Author: Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt am Main/Vienna (Ös) — Frank­furt-based private equity firm VR Equi­typ­art­ner (“VREP”) has sold its majo­rity stake in Evolit Consul­ting GmbH (“Evolit”), a Vienna-based IT service provi­der specia­li­zing in mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­ta­liza­tion. The buyer is Berlin-based FLEX Capi­tal, a private equity inves­tor specia­li­zing in medium-sized soft­ware compa­nies in the DACH region. 

Evolit Consul­ting GmbH, foun­ded in Vienna in 2011, is an IT service provi­der with a focus on mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­ta­liza­tion. The company offers custo­mi­zed soft­ware solu­ti­ons in areas such as ticke­ting, asset manage­ment, fleet manage­ment and logi­stics control. Evolit covers the entire IT life­cy­cle, from consul­ting and deve­lo­p­ment to opera­ti­ons manage­ment and main­ten­ance. In recent years, the company has estab­lished itself as a specia­li­zed provi­der of complex soft­ware solu­ti­ons and works with a wide range of soft­ware tools, programming languages and systems. 

VREP became the majo­rity share­hol­der of Evolit, which now has more than 100 employees, in 2019 and supported the manage­ment in streng­thening its market posi­tion and tapping into addi­tio­nal growth poten­tial by expan­ding its service port­fo­lio. Over the past six years, new subsi­dia­ries have been successfully estab­lished in Slova­kia and Switz­er­land and the service port­fo­lio has been diver­si­fied with the foun­ding of Evol.X in the field of CRM imple­men­ta­tion and Evo.People for the place­ment of highly specia­li­zed IT free­lan­cers. At the same time, smart­TOS was deve­lo­ped in-house as stan­dard soft­ware for the logi­stics sector. The targe­ted promo­tion of syner­gies between the subsi­dia­ries provi­ded further important impe­tus for growth. 

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor at VR Equi­typ­art­ner: “When we joined Evolit, our aim was to work with the manage­ment to increase value crea­tion and expand the range of services for custo­mers. Today, we can proudly say that Evolit has achie­ved an excel­lent market posi­tion by focu­sing on growth segments such as mobi­lity and infra­struc­ture and successfully tapping into chal­len­ging future topics. We would like to thank the entire team for their strong perfor­mance and the time spent toge­ther and wish them every success and all the best for the future.”

Paul Klein­rath, foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of Evolit, adds: “With VREP as an ideal part­ner, which has both strong roots in the SME sector and exten­sive know­ledge of the IT sector, we were able to successfully imple­ment our growth stra­tegy and drive forward important topics. Right from the start, the VREP team impres­sed us with its broad expe­ri­ence in the further deve­lo­p­ment of growth-orien­ted compa­nies and its profound indus­try exper­tise. The colla­bo­ra­tion has always been trus­ting and profes­sio­nal, and we are deligh­ted with the succes­ses we have achie­ved together.”

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

The VR Equi­typ­art­ner tran­sac­tion team:
Michael Vogt, Alex­an­der Bernin­ger, Luis Sche­rer, Jens Schöf­fel and Patrick Heinze

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:

M&A: Drake Star Part­ners (Ralf Phil­ipp Hofmann, Julian Wolf, Maxi­mi­lian von Bodman)
Legal: Grama Schwaig­ho­fer Vond­rak Rechts­an­wälte (Dr. Bernd Grama, Daniel Mathe, Julia Strimit­zer) and HEUKING (Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, Bene­dikt Raisch)
Commer­cial: Singu­lar Group (Dennis Jung, Henri­ette Jemeljanow)
Finan­cial: Grant Thorn­ton (Klaus Schaldt, Marius Fett)

About FLEX Capital

FLEX Capi­tal is a private equity firm specia­li­zing in boot­strap­ped inter­net and soft­ware compa­nies in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. It provi­des part­ner­ship, entre­pre­neu­rial and opera­tio­nal support for the typi­cal German Mittel­stand. — www.flex.capital

Ludwigs­ha­fen — Bäcker Görtz GmbH (“Bäcker Görtz”), a port­fo­lio company of the private equity fund FSN Capi­tal VI advi­sed by FSN Capi­tal, has acqui­red a stake in the long-estab­lished bakery company papperts GmbH (“papperts”). The merger of Bäcker Görtz and papperts will create one of the leading bakery groups in Germany. 

At the same time, this lays the foun­da­tion for a value crea­tion stra­tegy geared towards inor­ga­nic growth in the German bakery sector — with the aim of streng­thening estab­lished bakery compa­nies through colla­bo­ra­tion and ensu­ring their long-term deve­lo­p­ment. The foun­ders and previous owners of papperts will remain part of the newly formed group. POELLATH advi­sed Bäcker Görtz on the tax aspects of the acquisition. 

Based in Eichen­zell (near Fulda), papperts GmbH is one of the leading bakery compa­nies in Germany with over 160 specia­list stores in Hesse, Bava­ria and Thurin­gia. Papperts stands for genuine craft­sman­ship, high-quality baked goods made from regio­nal ingre­di­ents and a modern produc­tion infra­struc­ture. Around 1,900 employees provide fresh bread, rolls, pastries and savory snacks every day — always with the aim of ensu­ring quality and conti­nuity across generations. 

FSN Capi­tal was foun­ded in 1999 and is today one of the leading private equity firms in Nort­hern Europe. With assets under manage­ment of around EUR 4 billion, the private equity funds advi­sed by FSN Capi­tal invest prima­rily in medium-sized compa­nies in Nort­hern and Central Europe — parti­cu­larly in the DACH region and Scan­di­na­via. The invest­ment focus is on high-growth compa­nies in the busi­ness services, indus­try, IT & soft­ware and infra­struc­ture sectors. 

Consul­tant Bäcker Görtz GmbH: POELLATH 

Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax; photo © pplaw), Dr. Saskia Bardens (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax)

Ludgwigs­burg, Melle/Osnabrück (Germany), Bern (Switz­er­land) — bluu unit GmbH, a Triton Mittel­stands­fonds II company and rapidly growing alli­ance of regio­nally strong compa­nies in the field of sustainable refri­ge­ra­tion, air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion tech­no­logy as well as data center solu­ti­ons, is streng­thening its Germany-wide network by acqui­ring the isomix Group, a specia­list and full-service provi­der in the fields of venti­la­tion tech­no­logy and inno­va­tive room air puri­fi­ca­tion systems. In addi­tion, the Swiss company IPS Gebäu­de­tech­nik beco­mes a member of the bluu unit alliance. 

This acqui­si­tion marks the first step towards inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. isomix Group, based in Melle near Osna­brück, has been a relia­ble part­ner for modern venti­la­tion and indoor air puri­fi­ca­tion systems for more than 25 years. A team of over 20 employees offers custo­mers from the health­care, logi­stics and indus­trial sectors the entire value chain, from specia­list plan­ning, project plan­ning and instal­la­tion to service and main­ten­ance. Special atten­tion is paid to opti­mi­zed, effi­ci­ent solu­ti­ons that are tech­ni­cally convin­cing and econo­mic­ally sustainable. 

With this acqui­si­tion, bluu unit is streng­thening its nati­on­wide network of now over 20 members with addi­tio­nal capa­ci­ties and exper­tise in the field of venti­la­tion tech­no­logy. IPS Gebäu­de­tech­nik AG was foun­ded in 2012 and has deve­lo­ped into a leading specia­list for venti­la­tion tech­no­logy in the canton of Bern within a decade. Berger Klima Biel AG in Biel has been part of IPS since 2022, streng­thening its exper­tise in refri­ge­ra­tion, air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion tech­no­logy. With the acqui­si­tion of IPS Gebäu­de­tech­nik AG, which is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the end of Octo­ber 2025, the bluu unit alli­ance is ente­ring the Swiss market and taking a signi­fi­cant, stra­te­gic step towards inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. The bluu unit sees enorm­ous growth poten­tial across Europe due to simi­lar condi­ti­ons in the various markets, inclu­ding stric­ter PFAS regu­la­tion, rising tempe­ra­tures in urban areas and the incre­asing expan­sion of data centers. 

About Bluu Toge­ther, the bluu unit deve­lops sustainable, future-proof solu­ti­ons that are both econo­mic­ally and ecolo­gi­cally convin­cing. In 2025 alone, five groups consis­ting of ten inde­pen­dent specia­list compa­nies with over 200 employees have alre­ady joined the alli­ance — a strong sign of its attractiveness. 

The aim of bluu unit is to offer high-quality and future-proof solu­ti­ons for refri­ge­ra­tion, air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion tech­no­logy as well as data center solu­ti­ons that are better. Better for people and the envi­ron­ment. The range of services with a focus on inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies and natu­ral refri­ger­ants extends from consul­ting, project plan­ning and design through to instal­la­tion and main­ten­ance. — www.bluu-unit.de

About Triton

Triton is a leading Euro­pean private equity firm foun­ded in 1997 and owned by its part­ners. Triton specia­li­zes in the mid-market and invests in compa­nies that provide busi­ness-criti­cal goods and services in three core sectors: indus­try, busi­ness services and healthcare. 

Triton employs more than 150 invest­ment profes­sio­nals and experts in various areas of exper­tise, in three coor­di­na­ted stra­te­gies: Mid-Market Private Equity, Smal­ler-Mid-Cap Private Equity and Oppor­tu­ni­stic Credit. — www.triton-partners.de

The big surprise: Elec­tro­nic Arts (EA), one of the largest publishers in the video games indus­try, is taken over by a consor­tium of inves­tors in a 55 billion dollar deal (not yet confirmed) and delis­ted from the stock exchange.

The lever­a­ged buyout is the second-largest gaming deal in history to date. It is only surpas­sed by Micro­sof­t’s Acti­vi­sion-Bliz­zard take­over. EA is being acqui­red by the Saudi Arabian sove­reign wealth fund Public Invest­ment Fund (PIF, 9.9 percent), the US capi­tal company Silver Lake (Cali­for­nia) and the invest­ment firm Affi­nity Part­ners (the invest­ment firm of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner). 

All exis­ting share­hol­ders will receive 210 US dollars per share, after which EA will be delis­ted and taken private.

Due to the nature of the take­over (a so-called “lever­a­ged buyout”), EA is ther­e­fore ente­ring into the new owner­ship struc­ture with new debt of around 20 billion dollars.

The tran­sac­tion is the largest all-cash private equity invest­ment in history. The consor­tium is working closely with EA to enable the company to move faster and deve­lop new oppor­tu­ni­ties on a global scale. Accor­ding to indus­try experts, this means layoffs, more intru­sive mone­tiza­tion and massive savings, which will proba­bly also be felt by users. 

What does the mega-deal mean for the gaming world?

EA was foun­ded in 1982 and has estab­lished itself as one of the key play­ers in the gaming sector with titles such as the life simu­la­tion “The Sims”, “EA Sports FC” (form­erly “FIFA”) and the mili­tary simu­la­tion “Batt­le­field”. The company has a broad port­fo­lio, strong brands and seve­ral leading deve­lo­per studios such as DICE and Respawn. 

Howe­ver, EA has recently come under pres­sure: rising deve­lo­p­ment costs, growing marke­ting expen­dit­ure and ever-incre­asing expec­ta­ti­ons of tech­ni­cal inno­va­tions such as arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence have made it diffi­cult to remain profi­ta­ble. At the same time, free-to-play games and large plat­form opera­tors such as Sony and Micro­soft are pushing into the market. 

The figu­res also shrank after the coro­na­vi­rus boom: In the first quar­ter of 2025, reve­nue slum­ped by 13.7%, net profit by as much as 30% and the important net bookings recently fell by 6%.

Luxem­bourg — The Global Resi­li­ence Inno­va­tion Fund (GRIF) has been offi­ci­ally laun­ched in Luxem­bourg and is plea­sed to announce that it is now offi­ci­ally opera­tio­nal. Sabine Hampel (most recently withEB-SIM and former company opera­ti­ons offi­cer in the German Armed Forces), Priscilla Schelp (foun­der of networkx) and Faik Yargucu (ACATIS) are laun­ching Global Resi­li­ence Inno­va­tion Fund (GRIF), an inves­tor in defense tech, secu­rity and disas­ter manage­ment. The target volume of the new fund is 200 to 250 million euros. 

The regio­nal focus is on “NATO count­ries and allies.

“We invest in mission-criti­cal tech­no­lo­gies that protect lives, stabi­lize demo­cra­cies and secure global infra­struc­ture — from AI-powered wild­fire detec­tion and anti-drone systems to resi­li­ent supply chains and next-gene­ra­tion cyber­se­cu­rity. We focus on defense, dual-use and civi­lian tech­no­lo­gies and support pre-seed to Series A stage start­ups at the inter­sec­tion of sove­reig­nty, resi­li­ence and inno­va­tion,” the foun­ders said. 

GRIF aims to support breakth­rough inno­va­tions in the field of resi­li­ence, with a focus on: Defense, Aero­space, Criti­cal Infra­struc­ture, (Cyber) Secu­rity and Disas­ter Manage­ment. With a struc­ture focu­sed on resi­li­ence and secu­rity, we have carefully assem­bled a world-class team of part­ners. — https://grif.vc/

Consul­tant GRIF: 

- ONE Fund Manage­ment S.A.
- Hauck Aufhäu­ser Lampe Privat­bank AG
- Fidu­cen­ter S.A.
- KLEYR_GRASS
- PwC

Munich — The share­hol­ders of synvert Holding GmbH (“synvert”), inclu­ding Maxburg Betei­li­gun­gen III GmbH & Co KG (“Maxburg”), advi­sed by Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH, have sold their shares in synvert to Hita­chi, Ltd (“Hita­chi”). Synvert will become part of Global­Lo­gic Inc, the US subsi­diary of Hita­chi and a global leader in digi­tal engi­nee­ring. Will­kie acted as legal coun­sel to the share­hol­ders of synvert.

Head­quar­te­red in Müns­ter, synvert has offices in Munich, Hamburg, Croa­tia, Spain, Portu­gal and Abu Dhabi. The company offers a compre­hen­sive range of cloud, data and AI consul­ting services. Foun­ded in 1991, the company employs around 550 experts. Synvert is a market leader that is widely reco­gni­zed and appre­cia­ted for its excel­lent tech­ni­cal exper­tise, exten­sive indus­try know­ledge and unique ability to make complex data struc­tures under­stan­da­ble and analyzable. 

The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted in the finan­cial year ending March 31, 2026, subject to the usual regu­la­tory approvals.

Advi­sor to the synvert share­hol­ders: Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP

The Will­kie team was led by part­ner Dr. Axel Wahl (photo, Corporate/M&A, Munich) and compri­sed part­ner Dr. Bettina Bokeloh (Tax, Frank­furt), coun­sel Sebas­tian Bren­ner (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) and Aurel Hille (Anti­trust, Washing­ton) and asso­cia­tes Nils Bock (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Nils Hörnig and Fabiola C. Haas (both Corporate/M&A, Munich) and Dr. Laurin Havlik (Anti­trust, Munich)

Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP provi­des leading legal solu­ti­ons to complex, busi­ness-criti­cal issues affec­ting diverse markets and indus­tries. Our appro­xi­m­ately 1,300 lawy­ers in 16 offices world­wide provide inno­va­tive, prag­ma­tic and sophisti­ca­ted legal services in more than 45 prac­tice areas. — www.willkie.com

Advi­sor to Global­Lo­gic (on the acqui­si­tion of synvert), a US subsi­diary of the Japa­nese Hita­chi Group: Gleiss Lutz 

The follo­wing Gleiss Lutz team led by Dr. Ralf
Mors­häu­ser and Dr. Rainer Loges (both part­ners, M&A, Munich) advised
Hita­chi Group and GlobalLogic:

Franz-Ferdi­nand Guggen­mos, Ansgar Johan­nes Grosch (both Munich), Dr. Phil­ipp Pord­zik (Frank­furt, all M&A), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (Part­ner), Aylin Hoffs (Coun­sel, both Public Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Matthias Werner (Part­ner), Dr. Jose­fine Börner, Magda­lena Rauch (all IP/Tech, Munich), Dr. Moritz Holm-Hadulla (Part­ner), Dr. Iris Bene­dikt-Bucken­leib (Coun­sel), Dr. Anto­nia Hage­dorn, Dr. Matthias Reiner (all Anti­trust, Munich), Dr. Marcus Reischl (Part­ner), Tabea Leidin­ger (both Compli­ance & Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons, Frank­furt), Dr. Ocka Stumm (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Dr. Hendrik Marchal (Coun­sel, Hamburg), Julian Kette­mer (Frank­furt, all Tax Law), Dr. Johan­nes Niewerth (Part­ner, Hamburg/London), Lesley A. Milde (Hamburg, both Real Estate Law), Thomas Kulzer (Coun­sel), Dr. Jan-Alex­an­der Lange (Coun­sel), Dr. Niklas Kaiser (all Banking & Finance, Frank­furt), Dr. Tobias Johan­nes Abend (Coun­sel), Lea Kuhr (both Employ­ment Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Manuel Klar (Coun­sel, Data Protec­tion, Munich).

— www.gleisslutz.com

Gleiss Lutz has worked as lead coun­sel with the follo­wing law firms: 

Pérez-Llorca (Spain and Portu­gal), Walder Wyss (Switz­er­land), Hadef & Part­ners (UAE), Honig­man (USA), Brodies (UK) and Schoen­herr (Croa­tia).

London — Supplier takes over buyer! Equis­tone Part­ners Europe has sold GALA Group to its long-stan­ding supplier TREND GLASS SP.z o.o. (Trend Group). Funds mana­ged by CVI, a leading provi­der of private debt finan­cing in Central Europe, and the Polish Deve­lo­p­ment Fund (PFR) finan­ced the tran­sac­tion. Trend Group recei­ved legal and tax advice from a cross-loca­tion HEUKING team. 

The Trend Group is a Polish manu­fac­tu­rer of house­hold, deco­ra­tive and gastro­nomy glass­ware based in Radom. The company was foun­ded in 1989 and has grown from a family busi­ness to an inter­na­tio­nally active supplier with a high produc­tion capa­city. Trend Glass combi­nes tradi­tio­nal glass proces­sing with modern tech­no­logy and offers a wide range of products, inclu­ding vases, candle holders and custo­mi­zed glass projects. Its custo­mers include global retail­ers, inclu­ding IKEA. 

The GALA Group, head­quar­te­red in Ansbach, is one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of cand­les, home fragran­ces and home access­ories in Europe and employs around 4,000 people world­wide. The company was foun­ded in 1972 and has been majo­rity-owned by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe since 2016. GALA produ­ces at seve­ral inter­na­tio­nal loca­ti­ons and supplies retail­ers, drugs­to­res and online plat­forms with its own brands and bran­ded products. 

Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is a Euro­pean private equity firm head­quar­te­red in London with offices in Germany, France, the Nether­lands and Switz­er­land. The company was formed in 2011 through a manage­ment buy-out from Barclays Private Equity and prefers to invest in medium-sized compa­nies with an enter­prise value of between 50 and 500 million euros. Equis­tone focu­ses on majo­rity share­hol­dings in the context of owner­ship chan­ges and supports its port­fo­lio compa­nies in their growth and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment. Since 2002, over 10 billion euros have been inves­ted in more than 180 transactions. 

Consul­tant Trend Group: HEUKING
Dr. Hermann Ali Hinde­rer, LL.M. (Univer­sity of San Diego; photo © Heuking),
Bene­dikt Raisch (both lead, both corpo­rate law / M&A),
Dr. Frank Baßler (real estate & cons­truc­tion), all Stuttgart,
Fabian G. Gaffron (tax law), Hamburg,
Dr. Stefan Jöster, LL.M. (Insu­rance Law / Reinsu­rance Law), Colo­gne,David Loszyn­ski, (Restruc­tu­ring & Insol­vency Law),Sandra Pfis­ter, LL.M. (Univer­sity of Sydney), (Banking & Finance), both Hamburg,Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Employ­ment Law), Colo­gne,Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (Anti­trust Law),Simon Pommer, LL.M. (Tax Law), both Hamburg,Char­lotte Schmitt, LL.M. (Corpo­rate Law/M&A),Ramona Bauer-Schöll­kopf, LL.M. (Queen Mary Univer­sity of London), (Corpo­rate Law/M&A), both Stuttgart,
Beli­ar­dis Ehlert-Gasde (Banking & Finance),
Oliver Kamme­rer (Tax Law), both Hamburg,
Dr. Ramona Segler, LL.M. (Labor Law), Cologne

Polish consul­tants Trend Group

(lead) Wolf Theiss, Bartosz Kuras, Domi­nika Getka

London (UK) — Hamil­ton Lane laun­ches global ever­green fund for venture capi­tal and growth. The fund provi­des access to inno­va­tive private venture and growth invest­ments. Private markets invest­ment mana­ger Hamil­ton Lane (Nasdaq: HLNE) has laun­ched the Hamil­ton Lane Global Venture Capi­tal and Growth Fund (“HLGVG” or “the Fund”) — an ever­green invest­ment vehicle focu­sed on growth and venture oppor­tu­ni­ties in private markets. 

The Fund is open to certain retail inves­tors and their advi­sers and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in parts of Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East as well as Austra­lia, New Zealand and Canada that are not available in public markets.

HLGVG provi­des inves­tors with access to Hamil­ton Lane’s global venture capi­tal invest­ment plat­form, which aims to deli­ver strong perfor­mance by inves­t­ing in disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies and inno­va­tive compa­nies. The fund lever­a­ges Hamil­ton Lane’s exten­sive exper­tise in private markets co-invest­ments and secon­dary market tran­sac­tions to unlock attrac­tive deal flows. As an ever­green vehicle, the port­fo­lio is diver­si­fied across vinta­ges, tran­sac­tion types, mana­gers, stra­te­gies and geographies. 

With a focus on inno­va­tion, diver­si­fi­ca­tion and assets other­wise only available to insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, the fund aims to over­come common barriers to entry in this dyna­mic segment. It follows the launch of the Hamil­ton Lane Venture-Ever­green fund in the US earlier this year. The fund lever­a­ges Hamil­ton Lane’s proprie­tary data, tech­no­logy and AI to support decis­ion-making and opera­tio­nal excel­lence. Hamil­ton Lane’s track record in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of the indus­try — now bund­led into the HL Inno­va­tions initia­tive — includes stra­te­gic capi­tal invest­ments in trans­for­ma­tive invest­ment tech­no­lo­gies and the deve­lo­p­ment of the proprie­tary Cobalt platform. 

Matthew Pellini, Co-Head of Venture Capi­tal and Growth Equity at Hamil­ton Lane, comm­ents: “As compa­nies are incre­asingly stay­ing in private hands for longer, many of the most attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties today are found exclu­si­vely in the private markets — a signi­fi­cant part of which is the venture and growth sector. HLGV­G’s port­fo­lio lever­a­ges disrup­tive inno­va­tion in estab­lished and emer­ging market segments to better posi­tion and respond more quickly to new tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ments, such as Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence, which is curr­ently driving a wave of growth in tech­no­logy companies.”

Ralph Aerni, Member of the Manage­ment Board of Hamil­ton Lane Germany and Head of Client Solu­ti­ons EMEA, adds: “Since the launch of our first ever­green fund in 2019, we have conti­nuously expan­ded the global invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for our inves­tors. We are convin­ced that these struc­tures play an incre­asingly important role in the port­fo­lios of many discer­ning inves­tors. With the launch of HLGVG, one of the few venture-orien­ted ever­green products world­wide, we are enab­ling our clients to parti­ci­pate in the most diffi­cult-to-access part of the private markets.”

Hamil­ton Lane has been active in venture capi­tal and growth equity for almost three deca­des. In this segment, the firm has $117.8 billion in assets under manage­ment and super­vi­si­on², has 260 estab­lished part­ner­ships and has made more than 370 invest­ments. HLGVG lever­a­ges Hamil­ton Lane’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence to provide access to attrac­tive venture capi­tal and growth equity market opportunities. 

HLGVG is the latest addi­tion to Hamil­ton Lane’s USD 13 billion-plus Ever­green Plat­form (as of 31.07.2025)

About Hamil­ton Lane

Hamil­ton Lane (NASDAQ: HLNE) is one of the worl­d’s largest private markets invest­ment mana­gers, provi­ding inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons to insti­tu­tio­nal and private wealth inves­tors around the world. The firm, which has specia­li­zed exclu­si­vely in private market invest­ments for more than 30 years, curr­ently employs appro­xi­m­ately 750 profes­sio­nals in offices across North America, Europe, Asia Paci­fic and the Middle East. Hamil­ton Lane has $986 billion in assets under manage­ment and super­vi­sion, compri­sed of nearly $141 billion in discre­tio­nary assets and more than $845 billion in non-discre­tio­nary assets as of June 30, 2025. Hamil­ton Lane specia­li­zes in deve­lo­ping flexi­ble and custo­mi­zed invest­ment programs that offer profes­sio­nal clients around the world diffe­ren­tia­ted access to the full spec­trum of private market stra­te­gies, sectors and geographies.

Oppen­hoff advi­sed VHV Holding SE on the sale of its majo­rity stake in the Eucon Group to Info­pro Digi­tal Holding GmbH, in parti­cu­lar on the upstream carve-out of the insu­rance-rela­ted digi­tal service provi­der Eucon Digi­tal GmbH. The carve-out served to prepare the sale of the Eucon Group’s auto­mo­tive busi­ness as part of an inter­na­tio­nal bidding process. 

As part of the sales process, Oppen­hoff also advi­sed VHV on the conclu­sion of various contracts between the insu­rance and real estate divi­sion remai­ning in the VHV Group and the sold auto­mo­tive divi­sion of the Eucon Group.

Advi­sor VHV Holding SE: Oppenhoff

The Oppen­hoff team led by Anna von Girse­wald (photo: Oppen­hoff) compri­sed Thomas Wismann (both M&A/corporate and insu­rance super­vi­sory law), Dr. Maike Mestmä­cker, Dr. Matthias Klefisch and Jan Kamin­ski (all M&A/corporate), Marc Krischer and Martin Bran­den­bur­ger-Nonnast (both tax), Dr. Marc Hilber, Marco Deggin­ger, Chris­tian Saßen­bach and Valen­tino Halim (all IT/Commercial), Anja Dombrow­sky and Lisa Strieg­ler (both Employ­ment), Dr. Fee Mäder (IP), Marvin Roch­ner and Julia Höyng (both Real Estate).

Other parties invol­ved were:
— VHV’s legal depart­ment (in-house) — Dr. Siddha­rta Schwen­zer (Head of Group Law and Compli­ance), and Jessica Posenauer
— Latham Watkins — advi­sor to VHV on the sale process

About Oppen­hoff
The full-service law firm Oppen­hoff finds indus­try-speci­fic solu­ti­ons for corpo­rate groups, large owner-mana­ged compa­nies and finan­cial inves­tors. More than 100 attor­neys advise on all major areas of busi­ness and tax law.

Berlin — paxi­pal raises USD 6.7 million in Series A funding. HV Capi­tal, Nebu­lar, Anam­cara, HPI Ventures and Angel Invest parti­ci­pa­ted in the finan­cing round. praxi­pal deve­lops Luna, an AI-supported recep­tio­nist that revo­lu­tio­ni­zes the way medi­cal prac­ti­ces work. 

By taking over pati­ent commu­ni­ca­tion by phone, SMS, Whats­App and email, Luna reli­e­ves the burden on staff and signi­fi­cantly impro­ves the pati­ent expe­ri­ence in an area that urgen­tly needs solutions.

The fresh capi­tal will be used for the further deve­lo­p­ment of AI as well as for the expan­sion of the team and the expan­sion in Germany and Austria.

Advi­sor paxi­pal: Law firm V14

Samuel Aebi, Part­ner at V14
Sinje Clausen

The law firm:

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

Frank­furt a. M. — The Stutt­gart-based invest­ment company Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG) has sold its shares in KKL Holding GmbH (KKL), Düssel­dorf, to bluu unit GmbH, a port­fo­lio company of Triton Part­ners. The tran­sac­tion also includes the shares of the foun­der Andreas Kohmann and the manage­ment invol­ved. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to anti­trust appr­oval. McDer­mott Will & Schulte advi­sed SüdBG on this transaction. 

Foun­ded in 1987, KKL is conside­red one of the most promi­nent specia­lists in the field of refri­ge­ra­tion, air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion tech­no­logy and data center solu­ti­ons in Germany. SüdBG inves­ted in the company in 2018 as part of a manage­ment buy-out and has since supported the manage­ment in imple­men­ting the growth stra­tegy toge­ther with the foun­der and advi­sory board. KKL curr­ently employs around 300 people and gene­ra­tes sales of over 80 million euros. 

bluu unit, head­quar­te­red in Ludwigs­burg, is an alli­ance of regio­nally strong, inde­pen­dent compa­nies with a focus on sustainable refri­ge­ra­tion and air condi­tio­ning technology.

SüdBG, a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Baden-Würt­tem­berg (LBBW), is one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region and a long-term inves­tor. Over the past ten years, SüdBG has supported the sustainable deve­lo­p­ment of more than 70 compa­nies with around EUR 600 million and a broad network. 

McDer­mott advi­sed SüdBG under the lead manage­ment of part­ners Dr. Chris­tian Marz­lin and Dr. Bene­dikt von Schor­le­mer. The team included part­ners Rolf Hüner­mann and Dr. Heiko Kermer, coun­sel Holger Mlynek, Dr. Simon Grone­berg, Marcus Fischer and Dr. Laura Stamm­witz as well as asso­cia­tes Jenni­fer Rogal­ski, Jan Ischreyt, Constanze Götz, Carina Schüt­ze­berg and Sönke Wassermann.

Lausanne / London (IT BOLTWISE) — Swiss AI startup Giotto.ai is plan­ning a signi­fi­cant funding round to advance its rese­arch in the field of Arti­fi­cial Gene­ral Intel­li­gence (AGI). With a target valua­tion of over USD 1 billion and a plan­ned invest­ment of more than USD 200 million, the company is posi­tio­ning itself as a serious player in the Euro­pean AI landscape. 

Invest­ment bank Lazard has been appoin­ted to lead the capi­tal raise to acce­le­rate Giot­to’s AI rese­arch, deve­lop commer­cial proto­ty­pes for corpo­rate and govern­ment clients and contri­bute to the AI commu­nity through open source releases.

Giotto.ai was foun­ded in 2017 by CEO Aldo Podesta, who previously worked in sales stra­tegy at Philip Morris. The company has raised around 19 million US dollars to date. Giotto origi­nally deve­lo­ped a compli­ance tool for medi­cal devices, which was sold to the medi­cal tech­no­logy company RQM+ in 2022, before focu­sing enti­rely on basic rese­arch in reaso­ning models. 

The company stands out with measura­ble progress on AI reaso­ning model chal­lenges and curr­ently leads the Kaggle ARC-AGI‑2 cons­trai­ned ranking with a score of 25%. This bench­mark tests a model’s ability to infer rules from limi­ted examp­les and shows early signs of gene­ral reaso­ning capa­bi­li­ties. Giot­to’s approach empha­si­zes effi­ci­ency and intel­li­gent resource allo­ca­tion and performs well under strict compu­ta­tio­nal cons­traints such as no inter­net access, limi­ted runtime and a fixed hard­ware budget. 

In contrast to large US AI labs such as OpenAI and xAI, which are known for trai­ning massive models on vast compu­ta­tio­nal resour­ces, Giotto focu­ses on deve­lo­ping AI systems that operate under fixed resource cons­traints, with the goal of cost-effec­tive and gene­ra­lizable AI research.

The upco­ming funding is inten­ded to acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment of Giot­to’s commer­cial appli­ca­ti­ons while support­ing the company’s contri­bu­ti­ons to the broa­der AI rese­arch commu­nity through open source publi­ca­ti­ons. By combi­ning deep rese­arch exper­tise, effi­ci­ent tech­no­logy and stra­te­gic commer­cia­liza­tion plans, Giotto.ai is posi­tio­ning itself as a serious conten­der in the ambi­tious Euro­pean AI landscape. 

—https://www.giotto.ai/

In a market where the intro­duc­tion of AI is progres­sing rapidly, the Israeli startup Irre­gu­lar has now closed a finan­cing round of 80 million US dollars. The inves­tors include Sequoia Capi­tal, Redpoint Ventures, Swish Ventures, Assaf Rappa­port and Ofir Ehrlich. The company, foun­ded by Dan Lahav and Omer Nevo, specia­li­zes in stress test­ing advan­ced AI models under real-world condi­ti­ons, working with leading AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic. 

Irre­gu­lar was foun­ded in 2023 by Dan Lahav and Omer Nevo. Lahav, who previously worked at LabPi­xies, a startup acqui­red by Google, and later worked as an AI rese­ar­cher at IBM, brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in AI rese­arch. Nevo is a serial entre­pre­neur with a back­ground in cyber­se­cu­rity. Toge­ther, they have built a company that focu­ses on evalua­ting and secu­ring advan­ced AI models. The new funding will be used to expand rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment, expand the team, inten­sify colla­bo­ra­tion with leading AI labs 

Busi­ness model

Irre­gu­lar’s busi­ness model is based on conduc­ting stress tests for AI systems under real threat scena­rios. This includes tests that focus on how AI models react to attempts to circum­vent anti­vi­rus soft­ware or carry out auto­no­mous offen­sive operations. 

The aim is to iden­tify poten­tial vulnerabi­li­ties and deve­lop solu­ti­ons to ensure the secure imple­men­ta­tion of these systems on a large scale.

The foun­ders explain: “It’s about prac­ti­cal tools that stop thre­ats where­ver AI is deve­lo­ped or used.”

The start-up’s tech­no­logy has alre­ady attrac­ted the atten­tion of leading AI labs: OpenAI uses Irre­gu­lar’s ratings in system maps for GPT‑3, GPT‑4 mini and GPT‑5. Irre­gu­lar has also co-autho­red a white paper with Anthro­pic on confi­den­tial infe­rence systems, while rese­ar­chers at Google Deep­Mind have cited the company’s plat­form in studies on AI cyber­at­tack capabilities.

The funding reflects a broa­der realiza­tion across the tech­no­logy land­scape that the success of AI depends not only on buil­ding ever more powerful models, but also on protec­ting them from misuse, acci­dents and new threat vectors. As compa­nies and govern­ments acce­le­rate adop­tion, the demand for proac­tive AI secu­rity has increased. With its strong inves­tor support and early trac­tion, Irre­gu­lar is posi­tio­ning itself as a funda­men­tal player in this emer­ging layer of AI infrastructure. 

Aachen/Dormagen — The battery recy­cling company cylib has secu­red 26.1 million euros in funding from the Euro­pean Union’s ERDF/JTF NRW program to build one of the largest lithium-ion battery recy­cling plants in Europe at CHEMPARK Dormagen.

“We are deeply grateful to the state of North Rhine-West­pha­lia and the Euro­pean Union for funding this project and support­ing our mission to produce high-quality mate­ri­als for sustainable batte­ries and resi­li­ent Euro­pean value chains,” says Dr. Lilian Schwich, co-foun­der and co-CEO. “This under­lines both our tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise and the successful work of our team.”

The funding, which is part of the “Produktives.NRW” program, follows an initial commit­ment in Novem­ber 2024 and will speci­fi­cally finance the first expan­sion stage of the indus­trial plant. The plant will process black mass (an inter­me­diate product from shred­ded battery mate­ri­als) to extract criti­cal raw mate­ri­als such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel and manganese from lithium-ion batte­ries, ther­eby streng­thening Euro­pe’s geopo­li­ti­cal inde­pen­dence in these stra­te­gic materials. 

Tech­no­logy deli­vers supe­rior recy­cling rates

The OLiC (Opti­mi­zed Lithium & Graphite Reco­very) process reco­vers more than 90 percent of criti­cal mate­ri­als from used batte­ries and produ­ces 80 percent less CO₂ emis­si­ons than primary raw mate­rial extra­c­tion. cylib is now setting up its water-based tech­no­logy, which has proven itself in pilot opera­tion, as an indus­trial plant. In the final expan­sion stage, the plant, which is sche­du­led to go into opera­tion in 2027, will process up to 140,000 elec­tric vehicle batte­ries per year (equi­va­lent to 60,000 tons of used batte­ries or 20,000 tons of black mass). 

With the rapid growth of e‑mobility — every fourth new vehicle sold world­wide is alre­ady elec­tric — Euro­pe’s demand for battery mate­ri­als is also growing rapidly. The plant shows how modern recy­cling tech­no­logy is making Europe inde­pen­dent of raw mate­rial imports and at the same time streng­thening secu­rity of supply. 

About cylib
cylib is a holi­stic and sustainable battery recy­cling scale-up foun­ded in Aachen in 2022 by Dr. Lilian Schwich, Paul Sabarny and Dr. Gideon Schwich. With over 120 employees, the company grew out of rese­arch at RWTH Aachen Univer­sity and produ­ces high-quality mate­ri­als for sustainable batte­ries and resi­li­ent Euro­pean value chains. 

The water-based OLiC process effi­ci­ently reco­vers raw mate­ri­als from battery modu­les, black mass or produc­tion scrap and achie­ves a recy­cling effi­ci­ency of more than 90 percent for lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and manganese with an 80 percent redu­ced carbon foot­print compared to primary raw mate­rial extra­c­tion — thus enab­ling a circu­lar economy. Backed by indus­try-rele­vant inves­tors such as Porsche Ventures and Bosch Ventures, cylib raised 55 million euros in its Series A round — the largest finan­cing round in Euro­pean battery recy­cling to date — and secu­red more than 27 million euros in addi­tio­nal funding. — https://www.cylib.de/

Munich — The energy supplier BKW AG (“BKW”) has acqui­red Südvolt GmbH (“Südvolt”), one of the last inde­pen­dent balan­cing energy service provi­ders in Germany. With this tran­sac­tion, BKW enters the German market for balan­cing energy and ancil­lary services and streng­thens its presence in one of the largest and most important flexi­bi­lity markets in Europe. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details. POELLATH advi­sed the sellers on the legal and tax aspects of the transaction.

Munich-based Südvolt GmbH opera­tes a certi­fied virtual power plant (VPP) and offers all three control energy products (FCR, aFRR, mFRR). As a flexi­bi­lity provi­der, it provi­des primary control energy as well as secon­dary and tertiary control power for all four German trans­mis­sion system opera­tors. The exis­ting custo­mer port­fo­lio of over 1 GW of capa­city includes major and indus­trial custo­mers from energy-inten­sive sectors as well as muni­ci­pal utili­ties. Südvolt has 20 employees and serves over 70 custo­mers with more than 200 gene­ra­tion units. 

BKW, based in Berne, is an inter­na­tio­nal energy and infra­struc­ture company. BKW employs over 12,000 people and is active in ten countries. 

POELLATH advi­sed the sellers on the legal and tax aspects of the tran­sac­tion with the follo­wing team:

Dr. Sebas­tian Rosen­tritt, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Phil­ipp von Braun­schweig, LL.M. (Ford­ham) (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. Saskia Bardens (Asso­ciate, Tax, Munich)
Lukas Wörlein (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)

Wetzlar/Munich/Amsterdam — design­funk­tion, the specia­list for the plan­ning and realiza­tion of modern working envi­ron­ments, is ente­ring into a long-term stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with Royal Ahrend, the Euro­pean market leader for sustainable office furnis­hings. As part of the part­ner­ship, Ahrend will become a mino­rity share­hol­der in design­funk­tion. Syntra Corpo­rate Finance advi­sed design­funk­tion on the transaction. 

The part­ner­ship combi­nes design­funk­ti­on’s strengths in the design of modern living and working envi­ron­ments with Royal Ahren­d’s exper­tise in the deve­lo­p­ment of circu­lar products. The aim of the colla­bo­ra­tion is to create future-proof and inspi­ring working envi­ron­ments, to inte­grate sustaina­bi­lity more stron­gly into new office concepts and to actively shape the German market. In addi­tion to compa­nies, both compa­nies also offer their services to educa­tio­nal estab­lish­ments and public institutions. 

“With Ahrend, we have gained a part­ner who shares our values and supports us in consis­t­ently inte­gra­ting sustaina­bi­lity into the design of office and working envi­ron­ments,” explains Samir Ayoub, Mana­ging Part­ner of designfunktion.

“The colla­bo­ra­tion with design­funk­tion is an important step for us in reali­zing our vision of future-proof working envi­ron­ments in the German market,” adds Rolf Verspuij, CEO of Royal Ahrend.

“We are deligh­ted to have supported design­funk­tion in this important part­ner­ship. Ahren­d’s mino­rity stake in design­funk­tion under­lines the long-term and stra­te­gic nature of this coope­ra­tion,” says Patrick Seip (photo: Syntra), Mana­ging Part­ner at Syntra Corpo­rate Finance. The project team consis­ted of Patrick Seip (Mana­ging Part­ner) and Janick Wagner (Senior Associate). 

About Syntra Corpo­rate Finance

Syntra Corpo­rate Finance is one of the leading inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies for the mid-market. The focus is on support­ing complex succes­sion plan­ning as well as company acqui­si­ti­ons and sales in the (lower) mid-market sector, with volu­mes between 20 million and 150 million euros. Syntra also advi­ses medium-sized compa­nies on stra­te­gic capi­tal and finan­cing measu­res and has estab­lished itself as a relia­ble part­ner for private equity inves­tors and family offices in German-spea­king count­ries, inclu­ding the sale of share­hol­dings and the deve­lo­p­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of long-term acqui­si­tion strategies.
Syntra Corpo­rate Finance is part of the part­ner-mana­ged Syntra Group, which also includes the M&A boutique Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor, which specia­li­zes in succes­sion plan­ning for smal­ler, predo­mi­nantly owner-mana­ged compa­nies. — https://syntracf.com/

About design­funk­tion

design­funk­tion, head­quar­te­red in Munich, is a German leader in the plan­ning and realiza­tion of modern working envi­ron­ments. The company combi­nes exper­tise in inte­rior design with a clear focus on sustaina­bi­lity and inspi­ring concepts. With over 350 employees at more than 18 loca­ti­ons, design­funk­tion offers its clients compre­hen­sive consul­ting services for the furnis­hing and finan­cing of offices, home offices, apart­ments and public facilities. 

About Royal Ahrend

Foun­ded in Amster­dam in 1896, Royal Ahrend is an inter­na­tio­nal leader in the office furni­ture indus­try. The priva­tely owned company crea­tes vita­li­zing working envi­ron­ments and high-perfor­mance system furni­ture that is deli­vered directly to custo­mers worldwide. 

The company’s system furni­ture and room solu­ti­ons are desi­gned to opti­mize the working expe­ri­ence of employees — with a focus on promo­ting health, well-being and produc­ti­vity in the work­place. The products are reco­gni­zed world­wide for their outstan­ding sustaina­bi­lity and time­l­ess Dutch Design signa­ture. The company has sales offices in more than 19 count­ries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Colo­gne — GIATA, a port­fo­lio company of ODEWALD KMU, acqui­res the AI company Smart­seer GmbH. GIATA was advi­sed by HEUKING on this transaction. 

GIATA is a leading travel tech­no­logy company specia­li­zing in the manage­ment and distri­bu­tion of travel offers and hotel content. With a modu­larly desi­gned product range, GIATA offers custo­mi­zed complete solu­ti­ons that ensure the highest precis­ion in the allo­ca­tion of hotel infor­ma­tion. This is achie­ved through the use of state-of-the-art AI tech­no­lo­gies, digi­tal finger­prin­ting and careful manual post-proces­sing. Its custo­mers include almost all inter­na­tio­nally renow­ned online travel agen­cies, tour opera­tors, hotel chains and global search engi­nes from over 70 count­ries. With its inno­va­tive tech­no­logy and exten­sive exper­tise, GIATA makes a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to opti­mi­zing sales proces­ses in the travel industry. 

Smart­seer offers an AI-supported solu­tion for the auto­ma­ted crea­tion of booking offers speci­fi­cally for the travel indus­try. The inno­va­tive AI tool analy­ses user beha­viour, in parti­cu­lar click beha­viour, in real time and anony­mously, enab­ling the perso­na­li­zed gene­ra­tion of offers for bookers. SMART­SEER’s custo­mers include well-known provi­ders in the travel agency sector. 

Consul­tant GIATA: HEUKING

Dr. Pär Johans­son (lead, Corporate/M&A),
Dr. Verena Hoene, LL.M. (Univer­sity of Washing­ton), (IP, Media & Technology),
Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Employ­ment Law),
Svea Kunz (IP, Media & Technology),
Julien Krause,
Chiara Diek­mann (both Corporate/M&A),
Lena Kurth, LL.M. (Stel­len­bosch Univer­sity), (IP, Media & Tech­no­logy), all Cologne

Stuttgart/Düsseldorf — The Stutt­gart-based invest­ment company Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG) is selling its shares in KKL Holding GmbH, Düssel­dorf (KKL). The shares of foun­der Andreas Kohmann and the manage­ment invol­ved (Ingo Hoff­mann and Patrick Peters) are also chan­ging hands. bluu unit GmbH, based in Ludwigs­burg, will become the new owner of the well-posi­tio­ned KKL team. 

Foun­ded in 1987 by Andreas Kohmann, KKL is now one of the leading service provi­ders in the field of air condi­tio­ning and refri­ge­ra­tion tech­no­logy in Germany. SüdBG joined the company in 2018 as part of a manage­ment buy-out with the two mana­ging direc­tors Ingo Hoff­mann and Patrick Peters and, toge­ther with the foun­der and advi­sory board, supported the manage­ment in the deter­mi­ned imple­men­ta­tion of the growth stra­tegy. This included expan­ding the company’s excel­lent market posi­tion as a provi­der of sophisti­ca­ted air condi­tio­ning solu­ti­ons through
, FM Service as a specia­list in the cons­truc­tion and moder­niza­tion of data centers, the estab­lish­ment of XIUS Tech­no­lo­gie, which specia­li­zes in prefa­bri­ca­ted products in refri­ge­ra­tion and air condi­tio­ning tech­no­logy, the acqui­si­tion of Douba­ras Kälte-Klima-Tech­nik GmbH, a specia­list for ultra-low tempe­ra­ture appli­ca­ti­ons in the health­care sector, and the estab­lish­ment and deve­lo­p­ment of the Stutt­gart location. 

With over 60 trai­nees, KKL is one of the largest and best trai­ning compa­nies in refri­ge­ra­tion and air condi­tio­ning mecha­tro­nics in Germany. During the part­ner­ship with SüdBG, KKL has grown consider­a­bly, now employ­ing around 300 people and gene­ra­ting a turno­ver of over 80 million euros.

“We are deligh­ted that we have been able to expand KKL’s market posi­tion in close and trus­ting coope­ra­tion with the employees, manage­ment, foun­ding share­hol­der and advi­sory board. In addi­tion to streng­thening the orga­niza­tio­nal struc­ture, rapidly imple­men­ting digi­tal proces­ses and effi­ci­ent project control­ling, we have set the course for growth and demons­tra­ted our high level of system exper­tise in the plan­ning, instal­la­tion and servicing of sophisti­ca­ted air condi­tio­ning solu­ti­ons,” explain Gunter Max (Mana­ging Direc­tor) and Daniel Heinz­mann (Invest­ment Direc­tor) of SüdBG.

Andreas Kohmann, foun­ding part­ner and advi­sory board member, adds: “Brin­ging SüdBG on board at
in 2018 was the right move. Toge­ther, we have writ­ten an impres­sive growth story. We are now handing the company over to carefully selec­ted new hands and are convin­ced that KKL will conti­nue its extra­or­di­na­rily successful deve­lo­p­ment with bluu unit at its side.” 

Ingo Hoff­mann and Patrick Peters, the two mana­ging direc­tors of KKL, who will retain their roles, are opti­mi­stic about the future: “We are very proud of what we have achie­ved toge­ther and would like to thank the previous share­hol­ders for their successful and consis­t­ently coope­ra­tive part­ner­ship. We are now looking forward to the next deve­lo­p­ment steps with the support of our new inves­tor under the umbrella of bluu unit GmbH.”

Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG) is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Baden-Würt­tem­berg (LBBW) and has been support­ing medium-sized compa­nies for more than 50 years with custo­mi­zed equity and equity-rela­ted solu­ti­ons in the context of succes­sion plan­ning, growth finan­cing and share­hol­der changes.

As one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region and a long-term inves­tor, SüdBG has supported more than 70 compa­nies with around 600 million euros and a broad network in sustainable corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment over the past 10 years.
— www.suedbg.de.

The tran­sac­tion is still subject to anti­trust appr­ovals. The part­ners have agreed not to disc­lose any details. 

SüdBG deal team: Gunter Max, Daniel Heinz­mann, Bettina Schäfer
Advi­sors invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by SüdBG:

M&A: Lincoln Inter­na­tio­nal AG (Juan Carlos Montoya, Fabian Walisch, Daniel Lerch, Max von Ostrow­ski, Nicole Chubarov)

Legal: McDer­mott Will & Schulte (Dr. Chris­tian Marz­lin, Dr. Bene­dikt von Schor­le­mer, Jenni­fer Rogal­ski, Jan Ischreyt)

Commer­cial: Stra­te­gia Part­ners (Marco Mäder, Philip Geiser, André Mardi)

Finan­cial & Tax: 8P/BDO (Matthias Künzel, Patrick Bilstein, Gunnar Steffens)

Quakenbrück/ Frank­furt a. M. — Gowling WLG advi­ses Axeleo Capi­tal as lead inves­tor in the €16 million Series A finan­cing round for Bioweg. Bioweg is a German biotech based in Quaken­brück that deve­lops high-perfor­mance, biode­gra­da­ble ingre­di­ents to replace inten­tio­nally added acrylic poly­mer-based microplastics. 

The company has closed a €16 million Series A finan­cing round. The round was led by Axeleo Capi­tal Green (from its indus­try fund), toge­ther with EIC Fund, NBank Capi­tal, BonVen­ture and seed inves­tor Dr.-Ing.

The capi­tal will support the cons­truc­tion of Biowe­g’s first bacte­rial cellu­lose plant in Germany and acce­le­rate market entry across Europe. The latest funding round, which brings the total amount raised by the company to date to €32.5 million, will enable the move from pilot to indus­trial produc­tion, inclu­ding the cons­truc­tion of an indus­trial bacte­rial cellu­lose plant in Germany desi­gned to meet the growing demand from indus­trial custo­mers for sustainable, micro­pla­s­tic-free ingredients. 

Gowling WLG ‘s German corpo­rate and IP team advi­sed Axeleo Capi­tal on its invest­ment in Bioweg, a German biotech­no­logy company. The team was led by Dr. Michael Lamsa, Part­ner and Co-Head of M&A, Private Equity and Venture Capi­tal in Germany, and supported by Coun­sel Micha Gers­dorf and Asso­ciate Phil­ipp Esmek (both Corporate/M&A; Frank­furt) as well as Part­ner Miray Kavruk and Asso­ciate Ales­san­dra Birken­dorf (both IP/IT; Frankfurt). 

Axeleo Capi­tal is a multi-stra­tegy tech invest­ment manage­ment firm support­ing Euro­pe’s next leaders in digi­tal and green trans­for­ma­tion, provi­ding seed to Series B invest­ments combi­ned with stra­te­gic, hands-on support to bold backers in key industries.

Dr. Michael Lamsa said: “We are deligh­ted to have legally supported Axeleo Capi­tal as lead inves­tor in this land­mark finan­cing round for Bioweg. Bioweg exem­pli­fies the next gene­ra­tion of sustainable mate­rial inno­va­tion. The invest­ment under­lines not only the confi­dence in the foun­ding team, but also the strong inter­na­tio­nal inte­rest in scalable solu­ti­ons in the field of sustainable mate­ri­als. The market for real alter­na­ti­ves to micro­pla­s­tics is ready and the company is extre­mely well posi­tio­ned to make a real impact with its tech­no­logy, both econo­mic­ally and environmentally.”

Marc Lech­antre, Part­ner at Axeleo Capi­tal, commen­ted: “We are grateful for the strong support of Michael and the team at Gowling WLG, which was criti­cal to this transaction.”

Gowling WLG’s corpo­rate team provi­des excel­lent legal advice through a part­ner-led service of corpo­rate lawy­ers whose clients range from leading global finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons and listed compa­nies to private compa­nies and entre­pre­neurs. The 200-strong team has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in all areas of corpo­rate advice, inclu­ding AIM and main market equity capi­tal markets, invest­ment funds, private equity and public and private mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons. —https://gowlingwlg.com/

About Axeleo Capital 

Axeleo Capi­tal is a multi-stra­tegy tech­no­logy inves­tor back­ing Euro­pe’s next leaders in digi­tal and green trans­for­ma­tion. Alexeo provi­des seed to series B invest­ments combi­ned with stra­te­gic, hands-on support for foun­ders in key indus­tries. With €300 million in assets under manage­ment, 4 successful funds raised and 18 employees, we have made over 70 invest­ments across the EU in recent years and achie­ved 13 successful exits. 

About Gowling WLG

Gowling WLG is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,500 lawy­ers in 20 offices world­wide. We advise clients of all sizes in Germany and abroad across all sectors and prac­ti­ces. We see the world through our clients’ eyes.
Gowling WLG (UK) LLP is a member of Gowling WLG, an inter­na­tio­nal law firm consis­ting of inde­pen­dent and auto­no­mous enti­ties provi­ding services world­wide. — — www.gowlingwlg.com.

Munich — The Euro­pean Circu­lar Bioe­co­nomy Fund (ECBF) is leading the Series A finan­cing round of nine million euros for Vegdog. The ECBF is a private venture capi­tal fund dedi­ca­ted exclu­si­vely to the bioe­co­nomy and circu­lar economy. It invests in visio­nary Euro­pean entre­pre­neurs who are driving the tran­si­tion from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy. 

Vegdog was foun­ded in 2015 by Tessa Zaune-Figlar and Vale­rie Hens­sen and offers the first vegan, gluten-free and 100% complete dog food deve­lo­ped in colla­bo­ra­tion with specia­li­zed veterinarians.

The ECBF is inves­t­ing in Vegdog because of the company’s enorm­ous poten­tial to revo­lu­tio­nize the dog food market with sustainable and healthy solu­ti­ons. Vegdog is plan­ning growth rates of up to 80 percent in the coming years. The Vegdog team is set to double in size in 2025 in order to realize the plan­ned expan­sion into the entire DACH region as well as the Nether­lands and other Euro­pean count­ries in 2026. 

A signi­fi­cant part of the invest­ment comes from the ECBF toge­ther with the exis­ting inves­tor Green Gene­ra­tion Fund (GGF). Further capi­tal comes from the busi­ness angels Domi­ni­que Locher, Attollo S.A. and Andrea Sker­sies (The Nutri­ment Company, form­erly Zooplus). The invest­ment plat­form Select Alter­na­tive Invest­ments and the exis­ting share­hol­der SFO are also invol­ved in the finan­cing round. 

Mridul Pareek, Invest­ment Asso­ciate at ECBF, says: “Driven by an outstan­ding leader­ship team and a compel­ling mission, VEGDOG has quickly become a pioneer in plant-based dog food. We are exci­ted to support their Series A round and guide them on their jour­ney to create sustainable and posi­tive change in the indus­try. Bird & Bird was instru­men­tal in guiding us through the comple­xi­ties of this invest­ment and ensu­ring a smooth and successful closing for all parties involved.”

About ECBF

The Euro­pean Circu­lar Bioe­co­nomy Fund (ECBF) is the first venture capi­tal fund in Europe[1] dedi­ca­ted exclu­si­vely to the bioe­co­nomy and circu­lar economy. The ECBF was foun­ded in 2019 and focu­ses on Euro­pean and asso­cia­ted count­ries. Origi­nally plan­ned with a total volume of 250 million euros, the fund over­sub­scri­bed with a total volume of 300 million euros. As a later-stage inves­tor, the ECBF invests in growth compa­nies. As a rule, the ECBF invests between two million euros and 20 million euros in port­fo­lio compa­nies. — https://www.ecbf.vc

Advi­sor Euro­pean Circu­lar Bioe­co­nomy Fund: Bird & Bird
Coun­sel Andrea Schlote (Corpo­rate, Munich).

As a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm, Bird & Bird is the part­ner for ever­yone who wants to defend and streng­then their super­powers. Thanks to our orig­ins in IP law, we under­stand the core of every company, the requi­re­ments of the market and compe­ti­tion and how to achieve sustainable success. We call it sector focus. And with this DNA, we are now your law firm for all legal issues rela­ting to tech­no­logy, digi­ta­liza­tion and regu­la­tion. With over 1,600 lawy­ers in 33 offices in 23 count­ries, we are repre­sen­ted in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia-Paci­fic and Africa and main­tain close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 280 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich. — www.twobirds.com.

Berlin/ Munich, Septem­ber 15, 2025 — Tangany secu­res €10 million in Series A, grows to €3 billion in assets under cust­ody at >and shar­pens its regu­la­tory edge: BaFin-licen­sed, MiCA-ready and expan­ding with strong bank inves­tors. The round was led by Baader Bank, Eleva­tor Ventures and Heliad Crypto Part­ners, with further support from exis­ting inves­tors HTGF and Nauta Capi­tal. YPOG advi­sed Eleva­tor Ventures, the venture capi­tal arm of Raiff­ei­sen Bank Inter­na­tio­nal, on Tanga­ny’s Series A finan­cing round. 

Tangany will use the new funds to acce­le­rate its expan­sion in Europe under the MiCAR regu­la­tory frame­work and further deve­lop its insti­tu­tio­nal cust­ody infrastructure.

Tangany curr­ently has over EUR 3 billion worth of digi­tal assets under cust­ody and mana­ges more than 700,000 accounts for over 60 insti­tu­tio­nal clients, inclu­ding Flatex­DE­GIRO, eToro and Bitvavo. The white-label cust­ody plat­form enables banks, fintechs and asset mana­gers to seam­lessly inte­grate secure, block­chain-based asset manage­ment via a scalable API. 

By offe­ring cust­ody solu­ti­ons for crypto assets, toke­ni­zed secu­ri­ties and NFTs, Tangany is posi­tio­ning itself as one of the first fully MiCAR-licen­sed digi­tal asset custo­di­ans in Europe, support­ing the finan­cial indus­try’s tran­si­tion to a regu­la­ted, block­chain finan­cial economy.

About Eleva­tor Ventures

Eleva­tor Ventures is the venture capi­tal fund backed by Raiff­ei­sen Bank Inter­na­tio­nal, Raiff­ei­sen-Holding Nieder­ös­ter­reich-Wien and Raiff­ei­sen-Landes­bank Stei­er­mark, mana­ging funds of over EUR 100 million to support the growth of tech­no­logy compa­nies in the fintech and beyond banking sectors. The team invests in Series A and Series B growth rounds in the DACH region and CEE, lever­aging the deep exper­tise and know­ledge of its corpo­rate inves­tors to provide targe­ted support to port­fo­lio compa­nies. To date, Eleva­tor Ventures has inves­ted over EUR 50 million — in 20 compa­nies, resul­ting in five exits — as well as in two other funds. 

Advi­sor Eleva­tor Ventures: YPOG

Dr. Carola Rathke (Photo/ Co-Lead, Fintech + DLT), Part­ner, Hamburg
Anika Patz (Co-Lead, Fintech + DLT), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Stefan Rich­ter (Fintech + DLT), Part­ner, Hamburg
Tobias Lovett (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Lukas Schmidt (Tax), Tax Specia­list, Cologne
There­sia Hein­rich (Corpo­rate), Senior Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Felix Pinke­pank (Fintech + DLT), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Dr. Chris­toph Cordes (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Martin Acker (Tax), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Silke Ricken (Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Mirko Grun­ert (Fintech + DLT), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Thomas Tüll­mann (Fintech + DLT), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. David John (Fintech +DLT), Senior Asso­ciate, Hamburg

Los Ange­les — Defense tech­no­lo­gies are all the rage. — Los Ange­les-based Diver­gent Tech­no­lo­gies has secu­red $290 million in new finan­cing at a valua­tion of $2.3 billion. The finan­cing round, led by Roche­fort Asset Manage­ment, includes $250 million in equity and $40 million in debt. 

The company plans to invest the proceeds in the cons­truc­tion of new produc­tion faci­li­ties to meet growing demand from aero­space and defense customers.
The timing of this capi­tal raise reflects a signi­fi­cant shift in the industry.

Supply chain disrup­ti­ons have rocked the aero­space and defense indus­try in recent years, slowing the intro­duc­tion of aircraft compon­ents and defense systems just at a time when demand is incre­asing. Addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring offers a stra­te­gic response to this, enab­ling manu­fac­tu­r­ers to design and produce complex parts faster, with less waste and less reli­ance on tradi­tio­nal tooling. 

End-to-end digi­tal manufacturing

Foun­ded in 2014 by Kevin Czin­ger and Lukas Czin­ger, Diver­gent is the deve­lo­per of the Diver­gent Adap­tive Produc­tion System (DAPS™), the worl­d’s first end-to-end digi­tal manu­fac­tu­ring plat­form that enables rapid design, addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring and auto­ma­ted assembly.

The company aims to rede­fine the way complex struc­tures are desi­gned and built. Diver­gent deve­lops hard­ware that enables custo­mers to 3D print and assem­ble parts with unpre­ce­den­ted efficiency. 

Its custo­mers include indus­try giants such as Gene­ral Atomics, Lock­heed Martin and Raytheon — compa­nies that are incre­asingly rely­ing on advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring tech­ni­ques to circum­vent bott­len­ecks and speed up production.

Precis­ion in the defense and aero­space industry 

Diver­gen­t’s approach is more than just an incre­men­tal impro­ve­ment; it marks a funda­men­tal depar­ture from tradi­tio­nal manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses. By digi­tally manu­fac­tu­ring parts layer by layer, the company enables rapid proto­type deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion flexi­bi­lity. This is attrac­tive to inves­tors as both govern­ments and contrac­tors look to streng­then dome­stic manu­fac­tu­ring capa­bi­li­ties and reduce reli­ance on fragile supply chains. 

The deal also high­lights a larger trend in how modern indus­tries are rede­sig­ning their produc­tion lines. Aero­space compa­nies are leading the way because they can reduce costs while main­tai­ning precis­ion engineering. 

Earlier this year , Pratt & Whit­ney, an RTX company, announ­ced an addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring process for repai­ring its geared turbo­fan engi­nes that redu­ced lead times by over 60%. Such breakth­roughs unders­core the importance of 3D prin­ting not only for proto­type deve­lo­p­ment, but also for real-world appli­ca­ti­ons that improve effi­ci­ency and reliability. 

For Diver­gent, the oppor­tu­nity lies in trans­fer­ring these capa­bi­li­ties beyond pilot projects to large-scale indus­trial opera­ti­ons. The plan­ned systems will make a decisive contri­bu­tion to demons­t­ra­ting that addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring can relia­bly deli­ver large quan­ti­ties for mission-criti­cal programs. 

More than just capital

By secu­ring almost 300 million US dollars, Diver­gent Tech­no­lo­gies has gained more than just capi­tal and boos­ted inves­tor confi­dence in a future where digi­tal manu­fac­tu­ring is no longer expe­ri­men­tal, but essen­tial. If the expan­sion is successful, the startup could help set a new stan­dard for how the world builds the systems it relies on for safety, trans­por­ta­tion and innovation. 

With custo­mers from the defense sector as its core busi­ness, the company is posi­tio­ning itself as an important pioneer for next-gene­ra­tion avia­tion and mili­tary systems.

“Diver­gent was foun­ded to trans­form the built world with a soft­ware-defi­ned manu­fac­tu­ring plat­form,” said Lukas Czin­ger, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer and Co-Foun­der of Diver­gent. “This funding will allow us to scale DAPS for aero­space and defense, expand our world-class team, and streng­then Ameri­ca’s indus­trial base with a truly game-chan­ging system.” 

“Diver­gent deli­vers exactly what America needs — a stron­ger, faster and more adap­ta­ble indus­trial base,” said Kyle Bass, Co-CEO of Roche­fort Asset Manage­ment. “By uniting advan­ced soft­ware and hard­ware in a single plat­form, Diver­gent is proving that the U.S. can lead on the global stage in inno­va­tion and manu­fac­tu­ring. We are confi­dent that this team will rede­fine manu­fac­tu­ring and streng­then Ameri­ca’s posi­tion in key industries.” 

About Diver­gent

Diver­gent is the deve­lo­per of the Diver­gent Adap­tive Produc­tion System (DAPS™), the worl­d’s first end-to-end digi­tal manu­fac­tu­ring plat­form that enables rapid design, addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring and auto­ma­ted assem­bly. Head­quar­te­red in Torrance, Cali­for­nia, Diver­gent is resha­ping the future of defense, aero­space and auto­mo­tive manu­fac­tu­ring. — www.divergent3d.com

About Roche­fort Asset Management

Roche­fort Asset Manage­ment is a U.S.-based, natio­nal secu­rity-focu­sed private asset manage­ment firm that invests in trans­for­ma­tive tech­no­lo­gies. As a licen­sed mana­ger of the U.S. Depart­ment of War’s Office of Stra­te­gic Capi­tal (OSC), Roche­fort works with compa­nies driving inno­va­tion in defense tech­no­logy and the indus­trial base. 

www.rochefort.us

Düssel­dorf — A naval power­house in Germany: Düssel­dorf-based tech­no­logy group Rhein­me­tall has reached an agree­ment with the Lürs­sen Group on the acqui­si­tion of Naval Vessels Lürs­sen (NVL B.V. & Co. KG, Bremen-Vege­sack) and all its subsi­dia­ries, the mili­tary divi­sion of the long-estab­lished shipy­ard group. Subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties, the parties are aiming to complete the acqui­si­tion at the begin­ning of 2026. With this signi­fi­cant stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion, Rhein­me­tall is expan­ding its port­fo­lio to include naval ship­buil­ding and streng­thening its posi­tion as a leading supplier of defense tech­no­logy in Germany and Europe. 

Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Armin Papper­ger, CEO of Rhein­me­tall AG: “In the future, we will be a rele­vant player on land, at sea, in the air and in space. Rhein­me­tall is thus deve­lo­ping into a cross-domain systems house.”

Fried­rich Lürßen, Mana­ging Part­ner of Lürs­sen Mari­time Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH & Co. KG: “We are deligh­ted to have found a trust­wor­thy and strong part­ner in Rhein­me­tall, who can secure a successful future for NVL and its
employees.”

Guns­mith sets sail

To date, the Düssel­dorf-based company has not manu­fac­tu­red ships, but prima­rily arma­ments for land forces, such as tanks, artil­lery and air defense systems. As a supplier, the company is also invol­ved in the produc­tion of the US F35 figh­ter jet, and the arms manu­fac­tu­rer also produ­ces drones and soon mili­tary satel­li­tes. Now the arma­ments group, which is on a steep growth trajec­tory in the face of the war in Ukraine and is rushing from one record turno­ver and order back­log to the next, is setting sail, so to speak. 

For deca­des, Rhein­me­tall has made a name for itself world­wide as a renow­ned supplier of mili­tary tech­no­logy, but has also been a proven part­ner to the navies of nume­rous count­ries in the mari­time sector for many years. Rhein­me­tall alre­ady offers a selec­ted range of modern system compon­ents for mari­time appli­ca­ti­ons and is a leading global supplier of simu­la­tion solu­ti­ons and mari­time protec­tion systems in particular. 

Armin Papper­ger: “With the now agreed acqui­si­tion, we are decisi­vely advan­cing the conso­li­da­tion of the defense indus­try in Germany and Europe. In combi­na­tion with Rhein­me­tal­l’s compe­ten­cies, we are crea­ting a vital German power­house for state-of-the-art surface ships. The combi­ned capa­bi­li­ties of Rhein­me­tall and NVL gene­rate joint growth and enable a strong posi­tio­ning of our Group in the mari­time domain. At the same time, we are making a substan­tial contri­bu­tion to streng­thening the maritime
defense capa­bi­li­ties of Germany and NATO part­ner nations.” 

The current conflict situa­tion shows that military
asser­ti­ve­ness is also beco­ming incre­asingly important in the mari­time sector. Rhein­me­tall aims to meet the massi­vely incre­asing requi­re­ments of naval forces and the
rising budgets for procu­re­ment with high-perfor­mance system solutions
that have a state-of-the-art digi­tal infra­struc­ture and cover the entire
spec­trum — from the plat­form and elec­tro­nics to the sensors and effectors. 

NVL is a priva­tely mana­ged shipy­ard group with four shipy­ards in nort­hern Germany (Peene-Werft /
Wolgast, Blohm+Voss and Norderwerft/ Hamburg, Neue Jadewerft/ Wilhelms­ha­ven) and
inter­na­tio­nal loca­ti­ons. It employs a good 2,100 people world­wide, gene­ra­ted sales of around EUR 1 billion in the
2024 finan­cial year and is conside­red a pioneer in the rese­arch and
deve­lo­p­ment of auto­no­mous mari­time surface systems. Since its begin­nings around 150 years ago,
NVL has built around 1,000 ships at its shipy­ards and deli­vered them to over fifty diffe­rent navies and
coast guards, and is an estab­lished player both in mili­tary ship­buil­ding and
in ship main­ten­ance and repair. Previously known as Lürs­sen Defence, NVL was sepa­ra­ted from the
Yachts divi­sion in 2021 and contin­ued as an inde­pen­dent company within the family-run
Lürs­sen Group. NVL looks after fleets throug­hout their entire life cycle
and thus helps to keep the German Navy and Navies ready for action world­wide at all times

Rhein­me­tall wants to offer complete system solutions

Armin Papper­ger: “The acqui­si­tion will not only turn us into a produ­cer of floa­ting platforms
. As an inte­gra­ted naval power­house, we want to offer complete system solu­ti­ons. We will be able to offer our custo­mers all
valuable compon­ents in future programs from our partner
network as an inte­gra­ted solu­tion from a single source: Naval missiles and launchers,
main and secon­dary naval guns, missile defence, sensors and other electronics.
For the battle manage­ment system, we want to enable the inte­gra­tion and
Germa­niza­tion of exis­ting solu­ti­ons from our part­ner network.” 

A key success factor for Rhein­me­tall is that the Group alre­ady has excel­lent market access as a
supplier in the global naval busi­ness, has a presence in the
inter­na­tio­nal markets and enjoys the corre­spon­ding trust of its customers.
Another advan­tage for Rhein­me­tall is the expan­sion of produc­tion capa­ci­ties and
the expan­sion of the Group’s indus­trial base in nort­hern Germany. In parti­cu­lar with the
vehicle produc­tion of Rhein­me­tal­l’s Vehicle Systems divi­sion — which operates
sites in Kiel and Flens­burg, among others — synergy effects can be expec­ted on the basis of shared mate­rial and tech­no­logy expertise
.

NVL’s shipy­ards offer the oppor­tu­nity to utilize the exis­ting heavy infra­struc­ture, employee exper­tise and equip­ment capa­bi­li­ties to streng­then Vehicle Systems’ produc­tion and create capa­city reser­ves in the vehicle sector for the future. This enables Rhein­me­tall to avoid exces­sive infra­struc­ture invest­ments or exten­sive conver­si­ons of other produc­tion facilities. 

www.rheinmetall.com

Düssel­dorf — The Welsh darts equip­ment manu­fac­tu­rer Nodor Group, in which Infle­xion Private Equity Part­ners holds a majo­rity stake, has acqui­red Auto­darts GmbH. Auto­darts is a hard­ware and soft­ware plat­form for auto­ma­tic scoring in darts. The aim of the acqui­si­tion is to estab­lish darts not only as an analog pub game and in profes­sio­nal sport, but also to enable global online games. Auto­darts’ modern scoring tech­no­logy comple­ments the Nodor Group’s range of premium darts products. — Infle­xion was compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed by ARQIS on this transaction. 

The parties invol­ved have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion, such as the purchase price.

The Nodor Group, based in Bridgend, Wales, is a leader in the manu­fac­ture of dart­boards, darts and access­ories. The group of compa­nies, which includes the Winmau and Red Dragon brands, employs around 1,000 people world­wide and exports its products to over 100 count­ries. At the end of 2024, Infle­xion Private Equity Part­ners acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Nodor. 

Auto­darts GmbH, based in Erzhau­sen, Hesse, manu­fac­tures systems for auto­ma­tic scoring. Came­ras are moun­ted above or around the dart­board to detect where the darts land and auto­ma­ti­cally calcu­late the score. This enables seam­less online play and a networked, data-driven, global darts community. 

An ARQIS team led by Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the Nodor Group on this tran­sac­tion. Infle­xion Private Equity Part­ners is thus once again rely­ing on ARQIS’ advice, as was recently the case with the acqui­si­tion of the finanzen.net Group from Axel Springer. 

Advi­sor Nodor Group/Inflexion Private Equity Part­ners: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Core team: Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze (Lead Part­ner), Chris­tos Chou­de­lou­dis (Mana­ging Asso­ciate), Ivo Erte­kin (Asso­ciate, all Tran­sac­tions), Part­ners: Tobias Neufeld (HR Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP, Munich), Coun­sel: Chris­tian Judis (Compli­ance, Munich), Jens Knip­ping (Tax), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial, Munich), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (Tran­sac­tions), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Back­haus (Tran­sac­tions), Marina Bume­der (HR Law, Munich), Rolf Tichy (IP, Munich), Asso­cia­tes: Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial, Munich), Paulina Hütt­ner (IP, Munich), Johanna Klin­gen (Data Law), Tim Meyer-Meisel (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Legal Specia­list: Qing Xia (Tran­sac­tions)

About INFLEXION

INFLEXION Private Equity Part­ners Holdings LLP is a leading inde­pen­dent private equity firm head­quar­te­red in London. With over 20 years’ expe­ri­ence and £2.5 billion of assets under manage­ment, we work with excep­tio­nal manage­ment teams to build market-leading busi­nesses across multi­ple sectors and geogra­phies. — https://inflexionprivateeph.app

About ARQIS

ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firm that opera­tes inter­na­tio­nally. Around 80 lawy­ers and legal specia­lists advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on German, Euro­pean and Japa­nese commer­cial law. With its focus groups Tran­sac­tions, HR Law, Japan, 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. — www.arqis.com.

Munich/ Bad Sobern­heim — Siloco GmbH & Co KG has acqui­red NOVOCONT System­bau GmbH and NOVORENT GmbH & Co KG. Siloco was compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion by the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird.
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Siloco GmbH & Co. KG is a tradi­tio­nal family busi­ness from Hamburg, which has been active as a trading and service company for the cons­truc­tion indus­try for over 100 years. The company has grown steadily since 1919 and offers a wide range of cons­truc­tion site equipment. 

NOVOCONT System­bau GmbH and NOVORENT GmbH & Co. KG are compa­nies in Bad Sobern­heim that specia­lize in the plan­ning, produc­tion, main­ten­ance, sale and rental of system buil­dings and their turn­key assem­bly. With their Europe-wide network of part­ners, they are able to respond to all requi­re­ments indi­vi­du­ally, quickly and without compro­mi­sing on quality. The compa­nies have estab­lished them­sel­ves as inno­va­tive provi­ders of modu­lar cons­truc­tion solu­ti­ons and have many years of experience. 

With this stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion, Siloco GmbH & Co. KG is expan­ding its port­fo­lio to include highly specia­li­zed system cons­truc­tions and streng­thening its posi­tion as a full-service provi­der for the cons­truc­tion indus­try. The acqui­si­tion of NOVOCONT System­bau GmbH and NOVORENT GmbH & Co. KG enables Siloco GmbH & Co. KG to signi­fi­cantly expand its plan­ning exper­tise and to utilize the Europe-wide part­ner network as well as the long-term expe­ri­ence in the turn­key assem­bly of system buil­dings in various indus­tries of the acqui­red compa­nies. Siloco GmbH & Co. KG would like to invest jointly in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the companies. 

Advi­sor Siloco GmbH & Co KG: Bird & Bird 

Part­ner Dr. Sandra Schuh, LL.M. (photo, lead), Coun­sel Dr. Ole Brühl, and Asso­ciate Michelle Pohl (all Corporate/M&A), Part­ner Dr. Barbara Geck, Senior Asso­ciate Carina Wirtz and Asso­ciate Henry Nico­lai (all Employ­ment Law) and Senior Coun­sel Elie Kauf­man, LL.M., Asso­cia­tes Amelia Weber and Nirary Gorges (all Real Estate), Part­ner Dr. Michael Jüne­mann and Senior Asso­ciate Timo Förs­ter (both Finan­cing & Finan­cial Regu­la­tion), Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann (Tax), all Frankfurt.

As a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm, Bird & Bird is the part­ner for ever­yone who wants to defend and streng­then their super­powers. Thanks to our orig­ins in IP law, we under­stand the core of every company, the requi­re­ments of the market and compe­ti­tion and how to achieve sustainable success. We call it sector focus. And with this DNA, we are now your law firm for all legal issues rela­ting to tech­no­logy, digi­ta­liza­tion and regu­la­tion. With over 1,600 lawy­ers in 33 offices in 23 count­ries, we are repre­sen­ted in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia-Paci­fic and Africa and main­tain close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 280 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich. For more infor­ma­tion visit www.twobirds.com.

Munich/Olpe - McDer­mott Will & Schulte advi­sed the syndi­cate of lenders, consis­ting of ABN Amro, CIC Private Debt, LBBW and ODDO BHF, on the refi­nan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Schell GmbH & Co KG by Para­gon Partners.

After 93 years of successful company history in family hands, the siblings Andrea and Joachim Schell signed an agree­ment in April to sell their company to the owner-mana­ged, private Para­gon Group to secure the company’s succes­sion and keep SCHELL on course for growth.

The inno­va­tive and fast-growing Schell GmbH & Co KG employs 450 people world­wide. With its water-saving fittings, SCHELL offers future-proof solu­ti­ons for sustainable and resource-conser­ving water use. Whether in public faci­li­ties, commer­cial enter­pri­ses or private house­holds — SCHELL solu­ti­ons help to opti­mize water and energy consump­tion, effec­tively reduce costs and at the same time make a valuable contri­bu­tion to envi­ron­men­tal and climate protection. 

“By handing over our company to Para­gon Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, we are ensu­ring that our company remains stable in the long term and will conti­nue to operate successfully in the future. The new owners will actively conti­nue the exis­ting growth stra­tegy,” explain Andrea and Joachim Schell, share­hol­ders of Schell GmbH & Co KG.

Schell, based in Olpe, is the global market leader in water manage­ment systems and angle valves. A specia­list in fittings, sani­tary tech­no­logy products and digi­tal solu­ti­ons for main­tai­ning drin­king water quality. The company employs around 450 people and is active in more than 80 countries. 

Para­gon is an owner-mana­ged invest­ment company that has been inves­t­ing in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since it was foun­ded in 2004. The Munich-based company mana­ges equity capi­tal of more than 2.4 billion euros. 

Advi­sors to lenders: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Munich

Ludwig Zesch, Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger (both Finance, both lead), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Meyer (Coun­sel, Tax, Frank­furt), Asso­ciate: Bastiaan Wolters (Finance, Frank­furt), Konstan­tin Stro­bel (Tran­sac­tion Lawyer)

Munich/ Saarbrücken/ Luxembourg/LUX / Woustviller/FR / Lyon/FR — The French Groupe Pare­des Orapi (GPO) has acqui­red 100% of the shares in the opera­ting compa­nies of the Tous­saint Group in France (Tous­saint France) and Luxem­bourg (REDELUX) as well as the online store Propris­simo SAS. — Concen­tro Manage­ment AG provi­ded full support to the share­hol­ders of the Tous­saint Group in the course of the inter­na­tio­nal M&A process. 

The Jaro­li­meck family expan­ded the busi­ness of the German Tous­saint Group (N. Tous­saint & Co. GmbH), one of the three leading suppli­ers of profes­sio­nal hygiene and clea­ning products in Germany, to France back in 1981 and deve­lo­ped a successful Euro­pean group of compa­nies in the 1990s and 2000s through further stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons and start-ups in France and Luxem­bourg. Today, with two subsi­dia­ries, five logi­stics loca­ti­ons and around one hundred employees in north-eastern France and Luxem­bourg, the group is one of the largest regio­nal suppli­ers of profes­sio­nal clea­ning and hygiene products, clea­ning machi­nes and equip­ment and asso­cia­ted services. 

Pare­des was foun­ded in 1942 in Villeur­banne, France, and has specia­li­zed in profes­sio­nal hygiene products and services ever since. Orapi has been active on the French hygiene and disin­fec­tion market since 1968 and is known for its wide range of products from clea­ning chemi­cals and disin­fec­tion solu­ti­ons to main­ten­ance services. At the begin­ning of 2024, Pare­des acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Orapi. The resul­ting Groupe Pare­des Orapi, head­quar­te­red near Lyon, has around 1,500 employees (1,200 of whom are in France) and the largest inte­gra­ted hygiene provi­der in France with a total turno­ver of around EUR 450 million .

With the take­over, GPO secu­res important market shares to further expand its market leader­ship in France and also gains access to the Luxem­bourg market. The group of compa­nies will conti­nue with Julian Jaro­li­meck as mana­ging direc­tor of the group, who will be retai­ned along with all employees in France and Luxem­bourg. The names Tous­saint and Rede­lux, which have been estab­lished in the market, will be retained. 

The German acti­vi­ties rela­ting to N. Tous­saint & Co. GmbH (with its various subsi­dia­ries) are not part of the tran­sac­tion and will be further deve­lo­ped in Germany in the future with a high level of commit­ment from the Jaro­li­meck family. In the future, a stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion between the compa­nies N. Tous­saint and Pare­des at Euro­pean level is also planned. 

“Both groups focus on high-quality and inno­va­tive hygiene and clea­ning solu­ti­ons and we are ther­e­fore deligh­ted to have found the perfect part­ner in GPO, who shares our values,” says Jürgen Jaro­li­meck. “We are very proud of the path we have trave­led in France and Luxem­bourg over the past 40 years and look forward to the further joint acti­vi­ties of both groups. In addi­tion, toge­ther with N. Tous­saint and the employees in Germany, we have great ambi­ti­ons to further deve­lop TOPSERV on the German market,” conti­nues Liane Jarolimeck. 

Fran­çois Thuil­leur, CEO of Groupe Pare­des Orapi, is deligh­ted about “the great addi­tion of the Tous­saint compa­nies in France and Luxem­bourg,” and “we are expan­ding our family-run group of compa­nies to include a market player — also family-run — with the same values, a first-class repu­ta­tion and high-quality products and services. In addi­tion, we are conso­li­da­ting our market posi­tion as number 1 in France and at the same time expan­ding into the lucra­tive Luxem­bourg market with the acqui­si­tion of the second largest provider.”

Lars Werner, Part­ner, and Phil­ipp Goller, Senior Project Mana­ger, at Concen­tro Manage­ment AG, add: “We would like to thank the Jaro­li­meck family for their trust, GPO for the cons­truc­tive and plea­sant coope­ra­tion and the advi­sory teams on the seller and buyer side for their focu­sed approach. Conclu­ding a trans­na­tio­nal deal with four French and one Luxem­bourg company within such a short period of time requi­res a high level of commit­ment at all levels and cons­truc­tive coope­ra­tion on an equal footing.”

Liane Jaro­li­meck also empha­si­zes the close and successful coope­ra­tion in this project: “We would like to thank the entire Concen­tro team for their great support. We have always found their advice to be extre­mely compe­tent, commit­ted and trustworthy.”

A team from Groupe FIBA and FIDAL Avocats (both from France) provi­ded legal/tax advice on the seller side of the transaction.
Groupe Pare­des Orapi was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by a multi­di­sci­pli­nary team from BDO, Akilys Avocats and the Hardis Group.

Advi­sor Jaro­li­meck family, Tous­saint Group: Concen­tro Manage­ment AG, Munich

Lars Werner (Mana­ging Part­ner), Phil­ipp Goller (Senior Project Mana­ger), Sönke Storm (Project Mana­ger), Fabi­enne Frech (Consul­tant), Niels Venus (Consul­tant)

Siège social de FIBA: Frédé­ric Wagner, Arnaud Vezy, Marie Flesch

FIDAL Avocats: Clarisse Vidal

Concen­tro Manage­ment AG is a medium-sized consul­ting company specia­li­zing in 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. — www.concentro.de