ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Wiesbaden/ Wetzlar/ Karls­ruhe — BMH and Adjus­ted Ventures are inves­t­ing in DIA Digi­tal Consul­ting GmbH, a leading digi­ta­liza­tion and sales­force consul­tancy in the DACH region. The invest­ment compa­nies BMH and Adjus­ted Ventures are jointly inves­t­ing in the company, which BMH is support­ing for the third time with the Hessen Kapi­tal I fund. 

Foun­ded in Wetz­lar in 2001, DIA Digi­tal Consul­ting GmbH has been led by Hendrik Adam as sole share­hol­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor since 2021 and is one of the specia­lists in the field of Sales­force consul­ting and imple­men­ta­tion. DIA helps compa­nies to trans­form their busi­ness models, inclu­ding by tapping into the poten­tial of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI).

As a stra­te­gic part­ner of Sales­force, DIA uses its exper­tise in process and tech­no­logy consul­ting to intro­duce modern cloud plat­forms with a focus on custo­mer rela­ti­onship manage­ment (CRM), inte­grate them deeply into the custo­mer’s exis­ting land­scape and dove­tail them with solu­ti­ons from other tech­no­logy provi­ders. The focus here is on the areas of sales, marke­ting and custo­mer service as well as data-driven decis­ion-making proces­ses. In this context, DIA plays a leading role in support­ing compa­nies in the intro­duc­tion of auto­no­mous AI agents to effi­ci­ently support their employees and custo­mers and in crea­ting the neces­sary foun­da­ti­ons to ensure their successful implementation. 

With over 100 experts at its loca­ti­ons in Wetz­lar, Berlin, Munich and Villin­gen-Schwen­nin­gen, DIA deli­vers tailor-made solu­ti­ons and enables its custo­mers to opti­mize working methods and busi­ness proces­ses. Its custo­mers include compa­nies such as Bosch, Hella, Bayer, B. Braun, Endress+Hauser, TUI, Tele­fó­nica, Canyon and LG Elec­tro­nics as well as other compa­nies from various sectors such as mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, high-tech, medi­cal tech­no­logy, auto­mo­tive, retail, tourism, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and media. DIA intends to use the fresh capi­tal to further expand its port­fo­lio of consul­ting, tech­ni­cal imple­men­ta­tion and mana­ged services. 

Hendrik Adam, foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of DIA: “The stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with BMH and Adjus­ted Ventures enables us to streng­then our inno­va­tive power and further rein­force our posi­tion as a leading digi­ta­liza­tion partner.”

Axel Jahn, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Adjus­ted Ventures (Photo © Adjus­ted Ventures): “As part of our company analy­sis, it quickly became clear to us what a jewel DIA repres­ents in the digi­ta­liza­tion indus­try and how great the growth poten­tial is. We are deligh­ted to be part of this growth and look forward to shaping the next steps toge­ther with the team. We are proud to now also be a share­hol­der in DIA.”

Dirk Pieper from BMH adds: “After support­ing DIA as a silent part­ner since 2019 as part of a realignment, we are now looking forward to conti­nuing the growth trajec­tory toge­ther with Adjus­ted Ventures and the DIA manage­ment. At the same time, the rene­wed invest­ment in DIA Digi­tal Consul­ting is a first for BMH: It is our first direct invest­ment as a ‘later stage’ invest­ment in a company that has alre­ady been opera­ting on the market for many years and a sector that we want to expand further in the future.”

About BMH

BMH Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH, based in Wies­ba­den, was foun­ded in 2001 and is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Hessen-Thürin­gen Giro­zen­trale (Helaba). Through Wirt­schafts- und Infra­struk­tur­bank Hessen (WIBank), BMH is actively invol­ved in the econo­mic deve­lo­p­ment acti­vi­ties of the State of Hesse. As a medium-sized invest­ment and venture capi­tal company, BMH bund­les public invest­ment inte­rests and finan­cing instru­ments for early-stage, growth and medium-sized compa­nies in Hesse. BMH curr­ently mana­ges six invest­ment funds with a volume of over 200 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion, BMH has inves­ted in more than 500 compa­nies. Invest­ment focu­ses include the sectors software/analytics; fintech/insuretech; life science; deep tech; IoT/industrial tech; hardware/industrial goods; cleantech.
More infor­ma­tion about BMH and its funds: www.bmh-hessen.de

Adjus­ted Ventures
https://www.adjusted-ventures.com/

News

Aachen/ Colo­gne — The Colo­gne-based green tech startup Plan­ted has recei­ved seed funding of 5 million euros. The invest­ment is backed by Tech­Vi­sion Fonds, WENVEST Capi­tal, neoteq ventures, AWS Grün­dungs­fonds and Smart Infra­struc­ture Ventures to further deve­lop the ESG software. 

“Through smart auto­ma­tion, Plan­ted combi­nes ecolo­gi­cal respon­si­bi­lity with econo­mic success — and makes sustaina­bi­lity measur­a­bly profi­ta­ble,” says Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher, Mana­ging Part­ner of the Tech­Vi­sion Fund. “Plan­ted is alre­ady support­ing over 350 custo­mers in Germany with their sustaina­bi­lity strategy.” 

Plan­ted offers an AI-powered ESG plat­form that supports compa­nies holi­sti­cally in their sustaina­bi­lity trans­for­ma­tion — from mate­ria­lity analy­sis, carbon accoun­ting, decar­bo­niza­tion and local envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion projects to the final report in accordance with the Corpo­rate Sustaina­bi­lity Report­ing Direc­tive (CSRD).

Why another ESG solu­tion is needed

The market for ESG soft­ware is highly compe­ti­tive. What makes Plan­ted unique is that the plat­form is not limi­ted to pure compli­ance, but enables compa­nies to undergo a complete trans­for­ma­tion towards sustainable value crea­tion. In addi­tion to meeting regu­la­tory requi­re­ments, Plan­ted supports decar­bo­niza­tion — often with a reduc­tion in emis­si­ons of more than 50 percent. Custo­mers can also get invol­ved in local envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion, for exam­ple by plan­ting mixed forests. 

Up to 75 percent time savings

Plan­ted uses advan­ced AI tech­no­lo­gies to imple­ment the CSRD. For exam­ple, the soft­ware can extract speci­fic data from docu­ments, iden­tify suita­ble reduc­tion measu­res and high­light impacts, risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties in the double mate­ria­lity analy­sis. This saves users up to 75 percent of their time. 

“We are turning the CSRD obli­ga­tion into an oppor­tu­nity,” says Wilhelm Hammes, CEO and co-foun­der of Plan­ted. “Instead of spen­ding months measu­ring and report­ing CO2, we auto­mate these proces­ses. This allows compa­nies to focus their resour­ces on effec­tive measu­res, such as decarbonization.” 

Support from a large consor­tium of investors

Chris­to­phe Aumaître, Part­ner at WENVEST Capi­tal, says: “Plan­ted offers compa­nies an intel­li­gent solu­tion to not only docu­ment sustainable trans­for­ma­tion, but to actively shape it. The team combi­nes in-depth ESG exper­tise with state-of-the-art tech­no­logy, going signi­fi­cantly further than many other solu­ti­ons on the market.”

In addi­tion to the afore­men­tio­ned inves­tors, busi­ness angels Nina Kani, Felix Schür­holz (CO-Foun­der & MD SoSafe), Frank Piotraschke (CRO SoSafe), Arno Nonnen and Julius Göll­ner (ARRtist) are support­ing the investment.

Finan­cing brings person­nel reinforcement

The Colo­gne-based start-up was foun­ded in 2021 by Cindy Schül­ler, Hein­rich Rauh, Wilhelm Hammes and Jan Borchert. Jonas Quilitz joined the team as CPO in Febru­ary 2023. With the finan­cing round, Julian Grune­wald joins as CFO and brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in finance and strategy. 

About TVF

The Tech­Vi­sion Fund (TVF) is the leading early-stage VC fund from the Rhineland/NRW with a focus on tech­no­logy start-ups in the pre-seed to Series A phases. the borde­ring Nether­lands and Belgium. TVF Manage­ment has expe­ri­ence from four gene­ra­ti­ons of funds and curr­ently has over €100 million in assets under manage­ment. The fund is backed by potent inves­tors such as NRW.BANK, seven savings banks from western NRW and more than 15 successful entrepreneurs.
TVF supports start-up teams with proxi­mity, network and exper­tise and paves the way for them to become the next inter­na­tio­nal indus­try leader. Through the S‑UBG Group network, the TVF offers unique access to over 150 successful compa­nies in various indus­tries and estab­lishes cont­acts between start-ups and their first custo­mers, part­ners and advisors.
TVF — Brain | Cash | Proximity
www.tvf.vc

About Plan­ted

Plan­ted is a leading provi­der of a holi­stic ESG manage­ment solu­tion. With a combi­na­tion of inno­va­tive soft­ware and perso­nal consul­ting, Plan­ted supports compa­nies in their sustaina­bi­lity trans­for­ma­tion — from mate­ria­lity analy­sis,carbon accoun­ting and decar­bo­niza­tion to the final CSRD report. Plan­ted combi­nes compli­ance with real trans­for­ma­tion and inte­gra­tes active envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion: compa­nies can protect forests locally or plant their own company forest. More than 350 compa­nies, inclu­ding Cari­tas­ver­band Bruch­sal, Sena­cor Tech­no­lo­gies AG and Insta GmbH, rely on Plan­ted to achieve their sustaina­bi­lity goals.
www.planted.green

News

Kiel — GÖRG, led by Munich part­ners Dr. Phil­ipp Grzimek and Dr. Bern­hard Guthy, advi­sed Summi­tas Gruppe GmbH on the acqui­si­tion of Kiel-based David Versi­che­rungs­kon­tor GmbH & Co KG, which was foun­ded in 1958 and is owner-mana­ged. The insu­rance broker specia­li­zes in insu­ring risks for commer­cial and private customers. 

Summi­tas Group was foun­ded in 2022 through a joint venture between JDC Group AG, Bain Capi­tal Insu­rance and Canada Life and is an inte­gra­ted indus­trial and commer­cial insu­rance broker with a broad range of products and services to manage its custo­mers’ under­wri­ting risks. The acqui­si­tion streng­thens the Summi­tas Group’s market posi­tion in the compo­site busi­ness and expands its acti­vi­ties in the Nort­hern Germany region. 

Lutz Rich­ter, CEO of the Summi­tas Group, commen­ted on the acqui­si­tion: “We are deligh­ted to have gained David Versi­che­rungs­kon­tor GmbH & Co. KG as a part­ner, a very well-mana­ged company from the nort­hern German region with a high level of accep­tance, a large custo­mer network and strong broking exper­tise in the real estate business.”

Stefan David, long-stan­ding mana­ging part­ner of David Versi­che­rungs­kon­tor GmbH & Co. KG, added: “My team and I are looking forward to driving forward our consis­tent growth in the nort­hern region under the umbrella and with the support of the Summi­tas Group.”

GÖRG’s advice on the tran­sac­tion is one of many successful tran­sac­tions of the Summi­tas Group in which the company relies on the exper­tise of the lawy­ers around part­ners Dr. Phil­ipp Grzimek and Dr. Bern­hard Guthy.

Advi­sor Summi­tas Group: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB 

Dr. Phil­ipp Grzimek LL.M. (Lead, Part­ner, Corpo­rate / M&A, Munich)
Dr. Bern­hard A. Guthy, LL.M. (Lead, Part­ner, Corpo­rate / M&A, Munich)
Dr. Jochen Lehmann (Part­ner, Insu­rance Law, Cologne)
Dr. Julian Stas­sek (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Employ­ment Law, Munich)
Nora Dibbert (Asso­ciate Part­ner BWLS, Tax Law, Hamburg)
Jonas Bött­ger (Asso­ciate, M&A, Munich) 

News

Nurem­berg — Under the umbrella of global growth inves­tor Warburg Pincus, Nürn­ber­ger Baugruppe GmbH + Co KG (“Nürn­ber­ger Baugruppe”) brings BRZ Deutsch­land GmbH into a joint plat­form with Info­niqa Group. POELLATH advi­sed Nürn­ber­ger Baugruppe on the merger. 

As early as 1968, brot­hers Wolf­gang and Gernot Hanne­wald had the idea of crea­ting a “Baure­chen­zen­trum” (BRZ) as part of the Nurem­berg cons­truc­tion group. Today’s BRZ Deutsch­land GmbH subse­quently deve­lo­ped into one of the market leaders for ERP soft­ware and payroll solu­ti­ons in the cons­truc­tion sector. Today, it supports more than 12,500 custo­mers with around 650 employees. 

The Info­niqa Group was foun­ded in 1988 in Wels, Austria, and is now majo­rity-owned by the growth inves­tor Warburg Pincus. It specia­li­zes in soft­ware and service solu­ti­ons in all areas of admi­nis­tra­tive and stra­te­gic HR manage­ment: payroll accoun­ting, time manage­ment and outsour­cing. As one of the few full-service provi­ders in the DACH market with loca­ti­ons in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Czech Repu­blic and Poland, the company also opera­tes inter­na­tio­nally with 500 employees at 11 locations. 

The merger of the Info­niqa Group and BRZ Deutsch­land GmbH crea­tes a strong group of compa­nies in the DACH region under the umbrella of Warburg Pincus, which conti­nues to invest in tech­no­lo­gi­cal inno­va­tion and growth.

POELLATH advi­sed the Nurem­berg cons­truc­tion group on the legal and tax aspects of the merger with the follo­wing cross-loca­tion team:

Dr. Tim Kauf­hold (Part­ner, Co-Lead, M&A/Equity, Munich)
Dr. Moritz Klein (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Co-Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (NYU) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust, Frank­furt aM)
Dr. Verena Sten­zel (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Jan-Eckhard Wege­ner, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Private Clients, Munich)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Frank­furt aM) 

POELLATH is a market-leading, inter­na­tio­nally active commer­cial and tax law firm with more than 180 lawy­ers and tax advi­sors in Berlin, Frank­furt and Munich. We stand for high-end advice on tran­sac­tions and asset manage­ment. We offer legal and tax services from a single source. In our selec­ted and highly specia­li­zed prac­tice groups, we not only know the law, but also shape best prac­tice in the market toge­ther with our clients. Natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal rankings regu­larly reco­gnize our advi­sors as leaders in their fields. https://www.pplaw.com

News

Munich — Kirk­land & Ellis has advi­sed Cloud Soft­ware Group, a port­fo­lio company of Vista Equity Part­ners and Elliott Invest­ment Manage­ment, and its Citrix busi­ness unit on the acqui­si­ti­ons of Unicon GmbH (“Unicon”), device­TRUST GmbH (“device­TRUST”) and vast limits GmbH (“vast limits”). Unicon is the company behind eLux OS and Scout, a secure and light­weight opera­ting system and manage­ment plat­form for virtual desk­top endpoints. Unicon’s solu­ti­ons are used in over 65 count­ries world­wide on over 2.5 million endpoints. device­TRUST provi­des a plat­form for busi­nesses that enables users to work with their digi­tal workspace from any loca­tion, with any device and over any network, giving IT depart­ments all the infor­ma­tion and control they need to meet all secu­rity, compli­ance and regu­la­tory requi­re­ments. vast limits, deve­lo­per of uberAgent, deve­lops effi­ci­ent and easy-to-use enter­prise soft­ware for IT profes­sio­nals to create produc­tive and secure digi­tal work envi­ron­ments. The Cloud Soft­ware Group and its busi­ness units provide modern enter­pri­ses with mission-criti­cal soft­ware, helping more than 100 million users around the world to evolve, compete and succeed by lever­aging data, auto­ma­tion, insights and colla­bo­ra­tion in private, public, mana­ged and inde­pen­dent cloud envi­ron­ments. These important acqui­si­ti­ons are now part of the Citrix Cloud Soft­ware Group busi­ness unit, which provi­des a secure app and desk­top appli­ca­tion plat­form that orga­niza­ti­ons of all sizes can use to enable secure and flexi­ble work.

Advi­sor Cloud Soft­ware Group: Kirk­land & Ellis, Munich

Dr. Chris­toph Jerger (photo © Kirk­land), Dr. Hendrik Braun (both lead), Attila Oldag, Dr. Anna Schwan­der; Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Licht, Dr. Florian Kalb­fleisch (all Corporate)

About Kirk­land

With around 4,000 lawy­ers in 21 cities in the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Kirk­land & Ellis is one of the leading law firms for high-cali­ber legal services. The German team advi­ses with a focus on private equity, M&A, restruc­tu­ring, corpo­rate and capi­tal markets, finan­cing and tax law. www.kirkland.com.

News

Paris — Ardian, a leading global private invest­ment house, today announ­ced the successful closing of its sixth gene­ra­tion expan­sion fund, Ardian Expan­sion Fund VI (AEF VI), at €3.2 billion. The successful closing unders­cores the strong support and confi­dence of Ardian’s global inves­tor base. Of the 200 limi­ted part­ners (LPs) parti­ci­pa­ting in the fund, appro­xi­m­ately 80 inves­tors retur­ned from AEF V, contri­bu­ting nearly half of the capi­tal raised and incre­asing their commit­ments by an average of 13%. — At the same time, AEF VI welco­med nearly 120 new inves­tors, inclu­ding more than 50 first-time Ardian clients, demons­t­ra­ting the broad appeal and confi­dence in Ardian’s expan­sion invest­ment stra­tegy and track record. Geogra­phi­cally, the fund attrac­ted a highly diver­si­fied group of inves­tors with LPs from 28 count­ries world­wide, with signi­fi­cant increa­ses in commit­ments from LPs in MENA, the Ameri­cas, Asia, the UK, the Nordics and the Nether­lands. Ardian saw an increase in commit­ments from pension funds and private wealth inves­tors, with private wealth clients accoun­ting for 25% of the fund’s LP base, compared to 16% for AEF V. This group includes 33 CEOs and members of senior manage­ment of previous Ardian Expan­sion port­fo­lio compa­nies. In line with Expan­si­on’s stra­tegy, AEF VI aims to support high-growth indus­try leaders through invest­ments of between €50 million and €300 million targe­ting private mid-market compa­nies led by commit­ted and visio­nary entre­pre­neurs. The fund is alre­ady 33% deployed and has comple­ted eight tran­sac­tions in cate­gory-leading compa­nies. As a pioneer in the concept of sharing value, Ardian distri­bu­tes a portion of its capi­tal gains to employees of its port­fo­lio compa­nies upon exit. To date, 81% of expan­sion port­fo­lio compa­nies have bene­fi­ted from this initia­tive. 8,000 employees in 20 exits since AEF III receive a share of the acti­vi­ty’s capi­tal gains. After AEF VI, an average of 250 employee share­hol­ders per invest­ment bene­fit from this mecha­nism. Ardian has further expan­ded its expan­sion team with 36 profes­sio­nals in Paris, Frank­furt and Milan, inclu­ding 13 Mana­ging Direc­tors who have worked toge­ther for over 15 years to ensure a strong culture. Their deep connec­tions in local markets and presence in multi­ple loca­ti­ons enable them to support port­fo­lio compa­nies with cross-border oppor­tu­ni­ties, opera­tio­nal growth and new client acqui­si­tion. In 2024, the expan­sion port­fo­lio has again demons­tra­ted average double-digit orga­nic EBITDA growth. The team also has a proven track record of helping mid-market compa­nies scale through stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons, with an average of five build-ups per port­fo­lio company. In addi­tion, the team has been instru­men­tal in sustaina­bi­lity trans­for­ma­ti­ons. By the end of 2024, 95% of port­fo­lio compa­nies have conduc­ted carbon foot­print assess­ments, 55% have imple­men­ted green­house gas emis­sion reduc­tion plans and all AEF VI finan­cings rela­ted to sustaina­bi­lity, inclu­ding CO2 KPIs. 

The fund­rai­sing announce­ment follows the recent closing of Ardian’s first private equity follow-on fund for Syclef, a leading Euro­pean company specia­li­zing in the instal­la­tion and main­ten­ance of refri­ge­ra­tion and air condi­tio­ning systems. Ardian’s expan­sion team first inves­ted in Syclef in 2020, helping it to conso­li­date its market posi­tion, inclu­ding through M&A to expand inter­na­tio­nally, and will now support it in its next phase of growth. “If you launch the fund, the inves­tors will come. Contrary to the chal­len­ging macro context, the rapid growth in fund size is due to the close and trus­ting rela­ti­onships we have built with our inves­tors. The strength of our track record and invest­ment stra­tegy and the opera­tio­nal support we provide in digi­tal, AI, pricing and talent manage­ment is helping our entre­pre­neurs to grow their busi­nesses. Europe still holds great oppor­tu­ni­ties when it comes to direct private bEquity invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. We have the privi­lege of back­ing some of the many mid-cap compa­nies that have the vision, energy and ability to deve­lop into Euro­pean and inter­na­tio­nal cham­pi­ons. And the demand for our latest fund shows that there is a global demand to play a role in this dream. ” Fran­çois Jerpha­gnon (photo © Ardian), Member of the Execu­tive Commit­tee, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Ardian France and Head of Expan­sion, Ardian.

 

News

Metzin­gen — NEURA Robo­tics, a pioneer in cogni­tive robo­tics and Germany’s only manu­fac­tu­rer of huma­noid robots, has recei­ved a Series B finan­cing round of 120 million euros. This invest­ment under­lines NEURA Robo­tics’ key role in the robo­tics indus­try. With its unique posi­tio­ning, the company aims to lead the Euro­pean robo­tics indus­try and become a strong player in the global robo­tics land­scape against major play­ers from the US and China. The finan­cing round is led by Lingotto Invest­ment Manage­ment (invest­ment company of the Agnelli family). Blue­C­rest Capi­tal Manage­ment, Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Inter­Al­pen Part­ners, Vsquared Ventures, HV Capi­tal, Delta Elec­tro­nics, C4 Ventures, L‑Bank, the foun­der David Reger hims­elf and other play­ers are also invol­ved. Foun­ded in 2019, NEURA Robo­tics has quickly become a global leader in cogni­tive and huma­noid robo­tics by deve­lo­ping robots that can work seam­lessly with humans in indus­tries such as manu­fac­tu­ring, logi­stics and health­care. With its unique sensor tech­no­logy and AI inte­gra­tion, NEURA Robo­tics has laun­ched the worl­d’s first cogni­tive cobot and is now a leader in the deve­lo­p­ment of market-ready huma­noid robots. In the past year alone, the NEURA Robo­tics team has doubled the number of employees to over 300 and increased sales tenfold. Under the leader­ship of foun­der and CEO David Reger, NEURA Robo­tics alre­ady has an order back­log of one billion euros. David Reger (photo © Neura Robo­tics), foun­der and CEO of NEURA Robo­tics: “The market poten­tial of cogni­tive robo­tics is grea­ter than that of the smart­phone. I am proud that NEURA has brought the first cogni­tive robot to the market and is the only German player in huma­noid robo­tics. The invest­ment shows the confi­dence of our inves­tors in my team and in the pionee­ring work we are doing for modern robo­tics in Europe.” Nikhil Srini­va­san, Mana­ging Part­ner at Lingotto Hori­zon: “We are proud to invest in NEURA Robo­tics and its visio­nary foun­der David Reger. NEUR­A’s excep­tio­nal tech­no­lo­gi­cal know-how and breakth­rough inno­va­tions are trans­forming both indus­trial and consu­mer robo­tics. With outstan­ding AI capa­bi­li­ties, an excep­tio­nal growth trajec­tory and a $1 billion order back­log, NEURA is poised to become a multi-billion dollar company and one of the most signi­fi­cant robo­tics compa­nies in the world.” Looking to the future, NEURA Robo­tics is not only focu­sed on its own expan­sion, but also on the long-term and sustainable growth of cogni­tive robo­tics in the heart of Europe. The fresh capi­tal will go towards further rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment and support the launch of new, world-leading products — all based on the company’s proprie­tary Neur­averse plat­form. The Neur­averse is an ecosys­tem that will acce­le­rate inno­va­tion in cogni­tive robo­tics through various elements such as an opera­ting system for cogni­tive robo­tics and a market­place for robo­tic capa­bi­li­ties. Given NEURA Robo­tics’ exten­sive port­fo­lio and track record, inves­tors expect further growth and rapid progress in inno­va­tion and deve­lo­p­ment in the coming years. 

Advi­sor Neura Robo­tics GmbH: LUTZ | ABEL 

Phil­ipp Hoene, lead (Venture Capi­tal, Munich); Roman Krug (Venture Capi­tal, Munich), Ute Schenn (Commer­cial / Anti­trust, Stutt­gart) and Dr. Daniel Petzold (Anti­trust / Foreign Trade Law, Munich).

Other legal advi­sors (among others)

Taylor­Wes­sing | Dr. Maria Weiers, Dr. Marcel Leines — Advi­sor Lingotto

GvW | Titus Walek, Alex­an­der Metz — Advi­sor Vsquared Ventures

V14 | Frank Vogel — Consul­tant Blue Crest

PWC | Gerhard Wacker, Dr. Georg Queis­ner, Dr. Minkus Fischer — Consul­tant L‑Bank

Noerr | Felix Blobel, Daniel Fuchs, Celine Harms — Advi­sor Delta Electronics

News

Munich — Alpha­Pet Ventures, Euro­pe’s leading digi­tal brand plat­form for premium pet food, has acqui­red JR Pet Products, the leading UK premium brand for natu­ral chews and dog snacks. This acqui­si­tion is another mile­stone in Alpha­Pe­t’s successful buy-and-build stra­tegy. — The commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Alpha­Pet Ventures GmbH on the recent equity finan­cing in the course of the acqui­si­tion of JR Pet Products LTD. The acqui­si­tion was finan­ced through a combi­na­tion of equity and debt. Patria Invest­ments, an exis­ting LP of capi­ton, acted as lead inves­tor, supported by Venture Stars and exis­ting Alpha­Pet share­hol­ders. Debt finan­cing was provi­ded by CVC, under­li­ning their contin­ued support of Alpha­Pe­t’s buy-and-build stra­tegy. Alpha­Pet Ventures (Alpha­Pet) digi­ti­zes the pet market and successfully deve­lops and distri­bu­tes premium brands across Europe. Alpha­Pet was foun­ded by Marco Hier­ling and Stefan Pfannmöl­ler (photo © Alpha­Pet). The port­fo­lio includes estab­lished brands such as Wolfs­blut, Wildes Land, Arden Grange and Herr­man­n’s Manu­fak­tur. Alpha­Pe­t’s multi-chan­nel stra­tegy combi­nes strong digi­tal direct sales (D2C) with a custo­mer-orien­ted approach via its own plat­forms and part­ner­ships with leading retail part­ners in the B2B segment. JR Pet Products (JR) was foun­ded in 2012 by Jona­than and Rebecca Davies, backed by a seed invest­ment from close family friend Stephen Tandy. In recent years, JR has become the UK’s leading premium brand of natu­ral dog snacks. The range includes high-quality, natu­ral chews and snacks, which are sold via the company’s own D2C store and selec­ted B2B part­ners. The focus on the best raw mate­ri­als and quality has secu­red JR a loyal and rapidly growing custo­mer base. Marco Hier­ling, foun­der and CEO of Alpha­Pet: “Jona­than and Rebecca have built a fanta­stic brand with JR that fits perfectly with our port­fo­lio. JR ideally comple­ments our commit­ment to healthy and high quality pet food and adds a leading brand of dog snacks to our offe­ring.” “With Alpha­Pet, JR gains access to exten­sive resour­ces and an estab­lished Euro­pean distri­bu­tion network, which opens up great growth poten­tial for the brand,” explains Frit­jof Franz, Part­ner at capi­ton. Jona­than and Rebecca Davies, foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of JR: “The part­ner­ship with Alpha­Pet marks an exci­ting new chap­ter for JR. Toge­ther we aim to build on the strength of our brand and work with our trus­ted suppli­ers and custo­mers to achieve our growth targets.” — The entire JR team will remain on board and Jona­than and Rebecca Davies will conti­nue as Mana­ging Direc­tors. The acqui­si­tion of JR Pet Products is Alpha­Pe­t’s fourth acqui­si­tion since 2020 and a further step towards streng­thening its posi­tion as the leading Euro­pean plat­form for premium pet food and snacks. 

Mark Nicol­son, Part­ner and Head of Primary Invest­ments at Patria, said: “We are deligh­ted to faci­li­tate the next chap­ter of value crea­tion for Alpha­Pet and look forward with confi­dence to conti­nuing our successful part­ner­ship with Alpha­Pe­t’s excep­tio­nal manage­ment team and capi­ton, one of the highest performing mana­gers in the Euro­pean private equity market.”

Alpha­Pet consultant:
Ashfords (Legal UK), LutzA­bel (Legal Germany), Deloitte (Finan­cial and Tax), Allen & Overy (Finan­cing Legal) and Sonn­tag & Part­ner (Tax & Structure). 

Advi­sors to JR:
Quan­tuma Advi­sory (lead advi­sor) and Thom­son Snell & Pass­more (legal).


About Alpha­Pet Ventures

Alpha­Pet Ventures is Euro­pe’s leading tech­no­logy-driven brand plat­form for premium pet food. By combi­ning multi-chan­nel distri­bu­tion, digi­tal brand buil­ding and end-to-end tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons, Alpha­Pet is trans­forming the pet market. The company excels in direct-to-consu­mer (D2C) and busi­ness-to-busi­ness (B2B) distri­bu­tion, lever­aging its exper­tise in tech­no­logy, busi­ness intel­li­gence, digi­tal marke­ting and logi­stics. Through a combi­na­tion of orga­nic growth and a successful buy-and-build stra­tegy, Alpha­Pet has built a steadily growing port­fo­lio of leading Euro­pean premium brands. Guided by the vision: “Healthy food for every pet”, Alpha­Pe­t’s subsi­dia­ries and brands conti­nue to drive the premi­umiza­tion and digi­ta­liza­tion of the pet market. 

About JR Pet Products

JR was foun­ded in 2012 by Jona­than and Rebecca Davies with a seed invest­ment from Stephen Tandy. In recent years, JR has become a leading company in the premium dog market. The company places great empha­sis on quality and inno­va­tion and has built a successful multi-chan­nel distri­bu­tion with a strong network of B2B part­ners and direct-to-consu­mer (D2C) access. JR will remain commit­ted to the UK pet retail market. 

About capi­ton

capi­ton is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged private equity company with assets under manage­ment of over 1.6 billion euros. The current port­fo­lio compri­ses 19 medium-sized compa­nies and supports manage­ment buyouts and growth finan­cing for estab­lished companies. 

About Patria Investments

Patria is a leading alter­na­tive invest­ment firm with over 35 years of expe­ri­ence and specia­liza­tion in key resi­li­ent sectors. With more than $44 billion in assets under manage­ment and a global foot­print, Patria Invest­ments stri­ves to deli­ver consis­tent returns in attrac­tive, long-term invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties while crea­ting sustainable value for society. 

About Reimann Investors

Reimann Inves­tors is a family office and a group of compa­nies repre­sen­ting members of the Reimann entre­pre­neu­rial family. The company focu­ses on highly liquid capi­tal market invest­ments and direct invest­ments in fast-growing digi­tal compa­nies in the SaaS and FinTech sectors. 

About Venture Stars

Venture Stars is a Munich-based venture capi­tal firm specia­li­zing in early-stage invest­ments in inno­va­tive digi­tal D2C and B2B busi­ness models. The company was foun­ded by Martin Junker, Florian Calm­bach and Stefan Pfannmöl­ler and mana­ges three funds with invest­ments between 0.5 and 5 million euros per port­fo­lio company. As a former company buil­der, Venture Stars offers support that goes beyond pure capi­tal, inclu­ding stra­te­gic know-how, networ­king and opera­tio­nal advice in areas such as orga­niza­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment and finan­cing. Venture Stars co-foun­ded ePet­World, which later became Alpha­Pet through the merger with pets Premium. 

About LUTZ | ABEL

With over 100 lawy­ers and offices in Munich, Hamburg, Stutt­gart and Berlin, the commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL advi­ses on all aspects of commer­cial law. www.lutzabel.com.

 

News

Düssel­dorf - A Deloitte Legal team led by Düssel­dorf corporate/M&A part­ners Michael von Rüden and Thilo Hoff­mann has advi­sed the share­hol­ders of DIMBEG GmbH on the sale of a majo­rity stake to AVIV Germany GmbH, a company of the Axel Sprin­ger Group.

Toge­ther with its subsi­diary, DIMBEG GmbH opera­tes a rapidly growing PropTech plat­form that offers real estate appraisals in parti­cu­lar to opti­mize the econo­mic resi­dual useful life of proper­ties via the two successful and fast-growing portals www.nutzungsdauer.com and www.kaufpreis-aufteilung.com. Thanks to certi­fied appraisals, these portals help owners of rented proper­ties to make the best possi­ble use of the tax depre­cia­tion poten­tial of their proper­ties and thus improve their cash flow. In doing so, the portals draw on deca­des of expe­ri­ence in real estate valuation. 

AVIV Germany GmbH, an Axel Sprin­ger Group company, opera­tes immo­welt, one of the leading online market­places for real estate for rent and sale in Germany. With the stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion of the two successful and fast-growing portals, immo­welt is expan­ding its digi­tal service port­fo­lio for the marke­ting and manage­ment of real estate in a targe­ted manner. 

Advi­sor DIMBERG GmbH: Deloitte Legal 

Deloitte Legal provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the share­hol­ders of DIMBEG GmbH on the sale of the majo­rity share­hol­ding. The sellers relied on the M&A exper­tise of the Deloitte Legal team led by Michael von Rüden and Thilo Hoff­mann, which has been proven in nume­rous compa­ra­ble transactions. 

Dr. Michael von Rüden, LL.M., Thilo Hoff­mann, LL.M. (both part­ners, lead, Corporate/M&A), Dirk Hänisch (part­ner, Corporate/M&A), Frauke Heudt­laß (part­ner, Employ­ment Law & Benefits).

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 provi­des indus­try-leading audit and assu­rance, tax, consul­ting, finan­cial advi­sory and risk advi­sory services to nearly 90% of Fortune Global 500® compa­nies and thou­sands of private compa­nies. Legal services in Germany are provi­ded by Deloitte Legal. https://www.deloitte.com/de/de.html

News

Frank­furt am Main / Nagold / Istan­bul — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner has acqui­red a silent part­ner­ship in the women’s pants specia­list Angels GmbH (“Angels”). The back­ground is the take­over of Angels by Le Faxx Jeans based in Istan­bul. With the mezza­nine finan­cing, VR Equi­typ­art­ner is support­ing the growth part­ner­ship between the two textile compa­nies. Angels was foun­ded in 1980 in Nagold, Swabia, and is now one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of jeans and women’s pants in Germany. The company atta­ches parti­cu­lar importance to tail­o­red cuts, sustainable mate­ri­als and high-quality work­man­ship. The main product, denim jeans, is manu­fac­tu­red exclu­si­vely in Europe. The majo­rity of the texti­les sold throug­hout Europe are fashion-inde­pen­dent never-out-of-stock products. With a clear focus on moder­ni­zing the product and the brand, Angels has succee­ded in incre­asing its turno­ver from just under 30 million euros to almost 50 million euros in just a few years. By expan­ding its product range, consis­t­ently rede­sig­ning its coll­ec­tions and refres­hing its marke­ting image, Angels has estab­lished itself as a highly inno­va­tive company. With the acqui­si­tion of Angels by Le Faxx Jeans, the two compa­nies are deepe­ning their successful long-stan­ding busi­ness rela­ti­onship. Le Faxx Jeans is an estab­lished family busi­ness in the textile indus­try with over 600 employees. The expe­ri­en­ced textile produ­cer is charac­te­ri­zed by effi­ci­ency, the highest envi­ron­men­tal and produc­tion stan­dards and strong adap­ta­bi­lity to market chan­ges. The merger of the two compa­nies ensu­res Angels’ sustainable growth and ability to deli­ver while main­tai­ning the same high quality stan­dards. The manage­ment team around Caspar Borkow­sky remains unch­an­ged and will drive the further growth of the company. Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner (photo @ Chris­tian Futter­lieb), comm­ents on the tran­sac­tion: “With attrac­tive products and intel­li­gent sales concepts, Angels has succee­ded in clearly posi­tio­ning itself in a chal­len­ging market envi­ron­ment and retai­ning a steadily growing custo­mer base. The take­over of the company by our long-stan­ding part­ner Le Faxx streng­thens this deve­lo­p­ment. We were ther­e­fore happy to support the tran­sac­tion with mezza­nine finan­cing.” Caspar Borkow­sky, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Angels GmbH, adds: “We are deligh­ted to have found a strong and relia­ble part­ner in VR Equi­typ­art­ner to support us in finan­cing the take­over by Le Faxx. We look forward to the chal­lenges of the future with great confi­dence and would like to thank ever­yone invol­ved for their commit­ment to the implementation.” 

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the contract.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner at a glance

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equi­typ­art­ner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 40 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 400 million. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at www.vrep.de.

The tran­sac­tion team at VR Equitypartner:

Thiemo Bisch­off, Astrid Binder, Zhao­hua Liao-Weißert, Oliver Landau, Dr. Clau­dia Willershausen

News

Stuttgart/ Berlin — Sere­act, a company specia­li­zing in AI-supported robo­tics, has raised €25 million in its Series A finan­cing round. The round was led by leading Euro­pean venture capi­ta­list Crean­dum. Other inves­tors include Point Nine, Air Street Capi­tal and a group of renow­ned busi­ness angels, inclu­ding Nico Rosberg (former Formula 1 world cham­pion), Mehdi Ghiss­assi (former Google Deep­Mind), Ott Kauk­ver (Skype), Lars Nord­wall (former neo4j), Rubin Ritter (former Zalando), Tors­ten Reil and Niklas Köhler (both Helsing). — YPOG provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Sere­act. Sere­act is inte­res­t­ing for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is a pioneer in the deve­lo­p­ment of Vision Language Action Models (VLAMs) for robo­tics. This addres­ses one of the biggest chal­lenges asso­cia­ted with the use of robots, namely the fact that hard­ware and soft­ware must be deve­lo­ped speci­fi­cally to perform indi­vi­dual, specia­li­zed tasks. Sere­ac­t’s VLAM enables zero-shot reaso­ning, where robots can intel­li­gently under­stand their envi­ron­ment and perform tasks for which they have not been speci­fi­cally trai­ned. Secondly, Sere­act is hard­ware agno­stic. This sets it apart from many compa­nies in the AI robo­tics space, which are hard­ware-first and still many years away from mass produc­tion (or in some cases alre­ady tele­ope­ra­ted). Sere­ac­t’s approach is to deve­lop a base model that is suita­ble for all rele­vant robo­tics plat­forms — arti­cu­la­ted arms, mobile robots and even­tually huma­noid robots. This also includes stan­dar­di­zed, commer­ci­ally available robot hard­ware. This inno­va­tive approach makes Sere­act a pioneer and drives the vision of estab­li­shing embo­died AI as the new stan­dard in robo­tics. The tech­no­logy is alre­ady being used by well-known custo­mers such as the BMW Group, Daim­ler Truck, Bol, MS Direct and Active Ants. With the new funding, Sere­act plans to further expand rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment, support new robo­tics plat­forms — from mobile robots to huma­noid systems — and signi­fi­cantly streng­then its presence in the US. Advi­sor Sere­act: YPOG

Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Tobias Lovett (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Berlin
There­sia Hein­rich (Corpo­rate), Senior Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Farina Weber (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Benja­min von Mangoldt (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Silke Ricken (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin About Sere­act

Sere­act is a pioneer in the deve­lo­p­ment of AI-powered robo­tics solu­ti­ons based on a soft­ware-centric approach. The company uses inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies such as VLAM to make robots auto­no­mous, flexi­ble and adap­ta­ble. Since its foun­da­tion in 2021, Sere­act has estab­lished itself as a leader in the field of Embo­died AI and aims to trans­form the robo­tics indus­try worldwide. 

www.sereact.ai About YPOG
YPOG is a law firm specia­li­zing in tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax, banking+ finance and tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients.

These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are ranked natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, Cham­bers and Part­ners and Leaders League. YPOG curr­ently employs more than 150 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, tax specia­lists and a notary in four offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich. www.ypog.law

News

Graz (Austria) — smaX­tec, a leading provi­der of agri­cul­tu­ral tech­no­logy for the global dairy indus­try, has announ­ced a growth invest­ment led by global invest­ment firm KKR and tech­no­logy inves­tor High­land Europe. BRANDL TALOS is advi­sing High­land Europe on this tran­sac­tion. smaX­tec is an inno­va­tive moni­to­ring plat­form that is revo­lu­tio­ni­zing dairy farming by incre­asing effi­ci­ency and support­ing animal health through its tech­no­logy. The plat­form enables early detec­tion of dise­ase, moni­tors ferti­lity using heat detec­tion and redu­ces birth-rela­ted compli­ca­ti­ons — all of which contri­bute to impro­ving cow welfare and farm produc­ti­vity. At the heart of smaX­tec’s inno­va­tion is the In-Vivo-Bolus, a proprie­tary sensor that is placed in a cow’s stomach. This sensor provi­des accu­rate, real-time data that is seam­lessly inte­gra­ted into a cloud-based, AI-powered analy­tics plat­form. Farmers can access actionable insights and alerts via remote moni­to­ring, enab­ling them to make timely and infor­med decis­i­ons. The High­land Europe team was led by David Blygh­ton, Will De Quant and Jo Healy. 

Consul­tant smaX­tec: BRANDL TALOS, Vienna

Led by Roman Rericha, part­ner, and assis­ted by Adrian Zuschmann, part­ner, High­land Europe advi­sed on all legal aspects of the tran­sac­tion. www.brandltalos.com

About High­land Europe (London/ UK)

Our team consists of expe­ri­en­ced inves­tors with opera­tio­nal and corpo­rate finance exper­tise. We have the right people to address your criti­cal busi­ness chal­lenges — either through our exten­sive network, which includes other foun­ders and board members of the global High­land family (inclu­ding in the US and China), or through expe­ri­en­ced opera­tors with diverse exper­tise. https://www.highlandeurope.com/

 

News

Baar-Zug (Switz­er­land) ‑Part­ners Group, one of the largest firms in the global private equity indus­try, has agreed to invest on behalf of its clients in green flexi­bi­lity, a deve­lo­per and opera­tor of large-scale battery energy storage systems (“BESS”) in Germany. Through Part­ners Group’s initial equity invest­ment of up to EUR 400 million and comple­men­tary debt finan­cing, green flexi­bi­lity will have more than EUR 1 billion available to invest in the energy tran­si­tion in Europe. green flexi­bi­lity specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment and opera­tion of large-scale battery storage systems that form the back­bone of a modern, flexi­ble energy infra­struc­ture in Europe. The expan­sion of inter­mit­tent rene­wa­ble energy sources and the decom­mis­sio­ning of base load capa­ci­ties in Germany are incre­asing fluc­tua­tions in elec­tri­city gene­ra­tion, leading to price vola­ti­lity and grid insta­bi­lity. BESS store surplus energy in times of high supply and release it again when needed. This helps to stabi­lize the grid, reduce power cuts and smooth energy costs for consu­mers and busi­nesses. The company aims to realize an exten­sive pipe­line of BESS projects and estab­lish itself as a leading inde­pen­dent flexi­bi­lity provi­der (“IFP”), which includes mone­tiz­ing storage capa­city through long-term contracts. By utili­zing advan­ced soft­ware, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and lever­aging strong local rela­ti­onships, Green Flexi­bi­lity also acce­le­ra­tes project deve­lo­p­ment and cons­truc­tion. Part­ners Group will work with green flexi­bi­li­ty’s manage­ment team, which has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in successfully scaling energy busi­nesses, to build the company into a leading battery storage plat­form. The company is led by entre­pre­neur and indus­try expert Chris­toph Oster­mann, foun­der of sonnen, a global market leader in home storage systems. Chris­toph Oster­mann and the other foun­ders of the company have also deve­lo­ped and marke­ted one of Euro­pe’s first virtual power plants. David Daum, Part­ner, Head Infra­struc­ture Europe, Part­ners Group (© part­ners group), says: “Green Flexi­bi­lity will play a key role in the energy tran­si­tion in Germany by faci­li­ta­ting the inte­gra­tion of inter­mit­tent rene­wa­ble energy into the coun­try’s power grid. The company offers an exci­ting oppor­tu­nity to work with a highly expe­ri­en­ced and proven manage­ment team to build a battery storage plat­form in the largest energy and elec­tri­city market in Europe.” Igor Makar, Member of Manage­ment, Infra­struc­ture Europe, Part­ners Group, adds: “green flexi­bi­lity has strong infra­struc­ture creden­ti­als under­pin­ned by the indis­pensa­bi­lity of battery storage. 

We were also impres­sed by green flexi­bi­li­ty’s inno­va­tive approach to the deve­lo­p­ment process, which sets the company apart from other market play­ers.” Chris­toph Oster­mann, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer, green flexi­bi­lity, comm­ents: “BESS is widely regarded as the most flexi­ble tech­no­logy to provide a versa­tile and effi­ci­ent energy storage solu­tion, making it a key compo­nent in the moder­niza­tion of the energy grid. In addi­tion, the tech­no­logy can be deployed faster than other alter­na­ti­ves, which is criti­cal to meeting imme­diate grid stabi­lity requi­re­ments. As an expe­ri­en­ced infra­struc­ture inves­tor and busi­ness deve­lo­per, Part­ners Group is the right long-term part­ner for us as we look to grow the business.”

Part­ners Group’s infra­struc­ture busi­ness has USD 27 billion in assets under management.

Advi­sor Part­ners Group: A&O Shearman 

About Part­ners Group

Part­ners Group is one of the largest firms in the global private markets indus­try with appro­xi­m­ately 1,800 profes­sio­nals and over USD 150 billion in assets under manage­ment. The firm has invest­ment programs and custo­mi­zed manda­tes in private equity, private credit, infra­struc­ture, real estate and royal­ties. Part­ners Group, which origi­na­ted in Switz­er­land and has its main presence in the Ameri­cas in Colo­rado, is struc­tu­red differ­ently from the rest of the indus­try. https://www.partnersgroup.com/

News

St. Julian’s/ Karlsruhe/ Gumpolds­kir­chen — The Tipico Group, the leading provi­der of sports betting in German-spea­king count­ries, has concluded an agree­ment to acquire 100% of the shares in ATLAS Group GmbH, parent company of the ADMIRAL Group in Austria, from NOVOMATIC AG. The Tipico Group, the leading provi­der of sports betting and online slot machi­nes in Germany, sees this invest­ment as an important step towards further streng­thening its posi­tion in Austria and expan­ding its port­fo­lio. The NOVOMATIC AG Group confirms this step with a stron­ger focus on its inter­na­tio­nal busi­ness orien­ta­tion as a global inno­va­tion leader in the indus­try. Axel Hefer, CEO Tipico Group says: “This agree­ment repres­ents an important step in Tipi­co’s expan­sion stra­tegy to further expand our leading role in the German-spea­king region and streng­then our market posi­tion in Austria. Tipico has stood for state-of-the-art tech­no­logy, inno­va­tive products and consu­mer protec­tion for 20 years. We are deligh­ted to have found a part­ner in the ADMIRAL Group that shares the same values and we look forward to a successful future in the Austrian sports betting and gaming market.” Stefan Krenn, CEO of NOVOMATIC AG, said: “We have deci­ded to sell the ADMIRAL Group in Austria in order to focus on inter­na­tio­nal growth markets and drive forward our global expan­sion. With Tipico, we have found a highly profes­sio­nal and relia­ble part­ner who will conti­nue to run ADMIRAL in Austria successfully and sustain­ably.” The agree­ment is subject to certain condi­ti­ons prece­dent such as regu­la­tory appr­ovals. Consul­tant Tipico: BRANDL TALOS, Vienna We accom­pany compa­nies on their way to making the best decis­i­ons. At BRANDL TALOS, we are not only known for our legal exper­tise: We are compa­n­ions, advi­sors, spar­ring part­ners and always keep an eye on the busi­ness side. https://brandltalos.com

 

News

Berlin — The Berlin-based health and fintech company Nelly has raised 50 million euros. With this Series B finan­cing, the company aims to drive forward the digi­ta­liza­tion of the Euro­pean health­care sector. The finan­cing round was led by Cathay Inno­va­tion toge­ther with Notion Capi­tal and exis­ting inves­tors b2venture, Lake­star, Motive Ventures and arc investors. 

Nelly’s Finan­cial Opera­ting System for the health­care sector is used by over 1,200 medi­cal prac­ti­ces to increase effi­ci­ency and digi­tize admi­nis­tra­tive and finan­cial proces­ses. With a focus on product expan­sion, geogra­phic expan­sion and incre­asing market share in Germany, Nelly is posi­tio­ning itself as a leading fintech in the Euro­pean health­care sector. While many indus­tries in Germany are strugg­ling with econo­mic chal­lenges, the health­care and tech­no­logy sector is booming. With the new funding, Nelly aims to acce­le­rate its mission to become Euro­pe’s largest health­care fintech, drive inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and further conso­li­date its posi­tion as a finan­cial opera­ting system for medi­cal prac­ti­ces. A study by McKin­sey & Company high­lights the urgent need for digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion in the health­care sector. Accor­ding to the study, 70% of health­care profes­sio­nals in Europe consider outda­ted admi­nis­tra­tive proces­ses to be a major obsta­cle to effi­ci­ency and pati­ent satisfaction.
Nelly’s Prac­tice and Pati­ent Portal and Finan­cial Opera­ting System (FinOS) were deve­lo­ped speci­fi­cally for medi­cal prac­ti­ces to opti­mize proces­ses such as pati­ent admis­sion, docu­ment manage­ment and payment proces­sing. By seam­lessly inte­gra­ting with prac­tice manage­ment soft­ware, Nelly makes it possi­ble to stream­line opera­ti­ons and give medi­cal profes­sio­nals more time for pati­ent care. Pati­ents also bene­fit from a fully digi­tal expe­ri­ence where they can manage their entire jour­ney — from check-in to payment — secu­rely from their smart­phone. Focus on product and geogra­phic expansion

Since the Series A round, Nelly has more than doubled its custo­mer base: the plat­form now digi­ti­zes proces­ses for over 1,200 medi­cal prac­ti­ces and two million pati­ents. Nelly has thus set new stan­dards for payment and admi­nis­tra­tive proces­ses in the health­care sector. The company is now plan­ning to further deve­lop its product and expand its offe­ring to new Euro­pean markets in order to streng­then its posi­tion as a leading fintech in the health­care sector. As part of its Euro­pean expan­sion, Nelly has recently ente­red the Italian market — a region facing simi­lar struc­tu­ral chal­lenges in the admi­nis­tra­tion and digi­ta­liza­tion of health­care. “One of our key invest­ment theses at Cathay Inno­va­tion is to iden­tify solu­ti­ons that sustain­ably improve effi­ci­ency in the health­care sector. At the same time, we are commit­ted to support­ing inno­va­tive fintech compa­nies that bring trans­for­ma­tive value to their indus­tries. We are proud to support Nelly in trans­forming medi­cal prac­ti­ces through new finan­cial and opera­tio­nal proces­ses. We look forward to acce­le­ra­ting their growth across the conti­nent and beyond,” says Jacky Abit­bol, Mana­ging Part­ner at Cathay Inno­va­tion.

“Notion is exci­ted to work with Nelly to deve­lop the next gene­ra­tion of opera­tio­nal and finan­cial products for hospi­tals. At Notion, we have alre­ady successfully part­ne­red with leading verti­cal soft­ware provi­ders such as Mews Systems (hospi­ta­lity sector) and Glofox (fitness sector),” said Itxaso del Pala­cio, Gene­ral Part­ner at Notion. About Nelly Solutions

Nelly revo­lu­tio­ni­zes the expe­ri­ence for pati­ents and health­care profes­sio­nals by auto­ma­ting admi-nistra­tive proces­ses and payment flows in health­care. Foun­ded in 2021 by Niklas Radner, Lukas Eicher, Rasmus Schults and Laurids Seibel, the Berlin-based startup aims to mini­mize the admi­nis­tra­tive burden for doctors, medi­cal staff and pati­ents. As the first digi­tal facto­ring provi­der in the DACH region, Nelly offers a compre­hen­sive solu­tion that not only enables the digi­ta­liza­tion of pati­ent data, but also auto­ma­tes receiv­a­bles manage­ment for medi­cal prac­ti­ces. The plat­form offers a fully GDPR-compli­ant digi­tal process — from pati­ent admis­sion to payment with just one click. Seam­less inte­gra­tion with exis­ting prac­tice manage­ment soft­ware and user-friendly opera­tion allows pati­ents to manage ever­y­thing secu­rely and effi­ci­ently via their smart­phone. https://www.getnelly.de/ https://www.getnelly.de/ About Cathay Innovation

Cathay Inno­va­tion is an all-stage growth venture capi­tal firm affi­lia­ted with Cathay Capi­tal that invests in foun­ders buil­ding trans­for­ma­tive compa­nies in Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America and Africa. The plat­form connects foun­ders with inves­tors and an ecosys­tem of leading Fortune 500 compa­nies to help start-ups scale and trans­form indus­tries with consu­mer and enter­prise solu­ti­ons and AI appli­ca­ti­ons in retail, fintech, digi­tal health and mobility/energy. Foun­ded in Paris in 2015, Cathay Inno­va­tion today mana­ges over €2.5 billion in assets under manage­ment (AUM) and has addi­tio­nal offices in Berlin, San Fran­cisco, Shang­hai and Singapore. 

www.cathayinnovation.com

About Notion Capital

Notion Capi­tal is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal inves­tor in B2B SaaS and cloud compa­nies with over $1 billion in assets under manage­ment and more than 100 invest­ments comple­ted. Noti­on’s team has foun­ded, built and sold two highly successful SaaS compa­nies — Star and Messa­geLabs. Noti­on’s port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as GoCard­less, Mews, Paddle, Unba­bel and YuLife. https://www.notion.vc/

About Lake­star
Lake­star is one of the leading pan-Euro­pean venture capi­tal firms. Foun­ded in 2012 by Klaus Hommels, Lake­star mana­ges a total volume of over €2 billion in four early-stage funds and two growth funds. Lake­star is curr­ently inves­ted in compa­nies such as Aleph Alpha, Auter­ion, Block­chain, Builder.ai, Colos­syan, GetY­our­Guide, Home­ToGo, Isar­Ae­ro­space, Neko Health, Revo­lut, senn­der and Terra Quan­tum. www.lakestar.com

About arc investors
arc inves­tors is an alter­na­tive invest­ment fund with a focus on B2B tech­no­logy compa­nies. With an entre­pre­neu­rial approach, arc drives inno­va­tion and growth at the inter­sec­tion of indus­try and tech­no­logy. arc works side-by-side with forward-thin­king entre­pre­neurs in Europe, the US and Israel and has offices in Zurich, London and Luxem­bourg. www.arcinvestors.com About b2venture
Foun­ded in 2000, b2venture is one of the most expe­ri­en­ced venture capi­tal firms in Europe. The group makes early-stage invest­ments via dedi­ca­ted funds and non-stage invest­ments via its direct invest­ment track. With offices in Berlin, Munich, St. Gallen, Luxem­bourg and Zurich, b2venture has backed compa­nies such as 1KOMMA5°, Black­lane, DeepL, Face­book, Food­spring, ORCAM, Raisin, SumUp and XING. About Motive Ventures
Motive Ventures is the early stage invest­ment arm of Motive Part­ners and specia­li­zes in finan­cial tech­no­logy invest­ments in North America and Europe. Motive Ventures is backed by globally reco­gni­zed finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, venture inves­tors, tech­no­logy entre­pre­neurs and indus­try experts. Toge­ther, they are on a mission to drive inno­va­tion and reshape the future of finance. The team curr­ently consists of 15 employees in offices in New York, Berlin, London and Amsterdam. 

Advi­sor Get Nelly: V14 advi­ses Nelly on Series B finan­cing round

Samuel Aebi and Sven Demar­c­zyk of the law firm V14 have advi­sed the Berlin-based health and fintech company Nelly on a EUR 50 million Series B finan­cing round.

News

Berlin — YPOG provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Fly Ventures on the closing of its third fund with a volume of €80 million. Exis­ting insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors as well as nume­rous company foun­ders, who were previously supported by Fly Ventures, parti­ci­pa­ted signi­fi­cantly. Fly Ventures Fund III was set up to be the first check inves­tor to invest in seve­ral signi­fi­cant compa­nies. These include Unicorn Wayve, which recently raised $1.05 billion in a Series C round led by Soft­Bank to revo­lu­tio­nize auto­no­mous driving with self-lear­ning tech­no­logy. Other recent invest­ments include Lakera, a Zurich-based startup that recently raised $20 million in Series A funding and protects compa­nies from LLM vulnerabi­li­ties, and Orbi­tal Mate­ri­als, a UK-based company deve­lo­ping funda­men­tal models for mate­ri­als science, which announ­ced its $20 million Series A round in Febru­ary. The Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund (EIF) via the ERP-EIF faci­lity and KfW Capi­tal via the ERP-Venture
Capi­tal fund finan­cing are among the inves­tors in Fund III, as they were in the prede­ces­sor fund. YPOG has alre­ady provi­ded legal advice to Fly Ventures on the previous fund gene­ra­ti­ons, most recently in 2020 on Fly Ventures Funds II with a volume of €53 million. About Fly Ventures

Fly Ventures is a leading venture capi­tal inves­tor dedi­ca­ted to back­ing tech compa­nies that solve complex problems. Focu­sed on AI, indus­trial tech­no­lo­gies and deve­lo­ping tools/infrastructure, Fly Ventures works with visio­nary early-stage foun­ders to fuel the next wave of tech­no­lo­gi­cal inno­va­tion. Berlin-based Fly Ventures was foun­ded by Gabriel Matuschka and Fred­rik Bergen­lid and specia­li­zes in early-stage invest­ments in Euro­pean start-ups. Further GPs have joined in the person of Matt Wichrow­ski and Marie Brayer. The focus is on deep tech topics such as auto­ma­tion, machine lear­ning and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. https://fly.vc/ Advi­sor Fly Ventures: YPOG

Jens Kretz­schmann, LL.M. (Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Anto­nia von Treu­en­feld (Funds), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Robert Schramm (Funds), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Johan­nes Gehring, LL.M.

(Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Florian Bacher (Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Berlin, Munich About YPOG

YPOG is a specia­list law firm for tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax, banking
+ finance and tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include
up-and-coming tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized companies
as well as corpo­rate groups and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for
venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany.

News

Kissing/ Munich/ Nurem­berg — Concen­tro Manage­ment has advi­sed the private equity company Para­gon Part­ners and its port­fo­lio company “WEKA Group” on the carve-out and sale of WEKA Fach­me­dien GmbH to a subsi­diary of Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH. About WEKA Fachmedien

WEKA Fach­me­dien GmbH is a leading provi­der of trade publi­ca­ti­ons, digital
plat­forms and events in the fields of elec­tro­nics, auto­ma­tion, infor­ma­tion and commu­ni­ca­tion tech­no­logy. Toge­ther with Nürn­berg­Messe, WEKA Fach­me­dien has been orga­ni­zing the “embedded world Exhibition&Conference”, the worl­d’s leading trade fair for embedded elec­tro­nic systems, for over 20 years. The acqui­si­tion of WEKA Fach­me­dien crea­tes one of the worl­d’s leading provi­ders of events and media in the field of embedded tech­no­logy and conso­li­da­tes Nürn­berg­Mes­se’s posi­tion as one of the 15 largest exhi­bi­tion compa­nies in the world. Concen­tro project team:
Sebas­tian Mink (Part­ner), Julian Ihle (Project Mana­ger), Phil­ipp Geit­ner (Consul­tant), Fabienne
Frech (Consul­tant) Concen­tro Manage­ment AG is a medium-sized consul­tancy firm with a
focus on trans­pa­rency (corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment), tran­sac­tions (corpo­rate finance/M&A consul­ting) and turn­arounds. With over 40 employees at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, Concen­tro works in an imple­men­ta­tion and success-orien­ted manner.

The aim is to gene­rate added value for the custo­mer through an indi­vi­dual consul­ting service.

About Para­gon

Para­gon is an owner-mana­ged, private group of compa­nies that has been invol­ved with medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since it was foun­ded in 2004. Para­gon works closely with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to ensure sustainable growth and improve opera­tio­nal proces­ses. The Para­gon port­fo­lio spans various sectors and curr­ently compri­ses 12 compa­nies. Para­gon is based in Munich and curr­ently mana­ges over €2.4 billion of equity. Further infor­ma­tion about the company can be found at www.paragon.de.

Advi­sor Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH: Bird & Bird

Part­ner Dr. Marc Seeger (Düsseldorf/Frankfurt) and Coun­sel Michael Gaßner (Munich), both lead, Part­ner Stefan Münch (Munich), Asso­cia­tes Kilian Hummel (Frank­furt), Moritz Wargalla, LL.M. (Düssel­dorf), Lara-Lucia Klocke (Düssel­dorf), Felix Spind­ler, LL.M. (Düssel­dorf), all Corporate/M&A, Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann (Tax Law, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Michael Jüne­mann, Asso­ciate Jona­than Stoldt (both Finan­cing & Finan­cial Regu­la­tion, Frank­furt), Coun­sel Jürgen Schlink­mann (Munich), Asso­ciate Dr. Julian Lauer (Hamburg), both Real Estate Law, Part­ner Dr. Henri­ette Picot, Coun­sel Michaela von Voß, (both Commercial/Tech & Comms, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Jörg Witting (Düssel­dorf), Asso­ciate Dr. Florian Hinde­rer (Munich), both Anti­trust Law, Part­ner Thomas Hey, Asso­ciate Linus Boberg, LL.M. (both Employ­ment Law, Düssel­dorf), Part­ner Dr. Joseph Fesen­mair, Coun­sel Niklas Fels, LL.M. (both Trade­mark Law, Munich).

News

Berlin / Mann­heim / Munich — At the begin­ning of the year, WIPIT enters the legal advice market with offices in Berlin, Mann­heim and Munich. WIPIT is a merger of highly quali­fied lawy­ers from the law firm WEITNAUER with a spin-off from Büsing Müffel­mann & Theye specia­li­zing in tech­no­logy law. With a total of over twenty profes­sio­nals, the boutique law firm posi­ti­ons itself as a provi­der of sophisti­ca­ted legal advice in the future-orien­ted fields of venture capi­tal and tech law. 

“Our clients not only expect exper­tise in finan­cing issues and corpo­rate law struc­tures, but also need advi­sors who under­stand digi­tal busi­ness models and can legally secure them. This is precis­ely where our strength lies; we offer inno­va­tive and prag­ma­tic solu­ti­ons at the highest level,” says Bene­dikt Mahr, Mana­ging Part­ner of WIPIT (photo © Weit­nauer). The firm’s foun­der, Dr. Wolf­gang Weit­nauer, handed over the reins to Bene­dikt Mahr in 2023.

About WIPIT

WIPIT combi­nes tradi­tio­nal corpo­rate law prac­tice with legal advice in the field of digi­tal change and tech­ni­cal topics of the future. This combi­na­tion crea­tes signi­fi­cant added value for clients in the market: WIPIT advi­ses on complex venture capi­tal tran­sac­tions, data and AI-driven busi­ness models, tech­no­logy trans­fers and inno­va­tion part­ner­ships as well as on the protec­tion of intellec­tual property and compli­ance issues. The legal manage­ment of legal chal­lenges faced by tech­no­logy-driven compa­nies is beco­ming incre­asingly complex against the back­drop of a rapidly chan­ging tech­no­lo­gi­cal envi­ron­ment: with the combi­na­tion of inter­di­sci­pli­nary exper­tise and targe­ted advice, WIPIT will offer tailor-made solu­ti­ons for start-ups, inves­tors and estab­lished tech­no­logy compa­nies in the future.
www.wipit.legal

News

Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Reed Smith has advi­sed the family trust inves­tor FTI GmbH (FTI) and its port­fo­lio company Novia Group on the acqui­si­tion of tcam GmbH. The full inte­gra­tion of tcam GmbH into the Novia Group as the future novia Engi­nee­ring GmbH took place on Janu­ary 1, 2025. The Novia Group is thus expan­ding its port­fo­lio and streng­thening its posi­tion as a leading provi­der in the field of global sourcing. With this acqui­si­tion, the Novia Group is secu­ring compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the opti­miza­tion of manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses and the deve­lo­p­ment of effi­ci­ent produc­tion methods. In addi­tion, this acqui­si­tion will give it access to a strong network of Euro­pean supply chains and manu­fac­tu­ring part­ners as an important step towards diver­si­fy­ing and mini­mi­zing risks in global supply chains. With loca­ti­ons in Germany, Switz­er­land and Asia, the Novia Group is a relia­ble part­ner for custo­mers from sectors such as medi­cal tech­no­logy, indus­try, mobi­lity, solar, sani­tary and light­ing. The acqui­si­tion of tcam GmbH is a further mile­stone in the imple­men­ta­tion of the Novia Group’s buy & build stra­tegy and under­lines its commit­ment to achie­ving sustainable growth through targe­ted acquisitions.

Advi­sor to Family Trust Inves­tor FTI GmbH (FTI): Reed Smith

Led by Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs (photo) and Matthias Weingut
The advi­sory team also included Nina Siewert (tax law, Frank­furt), Elisa Saier (employ­ment law, Munich), Tim Sauer­ham­mer (enter­tain­ment & media, Munich), Dr. Germar Enders (corpo­rate, Munich), Robert Werz­lau (corpo­rate, Munich) and Christan Schnur­rer (employ­ment law, Munich). About Family Trust Inves­tor FTI GmbH

Family Trust is an invest­ment company mana­ged by entre­pre­neurs. In addi­tion to signi­fi­cant own funds of the foun­ders, Family Trust invests the assets of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, family offices, wealthy entre­pre­neu­rial fami­lies and private indi­vi­du­als in successful medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms with more than 1,400 lawy­ers in 31 offices in Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Asia.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.reedsmith.com.

News

Düsseldorf/ Munich — ARQIS has advi­sed the Swiss inves­tor group CONSTELLATION Capi­tal on the acqui­si­tion of the Export Pack­a­ging Sehnde Group (EVS Group), inclu­ding the Polish Export Pack Polska Sp. Z o.o.. EVS Group is now part of the ARCA Group, which belongs to CONSTELLATION Capi­tal. The acqui­si­tion repres­ents an important step in the growth stra­tegy of the ARCA Group. At the same time, the merger enables the group to expand regio­nally into nort­hern Germany and Poland. The EVS Group will be inte­gra­ted into the ARCA Group, but will retain its inde­pen­dent brand and market presence. The mana­ging direc­tors of the EVS Group will remain with the company and the previous share­hol­ders have taken a substan­tial stake in the ARCA Group. The ARCA Group, a group of CONSTELLATION Capi­tal AG, is a rapidly expan­ding provi­der of wooden pack­a­ging and pack­a­ging services in German-spea­king count­ries. This and future acqui­si­ti­ons are inten­ded to create a close-knit network of wood pack­a­ging and pack­a­ging services compa­nies that will bene­fit from syner­gies in purcha­sing, the profes­sio­na­liza­tion of proces­ses and digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion. The EVS Group compri­ses Export­ver­pa­ckung Sehnde GmbH and Export Pack Polska Sp. Z o.o. Export­ver­pa­ckung Sehnde, with sites in Sehnde and Hano­ver in Lower Saxony, offers pack­a­ging services with around 120 employees. Export Pack Polska Sp. Z o.o., based in Zabrze, Poland, specia­li­zes in the produc­tion of pack­a­ging mate­ri­als and the provi­sion of pack­a­ging and other logi­stics services. CONSTELLATION Capi­tal is a Swiss invest­ment group formed in 1992 and based in Frei­en­bach on Lake Zurich. It pursues a buy & build stra­tegy that focu­ses on majo­rity invest­ments in medium-sized compa­nies in the busi­ness service, educa­tion & life­style and health­care sectors in Switz­er­land, Germany and Austria. The ARQIS team led by Dr. Laeger has alre­ady assis­ted CONSTELLATION Capi­tal with the acqui­si­tion of the ARCA plat­form and has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice on all acqui­si­ti­ons alre­ady made for the plat­form, inclu­ding acqui­si­tion finan­cing. ARQIS was supported in Poland by a team from Wolf Theiss. 

Advi­sor Constel­la­tion Capi­tal: ARQIS (Düsseldorf/Munich)

Part­ners: Dr. Lars Laeger (M&A, Lead), Johan­nes Landry (Finan­cing), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (real estate law), Tobias Neufeld (data protec­tion), Lisa-Marie Niklas (employ­ment law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP), Coun­sel: Sina Janke (compli­ance), Jens Knip­ping (tax), Nora Strat­mann (commer­cial), Anja Mehr­tens, Martin Wein­gärt­ner (both employ­ment law), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Katrin Ludwig (M&A), Rolf Tichy (IP), Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Lina Alami, Sabine Müller (both Employ­ment Law), Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial), Dr. Bern­hard Gröhe (Regu­la­tory), Marius Mesen­brink (Data Protec­tion), Legal Specia­list: Tim Kott­mann (Labor Law) Wolf Theiss (Poland): Peter Dasz­kow­ski, Bartosz Kuras (both lead), Karo­lina Stawowska, Michal Zaja­cz­kow­ski, Agnieszka Nowak-Blaszc­zak, Adrian Krzy­za­now­ski, Jakub Pietrasik, Izabela Wiewiorka, Izabela Derylo, Kinga Kluszc­zynska, Oliwia Pecht About ARQIS

ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firm opera­ting internationally.

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

News

Wies­ba­den — BMH Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH has inves­ted in Eduneon with the Hessen Kapi­tal I fund toge­ther with the RAG-Stif­tung and lead inves­tor Futury Capi­tal. The Berlin-based start-up offers an all-in-one soft­ware solu­tion for all public admi­nis­tra­tion proces­ses as well as for the plan­ning and procu­re­ment of digi­tal equip­ment and school faci­li­ties. Eduneon intends to use the fresh capi­tal to further deve­lop its digi­tal solu­ti­ons, streng­then its team and expand into new markets. Eduneon GmbH was foun­ded in 2022 and has since estab­lished itself as a service provi­der for modern plan­ning and procu­re­ment in muni­ci­pal and district admi­nis­tra­ti­ons. With its inno­va­tive soft­ware solu­tion, the start-up has so far helped schools and school autho­ri­ties in parti­cu­lar with sustainable plan­ning, mapping the key plan­ning and procu­re­ment proces­ses of public admi­nis­tra­tion. In a market where admi­nis­tra­tive work is often still domi­na­ted by Excel and isola­ted solu­ti­ons for sub-proces­ses, Eduneon inte­gra­tes and auto­ma­tes process manage­ment and thus supports the digi­ta­liza­tion of public school admi­nis­tra­tion. The soft­ware also helps to avoid the risk of bad invest­ments and deploy resour­ces in a targe­ted manner. Nume­rous school autho­ri­ties have alre­ady relied on Eduneon since its market launch in 2023, inclu­ding cities such as Offen­bach am Main, the Hansea­tic city of Lübeck, Wolfs­burg and Solin­gen as well as the Darm­stadt-Dieburg district and the districts of Pader­born and Osthol­stein. Growth and expan­sion in the DACH region

Eduneon intends to use the new funding to grow further and expand its plat­form with AI appli­ca­ti­ons, among other things. The team is to be further streng­the­ned in the areas of deve­lo­p­ment, sales and custo­mer success and the market posi­tion in Germany is to be expan­ded. At the same time, Eduneon intends to drive forward its expan­sion into neigh­bor­ing markets and the DACH region. Clemens Grol­man, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Eduneon, explains: “We have deve­lo­ped a solu­tion that enables admi­nis­tra­ti­ons to main­tain an over­view in times of tight budgets and staff shorta­ges and to ensure the best possi­ble equip­ment for public insti­tu­ti­ons within the available resour­ces. We have laid the foun­da­tion with educa­tion admi­nis­tra­tion. Howe­ver, our fully inte­gra­ted plat­form for plan­ning and procu­re­ment can be used in a variety of ways: it covers all muni­ci­pal depart­ments, from muni­ci­pal admi­nis­tra­ti­ons to the police and daycare centers. We are also working on inte­gra­ted solu­ti­ons for state admi­nis­tra­ti­ons, data centers and solu­tion provi­ders.” Benja­min Krah­mer, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Futury Capi­tal, says: “Eduneon has impres­si­vely demons­tra­ted how great the need and demand is among public admi­nis­tra­ti­ons. The company has the poten­tial to perma­nently change the plan­ning and procu­re­ment proces­ses in the public sector. Edune­on’s inno­va­tive strength can signi­fi­cantly drive digi­tal change in public admi­nis­tra­tion.” David Schäff­ler from BMH adds: “We are convin­ced of Edune­on’s busi­ness model and the resul­ting growth oppor­tu­ni­ties, not least because the company was able to win over 30 local autho­ri­ties in five fede­ral states with its inno­va­tive soft­ware solu­tion after just a short time. 

We look forward to support­ing Eduneon on its contin­ued path to success.” About Futury Capital

Futury Capi­tal, based in Frank­furt, is a leading venture capi­tal firm specia­li­zing in early-stage and growth invest­ments in tech­no­logy-driven companies.
More infor­ma­tion can be found here: https://www.futurycapital.vc/ About the RAG-Stiftung

The private-law RAG-Stif­tung was estab­lished in 2007. Since the begin­ning of 2019, it has been respon­si­ble for finan­cing the so-called perpe­tual obli­ga­ti­ons of the German coal mining indus­try in the Ruhr, Saar and Ibben­bü­ren regi­ons. With nume­rous projects in the fields of educa­tion, science and culture, the foun­da­tion also sends out posi­tive signals in the former mining regions.
Further infor­ma­tion on the RAG-Stif­tung can be found at www.rag-stiftung.de About BMH

BMH Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH, based in Wies­ba­den, was foun­ded in 2001 and is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Hessen-Thürin­gen Giro­zen­trale (Helaba).

Through Wirt­schafts- und Infra­struk­tur­bank Hessen (WIBank), BMH is actively invol­ved in the econo­mic deve­lo­p­ment acti­vi­ties of the State of Hesse. As a medium-sized invest­ment and venture capi­tal company, BMH bund­les public invest­ment inte­rests and finan­cing instru­ments for early-stage, growth and medium-sized compa­nies in Hesse. BMH curr­ently mana­ges six invest­ment funds with a volume of over 200 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion, BMH has inves­ted in more than 500 compa­nies. Invest­ment focus areas include the software/analytics, fintech/insuretech, life science, deep tech, IoT/industrial tech, hardware/industrial goods and clean­tech sectors. www.bmh-hessen.de

News

Munich — SKW Schwarz has advi­sed Airbus Defence and Space GmbH on the sale of UP42 GmbH (UP42), a next-gene­ra­tion Earth obser­va­tion plat­form, to Natio­nal Space Company (NSC), Saudi Arabia’s leading commer­cial space services provi­der. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory appr­ovals. Airbus foun­ded UP42 in Berlin in 2019. The company has more than 80 employees and is conside­red a pioneer in faci­li­ta­ting access to satel­lite and aerial image data sources and the use of geodata via the cloud. UP42 acts as a market­place and provi­des added-value services in the field of data analy­tics. Foun­ded in 2024, NSC is a subsi­diary of the Saudi Arabian Public Invest­ment Fund (PIF). For SKW Schwarz, the tran­sac­tion under­lines the firm’s important focus on tech M&A tran­sac­tions. Advi­sors to Airbus Defence and Space: SKW Schwarz, Munich Dr. Martin Bött­ger (lead), Stephan Neubauer (Hamburg); Asso­ciate: Chris­tine Wärl (all corporate/M&A).

SKW Schwarz is an inde­pen­dent full-service law firm. With around 130 lawy­ers at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, the firm advi­ses clients in all rele­vant areas of commer­cial law. At the end of 2018, the firm foun­ded SKW Schwarz @ Tech GmbH, in which the lawy­ers bundle all acti­vi­ties in the area of legal tech across loca­ti­ons and disciplines.

News

Stock­holm — Epona, a leading Dutch provi­der of legal docu­ment manage­ment solu­ti­ons, has merged with Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons, the market-leading Danish legal case manage­ment system Unik Advo­sys. This merger brings toge­ther two compa­nies of compa­ra­ble size to form a comple­men­tary Legal­Tech provi­der with a global presence in diffe­rent markets and indus­tries. The new company opera­tes under the name Epona and compri­ses a compre­hen­sive and modern product port­fo­lio. Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”), the majo­rity share­hol­der of both Epona and Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons, will retain a majo­rity stake in the company after the tran­sac­tion. Epona is a Dutch soft­ware company specia­li­zing in legal tech­no­logy and has been a stra­te­gic part­ner of Main since Decem­ber 2023. Epona’s product port­fo­lio includes Docu­ment Manage­ment Systems (DMS) and Custo­mer Rela­ti­onship Manage­ment (CRM) soft­ware desi­gned to opti­mize work­flows in law firms and corpo­rate legal depart­ments and ensure regu­la­tory compli­ance. The flag­ship Epona365 inte­gra­tes seam­lessly with Micro­soft Office 365, Share­Point and Teams and includes features such as docu­ment and email manage­ment, team colla­bo­ra­tion, matter manage­ment, contract manage­ment, work­flow auto­ma­tion and CRM capa­bi­li­ties. Today, Epona serves a global custo­mer base of over 400 law firms and corpo­rate legal depart­ments. Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons is a newly foun­ded company that emer­ged from Unik System Design — a leading provi­der of PropTech and Legal­Tech solu­ti­ons in Denmark — with which Main ente­red into a part­ner­ship in Septem­ber 2023. Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons builds on Unik’s strong foun­da­tion and will conti­nue to offer the renow­ned Unik Advo­sys system, which is used daily by more than 400 law firms and legal depart­ments across Denmark. In addi­tion, the deve­lo­p­ment of the SaaS-based Justi­Case system will expand the company’s service offe­ring and ensure that the new group remains at the fore­front of inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for legal profes­sio­nals. Crea­tion of a comple­men­tary Euro­pean Legal­Tech provider

The merger of Epona and Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons will create a comple­men­tary Legal­Tech provi­der in the docu­ment and law firm manage­ment space that can offer its custo­mers a wider range of solu­ti­ons that increase effi­ci­ency, compli­ance and produc­ti­vity for legal profes­sio­nals world­wide. Both compa­nies have estab­lished strong posi­ti­ons in their respec­tive fields and the merger crea­tes a strong combi­ned product offe­ring that is well posi­tio­ned for future inter­na­tio­nal growth. Toge­ther, the group will serve more than 800 clients in Europe, Asia and the Americas. 

Marcel Lang, Co-CEO of Epona: “The merger with Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons opens an exci­ting chap­ter in terms of growth and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Toge­ther, we will leverage our comple­men­tary strengths to deve­lop ground­brea­king solu­ti­ons that rede­fine value crea­tion for our exis­ting clients and repre­sent a bold step towards a global presence in Legal­Tech inno­va­tion.” Gitte Bisgaard, CEO at Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons and new Co-CEO of Epona, former Market Direc­tor of Unik Advo­sys: “This part­ner­ship is an important moment for Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons and Epona as we join forces with a shared vision to trans­form the legal tech­no­logy land­scape. By pooling our resour­ces and exper­tise, we are able to inno­vate and enhance our exis­ting solu­tion offe­ring and the Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons leader­ship team looks forward to contri­bu­ting to this promi­sing project.” Wessel Ploeg­ma­kers, Part­ner & Head of Nordics at Main Capi­tal Part­ners, summa­ri­zes: “The inte­gra­tion of Epona and Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons is a further step in rede­fi­ning inno­va­tive docu­ment manage­ment and law firm manage­ment solu­ti­ons in the global market. We believe that part­ne­ring with forward-thin­king entre­pre­neurs is criti­cal to enab­ling trans­for­ma­tive growth and deli­ve­ring lasting value to clients. By brin­ging toge­ther the exper­tise and comple­men­tary strengths of Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons and Epona, we are crea­ting a strong foun­da­tion to drive inno­va­tion and scale both compa­nies inter­na­tio­nally in the ever-evol­ving Legal­Tech landscape.”

About Epona

Foun­ded in 1993 in the Nether­lands, Epona is a leading provi­der of legal tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons specia­li­zing in docu­ment manage­ment and auto­ma­tion. The company’s flag­ship plat­form, Epona365, inte­gra­tes seam­lessly with Micro­soft Office365 and Share­Point to meet the speci­fic needs of legal profes­sio­nals and in-house legal depart­ments. Head­quar­te­red in Rotter­dam, with addi­tio­nal offices in the US and Portu­gal, Epona serves a global client base of appro­xi­m­ately 300 law firms and 120 corpo­rate legal depart­ments in major geogra­phic regi­ons. https://epona.eu

About Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons

Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons was foun­ded in the fall of 2024 through the spin-off of the Legal­Tech busi­ness of Unik System Design, which is head­quar­te­red in Vejle (Denmark) and has addi­tio­nal offices in Copen­ha­gen and Aalborg. Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons thus took over Unik’s almost 30 years of Legal­Tech exper­tise and became the leading soft­ware provi­der in the field of docu­ment and law firm manage­ment in Denmark. The company offers the Unik Advo­sys system, a compre­hen­sive solu­tion for lawy­ers and legal profes­sio­nals focu­sing on case, time and docu­ment manage­ment, and is curr­ently deve­lo­ping a new, inno­va­tive SaaS solu­tion called Justi­Case. The company curr­ently serves over 400 law firms and corpo­rate legal depart­ments in the Danish market and has over 5,500 daily active users. https://www.unik.dk About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor mana­ging private equity funds active in Northwest Europe and North America. Main has over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in soft­ware inves­t­ing and works closely with the manage­ment teams in its port­fo­lio as a stra­te­gic part­ner to build profi­ta­ble growth and larger, outstan­ding soft­ware groups. Main employs 85 people and has offices in The Hague, Stock­holm, Düssel­dorf, Antwerp and an affi­lia­ted office in Boston. Main has appro­xi­m­ately €6 billion in assets under manage­ment and curr­ently has an active port­fo­lio of over 50 soft­ware compa­nies. Toge­ther, these compa­nies employ around 15,000 people. 

Through the Main Social Insti­tute, Main supports students with grants and scho­lar­ships to study compu­ter science at tech­ni­cal univer­si­ties and univer­si­ties of applied sciences.

News

Munich — The London-based consul­ting firm Inter­path, a port­fo­lio company of HIG Capi­tal, has acqui­red Kerkhoff Consul­ting GmbH (“Kerkhoff”), a manage­ment consul­tancy of the Kerkhoff Group specia­li­zing in purcha­sing and supply chain manage­ment. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details.

As a result of the acqui­si­tion, Inter­path will bene­fit from Kerkhoff Consul­tin­g’s in-depth exper­tise in purcha­sing and supply chain manage­ment, while the inte­gra­tion will give Kerkhoff access to new inter­na­tio­nal markets and an expan­ded network. Of the previous three mana­ging direc­tors of the Kerkhoff Group, Gerd Kerkhoff and Thors­ten Schmidt will relin­quish their manage­ment posi­ti­ons and remain with the consul­tancy as so-called “Special Advi­sors”. Mana­ging Direc­tor Ralph Kudla will conti­nue to manage the company’s busi­ness toge­ther with the other respon­si­ble part­ners. POELLATH provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the share­hol­ders of the Kerkhoff Group in connec­tion with the sale. Kerkhoff Consul­ting GmbH, based in Düssel­dorf, is a manage­ment consul­tancy in the field of purcha­sing and supply chain manage­ment and supports medium-sized clients in parti­cu­lar in achie­ving sustainable impro­ve­ments in results through indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons along the value chain. The company has recei­ved seve­ral awards, inclu­ding “Best Consul­tant” in the field of supply chain manage­ment. The London-based finan­cial consul­tancy Inter­path is a port­fo­lio company of the finan­cial inves­tor HIG Capi­tal and was foun­ded in 2021. Inter­path has an inter­na­tio­nal focus and offers a wide range of services in the areas of tran­sac­tions, consul­ting and restructuring. 

Advi­sor Kerkhoff: POELLATH

Dr. Frank Thiä­ner, photo (Part­ner, Lead, M&A/Private Equity)
Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax)
Dr. Domi­nik Gerli­cher, LL.M. (Coun­sel, M&A/Private Equity)
Till Schwich­ten­berg (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity)
Lukas Fell­höl­ter (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity)
Jannis Lührs (Asso­ciate, Tax)
Arthur Linde­mann, LL.M., Maître en droit (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity)

News

Munich — IK Part­ners (“ IK ” or “the Company ”), a leading Euro­pean private equity firm, is plea­sed to announce that it has opened a new office in Munich as part of its ongo­ing invest­ment commitment.

The Munich office will be led by Joachim Dett­mar (photo © IK Part­ners), Part­ner in IK’s Opera­ti­ons team, and Adrian Tanski, who has been promo­ted to Part­ner and sits on the Part­ner­ship Fund team. Adrian was previously based in IK’s Hamburg office and joined the firm in 2018 as an Asso­ciate Direc­tor in the DACH Mid Cap team, where he was invol­ved in a number of tran­sac­tions inclu­ding the exit of KLINGEL Medi­cal Metal in 2023 and the acqui­si­ti­ons of MÜPRO in 2022 and CONET in 2021. 

The IK Part­ner­ship Fund stra­tegy was laun­ched in 2019 and targets larger, more estab­lished compa­nies at the upper end of the mid-market. IK invests along­side exis­ting owners or new part­ners via mino­rity positions. 

In addi­tion, IK is plea­sed to announce two further part­ner appoint­ments in the firm’s Hamburg and London offices: Ingmar Bär — Deve­lo­p­ment Capi­tal Invest­ment Team, Hamburg and Alex­an­dra Kazi — Finance and Admi­nis­tra­tion Team, London. Chris­to­pher Masek, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer at IK, commen­ted: “After another very successful year for IK, we are deligh­ted to cele­brate the contri­bu­ti­ons of Adrian and Alex­an­dra, whose dedi­ca­tion and efforts have been reco­gni­zed by their promo­ti­ons to the Part­ner group. In addi­tion, with the opening of a new office in Munich, we are streng­thening our estab­lished base in the DACH region and helping to cement our posi­tion as one of the leading part­ners to Euro­pean small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses. ” Adrian Tanski, Part­ner at IK: “I am deligh­ted to join Joachim in leading IK’s new Munich office to streng­then our presence in the dyna­mic and attrac­tive DACH market. Munich’s thri­ving economy, strong indus­trial base and access to high cali­ber talent make it an ideal place to expand our reach and create exci­ting invest­ment opportunities. ”

About IK Partners

IK Part­ners (“ IK ”) is a Euro­pean private equity firm focu­sed on invest­ments in the Bene­lux, DACH, France, the Nordics and the UK. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €17 billion of capi­tal and inves­ted in more than 195 Euro­pean compa­nies. IK backs compa­nies with strong under­ly­ing poten­tial and works with manage­ment teams and inves­tors to create robust, well-posi­tio­ned busi­nesses with excel­lent long-term pros­pects. www.ikpartners.com

News

Detmold/Paderborn — The Austrian furni­ture store chain XXXLutz is taking over the Porta Group, a second-gene­ra­tion family-run furnis­hing company from Porta West­fa­lica with around 140 loca­ti­ons in Germany, the Czech Repu­blic and Slova­kia. The foun­ding fami­lies of the Porta Group, Gärt­ner and Fahren­kamp, are leaving the company as part of the take­over. The sale is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The Porta Group is one of the largest family-run furnis­hing compa­nies in Germany. With over 370 furni­ture stores in 14 count­ries, XXXLutz is one of the largest furni­ture retail­ers in the world. The Porta Group recei­ved compre­hen­sive legal advice on the inter­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tion from a cross-loca­tion M&A team of the law firm BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte led by Detmold part­ners Dr. Helmut Dröge and Dr. Bern­hard König. The law firm UEPA Advo­káti s.r.o. in Prague and Bratis­lava advi­sed on legal issues in the Czech Repu­blic and the Slovak Repu­blic. The XXXLutz Group was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by the law firm Henge­ler Muel­ler in Düsseldorf. 

Advi­sor Porta group of compa­nies: BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte Detmold/Paderborn

Dr. Helmut Dröge (project manage­ment and conduct of nego­tia­ti­ons), Detmold
Dr. Bern­hard König, Part­ner (Co-Project Mana­ger, Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Detmold
Chris­tian Koerdt, Asso­ciate (Real Estate Law, Insu­rance Law), Detmold
Dr. Chris­tian Behrendt, Part­ner (Banking Law), Detmold
Dr. Rüdi­ger Osten, Part­ner (distri­bu­tion law), Detmold
Frank Schem­be­cker, Part­ner (trade­mark and compe­ti­tion law), Detmold
Dr. Sören Kramer, Part­ner (Employ­ment Law), Detmold
Björn Mai, Part­ner (Employ­ment Law), Detmold
Chris­tian Rödding, Asso­ciate (Real Estate Law), Detmold
Feli­cia Deppe-Hietel, Asso­ciate (Public Law), Paderborn
Nina Drüke, Part­ner (Public Law), Paderborn
Dr. Nils Grone­meyer, Part­ner (Public Law), Paderborn

UEPA advo­káti, Prague/Bratislava
Lars Klett, Part­ner (Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Prague
Eliška Valterová, Coun­sel (Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Prague
Lucie Hladě­nová, LL.M., Part­ner (Corpo­rate Law/M&A/Real Estate Law), Prague
JUDr. Marek Hudec, Part­ner (Corporate/M&A/Real Estate), Bratis­lava Advi­sor XXXLutz Group: Henge­ler Muel­ler, Düsseldorf/ Frankfurt

Dr. Georg Seyf­arth, Dr. Thomas Lang (lead)

About BRANDI Attor­neys at Law

BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte is one of the leading medium-sized commer­cial law firms in West­pha­lia and Hano­ver with offices in Biele­feld, Detmold, Güters­loh, Hano­ver, Pader­born and Minden as well as coope­ra­tion offices in Paris and Beijing. Over 100 lawy­ers, 26 of whom are also nota­ries, advise compa­nies in all areas of natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal commer­cial law and public law. BRANDI is a member of the inter­na­tio­nal network PANGEA NET. www.brandi.net.

News

Fran­furt a. M. — Perm­ira, the global invest­ment firm, and inves­tor GENUI have announ­ced that funds advi­sed by Perm­ira are acqui­ring a majo­rity stake in West­bridge Advi­sory. The Frank­furt-based firm is a leading Euro­pean energy and sustaina­bi­lity advi­sor to insti­tu­tio­nal real estate clients: West­bridge advi­ses its clients on energy procu­re­ment, impro­ving their carbon foot­print and thus meeting long-term sustaina­bi­lity targets. Outside Germany, the company has offices in London, Zurich and Warsaw. While the foun­ders of the company will signi­fi­cantly re-invest toge­ther with Perm­ira as part of the tran­sac­tion, GENUI will sell its shares. Comple­tion of the acqui­si­tion is subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted by the end of the first quar­ter of 2025. Foun­ded in 2015, West­bridge has estab­lished itself as the go-to energy and sustaina­bi­lity manage­ment advi­sor for more than 600 clients in the real estate sector. The company’s reve­nue and profi­ta­bi­lity are growing at double-digit rates. The busi­ness is bene­fiting from an incre­asing demand for green energy and CSR/ESG compli­ance consul­ting in the real estate sector. West­brid­ge’s services range from energy procu­re­ment consul­ting to ESG data manage­ment and green buil­ding certi­fi­ca­ti­ons. Perm­ira will support the company in its orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth plans. This applies in parti­cu­lar to the inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion in the energy and sustaina­bi­lity consul­ting market. “We are very much looking forward to writing the next chap­ter of our success story toge­ther with Perm­ira. Toge­ther we will conti­nue to inter­na­tio­na­lize our busi­ness and invest in our future growth,” said Yama Mahasher, CEO of West­bridge. “A big thank you to the team at GENUI who have successfully supported us on our growth path
since 2021. We are passio­nate about helping our clients solve their energy and sustaina­bi­lity issues. With Perm­ira as our new part­ner, we will conti­nue to drive the green trans­for­ma­tion of the real estate sector.” Florian Kreu­zer, Head of Perm­i­ra’s busi­ness in the DACH region, commen­ted: “We are deligh­ted to be inves­t­ing in West­bridge along­side the foun­ders. This invest­ment once again under­lines our focus in the DACH region to support visio­nary entre­pre­neurs in their growth and expan­sion plans. Thanks to West­brid­ge’s important role in impro­ving the carbon foot­print of the real estate sector, this tran­sac­tion also fits well with Perm­i­ra’s new climate invest­ment focus. I am perso­nally very exci­ted to join Yama and his team in crea­ting a Euro­pean cham­pion for energy and sustaina­bi­lity consul­ting in the real estate sector.” The sustaina­bi­lity trend in the real estate sector holds enorm­ous growth poten­tial. As a pioneer in this consul­ting field, West­bridge supports its clients in achie­ving complex sustaina­bi­lity goals. 

We will support Yama and the entire West­bridge team with further exper­tise in tech­no­logy and services as well as our inter­na­tio­nal network to jointly develop
new markets,” added David Brück­mann, Mana­ging Direc­tor in Perm­i­ra’s Services sector. “West­bridge is an excel­lent fit with our invest­ment stra­tegy in the Services sector, which focu­ses on compa­nies with recur­ring reve­nue, strong custo­mer reten­tion and resi­li­ent growth.”
“It has been a plea­sure for our team and GENUI entre­pre­neur Andreas Jacobs, as Chair­man of the Advi­sory Board, to support West­bridge in not only growing its busi­ness and foot­print, but also further incre­asing the company’s important envi­ron­men­tal impact,” said Max Odefey of GENUI. “We are proud that West­bridge has become the market leader during GENUI’s owner­ship. Sales have increased seven-fold and a number of stra­te­gic, value-enhan­cing acqui­si­ti­ons and orga­nic expan­si­ons have been reali­zed. We wish the outstan­ding West­bridge team and the new majo­rity owner Perm­ira all the best for the contin­ued successful growth story.”

News

The Hague (NL) — Bizz­de­sign, a port­fo­lio company of Main Capi­tal Part­ners since 2022, acqui­res Alfa­bet from Soft­ware GmbH, another reco­gni­zed market leader in Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture (EA) and Stra­te­gic Port­fo­lio Manage­ment (SPM). This announce­ment follows the successful acqui­si­tion of MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal in Septem­ber 2024. The combi­ned group, opera­ting under the brand name “Bizz­de­sign”, will gene­rate reve­nues of around EUR 110 million, serve around 2,000 custo­mers and employ more than 600 people, buil­ding a truly global presence. 

This acqui­si­tion is the third add-on acqui­si­tion as part of Bizz­de­si­gn’s buy-and-build stra­tegy to expand its presence in the EA and SPM market. By combi­ning exper­tise and resour­ces, the new company is stra­te­gi­cally positioned
to drive further inno­va­tion in busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion and deli­ver grea­ter value to its customers
and part­ners. The combi­ned group will retain its three existing
and comple­men­tary products (Horiz­zon, HOPEX, Alfa­bet), crea­ting the
indus­try’s most compre­hen­sive end-to-end trans­for­ma­tion offe­ring, encom­pas­sing Enter­prise Architecture
Manage­ment (EAM), Stra­te­gic Port­fo­lio Manage­ment (SPM), Busi­ness Process Manage­ment (BPM) and
Gover­nance Risk & Compli­ance (GRC). In addi­tion, Bizz­de­sign is deve­lo­ping a new cloud-native, AI-based plat­form for busi­ness transformation.

Expan­sion of the Bizz­de­sign port­fo­lio through SPM

With the acqui­si­tion of Alfa­bet, Bizz­de­sign is expan­ding its offe­ring to the SPM market. As opera­ting models are chan­ging due to digi­ta­liza­tion, the depen­den­cies between busi­ness func­tions and IT are incre­asing. Alfa­bet, a reco­gni­zed leader in the SPM market, helps compa­nies, IT stra­te­gists and plan­ners to map and analyze these connec­tions. Bert van der Zwan, CEO of Bizz­de­sign (photo © Bert van der Zwan), commen­ted: “By combi­ning the skills and talents of three compa­nies, we will be able to scale our inno­va­tions across our joint road­maps and create more value for all our custo­mers much faster.” 

Sven van Berge Henegou­wen, Mana­ging Part­ner at Main and Chair­man of the Super­vi­sory Board of Bizz­de­sign: “This tran­sac­tion is another important mile­stone in Bizz­de­si­gn’s growth stra­tegy and the combi­na­tion under­pins our stra­tegy to build larger inter­na­tio­nal soft­ware groups in one of our core product markets. Since the begin­ning of our stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with Bizz­de­sign, we have been focu­sed on crea­ting a market-leading plat­form in enter­prise archi­tec­ture. The acqui­si­tion of Alfa­bet, follo­wing the successful acqui­si­tion of MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal, further streng­thens Bizz­de­si­gn’s market posi­tion. By combi­ning the strengths of Bizz­de­sign, MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal and Alfa­bet, we are brin­ging toge­ther three compa­nies that excel in inno­va­tion and exper­tise in EA, SPM and BPM, crea­ting a solid foun­da­tion for further global expansion.”

About Bizz­de­sign

Foun­ded in 2000, Bizz­de­sign is a leading global SaaS plat­form for Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture, reco­gni­zed as a market leader by major analyst firms such as Gart­ner and Forres­ter. Bizz­de­sign supports the worl­d’s leading public and private orga­niza­ti­ons to ensure successful prio­ri­tiza­tion of invest­ments, trans­for­ma­tion initia­ti­ves and risk manage­ment. Bizz­de­sign helps archi­tects and execu­ti­ves to fully under­stand multi­di­men­sio­nal archi­tec­tu­ral struc­tures, design and plan both exis­ting and future archi­tec­ture. Horiz­zon provi­des a common language for busi­ness and IT stake­hol­ders with mode­ling, visua­liza­tion and analy­sis tools. Bizz­de­sign is listed in Gart­ner’s “Magic Quadrant for EA Tools for Comple­ten­ess of Vision”. About MEGA International

MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal is a global SaaS company provi­ding enter­prise archi­tec­ture, busi­ness process analy­tics, gover­nance, risk, compli­ance and data gover­nance solu­ti­ons, opera­ting in 52 count­ries. The company’s HOPEX plat­form provi­des a colla­bo­ra­tive repo­si­tory for coll­ec­ting, visua­li­zing and analy­zing infor­ma­tion to improve plan­ning and adap­ta­bi­lity. About Alfa­bet

Alfa­bet is a market-leading enter­prise trans­for­ma­tion plat­form posi­tio­ned at the inter­sec­tion of enter­prise archi­tec­ture manage­ment (EAM) and stra­te­gic port­fo­lio manage­ment (SPM), reco­gni­zed by Gart­ner and Forres­ter as a leader in both the EA and SPM market segments (Gart­ner in EAM for 17 conse­cu­tive years). Alfa­be­t’s products are used by more than 350 custo­mers in over 40 count­ries to plan and manage busi­ness and IT change. About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor mana­ging private equity funds active in the Bene­lux, DACH, Nordics and the United States with appro­xi­m­ately €6 billion in assets under manage­ment. Main has over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams of its port­fo­lio as a stra­te­gic part­ner to create profi­ta­ble growth and larger, outstan­ding soft­ware groups. Main employs 85 people in its offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp and a branch office in Boston. Main main­ta­ins an active port­fo­lio of over 50 soft­ware compa­nies. The under­ly­ing port­fo­lio employs more than 15,000 people. 

Through the Main Social Insti­tute, Main supports students with grants and scho­lar­ships to study IT and compu­ter science at tech­ni­cal univer­si­ties and univer­si­ties of applied sciences.

www.mainsoftware.de

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