste statis­tics and facts.

About topi
topi is a fintech company whose tech­ni­cal infra­struc­ture enables merchants and manu­fac­tu­r­ers to offer hard­ware subscrip­ti­ons to their busi­ness custo­mers. The Hard­ware-as-a-Service plat­form allows dealers to conve­ni­ently offer their products as rentals to their busi­ness custo­mers online, in tele­sa­les or in the store. The Berlin-based company was foun­ded in 2021 by Char­lotte Pallua and Estelle Merle. topi is funded by Index Ventures, Crean­dum and Sili­con Valley-based Triple­Point Capi­tal, as well as foun­ders and early employees from Adyen, Stripe, N26, Senn­der, Wefox, HelloFresh, Cloud­flare, Perso­nio, Foodora and more

About Crean­dum
Crean­dum, foun­ded in 2003, is a leading pan-Euro­pean venture capi­tal fund. The fund’s port­fo­lio includes more than 120 compa­nies across a wide range of indus­tries, inclu­ding some of Euro­pe’s most successful tech compa­nies, e.g. Spotify, Klarna, Depop, Kry, Trade Repu­blic, Pleo and Vivino. Today, one in six of these compa­nies is a Unicorn.

Crean­dum’s consul­ting teams are based in Stock­holm, London, Berlin and San Fran­cisco. They have exten­sive opera­tio­nal exper­tise with which they support port­fo­lio compa­nies of the fund from the seed phase to exit and with the aim of making them global market leaders in their cate­gory. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.creandum.com.

About Index Ventures
Index Ventures invests in outstan­ding foun­ders who are not only ideally posi­tio­ned through rele­vant expe­ri­ence and/or exper­tise, but also intrin­si­cally moti­va­ted to realize their ideas. Index helps entre­pre­neurs build global busi­nesses from their visio­nary ideas and use them to make a posi­tive impact on the world.

News

Munich — An inter­di­sci­pli­nary team of entre­pre­neurs has come toge­ther to form Sophora Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“Sophora”), an inde­pen­dent invest­ment company focu­sed on the DACH small cap market. The foun­ding team consists of three former Silver­fleet Capi­tal employees and two expe­ri­en­ced non-execu­tive direc­tors and has many years of expe­ri­ence in the invest­ment indus­try as well as opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence as foun­ders and CEOs of compa­nies. In addi­tion, the team has worked toge­ther for many years in previous roles and has a highly successful joint invest­ment track record.

Sophora focu­ses on medium-sized compa­nies in the DACH region with sales between 5 and 50 million euros and a posi­tive opera­ting cash flow. The invest­ment stra­tegy is based on thema­tic invest­ments focu­sing on the follo­wing areas (i) Energy tran­si­tion & resource avai­la­bi­lity, (ii) B‑E-S-T1 tech­no­lo­gies and (iii) buy-and-build stra­te­gies predo­mi­nantly in the indus­trial and B2B services sectors and typi­cally includes majo­rity or signi­fi­cant mino­rity stakes. “We invest in compa­nies that bene­fit from the macroe­co­no­mic tail­winds of our invest­ment themes and help them realize their full growth poten­tial by provi­ding flexi­ble capi­tal, our stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal exper­tise, and access to our network of experts,” said Benja­min Hubner, Mana­ging Part­ner of Sophora.

Sophora aims to be an entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner that enables compa­nies to disco­ver and deve­lop undis­co­vered value. Like the tree “Sophora Japo­nica”, which is also called honey tree due to its charac­te­ristic as a bee nutri­ent plant, Sophora relies on symbio­tic part­ner­ships based on trust and relia­ble coope­ra­tion. “Our goal is to become the honey bee among inves­tors and realize alpha returns in the DACH small cap market,” says Jenni­fer Regehr, Mana­ging Part­ner (photo, copy­right SOPHORA).

Sophora is active in the DACH small cap market, where the company sees an oppor­tu­nity to gene­rate alpha returns based on attrac­tive indus­try dyna­mics and under­ly­ing target speci­fics. In addi­tion, the Sophora team’s long-stan­ding rela­ti­onships and inves­tor network give the company privi­le­ged access to infor­ma­tion, exper­tise and proprie­tary leads. “We believe we can add signi­fi­cant value to our manage­ment teams and port­fo­lio compa­nies as well as to our inves­tors,” commen­ted Neil MacDou­gall, Chairman.

Toge­ther with two dedi­ca­ted value crea­tion and sustaina­bi­lity part­ners, Sophora brings a growth-orien­ted, best-in-class approach to value crea­tion tail­o­red to the indi­vi­dual profile and speci­fics of each port­fo­lio company. “Sophora’s goal is to be a trus­ted and value-crea­ting part­ner to the manage­ment teams of our port­fo­lio compa­nies,” said Dr. Michael Matros, Part­ner Value Crea­tion & Sustaina­bi­lity. Joop Heijen­rath, Part­ner Value Crea­tion & Sustaina­bi­lity, adds: “We are convin­ced that non-finan­cial crite­ria, espe­ci­ally ESG aspects, can influence the valua­tion of compa­nies and should ther­e­fore be conside­red in invest­ment decis­i­ons and effec­tive value crea­tion plans.

www.sophora.de

News

Munich — The Bremen-based start-up Elise has successfully closed its Series A finan­cing round with 14.5 million euros. The total amount is provi­ded by lead inves­tor Spark Capi­tal toge­ther with inves­tors UVC Part­ners, BMW i Ventures, Cherry Ventures and Venture Stars. The goal of the funding is to estab­lish the low code stan­dard in engi­nee­ring, as well as to expand the appli­ca­tion areas to other engi­nee­ring domains.

The start-up foun­ded in 2018 around the foun­ders Dr. Moritz Maier, Sebas­tian Möller and Daniel Siegel convin­ced the VCs with its open Connec­ted Engi­nee­ring plat­form for networked, digi­tal and auto­ma­ted product deve­lo­p­ment. With a back­ground in bionic rese­arch and offe­ring engi­nee­ring services, the foun­ding team deve­lo­ped a solu­tion for their projects to over­come the chal­lenges of manual and repe­ti­tive deve­lo­p­ment tasks. Soon, custo­mers wanted not only tech­ni­cal services, but also access to the soft­ware solution.

“With the help of the Series A funding, we are making signi­fi­cant progress toward our goal of beco­ming the low code stan­dard in engi­nee­ring. The ease of use of our visual programming language allows engi­neers to map and auto­mate deve­lo­p­ment proces­ses in a very short time,” explains Dr. Moritz Maier. “With our open plat­form, we enable engi­neers to trans­fer the agile and effi­ci­ent methods of soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment to hard­ware deve­lo­p­ment. This auto­ma­tes manual and repe­ti­tive tasks and enables compa­nies to manage the growing comple­xity of product deve­lo­p­ment in the face of incre­asing cost and inno­va­tion pressures.”

“Thanks to Elise, the idea of Connec­ted Engi­nee­ring is alre­ady part of ever­y­day life at renow­ned compa­nies such as BMW, Daim­ler and Airbus. When Elise custo­mers achieve up to 90 percent time savings in deve­lo­p­ment proces­ses, it’s much more than a proof of concept. It’s the future of engi­nee­ring that Elise custo­mers can parti­ci­pate in today,” said Alex Finkel­stein, Gene­ral Part­ner at Spark Capi­tal.

Benja­min Erhart, Part­ner at UVC Part­ners, under­lines the importance of the solu­tion: “Elise has alre­ady funda­men­tally chan­ged the way products are deve­lo­ped today. We didn’t think at the begin­ning that rapid itera­ti­ons, lever­aging of expe­ri­ence and easy inte­gra­tion of exis­ting tools would have such a huge impact on product deve­lo­p­ment: The impro­ve­ments Elise has been able to achieve with its first well-known custo­mers, both in terms of deve­lo­p­ment time and part perfor­mance, are incre­di­ble. We are convin­ced that the Elise plat­form will soon be the prefer­red tool for engi­neers in their day-to-day operations.”

Elise’s custo­mers include BMW Group, Brose Group, EDAG Engi­nee­ring, Hyun­dai Motor Group, Toyota Gazoo Racing and MAN Truck & Bus.

About UVC Partners

UVC Part­ners is a Munich and Berlin based early-stage venture capi­tal firm inves­t­ing in Euro­pean B2B start-ups within the enter­prise soft­ware, indus­trial tech­no­lo­gies and mobi­lity sectors. The fund typi­cally invests between €0.5 million and €10 million at the outset and up to €30 million in total per company. The port­fo­lio compa­nies bene­fit from the exten­sive invest­ment and exit expe­ri­ence of the manage­ment team as well as from the close coope­ra­tion with Unter­neh­mer­TUM, Euro­pe’s leading center for inno­va­tion and busi­ness crea­tion. With over 300 employees and more than 100 indus­try part­ners, Unter­neh­mer­TUM can draw on many years of expe­ri­ence in buil­ding young compa­nies. This colla­bo­ra­tion allows UVC Part­ners to provide start­ups with unique access to talent, indus­try clients and other finan­cial part­ners. www.uvcpartners.com

About Elise

Deve­lo­ped by engi­neers for engi­neers: The foun­ders have provi­ded engi­nee­ring services at the Alfred Wege­ner Insti­tute for over 10 years and have desi­gned a graphi­cal programming language to help you design and manage your projects more effi­ci­ently. www.elise.de

News

Hamburg — Soft­ware-as-a-service start-up Plan­craft recei­ves €1.9 million from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors and €200,000 in funding in its seed finan­cing round. The Hamburg-based trio of foun­ders is thus firing up the marke­ting of its invoi­cing soft­ware, which is geared towards simpli­city, in the craft market, which has been little digi­ta­li­zed to date. The vision behind Plan­craft is getting closer: to create the basis for busi­nesses to be econo­mic­ally successful.

Enorm­ous poten­tial in cons­truc­tion and crafts

In Germany, around 500,000 craft enter­pri­ses work in the cons­truc­tion and finis­hing trades*. A large part is equip­ped with IT solu­ti­ons that tech­no­lo­gi­cally date from the last three deca­des. Skills shorta­ges and demo­gra­phic change are incre­asing the pres­sure on compa­nies to become more effi­ci­ent. In his father’s carpen­try shop near Hamburg, foun­der and inven­tor Alex­an­der Noll expe­ri­en­ced first-hand which funda­men­tal proces­ses are crucial and where craft­smen lose valuable time.

“When a quote takes seve­ral hours to complete, people in the plants suffer tremen­dous stress and can’t focus on their craft,” said Alex­an­der Noll, co-foun­der of Plancraft.

Funding to enable scaling

With a web appli­ca­tion for office work that is desi­gned for user-friend­li­ness, Plan­craft is now brin­ging a breath of fresh air to the trade, which is not very digi­tal in places. To actively shape the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of the indus­try, the Plan­craft team now secu­red €1.9 million in seed funding, follo­wing initial fede­ral funding in 2020 and an angel invest­ment in 2021.

“A very moti­va­ted team, a simple product that is also in demand by custo­mers, and a poten­ti­ally gigan­tic market convin­ced us. Plan­craft has prepared the scaling and we are happy to be on board, explains Louis Heinz”, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at High-Tech Gründerfonds.

In addi­tion to exis­ting inves­tors and HTGF, three other VC compa­nies inves­ted: BitStone Capi­tal, XDECK and real­PACE. The Hambur­ger Inves­ti­ti­ons und Förder­bank is funding the inno­va­tive start-up with a further 200,000 euros as part of the Inno­Fin­Tech funding program.

Modern tech­no­lo­gies for contem­po­rary work

In times of grea­ter networ­king and new work culture, the need for flexi­ble and decen­tra­li­zed working is growing. The Plan­craft team’s approach focu­ses firstly on redu­cing the tech­ni­cal burden for the chro­ni­cally over­loa­ded target group. By elimi­na­ting the need for initial instal­la­tion or manual updates, new tech­no­lo­gi­cal foun­da­ti­ons are crea­ted in opera­ti­ons thanks to the cloud. Secondly, users can work on their prefer­red devices, whether tablet compu­ter, Apple laptop or smartphone.

“We all depend on the skil­led trades, today and espe­ci­ally in a low-carbon future. With the help of the new capi­tal, our team can now provide the thou­sands of small busi­nesses with a modern tool,” explains Julian Wieden­haus, co-foun­der and CEO of Plancraft

About Plan­craft

Plan­craft allows craft­speo­ple to focus on what they love. With apps desi­gned for user-friend­li­ness, Plan­craft makes office work easier and saves valuable working time when calcu­la­ting quota­ti­ons, writing invoices or commu­ni­ca­ting with employees. The cloud-based app impres­ses small craft busi­nesses with unpre­ce­den­ted perfor­mance and is the only tool fully opti­mi­zed for use on tablet devices. With a start­ing price of 29 euros per month, large invest­ments in IT are a thing of the past, ther­eby support­ing the urgen­tly needed start-up culture in the skil­led trades. Back in 2019, the three foun­ders Alex­an­der Noll, Richard Keil and Julian Wieden­haus found each other. In the mean­time, around 16 employees at Plan­craft GmbH are pursuing the common mission: “Less office. More craft­sman­ship.” www.plancraft.de

About BitStone Capital

BitStone Capi­tal is a venture capi­tal inves­tor focu­sed on inno­va­tive and sustainable tech­no­logy compa­nies in the cons­truc­tion and real estate indus­tries. Beyond finan­cing, BitStone Capi­tal cata­ly­zes the growth of its real estate and cons­truc­tion tech port­fo­lio compa­nies with its exten­sive network, unique indus­try know­ledge and access, and speci­fic exper­tise in emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies. With its invest­ments, BitStone Capi­tal aims to contri­bute to the sustainable and future-orien­ted trans­for­ma­tion of the cons­truc­tion and real estate industry.

About real Pace

real PACE is an inde­pen­dent inves­tor and company buil­der focu­sed on the cons­truc­tion and real estate indus­tries, inves­t­ing from a deep under­stan­ding of the market. Focu­ses on inno­va­tive and disrup­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies, scalable busi­ness models, and teams that are chan­ging the indus­try for the long term. real PACE market under­stan­ding and network are based on a team that combi­nes foun­der expe­ri­ence with rele­vant indus­try exper­tise and success-criti­cal profes­sio­nal skills. With its own market intel­li­gence team, real PACE supports port­fo­lio compa­nies sustain­ably and provi­des access to a broad network of powerful partners.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds

The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported more than 670 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of HTGF IV, more than EUR 400 million in fund volume will be added in the fall of 2022. The team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. More than €4 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,900 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 160 companies.
The fund inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Climate Protec­tion, KfW Capi­tal, the Fraun­ho­fer-Gesell­schaft and nume­rous compa­nies from a wide range of industries.

News

Munich/Berlin — ]init[ AG für digi­tale Kommu­ni­ka­tion, a port­fo­lio company of the invest­ment compa­nies EMERAM and Rivean Capi­tal, is expan­ding its inter­na­tio­nal public sector busi­ness with the acqui­si­tion of the Swiss company Iron­f­orge Consul­ting AG. The tran­sac­tion, effec­tive Septem­ber 1, 2022, has now been successfully comple­ted. The aim is to tap into the Swiss market as well as to further deve­lop the port­fo­lio for end-to-end digi­tiza­tion solu­ti­ons. ]init[, with more than 800 employees, is conside­red one of the leading project service provi­ders in the field of digi­tal transformation.

Since Septem­ber 1, ]init[ has held 100 percent of the shares in the Swiss IT consul­tant Iron­f­orge. Iron­f­orge Consul­ting AG is an estab­lished player in the Swiss market since 2009 with 35 employees. The company’s custo­mers include a large number of Swiss fede­ral minis­tries. In addi­tion, Iron­f­orge also works for admi­nis­tra­tion-rela­ted compa­nies such as Swiss Post and Swiss­com. Among other things, Iron­f­orge has parti­ci­pa­ted in the deve­lo­p­ment of a Swiss ePor­tal for the administration.

The part­ner­ship will further streng­then Iron­f­or­ge’s posi­tion in its core markets in Switz­er­land and enable it to accom­pany the Swiss admi­nis­tra­tion along the entire digi­tiza­tion process. The company is thus alig­ning itself with the conti­nuing growth in demand for holi­stic digi­tiza­tion in the public sector and is crea­ting offe­rings for the consis­tent intro­duc­tion and opti­miza­tion of front-end and back-end solutions.

The current manage­ment team of Iron­f­orge around the two mana­ging direc­tors Roberto Santo­vito and Gianni Lepore will accom­pany the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company. Both will retain a stake in the company to drive the expan­sion of Iron­f­orge toge­ther with ]init[. In return, Harald Felling, CEO of ]init[ AG, will join the board of direc­tors of Iron­f­orge AG.

Dr. Chris­tian Näther, Mana­ging Part­ner at EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners (Photo: Emeram), comm­ents: ”]init[ is a digi­tal success story par excel­lence. With the acqui­si­tion, the company streng­thens its inter­na­tio­nal orien­ta­tion and gains an important loca­tion abroad. As a busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment part­ner, we compre­hen­si­vely support ]init[‘s dyna­mic growth course. This has enab­led the company to signi­fi­cantly expand its market posi­tion in recent years. We conti­nue to see considera­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties for the future, also through further acquisitions.”

Harald Felling, CEO of ]init[ AGIron­f­orge and we share a common culture, a very simi­lar DNA and a strong focus on the public sector. We are ther­e­fore deligh­ted to be able to promote Iron­f­orge with our many years of expe­ri­ence in end-to-end digi­tiza­tion in the public sector and support it in its further growth. In this way, we want to help shape the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of Switz­er­lan­d’s like­wise fede­rally orga­ni­zed administration.”

Gianni Lepore, foun­der and CEO of Iron­f­orge AG, adds: “With ]init[ as an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner, Iron­f­orge will conti­nue its success story with even more power. We want to signi­fi­cantly expand our depth and breadth of services in order to provide our custo­mers with even better support for IT projects and digi­ta­liza­tion projects. In this way, we want to become a central driver of user-centric digi­tiza­tion for the Swiss administration.”

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Advi­sors ]init[ : Noerr and Wenger Platt­ner (Legal) and BDO (Finan­cial)

About ]init[ — www.init.de

]init[ AG für digi­tale Kommu­ni­ka­tion is one of the leading full-service provi­ders for digi­tal projects in Germany. The company employs over 800 people (FTE) in Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Colo­gne, Munich and Mainz.

With fee reve­nues of over EUR 138 million, ]init[ is one of the ten fastest-growing Inter­net agen­cies accor­ding to the BVDW 2022 ranking. In the ranking of digi­tal expe­ri­ence service provi­ders by Lünen­donk & Hossen­fel­der, ]init[ ranked 13th in 2021 as a “rising star” with an impro­ve­ment. ]init[‘s more than 500 custo­mers include the Press and Infor­ma­tion Office of the German Fede­ral Govern­ment as well as nume­rous fede­ral and state minis­tries, Conti­nen­tal AG, BSH Haus­ge­räte and Heidel­berg Cement.

ABOUT Iron­f­orge Consul­ting AG ‑www.ironforge.ch

Iron­f­orge Consul­ting AG is an inde­pen­dent and neutral IT consul­ting company based in Muri near Bern and a subsi­diary of the German ]init[ AG für digi­tale Kommu­ni­ka­tion since Septem­ber 2022. The Iron­f­orge manage­ment team is formed by Roberto Santo­vito (COO) and Gianni Lepore (Foun­der and CEO). They are the first point of cont­act for all matters.

In its core areas of Project Services and Busi­ness Services, Iron­f­orge supports its custo­mers from the plan­ning and concep­tion to the imple­men­ta­tion of their ICT projects. The consul­tants include expe­ri­en­ced IT project mana­gers, busi­ness analysts and poly­va­lent IT experts. In addi­tion to nume­rous Swiss fede­ral offices and various cantons, custo­mers also include admi­nis­tra­tion-rela­ted compa­nies. Iron­f­orge curr­ently employs 35 people and was foun­ded in 2009.

About EMERAM CAPITAL PARTNERS — www.emeram.com

EMERAM is one of the leading invest­ment mana­gers for medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. Funds advi­sed by EMERAM provide more than €500 million in capi­tal for the deve­lo­p­ment of growth compa­nies. The port­fo­lio includes compa­nies from the Technology/Software, Value-added Services and New Consu­mer Stap­les sectors. EMERAM acts as a long-term busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment part­ner for its compa­nies and promo­tes the sustainable growth (orga­nic and inor­ga­nic) of the port­fo­lio compa­nies. In addi­tion, the focus is on the imple­men­ta­tion of holi­stic ESG concepts.

The port­fo­lio curr­ently consists of six plat­form invest­ments with a cumu­la­tive work­force of more than 2,500. The compa­nies conti­nuously achieve double-digit orga­nic sales growth. In addi­tion, a total of 30 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons to date have acce­le­ra­ted growth and enab­led inter­na­tio­nal expansion.

News

Grün­wald, Septem­ber 6, 2022 — AURELIUS Growth Capi­tal sells Aero­tec Europe GmbH (“Aero­tec Group”) inclu­ding its subsi­diary Airplane Equip­ment & Services A.E.S. to the finan­cial inves­tor Borro­min Capi­tal Fonds IV.

The Aero­tec Group, inclu­ding its subsi­diary Airplane Equip­ment & Services, is a leading service company for the air cargo indus­try in Europe. Repair and main­ten­ance of air freight contai­ners are the focus of the company with around 120 employees. In addi­tion, certi­fied main­ten­ance and repair services are provi­ded for regu­la­ted passen­ger aircraft compon­ents. The company main­ta­ins custo­mer rela­ti­onships with well-known Global Air Cargo compa­nies at all rele­vant German cargo airports.

“The corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment of Airplane Equip­ment & Services as well as the successful manage­ment buy-out exem­plify our special exper­tise in faci­li­ta­ting successful succes­sion plan­ning in medium-sized compa­nies. We bring our opera­tio­nal approach inten­si­vely into this process and always accom­pany our port­fo­lio as a close as well as relia­ble part­ner on the deve­lo­p­ment path,” comm­ents Eric Blumen­thal, Mana­ging Part­ner of AURELIUS Wachstumskapital.

In 2016, AURELIUS acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Airplane Equip­ment & Services as part of a corpo­rate succes­sion. The company has achie­ved very good opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment during its time in the AURELIUS port­fo­lio — inclu­ding signi­fi­cant reve­nue and earnings growth. Toge­ther with the AURELIUS team, the manage­ment successfully navi­ga­ted the uphe­avals of the COVID pande­mic. In 2021, Frank Kusse­row, an indus­try expert, could be won as mana­ging direc­tor. Kusse­row took over respon­si­bi­lity from foun­der Willy Rein­hardt, seam­lessly contin­ued the company’s deve­lo­p­ment and acqui­red a stake in Airplane Equip­ment & Services as part of the transaction.

“My special thanks go to the AURELIUS Growth Capi­tal team around Eric Blumen­tal, who supported us in close shoulder-to-shoulder from the very begin­ning and stood by us as a valuable spar­ring part­ner,” says Frank Kusserow.

“In tran­sac­tions, it always depends on the part­ners. We are convin­ced that we have found a suita­ble inves­tor and manage­ment combi­na­tion in Borro­min and Frank Kusse­row. Accor­din­gly, we are confi­dent about the future opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment of the Aero­tec Group,” Blumen­thal continued.

Advi­sor AURELIUS Growth Capital: 

Stephens Invest­ment Banking (M&A, Phil­ipp von Grawert and Valen­tin zur Strassen),
EGO HUMRICH WYEN (Legal, Dr. Alex­an­der Ego, Dr. Jan-Henning Wyen and Dr. Achim Speng­ler), Ebner Stolz (Finan­cial Due Dili­gence, Joerg Scho­berth and Jan Phil­ipp Schwed­helm) and CIL Manage­ment Consul­tants (Commer­cial Due Dili­gence, Juliane Kaden-Botha and Florian Wohlfart).

About Borro­min Capital

Borro­min Capi­tal Manage­ment GmbH (Borro­min) successfully struc­tures, finan­ces and accom­pa­nies corpo­rate succes­si­ons in Germany and neigh­bor­ing count­ries. By provi­ding equity capi­tal, Borro­min enables company owners to trans­fer their life’s work in an orderly manner and ensu­res the contin­ued deve­lo­p­ment of the compa­nies. In addi­tion, we parti­ci­pate in Group spin-offs and provide equity capi­tal for fast-growing compa­nies. We attach great importance to the manage­ment teams beco­ming co-entre­pre­neurs through equity participation.

Borro­min was foun­ded in 2001 in Frank­furt as an inde­pen­dent consul­ting firm for equity finan­cing (private equity) owned by the part­ners and is curr­ently advi­sing the fourth Borro­min Fund. The funds’ capi­tal is provi­ded by insti­tu­tio­nal and private inves­tors from Germany and abroad.

About the AEROTEC Group

The Aero­tec Group (as well as Airplane Equip­ment & Services) was foun­ded in 1997 in Colo­gne by Willy Rein­hard as a service company for main­ten­ance and repair work on regu­la­ted compon­ents of passen­ger aircraft. Since then, the company has expan­ded its service port­fo­lio and become a leading service provi­der for the air freight indus­try in the DACH region. The company main­ta­ins five inde­pen­dent bran­ches near the airports of Colo­gne, Frank­furt, Leip­zig and Basel. Each loca­tion offers its custo­mers certi­fied services at the highest level.

About AURELIUS

AURELIUS is a pan-Euro­pean alter­na­tive invest­ment group with offices in London, Luxem­bourg, Munich, Amster­dam, Stock­holm, Milan, Madrid and Düssel­dorf. AURELIUS has exten­sive opera­tio­nal exper­tise as well as expe­ri­ence and is thus in a posi­tion to acce­le­rate the value crea­tion process in its port­fo­lio companies.

The main invest­ment plat­forms are the AURELIUS Euro­pean Oppor­tu­ni­ties IV Fund and the exch­ange-traded AURELIUS Equity Oppor­tu­ni­ties SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN: DE000A0JK2A8, stock exch­ange symbol: AR4), which acquire group spin-offs and compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial in the midmar­ket sector. The core element of the invest­ment stra­tegy is to grow the port­fo­lio compa­nies with a team of nearly 100 in-house opera­tio­nal taskforce experts.

AURELIUS is also active in the busi­ness areas of growth capi­tal, real estate and alter­na­tive forms of finan­cing. AURELIUS Growth Capi­tal parti­ci­pa­tes in LBO tran­sac­tions for midmar­ket succes­sion solu­ti­ons. AURELIUS Real Estate Oppor­tu­ni­ties focu­ses on real estate invest­ments with sustainable value enhance­ment poten­tial through active manage­ment. AURELIUS Finance Company offers flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for compa­nies throug­hout Europe.

 

News

Berlin — Berlin-based fund Project A Ventures recently parti­ci­pa­ted in the Series D finan­cing round of Italian real estate plat­form Casavo. The funding has a total volume of € 400 million, consis­ting of a € 100 million equity finan­cing and € 300 million from debt capi­tal and thus repres­ents the largest fund­rai­sing for a PropTech company in Europe. The finan­cing round was led by Exor, a holding company run by the Agnelli family that makes a variety of invest­ments ranging from publi­shing (e.g., The Econo­mist) to auto­mo­tive brands (e.g., Ferrari and Stellan­tis) to soccer clubs (Juven­tus). In addi­tion to Project A Ventures, Greenoaks, 360 Capi­tal, P101 SGR, Picus Capi­tal and Bonsai Part­ners also parti­ci­pa­ted. — YPOG advi­sed venture capi­tal inves­tor Project A Ventures on this and the follo­wing two rounds of financing.

Project A Ventures also inves­ted in French pet insu­rance plat­form Dalma. The Series A finan­cing round has a total volume of € 15 million
and was led by North­zone, with further parti­ci­pa­tion from Project A Ventures and Anterra Capi­tal. Exis­ting inves­tors Global Foun­ders Capi­tal and Frst as well as Kima Ventures also parti­ci­pa­ted again.

The venture capi­tal inves­tor also led the seed funding round of Berlin-based startup Root Global. Root Global’s mission is to make the Carbon OS
of the food indus­try. The finan­cing has a total volume of € 2.5 million. In addi­tion to Project A Ventures, invest­ments were also made by Nucleus Capi­tal and seve­ral busi­ness angels such as Meng­ting Gao, Andreas Berger, Max Vies­mann, Markus Windisch, Michael
Brink­mann and Mario Götze.

Advisor:inside Project A Ventures:

Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Rosa Wizisla (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Roman Schäle (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate Alex­an­der Sekunde (Tran­sac­tions), Associate

About Project A Ventures

Project A is one of the leading venture capi­tal firms in Europe with offices in Berlin and London.In addi­tion to assets under manage­ment of appro­xi­m­ately $600 million
Project A supports its port­fo­lio compa­nies with a team of more than 100 experts in soft­ware and product deve­lo­p­ment, busi­ness intel­li­gence, bran­ding, design, marke­ting, sales and recrui­ting. Project A was foun­ded in 2012 and has since
supported more than 100 start-ups. The port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as Trade Repu­blic, World­Re­mit, senn­der, KRY, Spry­ker, Cata­wiki and Voi.

About YPOG

YPOG is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of Funds, Tax and Tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally ranked by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, YPOG employs more than 100 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.

News

Stock­holm | Hous­ton — Qbtech, the soft­ware provi­der of the objec­tive ADHD tests QbTest and QbCheck, today announ­ces an invest­ment from growth-focu­sed equity inves­tor Verdane. Qbtech is the market leader in objec­tive measu­re­ment of ADHD symptoms and is trans­forming ADHD treat­ment for indi­vi­du­als and society at large. In colla­bo­ra­tion with health­care and educa­tion profes­sio­nals in the U.S. and Europe, Qbtech shor­tens time to diagno­sis and enables opti­miza­tion of treat­ment for child­ren and adults with ADHD. Verda­ne’s invest­ment will help Qbtech further acce­le­rate growth through new tech­no­lo­gies, new custo­mer segments and by signi­fi­cantly expan­ding in exis­ting markets.

Qbtech’s mission is to improve the lives of people with ADHD and to help more pati­ents access quality treat­ment. To achieve this, Qbtech will support pati­ents and promote new models of care that increase access to care while impro­ving clini­cal and medi­cal outco­mes. Qbtech’s current products improve the skills of profes­sio­nals through objec­tive data and trai­ning, helping to address the dual chal­lenges of work­force shorta­ges and the drama­tic increase in demand for ADHD care follo­wing the COVID pande­mic. Future products will build on this and put pati­ents at the center of their treatment.

“Verdane is an expe­ri­en­ced inves­tor in health­care soft­ware, and we look forward to working with Qbtech at this pivo­tal moment in their growth jour­ney,” said Henrik Aspén of Verdane (photo, copy­right Verdane). “Qbtech offers unique tech­no­logy that is driving the stan­dard for clini­cal vali­da­tion and advan­cing new tech­no­lo­gies at a rapid pace. Our team is impres­sed with their breakth­rough, inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies that improve care, reduce health­care costs and provide an amazing expe­ri­ence for pati­ents and their families.”

The invest­ment in Qbtech is made from Verda­ne’s Idun Fund, which is clas­si­fied as “Article 9” under the EU Finan­cial Disclo­sure Regu­la­tion. Idun makes invest­ments focu­sed on driving impact in three areas: Energy Tran­si­tion, Sustainable Consump­tion, and Resi­li­ent Commu­ni­ties. Previous invest­ments include Auntie, a digi­tal provi­der of work­place well­ness services; Spond, a digi­tal provi­der of grass­roots sports and physi­cal health; and EVA Global, a mana­ged services provi­der support­ing the global shift to elec­tric vehic­les. To date, Verdane has inves­ted in over 30 sustainable society companies.

“We are plea­sed that Verdane is confi­dent in our track record and mission to trans­form ADHD care. We have always stri­ved to import the best aspects of health­care tech­no­logy into medi­cal tech­no­logy, and Verda­ne’s exper­tise in tech­no­logy and soft­ware-enab­led busi­nesses will be of great value to us,” said Carl Reuter­s­ki­old, CEO of Qbtech.

About Qbtech

Foun­ded in 2002, Qbtech is a priva­tely held Swedish company that has deve­lo­ped leading solu­ti­ons and products to improve the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, diagno­sis, treat­ment and follow-up of pati­ents with ADHD. Qbtech opera­tes in 13 count­ries and has offices in Stock­holm, Hous­ton and London. Qbtech is an award-winning company reco­gni­zed for its inno­va­tion, and was recently awarded the 2022 HSJ Part­ner­ship Award for “Best Part­ner­ship with the NHS in Mental Health. www.qbtech.com

About Verdane

Verdane is a growth capi­tal invest­ment specia­list firm that part­ners with tech­no­logy-based and sustainable Euro­pean compa­nies to help them reach the next level of inter­na­tio­nal growth. Verdane can invest as a mino­rity or majo­rity inves­tor, either in indi­vi­dual compa­nies or in port­fo­lios of compa­nies, and focu­ses on three core themes: the digi­tal consu­mer, soft­ware ever­y­where and sustainable society. The Verdane funds have a total volume of over 4 billion euros and have made over 140 invest­ments in fast-growing compa­nies since 2003. Verda­ne’s team consists of more than 100 invest­ment and opera­tio­nal profes­sio­nals based in Berlin, Copen­ha­gen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and Stock­holm and aims to be the prefer­red growth part­ner for tech­no­logy-enab­led and sustainable compa­nies in Europe.

News

Regens­burg — The share­hol­ders of CIC Erneu­er­bare Ener­gien GmbH (“CIC”) of Regens­burg have sold the photo­vol­taic plants alre­ady in opera­tion to the infra­struc­ture inves­tor Blue­field Revive Italia Srl (“BRI1”) of Milan and to Solar­Ka­pi­tal GmbH (“Solar­Ka­pi­tal”) of Frank­furt am Main. The PV port­fo­lio of a total of nine systems includes one of the worl­d’s largest carport systems. This part of the tran­sac­tion was sold to BRI1, an Italian subsi­diary of Blue­field Part­ners LLP (“Blue­field”) of London, whereas a smal­ler part of the entire port­fo­lio is connec­ted in Germany and was acqui­red by Solar­Ka­pi­tal. — MAYLAND acted as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to CIC in this global sell side process.

CIC successfully deve­lops its own inno­va­tive capi­tal invest­ments and is an estab­lished system provi­der in the rene­wa­ble energy sector with its own sales force. In addi­tion, CIC plans, builds and opera­tes large-scale power plants in the field of rene­wa­ble ener­gies world­wide. CIC is thus constantly commit­ted to the expan­sion of rene­wa­ble ener­gies and to the deve­lo­p­ment of ecolo­gi­cally orien­ted and econo­mic­ally viable products.

Blue­field is a long-term invest­ment advi­sor with signi­fi­cant expe­ri­ence in execu­ting and finan­cing tran­sac­tions and advi­sing on rene­wa­ble energy invest­ments in Europe, with a strong presence in Italy. Blue­field is, among other things, invest­ment advi­sor to Blue­field Solar Income Fund Ltd (“BSIF”), the first UK-focu­sed solar fund listed on the London Stock Exch­ange. Blue­field has led the acqui­si­tion of more than 650 MW of solar PV assets in the UK and Europe for BSIF and other funds advi­sed by Blue­field. In 2021, Blue­field served as invest­ment advi­sor to funds and vehic­les with total assets under manage­ment of €1.2 billion.

Foun­ded in 2010, Solar­Ka­pi­tal is an invest­ment company that focu­ses exclu­si­vely on invest­ments in the solar indus­try. In doing so, Solar­Ka­pi­tal invests capi­tal and entre­pre­neur­ship in both compa­nies and PV projects. The port­fo­lio curr­ently includes PV plants in Germany, Greece and France, where Solar­Ka­pi­tal acts as asset manager/IPP.

MAYLAND acted as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to CIC in this global sell side process and was able to draw on its long-stan­ding exper­tise in the rene­wa­ble energy sector as well as its excel­lent network of finan­cial and infra­struc­ture investors.

About MAYLAND AG

MAYLAND AG is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged global M&A and corpo­rate finance consul­tancy. We regu­larly deve­lop indi­vi­dual tran­sac­tion struc­tures for our clients for the purchase and sale of compa­nies or parts of compa­nies and arrange any finan­cing requi­red for these tran­sac­tions. In addi­tion, we assist our clients in raising equity and debt capital.

Due to nume­rous comple­ted tran­sac­tions, the MAYLAND team has exten­sive sector know­ledge in various indus­tries, which is comple­men­ted by many years of expe­ri­ence as well as a solid inter­na­tio­nal network of equity and debt inves­tors. www.mayland.de.

About Solar­Ka­pi­tal

Solar­Ka­pi­tal (“SK”), foun­ded in 2010 and based in Frank­furt am Main, is an invest­ment company focu­sed exclu­si­vely on invest­ments in the solar indus­try. SK Kapi­tal invests entre­pre­neu­rial know-how in compa­nies as well as in exis­ting and new PV projects. The port­fo­lio curr­ently includes PV plants in Germany, Greece and France, where SK acts as asset manager/IPP, as well as a 100% stake in ENcome Energy Perfor­mance GmbH (“ENcome”).

SK offers a unique combi­na­tion of inter­na­tio­nal solar, finan­cial, tran­sac­tional and manage­ment exper­tise coupled with inte­grity, relia­bi­lity and sound­ness. SK’s many years of expe­ri­ence in private equity, corpo­rate finance, mid-market and rene­wa­ble energy make it the part­ner of choice for compa­nies in the solar indus­try. https://solarkapital.com

News

Munich — PINOVA Capi­tal has sold Sill Optics to Deut­sche Private Equity. King & Wood Malle­sons (KWM) advi­sed funds mana­ged by PINOVA Capi­tal GmbH (PINOVA Capi­tal) as well as other share­hol­ders on the sale of all shares in Sill Optics Group (Sill Optics).

Sill Optics is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion optics used in laser mate­rial proces­sing, addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring, medi­cal tech­no­logy and accom­pany­ing chip manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses, among others. With around 250 employees, Sill Optics deve­lops and manu­fac­tures in Wendel­stein. PINOVA Capi­tal acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the company in 2019 and has since successfully deve­lo­ped it further.

PINOVA Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment company that invests in fast-growing tech­no­logy compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. PINOVA Capi­tal focu­ses on medium-sized compa­nies with reve­nues between EUR 10 million and EUR 75 million in the Indus­trial Tech­no­logy and Infor­ma­tion Tech­no­logy sectors, which are charac­te­ri­zed by signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial, sustainable compe­ti­tive advan­ta­ges and a strong market posi­tion in their niche.

Advi­sors to PINOVA Capi­tal GmbH: King & Wood Mallesons

Markus Herz, Hanno Brandt, Lorenz Liebsch, Julian Buhr (PSL), Damian Thiele (all Corpo­rate), Markus Hill, Vikto­ria Rosbach (both Tax), Tilman Siebert (Antitrust/ Compe­ti­tion), Martin Gliewe (Employ­ment).

About PINOVA

PINOVA Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment company that invests in fast-growing medium-sized compa­nies in the indus­trial tech­no­logy and infor­ma­tion tech­no­logy sectors in German-spea­king count­ries. PINOVA curr­ently mana­ges a fund volume of over €450 million.

News

Düsseldorf/ Stutt­gart — With the acqui­si­tion of LotteStyle GmbH, the invest­ment company INVICTO Holding GmbH is finan­cing the first invest­ment for the newly foun­ded empact brands GmbH, which is to conso­li­date and further deve­lop sustainable Amazon Power­sel­lers under one roof. Stutt­gart-based stra­tegy consul­ting boutique FOSTEC & Company advi­sed INVICTO as part of the commer­cial due dili­gence process.

With the acqui­si­tion of the Amazon power seller LotteStyle, the Düssel­dorf-based invest­ment company INVICTO imple­ments the first tran­sac­tion of the newly foun­ded empact brands GmbH. empact brands focu­ses on the conso­li­da­tion and further deve­lo­p­ment of sustainable Amazon Power­sel­lers. The company takes over LotteStyle as part of a succes­sion plan. Since its foun­ding, LotteStyle GmbH has been selling in the areas of baby fashion, swim­wear for women and clot­hing for women prima­rily as a power seller on Amazon and eBay. The company opera­tes under the three brands TupTam, Aquarti and Alkato.

The stra­tegy consul­ting boutique FOSTEC & Company with its team around Mana­ging Part­ner Markus Fost (photo) compre­hen­si­vely supported the client INVICTO Holding in the tran­sac­tion. The consul­tancy included commer­cial due dili­gence inclu­ding analy­sis of the digi­tal value chain and all e‑commerce acti­vi­ties. “FOSTEC advi­sed us in the context of a commer­cial due dili­gence of an Amazon Power­sel­ler. The team’s market and tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise made it very easy for us to enter the indus­try. In addi­tion to CDD, we appre­ciate the team’s networ­king approach, which has also given us good ideas for recrui­ting digi­tal talent and opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment of our acqui­si­tion.” says Ferdi­nand von Hammer­stein, Mana­ging Direc­tor of INVICTO Holding GmbH about the coope­ra­tion with FOSTEC & Company.
www.fostec.com

News

Hamburg — German fiber-optic provi­der Deut­sche Giga­Netz GmbH has joined infra­struc­ture inves­tor DWS. DWS initi­ally intends to invest a mid-three-digit million euro amount. The exis­ting inves­tor InfraRed Capi­tal Part­ners will conti­nue to provide equity and remains inves­ted, as does the foun­ding team around CEO Jan Georg Budden. In the medium term, DWS intends to become a majo­rity share­hol­der. A YPOG team led by Jörn Wöbke advi­sed the German fiber optic provi­der Deut­sche Giga­Netz GmbH on this transaction.

Last year, Deut­sche Giga­Netz set itself the target of inves­t­ing €3 billion in fiber-optic expan­sion within five years and provi­ding one million house­holds, mainly in rural areas, with a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connec­tion. The invest­ment by Deut­sche Bank’s fund subsi­diary DWS is now expec­ted to help fulfill the origi­nal €3 billion busi­ness plan as well as enable growth beyond that.

The team led by Jörn Wöbke, whose exper­tise Deut­sche Giga­Netz alre­ady relied on in the last finan­cing round in 2021, advi­sed on all legal and tax issues.

Consul­tant Deut­sche Giga­Netz: YPOG
Dr. Jörn Wöbke (Lead, Corpo­rate), Partner
Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Tax), Partner
Dr. Emma Peters (Corpo­rate), Senior Associate
Johan­nes Schmidt (Corpo­rate), Associate
Boris Schin­zel (Corpo­rate), Associate
Lukas Schmitt (Tax), Associale

About Deut­sche GigaNetz

Deut­sche Giga­Netz, based in Hamburg, Germany, focu­ses on infra­struc­ture and IT tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons products, in parti­cu­lar the deve­lo­p­ment, cons­truc­tion and opera­tion of high-quality fiber optic tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons networks. The company is commit­ted to a future-orien­ted Inter­net infra­struc­ture in Germany and is working to provide fast, relia­ble and cost-effec­tive fiber-optic and high-speed Inter­net connec­tions. The fiber-optic tech­no­logy offe­red by Deut­sche Giga­Netz is supe­rior to copper or cable networks not only in the areas of data commu­ni­ca­ti­ons and trans­port. FTTH infra­struc­tures in parti­cu­lar also promise signi­fi­cant energy savings compared with conven­tio­nal networks.

About YPOG

YPOG is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of Corpo­rate, Funds, Liti­ga­tion, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, IP/IT, Notary Services, Banking + Finan­cial Services and FinTech + Block­chain. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are listed natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, YPOG employs more than 100 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.ypog.law

News

Koblenz/ Frankfurt/ Los Ange­les — Gibson, Dunn & Crut­cher LLP has advi­sed US private equity firm SC Holdings on a stra­te­gic equity invest­ment in Canyon Bicy­cles, the Koblenz-based manu­fac­tu­rer of premium bicy­cles. Inves­tors in Canyon Bicy­cles through SC Holdings include LRMR Ventures, the family office of U.S. basket­ball play­ers LeBron James and Maverick Carter.

Canyon, based in Koblenz and employ­ing around 1400 people around the world, made a turno­ver of 416 million euros in 2020 and manu­fac­tures racing bikes, triath­lon bikes, moun­tain bikes and e‑bikes, among other things. The manu­fac­tu­rer is heavily invol­ved in profes­sio­nal sports and works with athle­tes such as road cyclist Mathieu van der Poel and triath­lete Jan Frodeno. Howe­ver, Canyon also sells bikes to private custo­mers via direct sales. Share­hol­der of the Koblenz-based manu­fac­tu­rer remains company foun­der Roman Arnold.

The Gibson Dunn corpo­rate team, led by part­ner Kevin Masuda (Los Ange­les) and Frank­furt asso­ciate Dr. Jan Schu­bert, included coun­sel Anne­kat­rin Pels­ter and asso­ciate Bastiaan Wolters (both Frank­furt). Coun­sel Alex­an­der Klein (Frank­furt) advi­sed on finan­cing, Munich part­ner Dr. Hans Martin Schmid on tax law.

About Gibson Dunn

Gibson, Dunn & Crut­cher LLP is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms and is ranked among the top law firms world­wide in indus­try surveys and by autho­ri­ta­tive publi­ca­ti­ons. With more than 1,600 lawy­ers in 20 offices, the firm has a global presence in all major econo­mic regi­ons. Gibson Dunn offices are loca­ted in Brussels, Century City, Dallas, Denver, Dubai, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Los Ange­les, Munich, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Beijing, San Fran­cisco, São Paulo, Singa­pore and Washing­ton, D.C. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.gibsondunn.com.

News

Boizenburg/Essen/Wetzlar — Graf­tec GmbH from Boizen­burg in Meck­len­burg, an inter­na­tio­nally successful tool­ma­king company for custo­mers in the cera­mics indus­try, will become part of the Vamea Group. The group of compa­nies from North Rhine-West­pha­lia focu­ses on medium-sized compa­nies in tool­ma­king, parts produc­tion and rela­ted areas and sees itself as a solu­tion provi­der for indus­trial growth sectors. The now comple­ted acqui­si­tion of Graf­tec marks an important acqui­si­tion for the Vamea Group, which was foun­ded at the end of 2021. Graf­tec was advi­sed exclu­si­vely by the Wetz­lar-based M&A consul­tancy Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor in asso­cia­tion with sonn­tag corpo­rate finance on the age-rela­ted succes­sion plan.

Foun­ded in 2005, the special tool­ma­ker Graf­tec produ­ces custo­mi­zed pres­sing tools of the highest quality made of steel and their repla­ce­ment compon­ents such as punches and wear strips, espe­ci­ally for custo­mers in the tile indus­try. Thanks to state-of-the-art machi­nes ranging from CNC grin­ding machi­nes to HSC milling machi­nes, even high-alloy tool steels can be proces­sed quickly and to the highest quality stan­dards. The broadly diver­si­fied product port­fo­lio also includes rege­ne­ra­tion for all products, an in-house plan­ning depart­ment with quali­fied engi­neers and tech­ni­ci­ans, and modern equip­ment for auto­ma­ting produc­tion. The custo­mers are mainly from Germany and other Euro­pean count­ries such as France, Great Britain, the Nether­lands and Poland. The two mana­ging owners, Jörn Graf and Michael Harder, had deci­ded to sell the company for reasons of age. Mr. Graf and Mr. Harder will be joined on the Manage­ment Board by Mathias Welt­eroth, Member of the Manage­ment Board and Chief Opera­ti­ons Offi­cer (COO) of the Vamea Group.

Vamea AG was foun­ded by German entre­pre­neur and inves­tor Martin Kiene, among others, earlier this year. The Group’s primary objec­tive is to enable family-run mold­ma­king busi­nesses such as Graf­tec to succeed. At the same time, the compa­nies are expec­ted to bene­fit from signi­fi­cantly impro­ved condi­ti­ons and advan­ta­ges for custo­mers and employees as a result of the merger. The aim is to gradu­ally estab­lish a leading group of compa­nies in the market for the produc­tion of tools, parts and components.

“We warmly welcome Graf­tec and all of its employees to our company,” said Vamea foun­der Kiene. “With its port­fo­lio of services and, above all, its employees, we have found the ideal part­ner for our group of compa­nies in Graf­tec. We are looking forward to the jour­ney toge­ther.” The acqui­si­tion compri­ses all shares.

“After all these years, we as owners, but of course also for our custo­mers and the Graf­tec team, think it is great to have found a new owner in Vamea to conti­nue our work,” Graf­tec foun­der Graf and his busi­ness part­ner Harder comment on the hando­ver of their company.

Niklas Poppel­reu­ter, project mana­ger at Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor, adds: “The sale of one’s own company is always a complex process in which there are an enorm­ous number of aspects to consider and weigh up. The sale and inte­gra­tion into the Vamea Group not only allows Graf­tec to solve the succes­sion problem with a single step, but also to improve its start­ing posi­tion for a successful future in a growing group. We wish all parties invol­ved all the best for the future.”

 

About Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor and sonn­tag corpo­rate finance

Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor GmbH, in asso­cia­tion with sonn­tag corpo­rate finance GmbH, is one of the leading M&A consul­ting firms in the German SME sector. The team of almost 30 experts accom­pa­nies medium-sized entre­pre­neurs exclu­si­vely through the entire sales process. “Our task is to safe­guard life’s work,” is how we see oursel­ves. In doing so, custo­mers bene­fit from a unique approach that has won multi­ple awards from the busi­ness press, and which protects the iden­tity of their compa­nies to a special degree. Thanks to their excel­lent access to medium-sized compa­nies, Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor and sonn­tag corpo­rate finance have also estab­lished them­sel­ves as a strong part­ner at the side of renow­ned natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal major compa­nies and inves­tors in acqui­si­ti­ons. www.nachfolgekontor.de, www.sonntagcf.com

About Graf­tec GmbH
www.graf-tec.de/

About Vamea Group
www.vamea.group

News

Berlin — A YPOG team led by Stephan Bank and Julian Albrecht provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Vorwerk Ventures on the struc­tu­ring of its latest early-stage fund with a total volume of € 150 million. The fund focu­ses on inves­t­ing in Euro­pean start­ups and aims to build the next gene­ra­tion of tech unicorns. With the recently closed fund, Vorwerk Ventures will prima­rily parti­ci­pate in seed and Series A finan­cing rounds.

With the new fund, Vorwerk Ventures has now laun­ched four fund gene­ra­ti­ons with a total volume of € 500 million and inves­ted in more than 40 start­ups. The company holds invest­ments in seve­ral well-known VC-funded compa­nies, inclu­ding Ther­mondo, Ever­drop, Plan­ted and Avi Medi­cal. Opera­ting inde­pendently since 2019, Vorwerk Ventures was also one of the first inves­tors in DAX-listed Hellofresh and deli­very service Flaschen­post, which was sold to Oetker for appro­xi­m­ately €1 billion.

Vorwerk Ventures has alre­ady relied on YPOG’s exper­tise in the struc­tu­ring of the previous gene­ra­tion of funds in 2019. In addi­tion, YPOG conti­nuously advi­ses Vorwerk Ventures on its invest­ments, such as most recently Alpa­kas and Medkit­doc, as well as on exit tran­sac­tions. “The success story of Vorwerk Ventures shows what a strong impact company-backed venture capi­tal, combi­ned with a coura­ge­ous and high-performing manage­ment team, can have on the market and its play­ers.” says YPOG Asso­cia­ted Part­ner Julian Albrecht.

Advi­sor Vorwerk Ventures: YPOG

Dr. Stephan Bank (Co-Lead, Structuring/Corporate), Part­ner Dr. Julian Albrecht (Co-Lead, Structuring/Tax), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner , Axel Zirn (Structuring/Corporate), Associate

About Vorwerk Ventures

Vorwerk Ventures is an inde­pen­dent venture capi­tal fund that emer­ged from the Vorwerk Group at the end of 2019 and is charac­te­ri­zed by a strong commit­ment to consu­mer-facing and digi­tal compa­nies. Head­quar­te­red in Berlin, Vorwerk Ventures curr­ently mana­ges assets of nearly €500 million and is constantly on the lookout for promi­sing projects. Start­ing with seed and Series A invest­ments of € 1 million up to € 10 million, Vorwerk Ventures offers ongo­ing support and provi­des up to € 15 million for subse­quent finan­cing rounds.

About YPOG

YPOG is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of Funds, Tax and Tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally ranked by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, YPOG employs more than 100 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.ypog.law

News

Munich — ARQIS advi­sed Munich-based Agile Robots AG with its subsi­diary Agile Robots Hano­ver GmbH on the acqui­si­tion of the “Yu” cobot with all asso­cia­ted tech­no­logy compon­ents as part of an asset deal. The seller was voraus robo­tik GmbH in Hanover.

voraus robo­tik is active in the field of soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment of func­tional soft­ware for robot systems and had acqui­red signi­fi­cant assets of the insol­vent YUANDA Robo­tics GmbH, based in Hano­ver, from its insol­vency admi­nis­tra­tor. YUANDA had deve­lo­ped, produ­ced and distri­bu­ted the colla­bo­ra­tive robot “Yu”. Now that voraus robo­tik wants to focus on the deve­lo­p­ment of soft­ware for robots, Agile Robots has acqui­red the hard­ware area as well as the soft­ware area regar­ding firm­ware and func­tional safety, in parti­cu­lar all areas around the deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of the cobot “Yu”.

Agile Robots Hano­ver GmbH is part of the global robot manu­fac­tu­rer Agile Robots AG. A spin-off from the Insti­tute of Robo­tics and Mecha­tro­nics of the German Aero­space Center, Agile Robots has been deve­lo­ping robots for a wide range of appli­ca­ti­ons from indus­trial manu­fac­tu­ring to logi­stics and medi­cal robo­tics since 2018.

Agile Robots once again relies on ARQIS. The Munich-based team led by Dr. Chris­toph von Einem has alre­ady supported seve­ral finan­cing rounds, advi­sed on the company’s global IP stra­tegy, and helped set up employee incen­tive programs and stra­te­gic part­ner­ship agree­ments with major companies.

Consul­tant Agile Robots: ARQIS (Düsseldorf/Munich)
Prof. Dr. Chris­toph von Einem, Johan­nes Landry (both lead), Dr. Mauritz von Einem, Benja­min Bandur, Anselm Graf (all Corpo­rate M&A); Marcus Noth­hel­fer, Nora Meyer-Strat­mann, Rolf Tichy, Natha­lie Winter­meier, Maria Fischer (all IP/IT); Tobias Neufeld, Julia Rege­nauer (Pensi­ons); Anja Mark­worth, Virgi­nia Mäurer (Labor Law); Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard, Fran­ziska Resch (Real Estate)

About ARQIS
ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent busi­ness law firm opera­ting inter­na­tio­nally. The firm was foun­ded in 2006 in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo. Around 80 lawy­ers and legal specia­lists advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on German and Japa­nese busi­ness law. With the focus groups Tran­sac­tions, HR.Law, Japan, Data.Law and Risk, the firm is geared towards provi­ding holi­stic advice to its clients. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.

News

Berlin — On August 2, 2022, the share­hol­ders of Telamo Musik & Unter­hal­tung GmbH (“Telamo”) signed an agree­ment for the sale and assign­ment of all shares in Telamo to BMG Rights Manage­ment GmbH (“BMG”). The tran­sac­tion, which is still subject to appr­oval by the Austrian Fede­ral Compe­ti­tion Autho­rity, will create one of Germany’s largest label divi­si­ons across genres, accor­ding to the parties involved.

Telamo co-foun­der Ken Otremba says, “Since incep­tion, our goal has been to create the opti­mal and most modern condi­ti­ons for our artist:ing. We are proud and exci­ted to now offer a new chap­ter with the best set-up. Telamo conti­nues all previous part­ner­ships, now offe­ring access to more new worlds — dome­sti­cally and internationally.”

A multi­di­sci­pli­nary team of Deloitte and Deloitte Legal advi­sed the majo­rity share­hol­der of Telamo, artcom-Gesell­schaft für Kommu­ni­ka­tion mbH (“artcom”), compre­hen­si­vely in the areas of finan­cial valua­tion, in all legal (partly also tax law) issues of the tran­sac­tion and was able to provide effi­ci­ent advice from a single source through cross-divi­sio­nal cooperation.
Marko Wünsch, sole share­hol­der of artcom says: “We have been working with Deloitte in a trus­ting manner for many years. At all times, we have not only recei­ved first-class advice, but also prepa­ra­tion and support.”

About artcom

artcom is the parent company of a German group of compa­nies that includes Shop24Direct, a retailer specia­li­zing in Schlager.

About BMG

BMG, a Bertels­mann company, is the fourth largest music company in the world, the first new global player in the music busi­ness of the strea­ming age, and a record label and music publisher in one. With 19 offices in 12 core music markets, BMG repres­ents more than three million titles and recor­dings, inclu­ding many of the most renow­ned and successful artists, song­wri­ters and music catalogs.

About Telamo

Since its foun­ding in August 2012, Telamo has attrac­ted top-class estab­lished artists and disco­vered and deve­lo­ped promi­sing talents. The focus of the publi­ca­ti­ons is the Schlager/MOR in all its facets — natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal. Accor­ding to GfK-Enter­tain­ment, Munich-based Telamo was the most successful and highest-selling indie and pop label in 2021 for the fourth year in a row. Eight of the top 25 German Schlager/Deutschpop artists are under contract with Telamo. The label’s artists:inside include Giovanni Zarrella, Eloy de Jong, Mari­anne Rosen­berg, Ross Antony, Die Amigos, Thomas Anders and Florian Silber­ei­sen, Daniela Alfi­nito and Fantasy.

Advi­sor TELEAMO: Deloitte Legal
Dr. Julia Peter­sen, Photo (Lead Corpo­rate M&A, Berlin), Dr. Moritz Erkel (Corporate/ M&A, Berlin)
Deloitte: Stef­fen Säuber­lich (Lead Part­ner Finan­cial Advi­sory, Berlin), Stef­fen Meier (Finan­cial Advi­sory, Berlin), Olga Metcher (Tax, Düsseldorf)
BMG: Stefa­nie Briefs (Senior Legal Coun­sel, Labor Law), Dr. Martin Dann­hoff (SVP Corpo­rate Legal, Corpo­rate M&A), André Schley (SVP Tax Germany, Taxes), Johan­nes Borg­dorf (Direc­tor, Center of Exper­tise, Finance), all Bertels­mann SE & Co. KGaA, Gütersloh

News

Frank­furt am Main/ Ammer­buch — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) invests in the vhf Group (vhf), a manu­fac­tu­rer of compu­ter-aided milling machi­nes for appli­ca­ti­ons in denti­stry and indus­try. DBAG acqui­res around one fifth of the shares in vhf camfac­ture AG, which will act as the Group’s holding company in the future. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price of the mino­rity inte­rest. The execu­tion of the parti­ci­pa­tion takes place at short notice and is not subject to any reser­va­tions. The aim of the invest­ment is to support the further inter­na­tio­nal growth of the company and to bring about capi­tal market readiness.

With its invest­ment in vhf, DBAG is ente­ring into a long-term commit­ment: DBAG finan­ces long-term invest­ments exclu­si­vely from its balance sheet, thus not inves­t­ing along­side a DBAG fund. The invest­ment hori­zon of a long-term invest­ment goes beyond the usual term of a private equity fund. The new invest­ment is the fourth long-term invest­ment in the portfolio.

vhf (www.vhf.de), based in Ammer­buch (Baden-Würt­tem­berg, Germany), deve­lops and manu­fac­tures compu­ter-control­led milling machi­nes that are mainly used by commer­cial dental labo­ra­to­ries and dentists in their own labo­ra­to­ries for the fabri­ca­tion of dental resto­ra­ti­ons. Another high-growth part of sales is gene­ra­ted with machi­nes for selec­ted appli­ca­ti­ons in indus­try. The complete control elec­tro­nics, the soft­ware as well as the milling tools are also deve­lo­ped and manu­fac­tu­red in the vhf group. The company bene­fits from the special system archi­tec­ture of its machi­nes: they can be combi­ned with all common appli­ances and third-party soft­ware used to fabri­cate dental resto­ra­ti­ons. On the market, they are conside­red parti­cu­larly relia­ble and are valued for their good price-perfor­mance ratio. More than 10,000 machi­nes in dental prac­ti­ces and prac­tice labo­ra­to­ries form a good basis for a growing tool and service business.

The company was foun­ded in 1988; the company foun­ders have been the sole share­hol­ders to date. Mean­while, vhf employs about 350 employees, most of them at the head­quar­ters in Ammer­buch as well as at the second German produc­tion site in Fürth (Bava­ria). There are sales offices in New York and Shang­hai. Last year, the group achie­ved sales of a good 46 million euros. Sales have grown signi­fi­cantly recently — an annual growth rate of a good 17 percent is on the cards for the years between 2018 and 2021. In addi­tion to the intro­duc­tion of a new gene­ra­tion of machi­nes, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion also contri­bu­ted to this. In the mean­time, 40 percent of sales are gene­ra­ted outside Europe, prima­rily in the USA and China; in these two count­ries, spen­ding on dental treat­ment is growing parti­cu­larly stron­gly. Further custo­mers are to be acqui­red there.

“We are plea­sed that DBAG has once again been able to win the trust of the share­hol­ders of a family-owned company with a custom-fit equity solu­tion,” said Jannick Hune­cke, member of the DBAG Manage­ment Board on the occa­sion of the signing of the agree­ment. “We are now inves­t­ing in a company that serves a struc­tu­rally growing, hardly cycli­cal market with very high own value crea­tion and has shown in the past that it is growing very profi­ta­bly — this also makes the invest­ment very attrac­tive for DBAG, espe­ci­ally in the current environment.”

Frank Benzin­ger, one of the company’s foun­ders and Chair­man of the Board of vhf camfac­ture AG, empha­si­zes not only the finan­cial but also the substan­tive contri­bu­tion of DBAG: “With our new share­hol­der, we are well posi­tio­ned to achieve our growth targets and, in the process, to further deve­lop our company struc­tu­rally as well.”

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests — predo­mi­nantly along­side DBAG funds — in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with poten­tial One focus for many years has been indus­try. An incre­asing share of equity invest­ments is accoun­ted for by compa­nies in the growth sectors of broad­band tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, IT services/software and health­care. The long-term, value-enhan­cing entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner. Assets mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to 2.5 billion euros.

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