ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Frank­furt am Main — Deloitte Legal streng­thens its cross-loca­tion Dispute Reso­lu­tion & Liti­ga­tion team at its Frankfurt/Main office. Fran­cis Bellen (54) will be appoin­ted part­ner at Deloitte Legal as of May 1, 2022.

Fran­cis Bellen has repre­sen­ted clients in liti­ga­tion, arbi­tra­tion and alter­na­tive dispute reso­lu­tion for over 20 years. Most recently, he was with Reed Smith. His work focu­ses on dispu­tes in the areas of corpo­rate, commer­cial and busi­ness law, anti­trust claims for dama­ges, post‑M&A dispu­tes, and banking and finance law.
At Deloitte Legal, Fran­cis Bellen will in parti­cu­lar support the Dispute Reso­lu­tion & Liti­ga­tion service line led by Michael Falter. Fran­cis Bellen joins toge­ther with Iris Kruse, who joins Deloitte Legal as Coun­sel. With this addi­tion, the Dispute Reso­lu­tion & Liti­ga­tion service line grows to over 15 highly specia­li­zed attorneys.

Michael Falter, Head of Service Line Dispute Reso­lu­tion: “We are very plea­sed to welcome Fran­cis Bellen and Iris Kruse. With their outstan­ding expe­ri­ence as liti­ga­tors and arbi­tra­tors, we are further expan­ding our service offe­ring at the Frank­furt office and adding exper­tise in important areas of inter­na­tio­nal commer­cial law, such as avia­tion and banking.”

Thomas Northoff, Mana­ging Part­ner Deloitte Legal, adds: “I am convin­ced that the addi­tion of Fran­cis Bellen will again signi­fi­cantly support and streng­then the alre­ady very successful deve­lo­p­ment of our advi­sory services in the area of liti­ga­tion, arbi­tra­tion and alter­na­tive dispute reso­lu­tion. His focus on corpo­rate, commer­cial and busi­ness law dispu­tes, post‑M&A dispu­tes as well as banking and finance law is an excel­lent fit with our Frank­furt office and our local expertise.”

Commen­ting on his moti­va­tion for the move, Fran­cis Bellen says, “What attracts me to Deloitte Legal is its compel­ling stra­tegy to expand its Dispute Reso­lu­tion service offe­ring, parti­cu­larly in the inno­va­tive manage­ment of mass liti­ga­tion and complex dispu­tes. I am very much looking forward to working with an outstan­ding cross-func­tional team.”

About Deloitte Legal and Deloitte

Deloitte Legal refers to the legal advice prac­ti­ces of the member compa­nies of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limi­ted, its affi­lia­tes or affi­lia­tes that provide legal services.

Deloitte refers to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limi­ted (“DTTL”), its global network of member firms and its affi­lia­tes (coll­ec­tively, the “Deloitte Orga­niza­tion”). DTTL (also refer­red to as “Deloitte Global”) and each of its member firms and their affi­lia­tes are legally sepa­rate and inde­pen­dent enti­ties that cannot bind or obli­gate each other with respect to third parties. DTTL, each DTTL Member Company and Affi­lia­tes shall be liable only for their own acts and omis­si­ons and not for those of others. DTTL itself does not provide any services to clients. www.deloitte.com/de/UeberUns.

Deloitte is a leading global provi­der of audit and assu­rance, risk advi­sory, tax advi­sory, finan­cial advi­sory and consul­ting and rela­ted services; legal services in Germany are provi­ded by Deloitte Legal. Our global network of member firms and affi­lia­tes in more than 150 count­ries (coll­ec­tively, the “Deloitte orga­niza­tion”) provi­des services to four out of five Fortune Global 500® companies.

News

Dusseldorf/ Paris — Cycle Capi­tal and Deme­ter, leading clean­tech-focu­sed asset mana­gers, announ­ced the successful first finan­cing close for their new Circu­lar Inno­va­tion Fund (“CIF”) of $160 million and €150 million, respec­tively, with parti­ci­pa­tion from anchor inves­tor L’Oréal.

Anchor inves­tor L’Oréal is contri­bu­ting 50 million euros through its sustaina­bi­lity program L’Oréal for the Future. The fund also bene­fits from a broad range of inves­tors, inclu­ding stra­te­gic inves­tor Axens, family offices such as Haltra and Claridge, as well as private inves­tors and the fund managers.

Through this fund, the fund mana­gers are pooling their resour­ces to scale circu­lar, sustainable and profi­ta­ble growth solu­ti­ons from North America, Europe and Asia that posi­tively contri­bute to climate change miti­ga­tion and the circu­lar use of resour­ces in a variety of sectors, inclu­ding new mate­ri­als, pack­a­ging, recy­cling and waste, logi­stics, eco-effi­ci­ent proces­ses and design. The fund will leverage the invest­ment mana­gers’ expe­ri­ence in venture capi­tal, private equity and infra­struc­ture in the clean­tech sector to address the growing need for market-ready solu­ti­ons and provide capi­tal for talen­ted, entre­pre­neu­rial teams to imple­ment these innovations.

The CIF is a sustainable inno­va­tion fund clas­si­fied as “Article 9″ under the EU Regu­la­tion on sustaina­bi­lity-rela­ted disclo­sure requi­re­ments in the finan­cial services sector. The Fund’s robust, relia­ble, and inno­va­tive impact measu­re­ment metho­do­logy includes due dili­gence and ongo­ing moni­to­ring of criti­cal non-finan­cial metrics, inclu­ding green­house gas emis­si­ons reduc­tions, resource use, and diver­sity within port­fo­lio compa­nies’ invest­ment hori­zons. Fund mana­gers’ compen­sa­tion is also based on the achie­ve­ment of a selec­tion of prede­fi­ned impact targets.

- “In a context of ‘now or never,’ as stated in the latest IPCC report, private compa­nies like L’Oréal must play a grea­ter role in support­ing solu­ti­ons that are criti­cal to the future of our planet and huma­nity. At L’Oréal, we believe that impact inves­t­ing is a powerful tool to address the biggest envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges and acce­le­rate the neces­sary green trans­for­ma­tion. Through the Circu­lar Inno­va­tion Fund, we are joining forces with other commit­ted play­ers to scale circu­lar and profi­ta­ble solu­ti­ons for sustainable growth.” — Alex­an­dra Palt, Chief Corpo­rate Respon­si­bi­lity Offi­cer and CEO of Fonda­tion L’Oréal.

Invest­ments in early-stage venture capi­tal funds

Follo­wing the initial closing, CIF announ­ces indi­rect invest­ments in two early stage funds focu­sed on circu­lar inno­va­tion — the U.S. Closed Loop Venture Fund II and the Euro­pean Circu­lar Bioe­co­nomy Fund (“ECBF”).

Foun­ded in 2014, Closed Loop Part­ners is a New York-based invest­ment firm that includes venture capi­tal, growth capi­tal, private equity and cata­ly­tic capi­tal, and an inno­va­tion center focu­sed on advan­cing the circu­lar economy. The company’s venture capi­tal arm, Closed Loop Ventures Group, laun­ched in 2017 with one of the first venture capi­tal funds to invest in early-stage disrup­tive compa­nies deve­lo­ping breakth­rough solu­ti­ons to acce­le­rate the tran­si­tion to a circu­lar economy. In 2021, the Group laun­ched its second risk fund to build on this stra­tegy. To date, the team has made more than 30 invest­ments in both funds, targe­ting high early-stage returns.

ECBF is the first venture fund to invest exclu­si­vely in high-growth compa­nies in the Euro­pean bioe­co­nomy, inclu­ding the circu­lar economy. The fund aims to make sustainable invest­ments in our future and acce­le­rate the tran­si­tion from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy. In this way, ECBF supports compa­nies with high inno­va­tion poten­tial, attrac­tive returns and sustainable impact.
CIF will also spon­sor a global acce­le­ra­tion program through a part­ner­ship with Cycle Momen­tum. The program provi­des support for seed/series A stage start­ups with cohorts in Europe, North America and Asia over 3 years.

The CIF invest­ment team is actively explo­ring a variety of invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and welco­mes inqui­ries from and colla­bo­ra­ti­ons with foun­ders and co-investors.

About Cycle Capital
Cycle Capi­tal is a sustainable inves­tor and a leading private clean­tech venture capi­tal invest­ment plat­form with $600 million in assets under manage­ment. With offices in Mont­real and Toronto, as well as Qing­dao, China, and a presence in New York and Seat­tle, Cycle Capi­tal invests throug­hout North America and China in growing and commer­ci­ally successful compa­nies that have deve­lo­ped tech­no­lo­gies to reduce green­house gas emis­si­ons and opti­mize resour­ces and proces­ses. Cycle Capi­tal is the foun­der of the Cycle Momen­tum Acce­le­ra­tor and Cana­dian co-chair of the Beyond the Billion Initia­tive — an inter­na­tio­nal campaign to mobi­lize a consor­tium of inves­tors to support women foun­ders. cyclecapital.com.

About Deme­ter
Deme­ter is a large Euro­pean invest­ment plat­form dedi­ca­ted to ecolo­gi­cal change. Deme­ter mana­ges over 1 billion euros and has alre­ady made 200 invest­ments since 2005. Deme­ter invests between 1 and 30 million euros to support compa­nies at all stages of deve­lo­p­ment: inno­va­tive start­ups, high-growth SMEs and infra­struc­ture projects. The 38-strong team works in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Greno­ble, Metz, Madrid and Düssel­dorf. Deme­ter is a respon­si­ble and commit­ted inves­tor and signa­tory to nume­rous initia­ti­ves such as PRI (Prin­ci­ple for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment), CDP (Carbon Disclo­sure Project), iC20, The Shift Project and gender diver­sity initia­ti­ves. All new Deme­ter funds are clas­si­fied as “Article 9″ under the frame­work of the new Euro­pean regu­la­tion on sustaina­bi­lity-rela­ted disclo­sure requi­re­ments in the finan­cial services sector. www.demeter-im.com.

L’Oréal
For over 110 years, L’Oréal, the worl­d’s leading beauty care company, has been dedi­ca­ted to one thing: fulfil­ling the beauty desi­res of people around the world. Our goal to create the beauty that moves the world defi­nes our approach to beauty as inclu­sive, ethi­cal, gene­rous, and commit­ted to social and envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity. With our broad port­fo­lio of 35 inter­na­tio­nal brands and our ambi­tious sustaina­bi­lity commit­ments under our L’Oréal for the Future program, we offer the best in quality, effi­cacy, safety, honesty and respon­si­bi­lity to ever­yone around the world.

News

Frank­furt a. Main — The foun­ders and inves­tors (inclu­ding Bran­den­burg Kapi­tal GmbH, Fraun­ho­fer e.V. and High- Tech Grün­der­fonds) of Arioso Systems GmbH (the “Share­hol­ders”) have sold their shares in Arioso Systems GmbH (“Arioso”) to Bosch Sensor­tec GmbH, a subsi­diary of Robert Bosch GmbH (“Bosch”). Will­kie advi­sed all share­hol­ders inclu­ding the foun­ders and inves­tors (among others Bran­den­burg Kapi­tal GmbH, Fraun­ho­fer e.V. and High- Tech Grün­der­fonds) of Arioso Systems GmbH (the “Share­hol­ders”) on the sale of their shares in Bosch Sensor­tec GmbH.

The share­hol­ders have agreed to sell Arioso, a Fraun­ho­fer IPMS spin-off for the commer­cia­liza­tion of Nano­sco­pic Elec­tro­sta­tic Drive (NED) μSpea­ker- tech­no­logy, to Bosch. — Ario­so’s product port­fo­lio includes gene­ral and custom microelec­tro­me­cha­ni­cal systems (MEMS) and appli­ca­tion-speci­fic inte­gra­ted circuits (ASIC).

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in Q2 2022.

Foun­ded in 2019, Arioso aims to become a leading provi­der of μSpea­ker tech­no­logy for the ultra-mobile audio world. Unlike conven­tio­nal spea­k­ers and the few other MEMS spea­k­ers available, Ario­so’s tiny MEMS spea­k­ers contain neither a diaphragm nor magnets, but are made enti­rely of sili­con. They can be mass-produ­ced inex­pen­si­vely using stan­dard proces­ses for comple­men­tary metal oxide semi­con­duc­tors, making them easily scalable for the mass market.

Will­kie advi­sed on all aspects of the tran­sac­tion, KNPZ Rechts­an­wälte advi­sed on IP, IT and data protec­tion issues.

Advi­sor to the share­hol­ders of Arioso Systems GmbH: Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP

Part­ner Miriam Steets, Foto (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Bettina Bokeloh (Tax, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Jens-Olrik Murach (Anti­trust, Brussels), Coun­sel Wulf Kring (Tax, Frank­furt) and Asso­cia­tes Andrej Popp, Nils Bock (both Corporate/M&A), Martin Waskow­ski (Labor Law) and Aurel Hille (Anti­trust, all Frankfurt).

Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm of more than 1,000 lawy­ers with offices in Brussels, Chicago, Frank­furt, Hous­ton, London, Los Ange­les, Milan, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Rome, San Fran­cisco and Washing­ton. The firm is head­quar­te­red in New York at 787 Seventh Avenue, Tel: +1 212 728 8000.

The KNPZ team included part­ner Dr. Kai-Uwe Plath and asso­ciate Chris­toph Jenal (both Hamburg).

News

Munich, Germany — Kinexon, provi­der of the worl­d’s most advan­ced full-stack solu­tion for real-time connec­ti­vity, intel­li­gence and auto­ma­tion, has raised a USD 130 million Series A funding round. In addi­tion to lead inves­tor Thomas H. Lee Part­ners, L.P. (THL), BMW i Ventures, Inc. and the Tele­kom Inno­va­tion Pool (TIP), Deut­sche Tele­kom AG’s stra­te­gic invest­ment fund. Bird & Bird LLP advi­sed Kinexon on its USD 130 million Series A.

The funding will enable Kinexon to acce­le­rate inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and scale its opera­ting system for networked and auto­ma­ted processes.

Kinexon is a pioneer in the core elements of IoT. Kinexon deli­vers cloud soft­ware for captu­ring, opti­mi­zing and auto­ma­ting proces­ses in produc­tion, logi­stics and sports. Head­quar­te­red in Munich, the company now has more than 300 employees in Munich and Chicago. Kinexon laun­ched the worl­d’s most cost-effec­tive UWB sensor, enab­ling a variety of profi­ta­ble IoT appli­ca­ti­ons. Kinexon makes connec­ti­vity and precise indoor loca­liza­tion of indus­trial assets ready for the mass market for the first time.

Advi­sor Kinexon: Bird & Bird Attor­neys at Law

Lead Part­ner Stefan Münch, Coun­sel Michael Gass­ner, Coun­sel Andrea Schlote, Asso­ciate Daniel Gloor, all Corporate/M&A, Part­ner Dr. Henri­ette Picot, Commer­cial, all Munich, Part­ner Dr. Michael Jüne­mann, Finan­cing and Finan­cial Regu­la­tion, Frank­furt, Part­ner Dr. Stephan Wald­heim, Asso­ciate Tietze Tamy, both EU & Anti­trust, Düsseldorf.

Advi­sors to Thomas H. Lee Part­ners, L.P. (THL): Kirk­land & Ellis, Munich

Attila Oldag, Dr. Sebas­tian Häfele (both lead, both M&A/Private Equity), Dr. Alex­an­der M.H. Längs­feld (Debt Finance), Daniel Hiemer (Tax); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Thomas Diek­mann, Jan Mahlke (both M&A/Private Equity), Phil­ipp Büch­ler (Debt Finance), Dr. Tobias Stuppi (Tax)
— Kirk­land & Ellis, Chicago: Ted M. Fran­kel, P.C., Kyle P. McHugh (both M&A/Private Equity)
— Kirk­land & Ellis, London: John Patten (Tech­no­logy & IP Transactions)

News

Pfäf­fi­kon (CH) — The Ufenau Conti­nua­tion III (“UC III”) fund was successfully closed with a volume of EUR 563 million. The fund was set up to invest in the two compa­nies Corius and Altano toge­ther with the manage­ment teams. The fund will provide addi­tio­nal capi­tal to support the compa­nies’ strong growth and conti­nue the successful buy-&-build stra­tegy that Ufenau V star­ted in 2017.

UC III was capi­ta­li­zed by a group of renow­ned inves­tors, led by StepStone Group as senior lead and Five Arrows Secon­dary Oppor­tu­ni­ties as junior lead, along­side seve­ral exis­ting inves­tors in Ufenau. We are proud that we were able to attract such a high-cali­ber group of inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors for this tran­sac­tion. In addi­tion, we were able to offer our Ufenau V inves­tors a “win-win” solu­tion, with the oppor­tu­nity to earn a very attrac­tive return, or to conti­nue the buy-&-build stra­tegy for Corius and Altano by inves­t­ing in UC III.

Over the past five years, Ufenau V, in successful part­ner­ship with the manage­ment teams, has driven the strong orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth of Corius and Altano, estab­li­shing them as market leaders in the D/A/CH region. Both groups have great poten­tial to further conso­li­date their respec­tive sectors and also expand inter­na­tio­nally. As a result, both compa­nies have increased their sales more than tenfold and made a total of more than 50 acqui­si­ti­ons in the last five years. UC III will conti­nue the successful invest­ment stra­tegy of Ufenau V and use the new capi­tal for further acqui­si­ti­ons and invest­ments to successfully imple­ment the expan­sion plans of Corius and Altano.

Ralf Flore (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner at Ufenau: “We are plea­sed to have successfully closed UC III and to be able to move forward with the next chap­ter in the deve­lo­p­ment of Corius and Altano. On behalf of the Ufenau team, I would like to thank the new and exis­ting inves­tors who have chosen to parti­ci­pate in UC III. Further, our thanks go to the manage­ment teams of Corius and Altano who have done an outstan­ding job and we look forward to conti­nuing these successful part­ner­ships. We are very confi­dent about the next phase and look forward to conti­nuing to support the expan­sion and success of both companies.”

Advi­sor Ufenau Capi­tal Partners:

PJT Park Hill: exclu­sive place­ment agent
Stephen­son Harwood
Legal advice: GÖRG, Arendt & Meder­nach and Walder Wyss as legal advi­sors for the UC III transaction.

About Ufenau Capi­tal Partners

Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent Swiss invest­ment group based on Lake Zurich, which advi­ses private and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors on their invest­ments in corpo­rate invest­ments. Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners focu­ses on majo­rity invest­ments in service compa­nies in the DACH region, Spain as well as in the Bene­lux region active in Busi­ness Services, Health­care, IT Services, Educa­tion & Life­style and Finan­cial Services. Since 2011, Ufenau has inves­ted in over 240 service compa­nies in Europe. Through a renow­ned group of expe­ri­en­ced indus­try part­ners (owners, CEOs, CFOs), Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners pursues an active, value-crea­ting invest­ment approach on an equal footing with entre­pre­neurs and mana­gers. Ufenau closed its seventh fund with a volume of EUR 1.0 billion in the first quar­ter of this year and mana­ges a total cumu­la­tive capi­tal of EUR 2.5 billion.

About StepStone Group

StepStone is a leading global private market invest­ment firm provi­ding custo­mi­zed invest­ment, advi­sory and data solu­ti­ons to some of the worl­d’s most sophisti­ca­ted inves­tors. StepStone mana­ges more than $548 billion in private markets assets. StepSto­ne’s clients include some of the worl­d’s largest public and private pension and sove­reign wealth funds, insu­rance compa­nies, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices and private wealth clients. StepStone is a leading inves­tor in the secon­dary market and acts as a solu­tion-orien­ted stra­te­gic part­ner for private equity spon­sors. Through Decem­ber 31, 2021, StepStone has ente­red into more than $7.4 billion in 156 inves­tor-parti­ci­pa­tion and GP-led tran­sac­tions under its private equity secon­dary program.

About Five Arrows Secon­dary Opportunities

Five Arrows Secon­dary Oppor­tu­ni­ties (“FASO”) is part of the Roth­schild & Co. group’s merchant banking busi­ness with EUR 18 billion in assets under manage­ment world­wide. Five Arrows deploys Roth­schild & Co. capi­tal, along with that of a select group of leading insti­tu­tio­nal and private inves­tors, through a series of funds specia­li­zing in primary and secon­dary private equity, multi-mana­ger funds and co-invest­ments, and senior and subor­di­na­ted debt. The company has offices in New York, Los Ange­les, San Fran­cisco, London, Paris and Luxembourg.

FASO has been provi­ding custo­mi­zed liqui­dity solu­ti­ons to inves­tors and gene­ral part­ners (“GPs”) for nearly two deca­des. Its proven exper­tise in complex tran­sac­tions makes FASO one of the most relia­ble part­ners for GP-led secon­dary tran­sac­tions in Europe. FASO also shares the guiding prin­ci­ples of Roth­schild & Co Group, a stra­te­gic and respon­si­ble finan­cial services part­ner known for its crea­tive thin­king and inno­va­tive invest­ment solu­ti­ons combi­ned with a commit­ment to abso­lute discretion.

 

News

Bonn, Germany — Fagron, a global leader in phar­maceu­ti­cal manu­fac­tu­ring, announ­ced on April 14 that it has acqui­red Hiper­Scan, the German market leader in the secure iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of start­ing mate­ri­als in phar­macies. High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) is selling its shares after having closely supported the team around Dr. Alex­an­der Wolter and Michael Thoma since 2008.

The Dres­den-based tech­no­logy company Hiper­Scan is a specia­list in near-infrared (NIR) spec­tro­scopy and emer­ged in 2006 as a spin-off from the Fraun­ho­fer Insti­tute for Photo­nic Micro­sys­tems (IPMS) to deve­lop inno­va­tive analy­sis systems for phar­macies and other indus­tries. With the Apo-Ident analy­sis system, which is speci­ally desi­gned for the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of start­ing mate­ri­als and is used in over 5,500 phar­macies, Hiper­Scan has achie­ved market leader­ship in this segment in Germany and today employs over 50 people.

Fagron is a global leader in the phar­maceu­ti­cal manu­fac­tu­ring of perso­na­li­zed medi­ci­nes, focu­sed on provi­ding perso­na­li­zed medi­cine to hospi­tals, phar­macies, clinics and pati­ents in 35 count­ries around the world. Foun­ded in 1990, the company has over 3,000 employees world­wide. As part of the Fagron family, new markets may open up for Hiper­Scan’s tech­no­logy to further enhance safety and drive the future of perso­na­li­zed medicine.

“HTGF joined us shortly after we were foun­ded, which enab­led us to deve­lop Fraun­ho­fer IPMS Dres­den’s scan­ning grating tech­no­logy into a market-ready product. Then we gradu­ally evol­ved from a tech­no­logy provi­der to an estab­lished provi­der of indus­try solu­ti­ons that is now conside­red the gold stan­dard in German phar­macies. As part of Fagron, we can help drive the future of perso­na­li­zed medi­cine,” Dr. Alex­an­der Wolter, CEO at HiperScan.

“I have a special connec­tion with Hiper­Scan: On the one hand, the company was my first invest­ment in 2008 as a young invest­ment mana­ger at that time! On the other hand, Hiper­Scan is a prime exam­ple for seed finan­cing of tech­no­lo­gi­cally very deep compa­nies. This is all the more true since Hiper­Scan was foun­ded with MEMS tech­no­logy out of the Fraun­ho­fer IPMS. With Fagron, Hiper­Scan has now found a perfect new owner.” Explains Dr. Andreas Olmes, Prin­ci­pal at High-Tech Gründerfonds.

“We at Fraun­ho­fer Venture first came into cont­act with the Hiper­Scan spin-off idea in 2004. Mana­ging Direc­tor Alex­an­der Wolter was among the first parti­ci­pants in a now estab­lished educa­tio­nal measure for pros­pec­tive foun­ders. At the same time, the Hiper­Scan spin-off idea was supported by the prede­ces­sor program of the current AHEAD program and recei­ved further inter­nal funding after its foun­da­tion with the goal of manage­ment expan­sion.” Manfred Stöger, Invest­ment Mana­ger at Fraun­ho­fer Venture.

 

News

Hamburg — A private equity fund initia­ted by Hamburg-based family office Lennertz & Co. is taking a mino­rity stake in the inno­va­tion leader for elec­tri­fi­ca­tion tech­no­logy in the commer­cial vehicle sector. pepper motion GmbH is the worl­d’s first digi­tal OEM in the auto­mo­tive indus­try for series-ready conver­sion and retro­fit­ting (retro­fit­ting) of trucks and buses.

The engi­nee­ring company from Denken­dorf, Germany, successfully closed a Series A finan­cing round in the amount of almost EUR 30 million at the end of March 2022. Lennertz & Co. was the lead inves­tor with around 40% of the capi­tal increase. Other inves­tors include the Würth Group.

“At pepper, as an entre­pre­neu­rial and owner-mana­ged family office, we were convin­ced by both the unique tech­no­logy in the produc­tion-ready retro­fit­ting of trucks and buses and the share­hol­ders’ engi­nee­ring exper­tise in the auto­mo­tive sector, built up over 20 years,” says Phil­ipp Lennertz (photo), mana­ging part­ner of Lennertz & Co. “In this context, tech­no­logy and service make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to achie­ving global climate targets. Accor­din­gly, we see high growth poten­tial for pepper, not only in the dome­stic and Euro­pean markets, but also globally in a market that will grow by leaps and bounds in a very short time.”

Capi­tal for series produc­tion and further markets

In addi­tion to the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company’s proprie­tary tech­no­lo­gies, the capi­tal raised is inten­ded in parti­cu­lar to support the ramp-up of series produc­tion with stra­te­gic part­ners and the phase of market entry in other Euro­pean count­ries that has alre­ady begun. For pepper motion, Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Poland in parti­cu­lar are among the key markets in Europe.

Poten­tial custo­mers include large exis­ting fleet owners, such as trans­por­ta­tion or truck­ing compa­nies, for whom it is diffi­cult to meet the emis­si­ons targets requi­red for their fleets by 2030. A major advan­tage for pepper motion is that the company’s multi-award-winning retro­fit­ting concept is curr­ently conside­red unbeata­ble on the market in terms of sustaina­bi­lity and total cost of ownership.

“The proof of concept has long been provi­ded with our vehic­les and etro­fit elec­tri­fi­ca­tion kits. We lead the inter­na­tio­nal retro­fit­ting indus­try as a trend­set­ter and set the stan­dards for German engi­nee­ring, inno­va­tion and quality that fleet opera­tors in the public trans­port and transport/logistics sectors can rely on,” says Andreas Hager, Mana­ging Direc­tor at pepper motion.

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 pepper motion

The German, priva­tely finan­ced company with head­quar­ters in Denken­dorf and offices in Garching near Munich, Pader­born and Vienna (Austria) employs more than 100 people. As the first digi­tal OEM in the world (without its own warehousing and manu­fac­tu­ring), pepper offers inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion (retro­fit­ting) of used and new commer­cial vehic­les such as trucks in distri­bu­tion trans­port, buses in local public trans­port (LPT) and muni­ci­pal vehicles.

With its holi­stic approach exten­ding to tele­ma­tics, char­ging infra­struc­ture, fleet manage­ment and auto­no­mous driving, the company designs quickly imple­men­ta­ble and cost-effec­tive solu­tion packa­ges for the sustainable mobi­lity trans­for­ma­tion and a “second life” for exis­ting commer­cial vehicles.

News

Munich/ Hamburg — Adevin­ta’s mobile.de GmbH (“mobile.de”), Germany’s largest vehicle market­place, has acqui­red Null-Leasing DSB Deutsch­land GmbH (“Null-Leasing.com”), a provi­der of digi­tal leasing services in Germany. The tran­sac­tion will enable mobile.de to expand its offe­ring and further extend its exis­ting range of products and services. POELLATH advi­sed mobile.de on this transaction.

mobile.de GmbH was foun­ded in 1996 and now employs around 270 people in Germany. The company says it is Germany’s largest vehicle market for buying and selling vehic­les, with around 1.5 million cars adver­ti­sed and around 16.9 million indi­vi­dual users per month. The offer includes the entire range of new and used cars, commer­cial vehic­les and motor­cy­cles. As a “one-stop store,” mobile.de also offers finan­cing and leasing solu­ti­ons. mobile.de is a subsi­diary of Adevinta, a Norwe­gian provi­der of online clas­si­fieds, which now opera­tes digi­tal market­places in 15 countries.

Foun­ded in 2016 in Hamburg, Null-Leasing.com is one of the fastest growing online car leasing market­places for new and used cars in Germany. The acqui­si­tion of Null-Leasing.com expands mobile.de dealers’ access to clear and compre­hen­sive leasing offers and enables them to better market their vehic­les from leasing to finan­cing to cash sales.

mobile.de consul­tants: POELLATH

Dr. Matthias Bruse, Photo (Part­ner, M&A, Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Tim Jung­in­ger, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Lead Part­ner, M&A, Private Equity, Munich)
Chris­tine Funk (Senior Asso­ciate, IP, Frankfurt)
Jonas Rohde (Asso­ciate, M&A, Private Equity, Munich)

Advi­sors Null-Leasing.com: Huth Diet­rich Hahn from Hamburg
Oliver Förs­ter and Dr. Gunnar Matschernus

News

Göttigen/ Munich — SKW Schwarz advi­sed Robert Bosch GmbH on the sale of Robert Bosch After­mar­ket Solu­ti­ons GmbH to the Chinese battery manu­fac­tu­rer Gotion High Tech.

As part of the tran­sac­tion, Gotion High-Tech also acqui­red the Bosch plant site in Göttin­gen. Bosch curr­ently supplies the global exch­ange busi­ness (Bosch Exch­ange) for selec­ted access­ories for the auto­mo­tive indus­try from the Göttin­gen plant via its own auto­mo­tive trade orga­niza­tion in Karls­ruhe. Gotion High-Tech will convert the site into a produc­tion faci­lity for lithium-ion batteries.

Advi­sor Robert Bosch GmbH: SKW Schwarz, Munich

Dr. Stephan Morsch (Lead Part­ner), Dr. Angela Poschen­rie­der (Coun­sel; both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Matthias Nord­mann (Corporate/M&A, Real Estate Tran­sac­tions), Dr. Martin Greß­lin (Labor Law), Heiko Wunder­lich, Fran­ziska Sont­heim (Asso­ciate; both Tax Law)

Inhouse: Elke Hammer, Rainer Bischof (Legal Depart­ment), Dr. Jörg Mödin­ger (Tax Department)

News

Kassel — The globally active ISOVOLTA Group has acqui­red Gurit (Kassel) GmbH from Gurit Holding. Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advi­sed ISOVOLTA Group on the acqui­si­tion of all shares in Gurit (Kassel) GmbH from Gurit Holding AG.

With around 1,500 employees, the globally active ISOVOLTA Group is a specia­list for elec­tri­cal insu­la­tion mate­ri­als, tech­ni­cal lami­na­tes and compo­si­tes and a part­ner for more than 20 indus­tries. One important area is avia­tion, where light­weight mate­ri­als for aircraft cabin inte­ri­ors are produ­ced in Wiener Neudorf/AT and in Harrisburg/USA. The ISOVOLTA Group has now acqui­red the “Aero­space” busi­ness unit of the Swiss listed company Gurit Holding AG, based in Kassel, Germany, with 80 employees, Gurit (Kassel) GmbH. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The ISOVOLTA Group is part of Constan­tia Indus­tries AG and has been a leading inter­na­tio­nal manu­fac­tu­rer of elec­tri­cal insu­la­tion mate­ri­als, tech­ni­cal lami­na­tes and compo­site mate­ri­als for over 70 years. The company employs over 1,500 people at nume­rous produc­tion and sales loca­ti­ons in various count­ries (inclu­ding Austria, Europe, China, North America) on three conti­nents. ISOVOLTA products are used in more than 20 indus­tries, from elec­tro­nics and e‑mobility to aero­space and mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring. In Austria, the company employs around 370 people in Wiener Neudorf and Wern­dorf near Graz.

The subsi­dia­ries of Gurit Holding AG, Wattwil/Switzerland, (SIX Swiss Exch­ange: GUR) specia­lize in the deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­ture of advan­ced compo­si­tes, compo­si­tes manu­fac­tu­ring equip­ment and core kitting services. The product range includes struc­tu­ral core mate­ri­als, fiber-rein­forced prepregs, formu­la­ted products such as adhe­si­ves, resins, and struc­tu­ral compo­site tech­no­logy. Gurit supplies global growth markets such as the wind turbine indus­try, aero­space, marine, rail and many more. Gurit opera­tes manu­fac­tu­ring faci­li­ties and offices in Austra­lia, Canada, China, Denmark, Ecua­dor, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switz­er­land, Turkey, the United King­dom and the United States.

Legal advi­sors to ISOVOLTA AG: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Mathias Schrö­der, LL.M.,
Fabian Becker, LL.M.,
Peter M. Schäff­ler (all corpo­rate law, M&A), all Munich
Kers­tin Deiters, LL.M., EMBA,
Prof. Dr. Martin Reufels (both Labor Law), both Cologne
Dr. Thomas Jansen (IP/IT and Data Protection),
Bettina Nehe­i­der (Public Law),
Dr. Leonie Schwarz­meier, LL.M. (Tenancy Law),
Dr. Ruth Schnei­der (Compe­ti­tion and Distri­bu­tion Law), all Munich
Bodo Dehne (Foreign Trade Law), Düsseldorf

News

Berlin — The global medi­cal tech­no­logy company Wallaby Medi­cal acqui­red the German market leader for neuro­vas­cu­lar products, phenox GmbH, and its sister company femtos GmbH. The tran­sac­tion was comple­ted with a purchase price of appro­xi­m­ately €500 million, inclu­ding mile­stone payments. Wallaby Medi­cal finan­ced the acqui­si­tion of phenox using proceeds from its previously closed Series D finan­cing round, which was supported by leading health­care investors.

Wallaby Medi­cal and phenox have been stra­te­gic part­ners since 2019. phenox exclu­si­vely distri­bu­tes Walla­by’s Avenir® Coil System in the US and Europe and Walla­by’s Espe­rance™ aspi­ra­tion cathe­ters in the US market. The now comple­ted acqui­si­tion repres­ents one of the largest trans­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tions in the medi­cal device indus­try and is driven by strong growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in terms of product port­fo­lio and geogra­phic expan­sion. In perspec­tive, the company will become a global leader in provi­ding a wide range of neuro­vas­cu­lar tech­no­lo­gies and solu­ti­ons to custo­mers and pati­ents around the world, inclu­ding the U.S., China, Europe, Japan and other inter­na­tio­nal markets.

Follo­wing the successful closing, Michael Alper, CEO of Wallaby, will now become CEO of the combi­ned company. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hermann Monstadt, foun­der of phenox, will assume the role of Mana­ging Direc­tor of phenox. All exis­ting phenox brands will be continued.

About phenox

Since its foun­ding in 2005, phenox has estab­lished itself as a global inno­va­tion leader in neuro­vas­cu­lar devices for the inter­ven­tio­nal treat­ment of stroke. The company has a broad product port­fo­lio cove­ring ischemic and hemor­rha­gic stroke treat­ment, as well as medi­cal access and care. phen­ox’s core products include the p64/p48 series flow diver­ters for the treat­ment of intra­cra­nial aneu­rysms and the pRESET series stent retrie­vers for mecha­ni­cal throm­bec­tomy in ischemic stroke. In addi­tion, phenox has its own coating tech­no­lo­gies to opti­mize its perma­nent and short-term implants. Based on inter­na­tio­nally leading clini­cal data, phenox products are distri­bu­ted in over 45 count­ries world­wide. phenox has subsi­dia­ries in Italy, Great Britain, Ireland and the USA. https://phenox.net/international.

Advi­sor Wallaby Medi­cal: YPOG
Dr. Tim Schlös­ser (Lead, Corporate/Transactions), Partner
Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Tax/Transactions), Partner
Dr. Stephan Bank (Corporate/Transactions), Partner
Dr. Jörn Wöbke (Corporate/Transactions), Partner
Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Corporate/Transactions), Asso­cia­ted Partner
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT), Asso­cia­ted Partner
Matthias Kres­ser (Corporate/Transactions), Asso­cia­ted Partner
Ann-Kris­tin Loch­mann (Tax/Transactions), Asso­cia­ted Partner
Barbara Hasse (Corporate/Transactions), Associate
Chris­tiane Schnitz­ler (Tran­sac­tions), Associate

About Wallaby Medical
Wallaby Medi­cal is a global medi­cal device company specia­li­zing in the deve­lo­p­ment and commer­cia­liza­tion of neuro­vas­cu­lar inter­ven­tio­nal products for the treat­ment of stroke. Walla­by’s product port­fo­lio includes the Avenir® Coil System, a tech­ni­cally diffe­ren­tia­ted neuro­em­bo­lic coil system for the treat­ment of intra­cra­nial aneu­rysms and other neuro­vas­cu­lar anoma­lies, the Espe­rance™ Aspi­ra­tion Cathe­ter, appro­ved in the U.S. and China for the treat­ment of ischemic stroke, and the Espe­rance™ Distal Access Cathe­ter, appro­ved in China for deli­very assis­tance. In addi­tion, Wallaby has a full range of neuro­vas­cu­lar products in deve­lo­p­ment. Walla­by’s products are curr­ently distri­bu­ted in over 30 count­ries and regi­ons. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.wallabymedical.com.

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 natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally ranked by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, YPOG employs more than 90 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.ypog.law as well as www.linkedin.com/company/ypog.

News

Munich — Sepro­Tec Multi­l­in­gual Solu­ti­ons has acqui­red 100% of the shares in tsd Tech­nik-Spra­chen­dienst GmbH from Dina Frei­bott (photo), who has deve­lo­ped the company over the past 30 years into one of the worl­d’s 30 leading language service provi­ders based in Germany. Domi­ni­que Puls and Stefan Puls as tsd manage­ment team will keep their roles in the company as mana­ging direc­tors and will be part of the future setup of SeproTec.

Proven­tis Part­ners exclu­si­vely advi­sed tsd Tech­nik-Spra­chen­dienst GmbH, Cologne/Germany, on the sale to Sepro­Tec Multi­l­in­gual Solu­ti­ons, Madrid/Spain.

McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­sed the share­hol­der of tsd Tech­nik-Spra­chen­dienst GmbH on the sale of the company to Sepro­Tec Multi­l­in­gual Solu­ti­ons of Spain.

The role of Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners acted as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to the share­hol­der, Dina Frei­bott (photo) and her manage­ment team, consis­ting of Domi­ni­que and Stefan Puls, on the sale of tsd. The consul­ting services included the selec­tion of poten­tial buyers, discus­sions and nego­tia­ti­ons with the buyer, the coor­di­na­tion of the due dili­gence as well as the struc­tu­ring and nego­tia­tion of the econo­mic terms of the execu­ted share deal. The tran­sac­tion team of Proven­tis Part­ners consis­ted of Rainer Wieser (Part­ner, Munich), and Andreas König (Direc­tor, Munich).

The LSP market

Accor­ding to an analy­sis of the LSP market conduc­ted by Proven­tis Part­ners, the indus­try is facing a surge in supply as consu­mer demand for faster, more acces­si­ble media and other types of loca­liza­tion services increa­ses. There are six tech­no­logy trends: machine trans­la­tion (MT), auto­ma­ted work­flows (AW), auto­ma­ted quality assu­rance (AQA), trans­la­tion memory ™, trans­la­tion manage­ment systems (TMS), and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI)-based systems. There are two main reasons for this: decre­asing profit margins and the need for faster turn­around of trans­la­tion projects. Tech­no­logy enables a variety of tools and services that can increase opera­tio­nal effi­ci­en­cies to coun­ter­act the conti­nual price erosion in the market­place, largely due to the proli­fe­ra­tion of strea­ming services and the incre­asing volume and speed at which audio, visual and textual content is consu­med in multi­ple languages around the globe.

Tran­sac­tion analy­ses of the last three years unders­core these trends: In 71 mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons and private place­ments, the total volume of language tech­no­logy tran­sac­tions amoun­ted to EUR 1.2 billion. Cross-border acti­vity in the sector remains strong, with 41% inter­na­tio­nal invest­ment from 24 buyer nati­ons in 22 target count­ries. Most tran­sac­tions were made in the USA, China, Japan and Israel. Nearly two-thirds of all tran­sac­tions in the language tech­no­logy sector are private place­ments, with the rema­in­der being mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons, ranging from the largest deals of around EUR 800 million to smal­ler invest­ment rounds of EUR 10,000.

About Sepro­Tec

Sepro­Tec Multi­l­in­gual Solu­ti­ons is a multi­l­in­gual service provi­der ranked among the top 30 language service provi­ders in the world. Sepro­Tec, foun­ded in 1989, is one of the worl­d’s largest provi­ders of trans­la­tion and inter­pre­ting services and has been part of the port­fo­lio of Spanish private equity inves­tor Nazca Capi­tal since fall 2021. The acqui­si­tion of TSD marks the company’s entry into the German market.

About tsd
Foun­ded in 1978 and head­quar­te­red in Colo­gne, Germany, tsd Tech­nik-Spra­chen­dienst GmbH has been successfully opera­ting in the trans­la­tion and loca­liza­tion indus­try for over 45 years. With perso­nal and compre­hen­sive services, tsd has become an estab­lished and expe­ri­en­ced provi­der of a wide range of language services in Germany and worldwide.

tsd pursues a holi­stic service approach that goes beyond the stan­dards of a clas­sic trans­la­tion agency. The company’s core compe­ten­cies are multi­l­in­gual projects: Trans­la­tion, review, vali­da­tion, termi­no­logy, MT solu­ti­ons, post-editing, tran­screa­tion, language consul­ting. Inno­va­tive and effi­ci­ent proces­ses in areas such as quality assu­rance (DIN ISO 900, ISO 17100 and ISO 18587, ISO 27001) and tech­no­logy charac­te­rize the working methods of tsd. In parti­cu­lar, the in-house team of lingu­ists enables tsd to cover complex custo­mer requests, respond quickly and flexi­bly, and provide high quality services. A close and trans­pa­rent custo­mer rela­ti­onship, coupled with custo­mi­zed, effi­ci­ent proces­ses, is part of tsd’s self-image. www.tsd-int.com

Advi­sor to the share­hol­der of tsd Diana Frei­bott: McDer­mott Will & Emery 
Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs (Corporate/M&A, lead), Nina Siewert, Marcus Fischer (Coun­sel; both Tax Law, both Frank­furt), Dr. Phil­ipp Schäuble (Labor Law); Asso­cia­tes: Matthias Wein­gut, Dr. Robert Feind, LL.M., Dr. Fabian Appa­doo, Sebas­tian Gerst­ner (all Corporate/M&A)

About Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­ner-led M&A advi­sory firm whose clients include a majo­rity of mid-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate subsi­dia­ries and private equity funds. With more than 30 M&A advi­sors, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the largest inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies in the German-spea­king region and looks back on more than 20 years of M&A expe­ri­ence and well over 300 comple­ted tran­sac­tions. The M&A consul­tants with offices in Düssel­dorf, Hamburg, Munich and Zurich are active in the sectors Indus­tri­als & Chemi­cals, Busi­ness Services, Consu­mer & Retail, TMT, Health­Care and Energy & Sustaina­bi­lity. Exclu­sive member­ship in Mergers Alli­ance — an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ship of leading M&A specia­lists — enables Proven­tis Part­ners to assist clients in 30 count­ries in key markets world­wide. The members of the Mergers Alli­ance, with its more than 200 M&A profes­sio­nals, provide Proven­tis Part­ners and thus its clients with unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

News

Munich/Hamburg — EMZ Part­ners (“EMZ”), a leading Euro­pean invest­ment firm, have sold their stake in Hamburg-based spice manu­fac­tu­rer Anker­kraut to Swiss food group Nestlé. The foun­ders and the manage­ment team remain signi­fi­cantly invol­ved. The sale marks the first exit of EMZ’s Germany office and brings inves­tors a MoM (“multi­ple of money”) of well over 2.0 in less than two years. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose further details of the transaction.

Foun­ded in 2013, the inno­va­tive spice blends quickly made Anker­kraut a “Love Brand” and the number 1 chal­len­ger on the DACH spice market. Anker­kraut places great empha­sis on sustaina­bi­lity, which is evident in both the products and the pack­a­ging. The spice blends do not contain arti­fi­cial addi­ti­ves. The company also has a growing orga­nic range. Glass vials with lids made of cork instead of plas­tic also ensure complete recy­cla­bi­lity. Origi­nally a digi­tal-first company, Anker­kraut has evol­ved into an omnich­an­nel expert, gene­ra­ting about half of its sales online and half in brick-and-mortar retail.

EMZ inves­ted in Anker­kraut in Septem­ber 2020 along with the foun­der and manage­ment team. During the 20-month invest­ment period, the company quickly deve­lo­ped into one of the leading spice brands in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

“Anker­kraut was an excel­lent invest­ment for EMZ and reflects the core of our stra­tegy to invest toge­ther with dedi­ca­ted foun­ders and manage­ment teams,” says Klaus Maurer, Part­ner at EMZ. “We are plea­sed that our joint efforts to deve­lop Anker­kraut into a leading consu­mer brand have been successful and thank the entire team for their great work,” added Guntram Kieferle, Direc­tor at EMZ.

The part­ner­ship with Nestlé aims to combine Anker­krau­t’s direct-to-consu­mer and omnich­an­nel exper­tise with the exten­sive resour­ces and inter­na­tio­nal distri­bu­tion network of the Nestlé universe.

“Our part­ner­ship with EMZ has taken Anker­kraut from one mile­stone to the next and we thank the team for their support. We are very proud to have Nestlé on board as a stra­te­gic part­ner and are exci­ted about our common goal to take Anker­kraut to the next level,” says Stefan Lemcke, who foun­ded Anker­kraut toge­ther with his wife Anne.

“I am very plea­sed to welcome the Anker­kraut team to our Nestlé family. We are both convin­ced that we can learn a lot from each other and bring toge­ther the best of two worlds! For exam­ple, how brands are built, trends are picked up and inno­va­tions are crea­ted, or how a port­fo­lio can grow successfully,” comm­ents Marc Boersch, CEO of Nestlé Deutsch­land AG.

Advi­sors EMZ: Houli­han Lokey, Latham & Watkins, Deloitte, Munich Stra­tegy Group

About EMZ

EMZ is a leading Euro­pean invest­ment company that acts as a part­ner for medium-sized compa­nies. The focus of acti­vi­ties is on invest­ments along­side foun­ders, family share­hol­ders and manage­ment teams from the Paris and Munich offices. EMZ is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment fund, majo­rity owned by its employees, with a base of Euro­pean insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. The current EMZ 9 fund has a volume of more than EUR 1.0 billion, with invest­ment tickets ranging from EUR 25 to 150 million per transaction.

 

News

Karlsruhe/ Munich — German tech­no­logy inves­tor LEA Part­ners and Danish IT inves­tor VIA equity announ­ced today that they are selling a majo­rity stake in SEMA, the leading Euro­pean CAD/CAM soft­ware solu­tion in the field of timber cons­truc­tion and prefa­bri­ca­ted buil­dings, to Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal. Details of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

SEMA, foun­ded in 1984, provi­des join­ery and prefa­bri­ca­ted cons­truc­tion compa­nies with solu­ti­ons cove­ring all acti­vi­ties rela­ted to wood and stair cons­truc­tion. On a uniform, easy-to-use program inter­face, the soft­ware offers appli­ca­ti­ons such as 2D/3D CAD plan­ning and design, photo-reali­stic visua­liza­tion, quota­tion calcu­la­tion and crea­tion, as well as produc­tion plans and working drawings. In Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switz­er­land, SEMA has a signi­fi­cant market share and a remar­kable active custo­mer base of more than 10,500 join­ery and prefa­bri­ca­ted cons­truc­tion companies.

VIA equity and LEA Part­ners had acqui­red the majo­rity stake in SEMA in 2019 and have since supported the company in its mission to expand market leader­ship and achieve opera­tio­nal excel­lence. Under the new owners and thanks to its proven product and excel­lent custo­mer rela­ti­onships, SEMA had achie­ved signi­fi­cant sales and profit growth. As part of its invest­ment stra­tegy, SEMA broa­dened its leader­ship team, inves­ted in its tech­no­logy plat­form, acqui­red an ERP/CRM soft­ware company, and imple­men­ted seve­ral pricing and product bundle initiatives.

Alex­an­der Neuss, CEO of SEMA: “Our colla­bo­ra­tion with VIA and LEA over the past three years has really helped us to realize our full poten­tial. Our inves­tors’ exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the soft­ware market combi­ned with deep busi­ness exper­tise has been a perfect stra­te­gic fit, enab­ling us to acce­le­rate our growth and conti­nue to deli­ver indus­try-leading services and inno­va­tion to our custo­mers. I am extre­mely grateful for the colla­bo­ra­tion and now look forward to conti­nuing on our growth path and expan­ding into addi­tio­nal markets internationally.”

Chris­tian Roth (photo, © LEA Part­ners), Mana­ging Part­ner at LEA Part­ners: “We are very proud to have played a role in SEMA’s growth story over the last few years. During our colla­bo­ra­tion, the SEMA team did an outstan­ding job and made the company a true soft­ware cham­pion in its indus­try. Our team has thoroughly enjoyed helping Alex­an­der and manage­ment drive stra­tegy and growth, and we are confi­dent that their dedi­ca­tion and drive will enable them to achieve many succes­ses in the future.”

VIA equity and LEA Part­ners were advi­sed by Houli­han Lokey, Noerr and Milbank on this transaction.

About LEA Partners

With curr­ently EUR 460 million in commit­ments, LEA Part­ners, as an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner, supports foun­ders and manage­ment teams at diffe­rent stages of deve­lo­p­ment in their growth and achie­ve­ment of a leading market posi­tion. Based in Karls­ruhe, one of the largest tech­no­logy clus­ters in Europe, LEA has mana­ged invest­ments in nume­rous tech­no­logy compa­nies since 2002. www.leapartners.de.

News

Madrid/Frankfurt am Main — Alan­tra, the global invest­ment banking and asset manage­ment firm focu­sed on the mid-market segment, has advi­sed the share­hol­ders of Aakamp GmbH (“Aakamp”), a leading German manu­fac­tu­rer of vitamins, mine­rals and nutri­tio­nal supple­ments (VMS), on the sale of the company to Farm­aceu­tici Procemsa (“Procemsa”). Procemsa, a company held by Invest­in­dus­trial Growth L.P. (“Invest­in­dus­trial”), specia­li­zes in the produc­tion, pack­a­ging, and rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment of nutri­tio­nal supple­ments. The closing of the tran­sac­tion was announ­ced today.

Foun­ded in 2009, Aakamp is the main contract manu­fac­tu­rer for German VMS brands in the direct-to-consu­mer (D2C) segment. Since 2019, Auctus Capi­tal Part­ners, a leading German buy and build inves­tor, has been a majo­rity share­hol­der in the company along­side foun­der Alex­an­der Keibel and the manage­ment team. Aakamp offers the full range of dietary supple­ments (inclu­ding capsu­les, tablets, soft­gels, liquids and powders) and a full range of services (inclu­ding product deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion, pack­a­ging, labe­l­ing and storage). Aakamp has a state-of-the-art and ‑flexi­ble produc­tion faci­lity in Bred­dorf and employs around 200 people. Under the leader­ship of foun­der Alex­an­der Keibel, who will conti­nue to serve as CEO, Aakamp has achie­ved excep­tio­nal and steady growth over the past decade.

With the acqui­si­tion of Aakamp by Procemsa, Invest­in­dus­trial conti­nues its stra­tegy to build a Euro­pean leader in the VMS sector. The tran­sac­tion provi­des access to the German market, which at €2.5 billion is the third largest in Europe after Italy and the United King­dom. It is charac­te­ri­zed by the fastest growing D2C segment and is ther­e­fore of parti­cu­lar stra­te­gic importance. Procemsa is one of the largest play­ers in the Euro­pean VMS market follo­wing the comple­tion of the transaction.

The tran­sac­tion unders­cores Alan­tra’s leading posi­tion as an inter­na­tio­nal midmar­ket M&A advi­sor to the VMS and nutri­tio­nal supple­ments sectors. Alan­tra recently advi­sed on the dive­st­ments of Bee Health (UK) to INW, Nutri­sci­ence Inno­va­tions (USA) to Tilia Capi­tal, GS Capsule (China) to Advent Inter­na­tio­nal, Patent Co (Serbia) to RWA, and the acqui­si­tion of UAS Labo­ra­to­ries (USA) by Chr. Hansen and OFI (Italy) by Procemsa.

Charles Lance­ley, Head of UK Food & Nutri­tion, and Chris­to­pher Jobst, Part­ner at Alan­tra Germany, led the tran­sac­tion with the support of a team from the UK and Germany. The team’s exten­sive indus­try know­ledge and close rela­ti­onships with stra­te­gists enab­led them to achieve a highly successful outcome for Aakamp.

Chris­to­pher Jobst said: “As a leading provi­der on the German VMS market and an indis­pensable part­ner for its custo­mers, Aakamp was a sought-after asset on the Euro­pean market. Toge­ther with foun­der Alex­an­der Keibel and the other share­hol­ders, we exami­ned nume­rous opti­ons that would meet both the share­hol­ders’ and the company’s requi­re­ments in the long term. We are plea­sed to have found a part­ner in Procemsa that is an ideal stra­te­gic and cultu­ral fit for Aakamp, and we look forward to the company’s contin­ued success.”

Charles Lance­ley added, “Consu­mer spen­ding on dietary supple­ments in Europe is at record levels, and impro­ving health and well-being is among the major trends. Leading compa­nies like Aakamp play a criti­cal role in the VMS supply chain as inno­va­tors, deve­lo­pers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers, and will ther­e­fore conti­nue to attract strong inte­rest from stra­te­gic buyers and finan­cial investors.”

Alex­an­der Keibel, CEO of Aakamp, said: “We are very proud to have gained the trust of a part­ner like Invest­in­dus­trial and to be able to work with a large group like Procemsa in the future. Our market is rapidly evol­ving due to digi­ta­liza­tion and we are convin­ced that our inter­na­tio­nal foot­print will streng­then Procem­sa’s posi­tio­ning in the sector. We would like to thank Alan­tra for their support in this process. The cross-border colla­bo­ra­tion has worked seam­lessly and brought great added value.”

Andrea Bonomi, Chair­man of Invest­in­dus­tri­al’s Indus­trial Advi­sory Board, said, “This acqui­si­tion is another exam­ple of the successful conso­li­da­tion stra­tegy that Invest­in­dus­trial has imple­men­ted since the begin­ning of its opera­ti­ons, making and successfully inte­gra­ting more than 150 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons for its port­fo­lio compa­nies. Procemsa is in an excel­lent posi­tion to successfully conti­nue its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion through both acqui­si­ti­ons and orga­nic growth. With Aakamp, we have found a valuable addi­tion to streng­then our posi­tion in the important German market.”

About Alan­tra

Alan­tra is a global alter­na­tive asset manage­ment, invest­ment banking and credit port­fo­lio advi­sory firm focu­sed on provi­ding services to busi­nesses, fami­lies and inves­tors opera­ting in the middle market segment. The Group has more than 540 profes­sio­nals in Europe, the USA, Latin America and Asia. The Invest­ment Banking divi­sion provi­des inde­pen­dent advice on M&A, debt advi­sory, restruc­tu­ring and capi­tal markets tran­sac­tions and has advi­sed on more than 450 tran­sac­tions with a total value of over €70 billion in the last three years. Alan­tra’s specia­lists have both exten­sive global sector exper­tise and strong rela­ti­onships with local compa­nies, inves­tors, entre­pre­neurs and finan­cing insti­tu­ti­ons in each of their markets. www.alantra.com

News

Paris/ Frank­furt a. M. — The Ardian Clean Energy Ever­green Fund (ACEEF) is targe­ting € 1 billion for its first invest­ment cycle. As an Article 9 fund under the EU’s SFDR, it is a perma­nent, long-term invest­ment plat­form enti­rely dedi­ca­ted to finan­cing clean energy

Ardian, a world-leading private invest­ment house, today announ­ces the launch of a new open-ended fund — Ardian Clean Energy Ever­green Fund (ACEEF).

The fund is Ardian Infra­struc­tu­re’s first ever­green fund, offe­ring inves­tors the oppor­tu­nity to grow their expo­sure to rene­wa­bles and the energy tran­si­tion. It is an Article 9 fund under the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclo­sure Regu­la­tion (SFDR) and ther­e­fore meets the highest social and envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards in Europe.

More than half of its € 1 bn target has alre­ady been inves­ted in a seed port­fo­lio of 12 wind and solar assets, tota­ling 1 GW of capa­city in Europe and the Ameri­cas. The fund will conti­nue to target mature rene­wa­ble tech­no­lo­gies inclu­ding solar, wind and hydro­elec­tric, as well as emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies such as biogas, biomass, storage, and energy effi­ci­ency. The stra­tegy is focu­sed on opera­tio­nal opti­miza­tion to maxi­mize value crea­tion. The fund targets up to €150m per indi­vi­dual investment.

The AXA Group is the corner­stone inves­tor of ACEEF, and this part­ner­ship perfectly aligns with AXA’s ambi­tion to fight climate change by finan­cing the energy tran­si­tion. As an open-ended struc­ture, the fund will provide a perma­nent solu­tion to Ardian’s clients to support rene­wa­ble energy as part of Ardian’s wider energy tran­si­tion stra­tegy. The launch of ACEEF follows the crea­tion of Hy24, the worl­d’s largest invest­ment plat­form focu­sed on clean hydrogen.

ACEEF port­fo­lio will also bene­fit from Opta, Ardian Infra­struc­tu­re’s in house digi­tal tool which coll­ects and analy­ses data from its rene­wa­ble assets. The plat­form uses this data to better under­stand produc­tion patterns, iden­tify areas for impro­ve­ment and opti­mize asset perfor­mance, as well as moni­to­ring reve­nues at risk.

“ACEEF is a new inno­va­tive step to provide long term capi­tal to acce­le­rate the energy tran­si­tion. The fund, mana­ged by a highly quali­fied team with a track record span­ning 15 years and a large network of indus­trial experts, offers to our clients a unique plat­form to operate in the rene­wa­ble energy sector with an indus­trial approach. Ardian’s stra­tegy to acce­le­rate the energy tran­si­tion is more rele­vant than ever to fight climate change and to contri­bute to energy independence.”

Mathias Burg­hardt, Head of Ardian Infra­struc­ture and Member of Ardian’s Execu­tive Committee
Ardian has been one of the pioneers in energy tran­si­tion, having star­ted inves­t­ing in the rene­wa­ble asset class since 2007. Across all Ardian Infra­struc­ture Funds, the team alre­ady mana­ges more than 7.6GW of heat and rene­wa­ble energy capa­city in Europe and the Americas.

In the coming months, Ardian’s exper­tise will be further streng­the­ned by the arri­val of a new Mana­ging Direc­tor from the rene­wa­bles indus­try, who will be dedi­ca­ted to the clean energy platform.

About Ardian

Ardian is a world-leading private invest­ment house with assets of US$125 billion mana­ged or advi­sed in Europe, the Ameri­cas and Asia. The company is majo­rity-owned by its employees. It keeps entre­pre­neur­ship at its heart and focu­ses on deli­ve­ring excel­lent invest­ment perfor­mance to its global inves­tor base. Through its commit­ment to shared outco­mes for all stake­hol­ders, Ardian’s acti­vi­ties fuel indi­vi­dual, corpo­rate and econo­mic growth around the world. Holding close its core values of excel­lence, loyalty and entre­pre­neur­ship, Ardian main­ta­ins a truly global network, with more than 850 employees working from fifteen offices across Europe (Frank­furt, Jersey, London, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Ameri­cas (New York, San Fran­cisco and Sant­iago) and Asia (Beijing, Singa­pore, Tokyo and Seoul). It mana­ges funds on behalf of more than 1,200 clients through five pillars of invest­ment exper­tise: Secon­da­ries, Direct Funds, Infra­struc­ture, Real Estate and Private Debt.

www.ardian.com

News

Hamburg/ New York/ Berlin — Hamburg-based FinTech company Express­Group, foun­ded in 2019, has raised a Series A finan­cing with a total volume of € 25 million. This was led by Project A Ventures and Insight Part­ners.

Using an AI-powered backend system, Express­Group enables plat­form provi­ders such as accoun­ting firms, tax advi­sors and lawy­ers to process tax files within minu­tes. The system combi­nes machine lear­ning and auto­ma­tion capa­bi­li­ties with manual labor to ensure easier, faster and more accu­rate proces­sing of income tax returns. The first product, Express­Tax, offers users the ability to submit the requi­red data within 10 minu­tes and, on the other hand, provi­des process intel­li­gence and auto­ma­tion for tax profes­sio­nals. In less than 12 months, they have thus increased to a total volume of receiv­a­bles of € 45 million.

Follo­wing on from its promi­sing growth in Germany, Express­Group is now turning its focus to the larger EU tax market. The addi­tio­nal funds will be spent on the company’s inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and the launch of further products in addi­tio­nal FinTech areas.

About Project A Ventures

Project A (photo: manage­ment team, © Project A) is one of the leading venture capi­tal firms in Europe with offices in Berlin and London.In addi­tion to appro­xi­m­ately $600 million in assets under manage­ment, 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 startups.
The port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as Trade Repu­blic, World­Re­mit, senn­der, KRY, Spry­ker, Cata­wiki and Voi.

About Express­Group

Express­Group wants to rede­sign fintech products for the working and middle class, start­ing with taxes. The goal is for ever­yone to be able to reclaim over­paid taxes from the tax office — regard­less of income, language barriers or know­ledge of the tax system. The company was foun­ded in 2019 by Maxi­mi­lian Lamb­s­dorff, Dennis Konrad, Konstan­tin Loeb­ner, Mehdi Afridi and Andreas Santoro. Express­Group’s first product, “Express­Tax”, has been on the market since 2021 and has alre­ady helped thou­sands of custo­mers who have never filed a tax return before to do so within minutes.


Advi­sor Project A Ventures: 


YPOG

Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner (Lead, Corporate/Transactions), Part­ner , Tobias Lovett (Corporate/Transactions), Senior Asso­ciate , Matthias Kres­ser (Finance), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner , Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anna Eick­meier (Data Protec­tion), Senior Asso­ciate, Dr. Niklas Ulrich (Regu­la­tory), Asso­ciate, Stefan Rich­ter (Tax), Part­ner, Lukas Schmitt (Tax), Associate

Advi­sors to Insight Part­ners: Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP

The Will­kie team was led by the part­ners Miriam Steets and Dr. Axel Wahl (both Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) and included part­ners Matthew Haddad (Corpo­rate M&A, New York) and Dr. Jens- Olrik Murach (Anti­trust, Brussels), coun­sel Wulf Kring (Tax, Frank­furt) and asso­cia­tes Dr. Tobias Gerigk and Nils Bock (both Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt).

News

Berlin — Product­sup raised Euro 65 million from Bregal Mile­stone and Nord­wind Capi­tal. “The invest­ment will enable Product­sup to further advance its product deve­lo­p­ment, take advan­tage of merger and acqui­si­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties, streng­then its part­ner network, and expand into new markets to soli­dify its posi­tion as the leading global solu­tion for retail success,” the company shares. The Berlin-based company, foun­ded in 2010 by Kai Seefeldt and Johan­nis Hatt, hand­les “data inte­gra­tion in e‑commerce.”

In the previous finan­cing round, Nord­wind Capi­tal and Deut­sche Handels­bank inves­ted around EUR 18.5 million in the company, which was foun­ded and is mana­ged by Vincent Peters and Stefan Sonn­tag and curr­ently has around 250 employees.

www.productsup.com©

News

Luxem­bourg — Univer­sal Invest­ment Group and the share­hol­ders of Euro­pean Fund Admi­nis­tra­tion (EFA) — Banque de Luxem­bourg, Banque et Caisse d’Épargne de l’État, Oddo BHF and Quin­tet Private Bank (Europe) S.A. — have agreed on the acqui­si­tion of EFA by Univer­sal Invest­ment Group. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the Luxem­bourg finan­cial regu­la­tor CSSF and is expec­ted to close in the second half of 2022.

Foun­ded in 1996, EFA is one of the leading provi­ders of fund admi­nis­tra­tion, private asset services, and front, middle and back office solu­ti­ons, with offices in Luxem­bourg and France and nearly €167 billion in assets under admi­nis­tra­tion as of the end of 2021. Clients include banks, asset mana­gers, insu­rance compa­nies, asset mana­gers, family offices and insti­tu­tio­nal investors.

The Univer­sal Invest­ment Group is one of the largest fund service plat­forms in Europe with around 750 billion euros in assets under admi­nis­tra­tion, appro­xi­m­ately 2,000 retail and insti­tu­tio­nal fund manda­tes and more than 1,000 employees at loca­ti­ons in Frank­furt am Main, Luxem­bourg, Dublin, London, Hamburg and Krakow. In recent years, Univer­sal Invest­ment has joined the ranks of the few major inter­na­tio­nal play­ers in this market. In addi­tion to the DACH region, Univer­sal Invest­ment is successfully driving inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion through Luxem­bourg and Irish fund hubs, espe­ci­ally for inter­na­tio­nal asset managers.

The combi­na­tion of the two compa­nies streng­thens their joint presence in the Euro­pean markets with combi­ned assets under admi­nis­tra­tion of more than 900 billion euros in over 7,000 funds and structures.

Fernand Reiners, Chair­man of the EFA Board of Direc­tors, comm­ents: “EFA and Univer­sal Invest­ment share a simi­lar history, compa­ra­ble busi­ness models and objec­ti­ves. Both were origi­nally foun­ded by banks to pool fund admi­nis­tra­tion exper­tise. The fact that clients can focus on their core busi­ness thanks to the specia­lists was and is the driver for the strong growth of both compa­nies. We are convin­ced that this success story will conti­nue by entrus­ting EFA to the Univer­sal Invest­ment Group. As stra­te­gic clients, the exis­ting share­hol­ders are commit­ted to contri­bu­ting to the long-term success of EFA as part of the Univer­sal Invest­ment Group.”

Michael Rein­hard (Photo, © UI), CEO of the Univer­sal Invest­ment Group, adds: “EFA is a perfect fit for Univer­sal Invest­ment and our growth story. The merger with EFA is not only another mile­stone towards our goal of beco­ming the leading Euro­pean inves­tor services plat­form and Super­ManCo, but also for our ambi­tion to offer our clients the full spec­trum of inves­tor services”. EFA will act as the Group’s inter­na­tio­nal inves­tor services plat­form based in Luxem­bourg and France, comple­men­ting the Frank­furt admi­nis­tra­tion plat­form for the DACH region. “Our custo­mers will bene­fit from addi­tio­nal solu­ti­ons in the area of alter­na­tive invest­ments and private assets. The combi­na­tion of our successful busi­ness models will further acce­le­rate both the growth and the inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion of our joint company. Toge­ther, we intend to signi­fi­cantly expand our custo­mer base in Scan­di­na­via, France and the Bene­lux count­ries, among others. We are ther­e­fore very plea­sed to welcome EFA’s employees and clients to the Univer­sal Invest­ment Group.”

Both compa­nies have specia­li­zed busi­ness models in asset servicing and share the idea of an open and modu­lar plat­form for the finan­cial services indus­try. Custo­mers will bene­fit from the merger in the form of a specia­li­zed finan­cial services company with a clear busi­ness model, new product deve­lo­p­ments, parti­cu­larly in the area of private and alter­na­tive invest­ments, and inno­va­tive strength, for exam­ple in the area of digi­tal assets. Toge­ther, the two compa­nies aim to signi­fi­cantly expand their custo­mer base in Scan­di­na­via, France and the Bene­lux count­ries, among others.

About the Euro­pean Fund Administration
EFA will remain an inde­pen­dent busi­ness unit as part of the Univer­sal Invest­ment Group and under the Univer­sal Invest­ment brand. The company comple­ments Univer­sal Invest­ment’s busi­ness model and toge­ther they will expand the port­fo­lio of services for inter­na­tio­nal clients in the future. Univer­sal Invest­ment Luxem­bourg will conti­nue to operate the successful inter­na­tio­nal third-party ManCo and AIFM busi­ness for the Group inde­pendently of EFA.

With offices in Luxem­bourg and France, EFA, foun­ded in 1996, is one of the leading provi­ders of fund admi­nis­tra­tion, private asset services and front, middle and back office solu­ti­ons. Clients include banks, asset mana­gers, insu­rance compa­nies, asset mana­gers, family offices and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. More at www.efa.eu.

About Univer­sal Invest­ment Group
Univer­sal Invest­ment Group is one of the leading Euro­pean fund service plat­forms and Super ManCos. Foun­ded in 1968, the company is an inde­pen­dent plat­form offe­ring fund initia­tors and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors struc­tu­ring and admi­nis­tra­tion solu­ti­ons as well as risk manage­ment for secu­ri­ties, real estate and alter­na­tive invest­ments. The compa­nies UI Labs, UI Enlyte and CAPin­side round off the Group’s inno­va­tive service offering.

News

Munich/ Paris — EMZ Part­ners acqui­res majo­rity stake in Foto­Fin­der, the leading provi­der of visua­liza­tion tech­no­logy for early skin cancer detec­tion and aesthe­tics. Co-foun­der and main share­hol­der Rudolf Mayer with­draws from his share­hol­der posi­tion and entrusts the future success of Foto­Fin­der to co-foun­der Andreas Mayer, other members of the Mayer family and selec­ted members of the manage­ment team. All of the latter reinvest a signi­fi­cant portion of their proceeds or become new shareholders.

The Euro­pean private equity firm EMZ Part­ners has ente­red into a binding agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in Foto­Fin­der, head­quar­te­red in Bad Birn­bach, Germany. The company’s foun­der, Rudolf Mayer, who toge­ther with his son and co-foun­der Andreas Mayer has driven the successful deve­lo­p­ment of the company and shaped Foto­Fin­der into the leading and pionee­ring brand in the field of early skin cancer detec­tion tech­no­logy, will fully retire from his role as mana­ging direc­tor and shareholder.

The signi­fi­cant (re)investments of all other exis­ting family share­hol­ders as well as other members of the manage­ment team clearly under­line the promi­sing pros­pects of the company and the firm belief in its future success.

Foto­Fin­der was foun­ded in 1991 and provi­des products and services to derma­to­lo­gists, derma­to­logy clinics, hospi­tals, scree­ning centers and rese­arch insti­tu­tes. Foto­Fin­der systems combine proprie­tary AI-based soft­ware with indus­try-leading Auto­ma­ted Total Body Mapping and Video Derma­to­scopy tech­no­logy to form inte­gra­ted skin visua­liza­tion solu­ti­ons. The company main­ta­ins close colla­bo­ra­tion with univer­si­ties and leading experts in derma­to­logy and has access to a global network of derma­to­lo­gists through its Foto­Fin­der Online Academy. The service offe­ring is comple­ted by a service port­fo­lio inclu­ding main­ten­ance, trai­ning and second opinion services.

Although Foto­Fin­der’s core market is Germany and the DACH region, the company opera­tes globally and gene­ra­tes more than 70% of its reve­nue abroad in over 90 count­ries. Products and services are sold directly, through subsi­dia­ries, and through a world­wide network of distri­bu­tors and agents.

Driven by rising global aware­ness of skin cancer, Foto­Fin­der is pursuing attrac­tive growth opti­ons in highly regu­la­ted regio­nal medi­cal tech­no­logy markets. This includes further inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, a stron­ger focus on tech­no­lo­gi­cally advan­ced solu­ti­ons (ATBM Master), proprie­tary AI-supported tech­no­logy, and consis­tent culti­va­tion of the adja­cent aesthe­tics and beauty market.

Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed EMZ Part­ners (EMZ) on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Foto­Fin­der Systems GmbH (Foto­Fin­der), a leading provi­der of visua­liza­tion tech­no­logy for early skin cancer detec­tion and aesthetics.
The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included part­ner Winfried M. Carli and asso­ciate Daniel Wagner (both Munich Finance). The team led by part­ner Winfried M. Carli regu­larly advi­ses EMZ on finan­cings, such as the recent invest­ments in Hermann Pipers­berg, cele­brate company and Ankerkraut.

About Foto­fin­der
Foto­Fin­der, foun­ded in 1991, provi­des products and services to derma­to­lo­gists, derma­to­logy clinics, hospi­tals, scree­ning centers and rese­arch insti­tu­tes. The systems sold combine proprie­tary AI-based soft­ware with indus­try-leading Auto­ma­ted Total Body Mapping (ATBM) and video dermo­scopy tech­no­logy to form inte­gra­ted skin visua­liza­tion solutions.

About EMZ

EMZ is a leading Euro­pean invest­ment company that sees itself as a part­ner to medium-sized compa­nies. The focus of acti­vi­ties is on invest­ments along­side foun­ders, family share­hol­ders and mana­gers. EMZ is majo­rity control­led by its own employees and invests the money of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors from Europe. From the current fund with a volume of more than one billion euros, EMZ makes invest­ments in the amount of 10 to 150 million euros.

About Shear­man & Sterling

Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 25 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling has offices in Frank­furt and Munich. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

News

Munich — The share­hol­ders of DC-Soft­ware Doster & Christ­mann GmbH have sold 100% of their shares in the company to FRILO Soft­ware GmbH, Stutt­gart, part of the Nemet­schek Group, Munich. The Munich-based company has been deve­lo­ping special soft­ware solu­ti­ons for foun­da­tion engi­nee­ring since 1989. With the acqui­si­tion, FRILO stra­te­gi­cally expands its product port­fo­lio in the foun­da­tion engi­nee­ring & foun­da­ti­ons segment and thus streng­thens its posi­tion as a leading provi­der of struc­tu­ral analy­sis programs.

With more than 30 programs, the DC soft­ware covers a compre­hen­sive range of digi­tal basic cons­truc­tion solu­ti­ons. The offer of the soft­ware company is divi­ded into two parts of the basic struc­ture. Users employ the programs of the DC Soil Mecha­nics segment for subsoil inves­ti­ga­ti­ons, soil and conta­mi­na­ted site inves­ti­ga­ti­ons, and the visua­liza­tion of geother­mal bore­holes and geother­mal probes. The program group DC Foun­da­tion Engi­nee­ring, on the other hand, compri­ses soft­ware solu­ti­ons for geotech­ni­cal calcu­la­ti­ons, foun­da­tion engi­nee­ring as well as ground­wa­ter draw­down and infiltration.

Since its foun­da­tion in 1989, DC-Soft­ware has deve­lo­ped into a sustain­ably growing and profi­ta­ble company. With the acqui­si­tion of the company, which is well estab­lished on the DACH market, FRILO is expan­ding its port­fo­lio in the foun­da­tion engi­nee­ring & foun­da­ti­ons segment in a trend-setting way. “We are extre­mely plea­sed to have gained many years of exper­tise in soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment in the specia­li­zed field of foun­da­tion engi­nee­ring for our custo­mers with DC Soft­ware,” said Markus Gallen­ber­ger, Mana­ging Direc­tor of FRILO. “Due to the increase in our foun­da­tion engi­nee­ring solu­ti­ons, our custo­mers bene­fit from an enorm­ous solu­tion port­fo­lio that FRILO provi­des for day-to-day busi­ness. The consis­t­ently growing and bene­fi­cial product port­fo­lio always makes the diffe­rence for our customers.”

“We attach great importance to ensu­ring conti­nuity for custo­mers and employees with the take­over. I am convin­ced that FRILO and the Nemet­schek Group provide the appro­priate condi­ti­ons for this,” says Dr.-Ing. Armin Doster, co-foun­der of DC-Soft­ware. “In addi­tion, we expect this step to enable us to profi­ta­bly use the strong syner­gies between the two compa­nies and to bene­fit from new impulses.”

The role of Proven­tis Partners
Proven­tis Part­ners acted as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to the share­hol­ders of DC-Soft­ware Doster & Christ­mann GmbH in the prepa­ra­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of the tran­sac­tion. In addi­tion to the imple­men­ta­tion of a struc­tu­red sales process, the consul­ting services included the prepa­ra­tion of marke­ting and tran­sac­tion docu­ments, iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and approa­ching of poten­tial inves­tors inclu­ding manage­ment presen­ta­ti­ons as well as support in the due dili­gence and nego­tia­tion of the tran­sac­tion. The tran­sac­tion team of Proven­tis Part­ners was Jan Pörsch­mann (Part­ner, Munich), and Maxi­mi­lian Gluchow­ski (Asso­ciate, Munich).

About DC-Soft­ware Doster & Christ­mann GmbH

DC-Soft­ware, based in Munich, Germany, has been deve­lo­ping and distri­bu­ting soft­ware in the fields of foun­da­tion engi­nee­ring and soil mecha­nics since 1989 and can draw on more than 30 years of expe­ri­ence in these areas. By support­ing multi­ple languages as well as the stan­dards of diffe­rent count­ries, DC soft­ware programs can be used inter­na­tio­nally. DC soft­ware is used in over 50,000 program licen­ses by more than 3000 custo­mers in over 80 count­ries on all conti­nents. For more infor­ma­tion, visit https://www.dc-software.de/

About FRILO

FRILO has been offe­ring powerful and user-friendly soft­ware solu­ti­ons for struc­tu­ral calcu­la­ti­ons for over 40 years and has become a leading provi­der in this field on the German market with almost 200 calcu­la­tion programs. FRILO’s soft­ware engi­neers attach great importance to recon­ci­ling intui­tive opera­tion with easily compre­hen­si­ble and relia­ble results. With its claim to deve­lop products orien­ted to the BIM concept, FRILO is also paving the way for networked buil­ding plan­ning in which coope­ra­tion with other disci­pli­nes is more effi­ci­ent. Since 1999, FRILO, head­quar­te­red in Stutt­gart, has been inte­gra­ted into the Nemet­schek Group as an inde­pen­dent brand. For more infor­ma­tion, visit https://www.frilo.eu/

About Proven­tis Partners
Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­ner-led M&A advi­sory firm whose clients include a majo­rity of mid-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate subsi­dia­ries and private equity funds. With more than 30 M&A advi­sors, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the largest inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies in the German-spea­king region and looks back on more than 20 years of M&A expe­ri­ence and well over 300 comple­ted tran­sac­tions. The M&A consul­tants with offices in Düssel­dorf, Hamburg, Munich and Zurich are active in the sectors Indus­tri­als & Chemi­cals, Busi­ness Services, Consu­mer & Retail, TMT, Health­Care and Energy & Sustaina­bi­lity. www.proventis.com

News

Frank­furt a. M. — The German offices of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges have advi­sed Tree Energy Solu­ti­ons (TES) on the estab­lish­ment of a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with Open Grid Europe (OGE) to deve­lop and imple­ment acarbon circu­lar economy with the aim of avoi­ding green­house gas emissions.

The focus of future coope­ra­tion between TES and OGE will be on the deve­lo­p­ment of a Germany-wide CO2infrastructure for the removal of CO2emissions gene­ra­ted in the produc­tion process CO2intensive indus­tries cannot be avoided, and on the trans­port of CO2 espe­ci­ally for its reuse in a green, closed-loop system for import­ing green hydro­gen. To this end, TES and Essen-based OGE, one of Euro­pe’s leading long-distance network opera­tors, are plan­ning to jointly deve­lop a 1,000 kmCO2 trans­port network in Germany as a first step. TheCO2 trans­port network will origi­nate from a green lique­fied gas import termi­nal (Green Energy Hub Wilhelms­ha­ven) to be built by TES in Wilhelmshaven.

TES, which opera­tes inter­na­tio­nally, is a supplier of green hydro­gen and green synthe­tic gas. To this end, TES is deve­lo­ping energy supply and import centers in Germany, Belgium, the Nether­lands, France, Canada, the Middle East and the United States with the aim of inte­gra­ting and opti­mi­zing global supply chains.

TES, whose inves­tors include Switz­er­lan­d’s Varo and other energy inves­tors, plans to produce methane using mainly solar energy from the Gulf region, North Africa, North America and Mexico.

The Weil team for this tran­sac­tion consis­ted of the follo­wing attor­neys: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmidt (Corpo­rate, Frankfurt/Munich), Manuel-Peter Fringer (Corpo­rate, Munich), Andreas Fogel, Amelie Zabel (both Corpo­rate, Munich) and Stef­fen Giolda (Anti­trust, Munich).

Weil, Gotshal & Manges

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,100 lawy­ers, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately 300 part­ners. Weil is head­quar­te­red in New York and has offices in Boston, Brussels, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Prince­ton, Shang­hai, Sili­con Valley and Washing­ton, D.C.

News

Frank­furt a. M. — meda­tixx GmbH & Co KG (Eltville and Bamberg), a company of the Merckle Group, has acqui­red all shares of Soft­land GmbH. Soft­land will operate as a subsi­diary of meda­tixx in the future. Meda­tixx has more than 700 employees and offers soft­ware solu­ti­ons for medi­cal prac­ti­ces, MVZs and outpa­ti­ent clinics as well as rela­ted services.

Soft­land, based in Magde­burg, Leip­zig and Borna, has been active in the field of prac­tice soft­ware for physi­ci­ans in private prac­tice since 1992 and distri­bu­tes the prac­tice soft­ware “Elaphe Longis­sima” (EL). The inte­gra­tion of Soft­land into meda­tixx enables EL users to access the wide range of products and services offe­red by meda­tixx and guaran­tees them the up-to-date tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment of the prac­tice program.

Advi­sor meda­tixx: Gleiss Lutz
Dr. Patrick Kaffiné, photo (Lead, Part­ner), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Hirsch, Maxi­mi­lian Leisen­hei­mer (all M&A), Dr. Ocka Stumm (Part­ner, Tax, all Frank­furt), Dr. Matthias Werner (Coun­sel), Dr. Theresa Uhlen­hut (both IP/IT, Munich), Dr. Jens Günther (Part­ner, Munich), Dr. Tobias Abend (Coun­sel, Frank­furt), Dr. Matthias Bögl­mül­ler (Munich, all Labor Law), Dr. Birgit Colbus (Coun­sel, Anti­trust Law, Frank­furt), Simon Wegmann (Data Protec­tion Law), Dr. Enno Burk (Coun­sel, Health­care, both Berlin), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (Part­ner, Public Law, Düsseldorf).

News

Düssel­dorf — McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­sed the foun­ders and share­hol­ders of Office Part­ner Group on the sale of a majo­rity stake to Prin­tus Group. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to anti­trust approval.

Prin­tus acqui­res 70 percent of the shares in Office Part­ner. 30 percent will remain with the mana­ging direc­tors Peter Pölling and Sven Oster­holt; both will conti­nue to manage the busi­ness opera­ti­ons of Office Part­ner, which will remain opera­tio­nally independent.

Foun­ded in 1997, Office Part­ner GmbH specia­li­zes in online trading with prin­ters, compu­ters and other IT products. The company curr­ently employs 160 people and achie­ved sales of 189 million euros in 2021.

Prin­tus GmbH is one of the leading online and mail order retail­ers for office supplies in Europe. The family-owned company was foun­ded in 1977 and today gene­ra­tes annual sales of over 850 million euros with more than 1,600 employees.

Consul­ting Office Part­ner GmbH: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Düsseldorf

Dr. Phil­ipp Gren­ze­bach (Lead), Sebas­tian Bonk (both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Sandra Urban-Crell (Labor Law), Carina Kant (Coun­sel, Anti­trust Law); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Frede­ric Peine (Colo­gne), Sebas­tian Klein (both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Helen Linden­berg (Anti­trust Law)

News

Munich — Liberta Part­ners (“LIBERTA”) acqui­res Medas Facto­ring GmbH (“MEDAS”) from the company’s foun­der Klaus Brecht in the course of a succes­sion situa­tion. The two mana­ging direc­tors of MEDAS, Jördis Wehr­stedt and Peter Wieland, are parti­ci­pa­ting in the company toge­ther with Liberta.

MEDAS is a service provi­der for physi­ci­ans of all special­ties, clinics and other custo­mers from the medi­cal profes­si­ons with priva­tely insu­red pati­ents. MEDAS offers a compre­hen­sive fee manage­ment, which includes the prepa­ra­tion of invoices, but also the corre­spon­ding control inclu­ding the dispatch and the dunning process for the private liqui­da­tion. A total of around 1,500 custo­mers are served from the company’s head­quar­ters in Munich. Around 1 million invoices with a billing volume of appro­xi­m­ately EUR 200 million are proces­sed annu­ally. The custo­mer network extends across Bava­ria, Berlin, North Rhine-West­pha­lia and Baden-Würt­tem­berg, with the focus curr­ently on Bavaria.

Commen­ting on the sale, company foun­der Klaus Brecht said: “I am plea­sed to have found a strong share­hol­der for MEDAS in LIBERTA. LIBERTA, with its entre­pre­neu­rial approach to deve­lo­p­ment, will help MEDAS to conti­nue to grow as a company. This is a posi­tive signal for our long-stan­ding custo­mers, employees and part­ners, as the succes­sion is now secu­red for the long term.”

The manage­ment of MEDAS, Jördis Wehr­stedt and Peter Wieland added “We are plea­sed about the entry of LIBERTA and look opti­mi­sti­cally into the future. LIBER­TA’s exper­tise promi­ses a steady and sustainable further deve­lo­p­ment of MEDAS. We look forward to LIBER­TA’s support and new approaches.”

Nils von Wietz­low, Part­ner of LIBERTA (photo, © Liberta Part­ners) and respon­si­ble for succes­sion solu­ti­ons, under­li­ned: “MEDAS is an estab­lished company with a strong name. Its excel­lent repu­ta­tion in the market will form the basis for further growth. We see poten­tial for such growth both orga­ni­cally and inor­ga­ni­cally. At the same time, we would like to conti­nue to drive the digi­tiza­tion trend in order to prepare MEDAS for new requi­re­ments. We would like to thank Klaus Brecht for the trust he has placed in us and will closely accom­pany MEDAS on the path we are stri­ving for.”

This is the eighth invest­ment of Liberta Part­ners Fund II, which closed in Octo­ber 2019. The fund invests in group spin-offs and succes­sion situa­tions of family busi­nesses with a strong focus on support­ing the opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment of its port­fo­lio companies.

About Medas Facto­ring GmbH

MEDAS, based in Munich, was foun­ded in 1980 and is a billing service provi­der for physi­ci­ans. As such, MEDAS serves over 1500 custo­mers throug­hout Germany — physi­ci­ans of all special­ties, clinics and chief physi­ci­ans, physio­the­ra­pists, psycho­the­ra­pists, alter­na­tive prac­ti­tio­ners, occu­pa­tio­nal thera­pists and custo­mers from other heal­ing profes­si­ons. With over 60 employees, MEDAS can guaran­tee perso­nal atten­tion to each custo­mer. For more infor­ma­tion, visit: www.medas.de

About Liberta Partners

Liberta Part­ners was foun­ded in 2016 and is a multi-family holding company based in Munich. Liberta Part­ners invests in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries with opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, espe­ci­ally in succes­sion situa­tions and corpo­rate spin-offs. These are actively deve­lo­ped as part of the long-term “100% Core & Care” concept and bene­fit from Liberta Part­ners’ inno­va­tive entre­pre­neu­rial under­stan­ding. Liberta Part­ners’ team curr­ently consists of 14 employees working in M&A, corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment and legal, as well as an active indus­try advi­sory board. www.liberta-partners.com

News

Paris/Berlin — Euro­pe’s biggest free­lan­cer market­place Malt, has acqui­red COMATCH, the cura­ted market­place for inde­pen­dent manage­ment consul­tants and indus­try experts, to rein­force its Euro­pean leader­ship on the free­lan­cing market. The acqui­si­tion extends Malt’s commu­nity of high-skil­led free­lan­cers to busi­ness consul­tants and takes Malt closer to reaching €1bn busi­ness volume by 2024. With a free­lan­cing market valued at €355bn, Malt projects to become the undis­pu­ted leader and the prefer­red part­ner for compa­nies seeking exter­nal resour­ces in Europe.

Foun­ded in 2014 by McKin­sey alumni Dr. Chris­toph Hardt and Dr. Jan Schäch­tele and backed by Acton Capi­tal since 2016, Comatch has estab­lished Euro­pe’s leading market­place for top free­lance manage­ment consul­tants and indus­try experts with clients ranging from start­ups to large corpo­ra­tes. Since its launch, Comatch has built a strong commu­nity of more than 15,000 top inde­pen­dent manage­ment consul­tants and indus­try experts and has grown across nine markets with 130 full-time employees in Berlin, Paris and London.

Home to a commu­nity of 340,000 free­lan­cers, the largest in Europe, Malt will now be on its way to offer Euro­pe’s most compre­hen­sive network of high-skil­led free­lan­cers and manage­ment consul­tants, making Malt the ideal part­ner for all busi­ness acti­vi­ties. As a result, clients will now bene­fit from a market­place with the best subject-matter specia­lists on hand to solve busi­ness chal­lenges from stra­tegy to execu­tion. Combi­ned, the two compa­nies work with 80% of the CAC-40 and DAX-40 compa­nies and toge­ther will build the largest Euro­pean client network with more than 1,000 enterprises.

Fueled by digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion and the incre­asing need to fill speci­fic roles, both compa­nies have witnessed a sharp uptake in client demand for inde­pen­dent resour­ces. The acqui­si­tion sends a strong signal of Malt’s place in the ecosys­tem at a time of tremen­dous growth in the Euro­pean free­lance market, curr­ently valued at 355 billion euros.

United over a shared vision of the future of work, one in which ever­yone has the power to choose how and whom they work with, Malt and Comatch will focus their efforts on market-facing syner­gies to broa­den the offe­rings for their clients and their commu­nity of highly-skil­led free­lan­cers. The growth of the combi­ned company will be supported by the hiring of 150 new employees, brin­ging the total count to 600 by the end of 2022. The exten­sion of services also means that dedi­ca­ted teams will now work across eleven regi­ons and count­ries, inclu­ding Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Middle East and North Africa, the Nether­lands, Nordics, Spain, Switz­er­land and the UK.

Vincent Huguet, Malt CEOComatch is a cham­pion in the field of busi­ness consul­ting market­places. As a fellow company that shares Malt’s “commu­nity first” approach, placing our talents at the core of the product and busi­ness to our vision for the future of work, we are eager and exci­ted to bring our two worlds of high-skil­led free­lan­cers together.”

Chris­toph Hardt, Comatch Co-Foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor: “We believe in a future where tech­no­logy and busi­ness consul­ting conti­nue to grow closer toge­ther. Malt is Euro­pe’s leading market­place espe­ci­ally for digi­tal free­lance talents while Comatch is the largest Euro­pean consul­ting market­place. We are very exci­ted to jointly build Euro­pe’s undis­pu­ted leading market­place where orga­niza­ti­ons can find the best inde­pen­dent profes­sio­nals for any possi­ble project.”

About Malt
Foun­ded in 2013 by Vincent Huguet (CEO) and Hugo Lassiège (CTO), with Alex­andre Fretti as Mana­ging Direc­tor in Paris, Malt is a Euro­pean market­place where more than 340,000 free­lance consul­tants put their skills and exper­tise at the service of compa­nies looking for exter­nal talents to acce­le­rate their projects. It alre­ady has more than 30,000 clients, inclu­ding 36 CAC 40 compa­nies. With 300 employees (50% women and men), Malt is present in France, Spain, Belgium, the Nether­lands, and Germany.

About COMATCH
Comatch is Euro­pe’s leading market­place for top free­lance manage­ment consul­tants and indus­try experts. Comatch combi­nes perso­nal service and inno­va­tive tech­no­logy to quickly and flexi­bly find the best experts for allbusi­ness chal­lenges. Compa­nies of all sizes and indus­tries — from start-ups to corpo­ra­ti­ons — use the support ofComatch.com to achieve sustainable project success. The cura­ted Comatch network includes more than 15,000consultants from over 120 count­ries. Comatch was foun­ded in 2014 by McKin­sey alumni Dr. Chris­toph Hardt and Dr. Jan Schäch­tele and employs over 130 people in Berlin, Paris and London.

About Acton Capital
Acton Capi­tal is a leading growth venture capi­tal inves­tor in Europe. Since 1999, the Acton team supports digi­tal start­ups in the fields of B2B/SaaS, Health­Care, FinTech or Future of Work on their way to market leader­ship. Acton Capi­tal invests world­wide with strong focus on Europe and North America. With two deca­des of invest­ment expe­ri­ence and a deep under­stan­ding of tech-enab­led models, the team has inves­ted over EUR 700 million across five fund gene­ra­ti­ons in +100 compa­nies, inclu­ding unicorns like Alpha­Sights, Clio, Etsy, Home­ToGo or Mambu.

News

Dresden/ Solingen/ Zug (CH)/ The elec­tro­ly­sis company Sunfire has recei­ved EUR 86 million from inves­tors. Parti­ci­pants in the expan­ded Series D finan­cing round include Copen­ha­gen Infra­struc­ture Part­ners (CIP), through its Copen­ha­gen Infra­struc­ture Energy Tran­si­tion I fund, and Blue Earth Capi­tal. Sunfire thus increa­ses its Series D capi­tal raising to a total of €195 million ($215 million). In addi­tion, CIP is ente­ring into an agree­ment with Sunfire to purchase pres­su­ri­zed alka­line elec­tro­ly­sers with a total capa­city of up to 640 MW for use in its multi-GW power-to‑X projects across Europe.

Up to 640 MW elec­tro­ly­sis for CIP

Through its Copen­ha­gen Infra­struc­ture Energy Tran­si­tion Fund I, CIP is support­ing Sunfire in the indus­tria­liza­tion of its hydro­gen tech­no­lo­gies. The fund company is one of the worl­d’s largest project deve­lo­pers for rene­wa­ble ener­gies and is active in the areas of offshore wind power, energy storage and power-to‑X, among others.

To imple­ment its plan­ned power-to‑X projects, CIP needs relia­ble, indus­trial elec­tro­ly­sis plants. The avai­la­bi­lity of these is still very limi­ted world­wide. In a frame­work agree­ment, the project deve­lo­per ther­e­fore also secu­res access to elec­tro­ly­sis capa­ci­ties from Sunfire. In the coming years, CIP plans to purchase pres­su­ri­zed alka­line elec­tro­ly­sers with a total capa­city of up to 640 MW and use them in its multi-GW projects throug­hout Europe.

“This agree­ment adds huge value for all parties invol­ved,” says Sunfire CEO Nils Aldag. “CIP can rely on our advan­ced alkali elec­tro­ly­sers and on our dedi­ca­ted team of experts — at the same time demons­t­ra­ting that we are a relia­ble part­ner for giga­watt-scale projects.”

Invest­ment company BlueE­arth contri­bu­tes capi­tal and expertise

As part of its climate stra­tegy, BlueE­arth is also part­ne­ring with Sunfire. The globally active invest­ment company was foun­ded by the Swiss Part­ners Group and built up with its support. Urs Wiet­lis­bach (photo) is Co-foun­der & Chair­man Blue Earth Capi­tal AG and Co-Foun­der Part­ners Group AG.

BlueE­arth places a high value on being invol­ved beyond its invest­ment. To support Sunfire in its growth, the new part­ners are ther­e­fore contri­bu­ting their entre­pre­neu­rial expe­ri­ence and expert know­ledge around the topic of growth and climate protection.

About Sunfire
Sunfire is a leading global elec­tro­ly­sis company that designs and manu­fac­tures indus­trial elec­tro­ly­zers based on alkali and solid oxide tech­no­lo­gies (SOEC). With its elec­tro­ly­sis solu­ti­ons, Sunfire is addres­sing the key chall­enge of today’s energy system: the provi­sion of green hydro­gen and synthe­sis gas as a climate-neutral substi­tute for fossil energy. Sunfi­re’s inno­va­tive and proven elec­tro­ly­sis tech­no­lo­gies enable the decar­bo­niza­tion of indus­trial sectors that today are still depen­dent on oil, gas or coal. The company employs more than 370 people at loca­ti­ons in Germany and Switz­er­land. www.sunfire.de

About Copen­ha­gen Infra­s­tuc­ture Partners
Copen­ha­gen Infra­struc­ture Part­ners P/S is the worl­d’s largest specia­li­zed fund mana­ger for green­field invest­ments in rene­wa­ble energy and a global leader in offshore wind. At COP26, CIP announ­ced a goal and road­map to streng­then and acce­le­rate its role in imple­men­ting the energy tran­si­tion by support­ing green energy invest­ments with €100 billion by 2030.

CIP mana­ges nine funds and has appro­xi­m­ately €16 billion in assets under manage­ment focu­sed on invest­ments in energy infra­struc­ture — inclu­ding offshore wind, onshore wind, photo­vol­taic, biomass and energy from waste, trans­mis­sion and distri­bu­tion, reserve capa­city and storage, and other energy assets such as power-to‑X. Today, the CIP funds have about 100 inter­na­tio­nal insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors from the Nordic count­ries, conti­nen­tal Europe, the United King­dom, Israel, Asia, Austra­lia and North America, as well as multi­la­te­ral orga­niza­ti­ons such as the EIB. CIP employs around 300 people and has offices in Copen­ha­gen, London, Hamburg, Utrecht, New York, Tokyo, Singa­pore and Melbourne. The invest­ment in Sunfire will be part of CIP’s Energy Tran­si­tion Fund I, which focu­ses on power-to‑X and other next-gene­ra­tion rene­wa­ble tech­no­lo­gies to faci­li­tate the decar­bo­niza­tion of hard-to-delete sectors such as steel, agri­cul­ture and trans­por­ta­tion. www.cip.dk

About Blue Earth Capital
Blue Earth Capi­tal is a global impact invest­ment firm head­quar­te­red in Zug, Switz­er­land, with offices in London, New York and Singa­pore. Blue Earth Capi­tal invests in compa­nies that address pres­sing envi­ron­men­tal and social chal­lenges while opera­ting profi­ta­bly. Blue Earth Capi­tal was initia­ted in 2015 by Urs Wiet­lis­bach, one of the foun­ders of Part­ners Group, and is supported by the Ursi­mone Wiet­lis­bach Foun­da­tion. Blue Earth Capi­tal was built with the help of Part­ners Group and lever­a­ges its expe­ri­ence as a leading global private markets firm. www.blueearth.capital

About Carbon Direct Capi­tal Management
Carbon Direct combi­nes scien­ti­fic exper­tise, tech­no­logy and finan­cial capi­tal to grow carbon manage­ment into a global indus­try. Our invest­ment busi­ness — Carbon Direct Capi­tal Manage­ment LLC — makes direct invest­ments in leading tech­no­logy compa­nies in the carbon manage­ment sector. Our consul­ting company — Carbon Direct Inc. — supports corpo­rate custo­mers with carbon manage­ment solu­ti­ons. Carbon Direc­t’s team is made up of world-renow­ned carbon scien­tists who have a deep under­stan­ding of the risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties of carbon tech­no­lo­gies. The company has offices in New York City and Seattle.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.carbon-direct.com

Advi­sor to CIP: Henge­ler Mueller
The firm was repre­sen­ted by part­ners Dr. Jens Wenzel (Venture Capital/M&A, Berlin) and Hendrik Bocken­hei­mer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), coun­sel Fabian Seip (Intellec­tual Property/IT), Alex­an­der Bekier (Corporate/M&A) and Dr. Moritz Rade­ma­cher (Energy Law, Düssel­dorf) as well as asso­cia­tes Theresa Scharff, Dr. Björn Brauer, Ciro D’Ame­lio (all Venture Capital/M&A, Berlin) and Mona Geimer (Labor Law, Frankfurt).

News

Munich — The topic of sustaina­bi­lity is rapidly gaining in importance among family offices, family entre­pre­neurs and foun­da­ti­ons. It is beco­ming a duty to address the issue of sustaina­bi­lity. The reason is not only the trend-setting regu­la­ti­ons of the Euro­pean Union, but also the pres­sure of society as well as the own know­ledge that some­thing has to be done.

Where better to get infor­ma­tion than at a confe­rence? Exch­ange ideas and ask ques­ti­ons directly with first-class spea­k­ers in a rela­xed atmo­sphere at the » Smart Impact Inves­t­ing Excel­lence Forum on 09. & May 10, 2022 at The Charles Hotel in Munich, Germany «.

Please orien­tate yours­elf about the program 
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How can we invest respon­si­bly as inves­tors? — How can meaningful sustaina­bi­lity approa­ches be asses­sed within the nume­rous concepts on offer? How to achieve the appro­priate desi­red return for further wealth preser­va­tion and accumulation?
Talk to insi­ders who have a global over­view in the field of impact inves­t­ing, such as Dr. Andreas Nils­son, Head of Impact, Golding Capi­tal Part­ners, Andreas Jobst, Global Head of Macroe­co­no­mic & Capi­tal Markets Rese­arch, Alli­anz SE, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hans Joachim Schellnhu­ber or Bernd Wendeln, Inves­tor, Advi­sory Board Social Entre­pre­neur­ship Akade­mie, Johan­nes Weber, Bundes­in­itia­tive Impact Inves­t­ing and others.

https://smartimpactinvesting-excellenceforum.com

You will receive special condi­ti­ons if you indi­cate “FYB-Special” in your registration!
The parti­ci­pa­tion at EUR 480 (excl. VAT) incl. 1 over­night stay. If you do not wish to stay over­night, please note this on your registration.

Registration/ Cont­act form: https://smartimpactinvesting-excellenceforum.com/#10

I would be happy to meet you at the event on 09. and May 10 to meet in Munich!

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