ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Frank­furt a.M. — Herbert Smith Freeh­ills has advi­sed heidel­pay Group on the acqui­si­tion of Paysafe Pay Later, a specia­list in pay-later payment methods, from Paysafe Group. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to regu­la­tory appr­oval and is expec­ted to close in the third quar­ter of 2020. Until then, the two compa­nies will conti­nue to operate as inde­pen­dent organizations.

Paysafe Pay Later (payo­lu­tion GmbH) deve­lops payment solu­ti­ons for online and offline commerce. As part of the inter­na­tio­nal Paysafe Group, a leading specia­li­zed payment plat­form with over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in the online payment busi­ness, Paysafe Pay Later offers indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons for the DACH region.

heidel­pay is one of the fastest growing German tech compa­nies for inter­na­tio­nal payments. With over 17 years of expe­ri­ence in e‑commerce and as a BaFin-appro­ved payment insti­tu­tion, heidel­pay offers compa­nies of all sizes the ability to process payments world­wide. Since 2020, the inves­tor KKR has been the majo­rity share­hol­der of the heidel­pay Group.

heidel­pay’s latest invest­ment is part of the company’s stra­tegy to drive Euro­pean expan­sion and expand its product offe­ring for its own custo­mers in the area of Pay Later payment methods.

Herbert Smith Freeh­ills had alre­ady advi­sed the heidel­pay foun­ders and the inves­tor AnaCap Finan­cial Part­ners on the sale of a majo­rity stake to the invest­ment company KKR in 2019. In 2017, the firm had assis­ted the heidel­pay foun­ders in the sale of a majo­rity stake to AnaCap Finan­cial Partners.

Advi­sor heidel­pay Group: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills (Frank­furt)
Dr. Nico Abel, Photo (Part­ner, Lead), Rüdi­ger Hoff­mann (Coun­sel; both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Marcel Nuys (Part­ner), Dr. Florian Huer­kamp (Coun­sel; both Anti­trust; both Düssel­dorf), Kai Liebrich (Part­ner, Finance / Regu­la­tory), Moritz Kunz (Part­ner, Labor Law / Data Protec­tion), Dr. Stef­fen C. Hörner (Part­ner, Tax), Dr. Julius Brandt (Senior Asso­ciate), Tatiana Guens­ter, Quenie Hubert (both Asso­cia­tes; all Corporate/M&A), Mirko Gleits­mann (Asso­ciate, Anti­trust Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Hannes Jacobi (Senior Asso­ciate, Finance / Regu­la­tory), Dr. Simone Zieg­ler (Senior Asso­ciate, Labor Law / Data Protection)

News

Frank­furt a. M./ Munich — Apax Digi­tal, the growth capi­tal arm of London-based finan­cial inves­tor Apax Part­ners has inves­ted in Price f(x) AG (“Pricefx”). As part of the Series C finan­cing round, Pricefx recei­ved addi­tio­nal capi­tal of USD 65 million. The company has thus raised around USD 130 million in capi­tal to date. The finan­cing round was led by Apax Digi­tal with parti­ci­pa­tion from legacy inves­tors. The Frank­furt and Munich offices of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP advi­sed Apax Digi­tal on this transaction.

Foun­ded in 2011 in Pfaf­fen­ho­fen a.d. Glonn and opera­ting globally in five loca­ti­ons, Pricefx is a global leader in cloud-based pricing models as “Soft­ware as a Service” and offers a compre­hen­sive range of solu­ti­ons. Pricefx will use the funding to expand and soli­dify its leading global market posi­tion as a cloud soft­ware plat­form, as well as to acce­le­rate product inno­va­tion, expand its part­ner network and explore stra­te­gic acquisitions.

Advi­sor Apax Digi­tal: Weil Gotshal & Manges
The Weil tran­sac­tion team was led by Frank­furt-based Corpo­rate Part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrar (photo) and was supported by asso­cia­tes Thomas Weise, Aurel Hille, Stef­fen Giolda (all Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Mareike Pfeif­fer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Alisa Preis­sler (Tax, Frank­furt), Dr. Barbara Sand­fuchs (IP/IT, Munich) and para­le­gal Kris­tina Thiel (Labor Law, Frankfurt).

Advi­sor Price (fx): Shear­man & Sterling
Part­ner Dr. Alfred Koss­mann, Coun­sel Annette Petow and Asso­cia­tes Dr. Aliresa Fatemi, Sven Opper­mann and Denise Tayler (all Frank­furt M&A) and Part­ners Michael Dorf (San Francisco/Menlo Park M&A) and Larry Crouch (San Francisco/Menlo Park Tax).

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

News

Munich — Bird & Bird LLP has advi­sed Gamma Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons plc (Gamma) on the acqui­si­tion of 80% of the shares in HFO Holding AG (HFO), one of the leading SIP trunk provi­ders in Germany, which also includes the distri­bu­tor Epsi­lon. There is an acqui­si­tion option for the remai­ning 20% for the next three years.

Gamma is a leading provi­der of Unified Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons as a Service (UCaaS) in the UK, Spain and the Nether­lands and has iden­ti­fied Germany as a key target market as part of its expan­sion stra­tegy. Accor­ding to the company, the over­all German market has around 36 million PBX exten­si­ons, but a cloud pene­tra­tion of only around 6%. Thus, the market for cloud tele­phony is expec­ted to grow steadily over the next few years.

Gamma’s goal is to deve­lop and sell a market-leading cloud PBX solu­tion through the chan­nel to acce­le­rate HFO’s growth in the emer­ging cloud PBX market in Germany. HFO also offers B2B mobile services through its subsi­diary Epsi­lon Tele­com — most recently selling over 100,000 connec­tions per year. This also provi­des an oppor­tu­nity for Gamma to sell a mobile cloud PBX product through this channel.

Advi­sor Gamma Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons plc: Bird & Bird LLP
Part­ner Stefan Münch (photo), Part­ner Stephan Kübler, LL.M., Coun­sel Michael Gass­ner, Asso­cia­tes Marcel Nurk and Mari­jana Simo­nova (all Corporate/M&A, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer, Asso­cia­tes Julia Gottin­ger and Laura Schild­berg (all Labor Law, Munich) Part­ner Dr. Henri­ette Picot, Part­ner Dr. Alex­an­der Duis­berg, Asso­ciate Goek­han Kosak (all Tech & Comms, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Markus Körner, Asso­ciate Maxi­mi­lian Hillen­kamp (both Trade­mark Law, Munich), Senior Coun­sel Vale­rian Jenny (Foreign Trade Law, Frank­furt), Part­ner Neil Blun­dell, Part­ner Simon Allport, (both Corporate/M&A) Legal Dirc­tor Nick Heap (Corpo­rate Finance) all London, Asso­ciate Pauline Toet (Corpo­rate, Candi­tate Notary, The Hague).

Bird & Bird has advi­sed Gamma for many years, e.g. in 2014 on the IPO in London or recently on the public offe­ring for VOZTELECOM OIGAA360, S.A. (“VozTe­le­com”). VozTe­le­com is one of the leading provi­ders of cloud PBX solu­ti­ons in Spain and, along with the major fixed and mobile opera­tors, has the largest cloud PBX busi­ness. Neil Blun­dell, Part­ner in London, says: “We are deligh­ted to support Gamma in their expan­sion in Europe. It’s a very exci­ting company and has perfor­med incre­di­bly well since going public. Bird & Bird has a super­bly inte­gra­ted inter­na­tio­nal M&A group, and the teams in the UK, Germany, Spain and the Nether­lands have worked first class to deli­ver these deals. We look forward to conti­nuing to support Gamma on their future jour­neys, both in the UK and internationally.”

News

Aachen — The Aachen-based GRÜN Soft­ware Group was able to win the Nurem­berg family offices Fontas and Mogk as finan­ci­ally strong part­ners for its growth plans to build up a group of medium-sized B2B soft­ware compa­nies. The inves­tors have taken a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake. Foun­der and CEO Dr. Oliver Grün remains majo­rity share­hol­der. Bird & Bird LLP advi­sed the Nurem­berg-based family offices Fontas and Mogk on their invest­ment in Aachen-based GRÜN Soft­ware Group. You take over a signi­fi­cant mino­rity shareholding

The aim of the part­ner­ship is to promote the growth of the GRÜN Soft­ware Group with today 150 employees by acqui­si­tion & further deve­lo­p­ment of soft­ware compa­nies with indus­try soft­ware within the frame­work of a “Buy & Build” stra­tegy: “Through our new, strong part­ners, we comple­ment our expe­ri­ence in buil­ding medium-sized soft­ware compa­nies with the neces­sary capi­tal for acqui­si­ti­ons. This crea­tes an owner-mana­ged plat­form for invest­ments in soft­ware compa­nies that is unique in this form,” says a plea­sed Dr. Oliver Grün.

The invest­ment team at GRÜN will be supported by Prof. Dr. Rainer Lauter­bach and Fabian Durst in the future. This will also streng­then the group’s finan­cial exper­tise: “Our joint approach of combi­ning soft­ware and finan­cial know-how is a new offe­ring in the market of medium-sized soft­ware compa­nies, which is curr­ently under­go­ing a strong conso­li­da­tion phase due to succes­si­ons and market chan­ges,” says Prof. Lauterbach.

To streng­then and expand the opera­tio­nal busi­ness of the GRÜN Soft­ware Group, which curr­ently offers solu­ti­ons for non-profit orga­niza­ti­ons and educa­tion provi­ders, Dirk Hönscheid, the company’s long-time autho­ri­zed signa­tory and COO, was also appoin­ted to the manage­ment board.

As part of a change in legal form, the company will no longer trade under the name GRÜN Soft­ware AG, but under GRÜN Soft­ware Group GmbH. All exis­ting cont­acts, contracts and coope­ra­ti­ons remain unchanged.

Consul­tant GRÜN Soft­ware Group: WSS Redpoint Cologne

Advi­sors to the Fontas and Mogk family offices: Bird & Bird Frankfurt
Part­ner Dr. Michael Jüne­mann (photo) and Acco­ciate Johan­nes Wirtz, LL.M.

News

Frank­furt a.M. — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Good­win has advi­sed Storm Ventures on a €60 million Series C finan­cing round for sola­ris­Bank.

The finan­cing round was led by HV Holtz­brinck Ventures; in addi­tion to Storm Ventures, Vulcan Capi­tal and Samsung Cata­lyst Fund parti­ci­pa­ted. The strength of the round is also reflec­ted in the fact that about half of the funding was raised from exis­ting inves­tors; these were led by yabeo and supported by BBVA, SBI Group, ABN AMRO Ventures, Global Brain, Hegus and Lake­star.

Storm Ventures is a Sili­con Valley-based venture capi­tal firm focu­sed on early-stage invest­ments in leading B2B compa­nies, inclu­ding Aire­space (sold to Cisco), Blues­hift, Echo­Sign (sold to Adobe), Marketo (sold to Adobe), MobileI­ron, Sendoso, Splash­top and Work­ato. The company has also inves­ted in leading Euro­pean start­ups, inclu­ding Algo­lia, Digi­tal Shadows and Talkdesk.

Berlin-based sola­ris­Bank AG is the first banking-as-a-service plat­form with a full banking license that enables compa­nies to offer their own finan­cial products. APIs give part­ners access to the bank’s modu­lar services. Inclu­ding the current Series C finan­cing round, sola­ris­Bank has raised a total of more than 160 million euros in the past four years.

Advi­sors Storm Ventures: Good­win, Frank­furt a.M./Silicon Valley
Gregor Klenk, Photo (Private Equity, Frank­furt); Craig Schmitz (FinTech, Sili­con Valley/Los Ange­les; both Lead); Asso­ciate: Joana Pamu­kova (Private Equity, Frankfurt)

News

Munich — Strong signal in the COVID 19 crisis: Golding raises almost 200 million euros from private debt funds for medium-sized compa­nies. The COVID-19 pande­mic is caus­ing massive dislo­ca­tion in econo­mies and finan­cial markets world­wide. Many compa­nies, espe­ci­ally small and medium-sized ones, run into liqui­dity bott­len­ecks that they cannot absorb through tradi­tio­nal finan­cing chan­nels such as bank loans. In such times of crisis, private debt funds gain in importance. In this phase, Golding Capi­tal Part­ners successfully closed the first subscrip­tion period of the Golding Private Debt 2020 fund with a volume of almost 200 million euros.

At present, access to addi­tio­nal capi­tal needed in the short term is consider­a­bly rest­ric­ted for many compa­nies. The crisis-indu­ced decline in tradi­tio­nal forms of finan­cing, such as bank loans or the more liquid capi­tal markets, has resul­ted in liqui­dity problems, in some cases threa­tening the very exis­tence of SMEs in parti­cu­lar. Private debt funds gain addi­tio­nal importance in such times of crisis. They can close the finan­cing gap in the case of growth finan­cing, acqui­si­ti­ons, refi­nan­cing, but also tempo­rary liqui­dity bott­len­ecks and offer sustainable solu­ti­ons with alter­na­tive forms of financing.

Foun­der and CEO Jeremy Golding: “The Corona crisis has shown that compa­nies need quick and uncom­pli­ca­ted “cash injec­tions”. This is the only way they can main­tain opera­ti­ons and secure jobs. Banks are often not suita­ble finan­cing part­ners due to incre­asingly strin­gent regu­la­ti­ons and capi­tal requi­re­ments. Private debt funds, on the other hand, can directly provide alter­na­tive finan­cing solu­ti­ons and often support compa­nies with long-term capi­tal — at a much better risk and return profile.”

The invest­ment stra­tegy of the Golding Private Debt 2020 fund is to build a broadly diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of prima­rily bila­te­ral finan­cings nego­tia­ted directly with medium-sized compa­nies in Europe and North America (“corpo­rate direct lending”). The focus is on senior secu­red loans; subor­di­na­ted loans are also taken into account on a selec­tive basis. Depen­ding on the market envi­ron­ment, Golding also invests in selec­ted funds with a focus on special situa­tions invol­ving, for exam­ple, the oppor­tu­ni­stic acqui­si­tion of loans in the secon­dary market or speci­fic complex corpo­rate situa­tions. The plan is to set up 15 to 20 primary and secon­dary funds as well as co-invest­ments as an oppor­tu­ni­stic addi­tion. To date, one co-invest­ment has alre­ady been imple­men­ted and the first primary funds have been subscribed.

Proven crisis resistance
Alre­ady during and after the global econo­mic crisis of 2008/2009, the private debt asset class demons­tra­ted excel­lent crisis resis­tance compared to other asset clas­ses. Nega­tive valua­tion discounts in the private debt market, for exam­ple, were fully offset after around nine months. Such low vulnerabi­lity in crises contri­bu­tes signi­fi­cantly to rising demand in this segment. Current market analy­ses confirm this clear growth trend: around one-third of the inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors surveyed are plan­ning to invest more heavily in private debt in view of the Corona crisis.

“For our inves­tors, it pays to invest in private debt funds. Not only because our offe­rings in this area are parti­cu­larly stable and resi­li­ent due to our diver­si­fied approach and broad diver­si­fi­ca­tion to around 600 — 800 tran­sac­tions world­wide. But also because it enables us to gene­rate attrac­tive risk-adjus­ted returns and, with an average net IRR of 7 to 8 percent, we have an excel­lent perfor­mance. In the ongo­ing low-inte­rest envi­ron­ment, this is an excel­lent invest­ment oppor­tu­nity for insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors,” says Mana­ging Direc­tor and CIO Dr. Matthias Reicher­ter.

Golding was one of the pioneers in this asset class in 2003 and can ther­e­fore draw on many years of successful invest­ment exper­tise in the private debt market. Golding curr­ently mana­ges around EUR 3.5 billion in this asset class for insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Capi­tal is curr­ently spread across 17 invest­ment programs (inclu­ding funds of funds, co-invest­ment funds and mana­ged accounts).

About Golding Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH
Golding Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH is one of the leading inde­pen­dent asset mana­gers for private equity, private debt and infra­struc­ture in Europe. With a team of over 100 employees based in Munich, Luxem­bourg, London, New York and Tokyo, Golding Capi­tal Part­ners supports insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in buil­ding their invest­ment stra­tegy and mana­ges assets of over €9 billion. The appro­xi­m­ately 200 insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors include insu­rance compa­nies, pension funds, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices as well as banks, savings banks and coope­ra­tive banks.

News

Hamburg — CORVEL advi­sed heidel­pay Group GmbH (“heidel­pay”) on its invest­ment in Till­hub GmbH. Till­hub offers retail­ers digi­tal payment methods via an all-in-one iPad POS system. Well-known custo­mers of Till­hub are Klier Hair Group GmbH and Fleu­rop AG. Heidel­pay is thus expan­ding its exper­tise in the PoS (Point of Sale) area and conti­nuing to drive its growth and omnich­an­nel approach. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the size of the investment.

Heidel­pay is one of the fastest growing German tech compa­nies for inter­na­tio­nal payments and offers its own solu­ti­ons such as invoice and install­ment purchase, direct debit, online bank trans­fer or prepay­ment as well as on well-known provi­ders of credit cards or wallet solu­ti­ons. Since 2020, the inves­tor KKR has been the majo­rity share­hol­der of heidelpay.

Advi­sor heidel­pay: CORVEL LLP (Hamburg)
Dr. Felix Brammer (photo), Asso­ciate: Thomas Sievers

News

Frank­furt a. Main/ Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Latham & Watkins LLP has advi­sed funds advi­sed by Triton on the finan­cing in connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion of the RENK Group. In addi­tion to a high-yield bond (senior secu­red notes, 144A/Reg S) placed with insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors with a volume of EUR 320 million, a matu­rity in July 2025 and a coupon of 5.75 percent p.a. Senior secu­red credit faci­li­ties (Super Senior Revol­ving Credit Faci­li­ties) with a volume of EUR 40 million (cash line) and EUR 167.5 million (guaran­tee line). The Senior Secu­red Notes are listed on The Inter­na­tio­nal Stock Exch­ange (Offi­cial List).

The tran­sac­tion was accom­pa­nied by a banking syndi­cate consis­ting of Gold­man Sachs Inter­na­tio­nal, Commerz­bank, Credit Suisse, Deut­sche Bank and UniCre­dit Bank.

Latham & Watkins advi­sed Triton with the follo­wing team:
Dr. Rüdi­ger Malaun (Part­ner, Munich), Dr. Alex­an­der Lentz (Part­ner, joint lead), Gregory Walker (Coun­sel), Jan Penselin, Jana Sichel­schmidt, Peter Neuböck (Asso­cia­tes, all Capi­tal Markets), Alex­an­dra Hage­lü­ken (Part­ner), Cora Gran­ne­mann (Coun­sel, both Banking, all Frank­furt), Stefan Süß (Part­ner, Tax, Munich), Verena Seevers (Asso­ciate, Tax, Hamburg)

News

Frank­furt a.M. — McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­sed German mid-market finan­cier Bright Capi­tal on a credit faci­lity for SOPRONEM Greven GmbH, a port­fo­lio company of Quan­tum Capi­tal Part­ners.

With the help of highly auto­ma­ted and flexi­ble machi­nes, SOPRONEM Greven GmbH produ­ces a range of liquid deter­gents, care products and clea­ning agents specia­li­zing in private labels at its site in Greven and curr­ently employs more than 160 people. Throug­hout Europe, the company is one of the largest manu­fac­tu­r­ers of deter­gents and clea­ning agents.

McDer­mott regu­larly advi­ses Bright Capi­tal on finan­cings, most recently on a credit faci­lity to finance Beyond Capi­tal’s acqui­si­tion of 19 opti­cal stores in Germany.

Advi­sors to Bright Capi­tal: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Dr. Oliver Hahn­elt (photo), LL.M. (Lead), Dr. Niko­las Kout­sós (Coun­sel; both Financing)

News

Mannheim/ Munich / Frank­furt a. Main/ London — First State intends to acquire MVV Ener­gie from EnBW and Rhein­ener­gie. Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP advi­sed banks on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a 45.1% stake in Mann­heim-based energy supplier MVV Ener­gie AG by inter­na­tio­nal asset mana­ger First State from EnBW and Rhein­ener­gie and in connec­tion with a public take­over offer.

Weil also advi­sed BNP Pari­bas S.A. Germany Branch as the issuing bank of the finan­cing confir­ma­tion for the tender offer.

Advi­sors to First State: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
The German-English team was led by Banking Part­ners Dr. Wolf­ram Distler, photo (Frank­furt) and Paul Hibbert (London). Other team members were Part­ner Ludger Kempf (Tax Frank­furt), Coun­sel Dr. Heiner Drüke (Corpo­rate Frank­furt), Ben Thomp­son (Banking London) and Asso­cia­tes Sebas­tian Bren­ner (Corpo­rate), Markus Cejka (Banking) and Alisa Preis­sler (Tax, all Frank­furt) as well as Camille Jetzer (Banking London).

News

Hamburg — Sola­ris­bank has secu­red the highest finan­cing round in its history, amoun­ting to 60 million euros. The post-money valua­tion increa­ses to 320 million euros as a result of the capi­tal increase. “Since we were not under any time pres­sure, the Corona crisis did not really affect our funding process,” CEO Roland Folz told us. “Due to high demand from inves­tors, we actually raised more capi­tal than origi­nally planned.”

With the funding behind it, Sola­ris­bank — which has grown exclu­si­vely orga­ni­cally since its foun­ding in 2016 — can even consider larger tran­sac­tions. Sola­ris could thus take over Wire­card Bank AG, at least in parts.

Asked about this scena­rio, Sola­ris­bank CEO Folz told us yester­day, “It’s never good news when a compe­ti­tor gets into trou­ble. Because what ulti­m­ately makes compa­nies better is compe­ti­tion.” Howe­ver, it is true that “Wire­card Bank’s services are simi­lar to ours. Depen­ding on how things deve­lop, we could ther­e­fore certainly be some­thing like the natu­ral alter­na­tive for many of the compe­ti­tor’s customers.”

The lead inves­tor is venture capi­ta­list Holtz­brinck Ventures, which has not yet been one of the share­hol­ders. That a German VC specia­list is the lead inves­tor in such a large round (and even more so, after not having been invol­ved at all before) is, to our recoll­ec­tion, rare in the German fintech sector. But it shows that local venture capi­tal play­ers no longer auto­ma­ti­cally shy away from larger rounds. Early­bird also contin­ued to play a lively role in N26’s most recent mega-fundings.

In addi­tion to Holtz­brinck, Vulcan Capi­tal (the invest­ment arm of the foun­da­tion of the late Micro­soft co-foun­der Paul Allen), another Ameri­can VC called Storm Ventures, and the Samsung Cata­lyst Fund, which belongs to the Korean tech­no­logy group of the same name, are also new on board. Of the legacy inves­tors, Yabeo, BBVA, SBI Group, ABN Amro, Global Brain, Hegus and Lake­star went along. Sola­ris­bank head of stra­tegy Layla Qassim: “We had a slight over­hang of stra­te­gic share­hol­ders so far. That’s why we focu­sed a bit more on finan­cial inves­tors this time around.”

Inte­res­t­ing: The press release menti­ons that Deut­sche Bank supported the round as “private place­ment agent”. “In our first two finan­cing rounds, we got by without an accom­pany­ing bank. This time we deli­bera­tely chose a diffe­rent path — because: A company at our stage can use good friends. And with Deut­sche Bank we have now found such a friend,” says CEO Folz. The obvious ques­tion as to whether this also means that a decis­ion has alre­ady been made as to which finan­cial insti­tu­tion could one day accom­pany Sola­ris­bank to the stock exch­ange, was not answe­red by Folz with the equally obvious sentence: “Of course, it will be Deut­sche Bank”. Instead, he empha­si­zed that an IPO was not on the agenda for the next two years in any case, and that it was only “one conceiva­ble option among seve­ral” for the time after that.

What is to happen now with the 60 million euros? ‑Capture the losses expec­ted at least for this year and next Drive Euro­pean expan­sion. Howe­ver, Sola­ris­bank (employees curr­ently: 310) intends to conti­nue to do this prima­rily from Berlin; foreign offices are to be opened only in isola­ted cases.

 

News

Geneva — Uniges­tion, the inde­pen­dent specia­li­zed asset mana­ger, comple­ted the third closing of its private equity direct fund Uniges­tion Direct II in May, brin­ging the total size of the fund to 375 million euros.

The final target figure is 600 million euros. In June, the fund also comple­ted its second invest­ment. In addi­tion, the first closing of the secon­dary fund Uniges­tion Secon­dary V, with a total volume of EUR 228 million (EUR 700 million final target volume), took place on June 10.

The success of these deals reflects inves­tors’ appe­tite for expo­sure to direct and secon­dary market tran­sac­tions in small and mid-sized compa­nies in the private equity market in the current econo­mic environment.

As the impact of the COVID-19 pande­mic is felt in finan­cial markets, Uniges­tion anti­ci­pa­tes a growing number of attrac­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties going forward, as a result of lower valua­tions, limi­ted avai­la­bi­lity of debt capi­tal and an increase in poten­tial sellers.

Both funds conti­nue to attract well-known inves­tors from North America, Austra­lia and Europe, inclu­ding pres­ti­gious corpo­ra­ti­ons, pension funds and high net worth investors.

Uniges­tion Direct II
Uniges­tion Direct II’s stra­tegy is to build a port­fo­lio of direct invest­ments in small and medium-sized compa­nies in sectors whose growth is driven by long-term trends. The fund invests in compa­nies that are resi­li­ent on their own merits thanks to their strong market posi­tio­ning, manage­ment and finan­cial strength. This gives inves­tors expo­sure to a port­fo­lio of robust compa­nies that are able to execute their growth plans regard­less of market conditions.

With more than 20 years of direct invest­ment expe­ri­ence, Uniges­tion parti­ci­pa­tes in tran­sac­tions as both a co-signer and co-initia­tor/initia­tor, toge­ther with fund mana­gers specia­li­zing in small and mid-sized compa­nies and other invest­ment part­ners in Europe, North America and Asia. Uniges­tion takes an active role during due dili­gence and is able to create favorable tran­sac­tion condi­ti­ons in most cases.

With a global team of 40 private equity profes­sio­nals, Uniges­tion sources direct invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties from its network of more than 500 invest­ment part­ners, inclu­ding specia­li­zed fund mana­gers, spon­sors and other indus­try experts, as well as directly from busi­ness owners.

Uniges­tion Secon­dary V
Uniges­tion Secon­dary V invests in small, non-auction secon­dary market tran­sac­tions with a volume of less than EUR 50 million, focu­sing on port­fo­lios of high-quality compa­nies with attrac­tive valua­tions. With more than two deca­des of expe­ri­ence, Uniges­tion is one of the pioneers in the global secon­dary market. The exper­tise includes, in parti­cu­lar, custo­mi­zed and often more complex liqui­dity solutions.

Uniges­tion acqui­res secon­dary market tran­sac­tions from its broad network of Gene­ral Part­ners (GPs), Limi­ted Part­ners, Small Inter­me­dia­ries and selec­ted specia­li­zed Secon­dary Direct Mana­gers. Uniges­ti­on’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the global small and mid-cap market gives it access to tran­sac­tions outside the hunting grounds of other secon­dary inves­tors. As such, Uniges­tion is able to offer a port­fo­lio of secon­dary market tran­sac­tions that are typi­cally uncor­re­la­ted to the broa­der secon­dary market.

Uniges­tion follows a thorough due dili­gence process, which is why the focus is on port­fo­lios of compa­nies with solid busi­ness models and clear exit oppor­tu­ni­ties. Conse­quently, returns are deter­mi­ned by future company perfor­mance and are not depen­dent on leverage or discounts.

“These fund closures are a testa­ment to our long track record of inves­t­ing in small and mid-sized compa­nies. We focus on small and medium-sized compa­nies opera­ting in attrac­tive sectors where growth is not depen­dent on macroe­co­no­mic condi­ti­ons. Ther­e­fore, we are convin­ced that we will bene­fit from the oppor­tu­ni­ties arising from the excep­tio­nal condi­ti­ons we are curr­ently expe­ri­en­cing,” says Chris­to­phe De Dardel, Head of Private Equity at Uniges­tion.

News

Munich — Para­gon Part­ners, one of the leading private equity firms in Europe, acqui­res all shares in WEKA Firmen­gruppe, a leading provi­der of specia­list infor­ma­tion, soft­ware, trai­ning & services for the DACH region and France.

Dr. Edin Hadzic (photo), co-foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of Para­gon Part­ners, says: “WEKA is an impres­sive success story, which we as a new share­hol­der want to conti­nue with the manage­ment team and employees. We want to conti­nue to streng­then the diver­si­fied struc­ture and the entre­pre­neu­rial culture of the group of compa­nies. The further deve­lo­p­ment of markets, products and the digi­tiza­tion of corpo­rate proces­ses will conti­nue to be a prio­rity in the future. Targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons to comple­ment the port­fo­lio will remain part of the corpo­rate stra­tegy. We welcome WEKA to the Para­gon family and look forward to working with them.”

Wolf­gang Mate­rna, Mana­ging Direc­tor of WEKA Holding: “I am deligh­ted to have found in Para­gon Part­ners a share­hol­der with excel­lent refe­ren­ces, deter­mi­na­tion and relia­bi­lity who, thanks to his expe­ri­ence in the media indus­try, brings with him all the prere­qui­si­tes for the further deve­lo­p­ment of the WEKA Group and with whom we see the future of WEKA, our employees and our busi­ness part­ners in good hands. We are deligh­ted to be part of the Para­gon family. The manage­ment and employees of the WEKA Group will also give their all for the successful conti­nua­tion of the busi­ness in the new share­hol­der structure.”

About WEKA
WEKA was foun­ded in 1973 by Werner and Karin Mützel as a specia­list publi­shing house for admi­nis­tra­tion and indus­try. Over the past deca­des, WEKA has deve­lo­ped into a diver­si­fied media group and has taken a leading market posi­tion by offe­ring a broad range of specia­list infor­ma­tion and formats. The WEKA group of compa­nies is head­quar­te­red in Kissing (Germany) and compri­ses 23 compa­nies in Germany, Austria, Switz­er­land and France. WEKA gene­ra­tes annual sales of around EUR 250 million and employs a total of 1,500 people.

In the “Busi­ness Infor­ma­tion & Educa­tion” segment, WEKA offers expert know­ledge via print, digi­tal (e.g. online content/databases, soft­ware, e‑learning) and face-to-face formats (e.g. semi­nars, conti­nuing educa­tion and trai­ning). The focus is on regu­la­tory and/ or tech­ni­cal know­ledge and the inno­va­tions based on it in speci­fic niches, such as occu­pa­tio­nal safety, hazar­dous mate­ri­als, law and taxes, or denti­stry. Content is prepared in such a way that it can be directly applied in prac­tice and thus seam­lessly inte­gra­ted into the custo­mer’s workflow.

The “Busi­ness Commu­ni­ca­tion” segment provi­des specia­list infor­ma­tion via print (prima­rily maga­zi­nes) and digi­tal, event and service formats for various indus­tries. These include, for exam­ple, indus­tries such as elec­tro­nics, ITC and buil­ding tech­no­logy. The focus is on jour­na­li­stic brands as well as speci­fic data and services that inform parti­ci­pants and inte­res­ted parties in the respec­tive target markets. www.weka-holding.de

About Para­gon Partners
Foun­ded in 2004, Para­gon is today one of the leading private equity compa­nies in the German-spea­king region with more than EUR 1.2 billion in equity under manage­ment. Para­gon works closely with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to ensure sustainable growth and improve opera­tio­nal proces­ses. The invest­ment port­fo­lio spans various indus­tries (e.g., Industrial/ Profes­sio­nal Services, IP Manage­ment, Media Analy­tics) and curr­ently compri­ses 14 compa­nies. The company is based in Munich, Germany. www.paragon.de

News

Frank­furt a. Main — DLA Piper advi­sed FinLab EOS VC Europe I GmbH & Co KG on an invest­ment in Singa­pore-based opti­ons trading plat­form Spar­row. The invest­ment was part of a Series A finan­cing round of $3.5 million. It will be used for further deve­lo­p­ment of the plat­form. HDR Group, Signum Capi­tal and Du Capi­talalso parti­ci­pa­ted in Spar­row as part of the finan­cing round.

Spar­row is the leading opti­ons trading plat­form and provi­des an easy way to control risk and mone­tize digi­tal assets. The company offers BTC and ETH opti­ons sett­led through smart contracts. Spar­ro­w’s proprie­tary plat­form is acces­si­ble through a simpli­fied inter­face, an enhan­ced order book, and trading APIs.

FinLab EOS VC Europe I GmbH & Co KG is a venture capi­tal fund mana­ged by FinLab AG that invests exclu­si­vely in projects based on the open source block­chain soft­ware EOSIO. The fund focu­ses on seed and early-stage start­ups seeking equity invest­ment. The USD 100 million fund was laun­ched by FinLab AG, one of the first and largest company buil­ders and inves­tors focu­sed on the finan­cial services tech­no­lo­gies sector in Europe, toge­ther with Block.one.

The DLA Piper team led by part­ner Simon Vogel contin­ued to include senior asso­ciate Michael Rebholz (both Private Equity/Venture Capi­tal, Munich). In Singa­pore, Part­ner David Kuo, Of Coun­sel Kathe­rine Chew and Asso­ciate Ying Chern Tan (all Corpo­rate) advised.

News

Schwelm/ Düsseldorf/ Shang­hai — The owner of Klaus Korte GmbH & Co KG (“Korte”), a Schwelm-based produ­cer and supplier of high-quality labels and brand iden­ti­fi­ca­tion solu­ti­ons (photo) has sold to the Chinese Maxim Label and Pack­a­ging Group (“Maxim”) of Shang­hai. Klaus Korte GmbH & Co KG was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Mayland AG.

Since 1962, Korte has been produ­cing the highest quality origi­nal woven and prin­ted labels at compe­ti­tive prices. In doing so, Korte works in a parti­cu­larly indi­vi­dua­li­zed manner and can custo­mize the mate­rial, shape, colors as well as brand iden­ti­fi­ca­tion solu­ti­ons to meet custo­mer requi­re­ments. The merger with Maxim now enables Korte to expand its previous focus on the German market inter­na­tio­nally, espe­ci­ally to the Asian region, and to comple­ment its range of brand iden­ti­fi­ca­tion solu­ti­ons with RFID solu­ti­ons, among other things.

Maxim Label and Pack­a­ging Group sees itself as a one-stop shop provi­ding brand iden­tity protec­tion and infor­ma­tion tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons to retail­ers and major brands. The product port­fo­lio includes RFID solu­ti­ons, price tags, ther­mal trans­fer labels, hang tags, care labels, adhe­si­ves and pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons. With the acqui­si­tion of Korte, Maxim intends to expand its produc­tion capa­ci­ties around the globe while conti­nuing to secure Korte’s posi­tion as one of the indus­try leaders in this segment. The main goal of Maxim is to quickly and easily adapt to chan­ging global requi­re­ments while syste­ma­tiz­ing them.

About MAYLAND AG
MAYLAND remains your relia­ble and profes­sio­nal M&A advi­sor even in these diffi­cult Corona times. We help you not to passi­vely endure the serious chan­ges, but to actively shape them. M&A can secure and streng­then the future of compa­nies in such times of crisis. In addi­tion to secu­ring the exis­tence of the company and jobs, (family) assets of the share­hol­ders can also be secu­red. In addi­tion, unique invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties often arise in times of crisis, and MAYLAN­D’s long expe­ri­ence through various econo­mic and capi­tal market cycles means it is ideally posi­tio­ned to take advan­tage of them.

MAYLAND is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged M&A consul­tancy based in Düssel­dorf. Since its foun­da­tion in 1998, MAYLAND has been deve­lo­ping indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons for the purchase and sale of compa­nies or parts of compa­nies. MAYLAND also arran­ges the finan­cing or restruc­tu­ring that may be neces­sary or requi­red for these tran­sac­tions. MAYLAND provi­des struc­tu­red process manage­ment for these natio­nal and cross-border projects and coor­di­na­tes all services for a successful comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.mayland.de.

News

Growth capi­tal Lands­hut / Munich — The successful Bava­rian Growth Fund initia­ted by the Bava­rian Minis­try of Econo­mic Affairs is getting a capi­tal-strong succes­sor. Endo­wed with 115 million euros, Wachs­tums­fonds Bayern 2 is again mana­ged by Bayern Kapi­tal, the wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern for venture capi­tal invest­ments. The resour­ces from the growth fund are inten­ded to support inno­va­tive and tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups in the Free State of Bava­ria in conclu­ding large-volume finan­cing rounds in coope­ra­tion with private investors.

Bava­ria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Hubert Aiwan­ger: “With the first Bava­rian Growth Fund, we have alre­ady supported many inno­va­tive compa­nies. Now, toge­ther with Bayern Kapi­tal, we are conti­nuing the successful concept with the Bava­rian Growth Fund 2: We support young compa­nies with growth finan­cing to successfully place their product on the market and deve­lop into successful, inter­na­tio­nally compe­ti­tive compa­nies in the long term.”

The track record of the Bava­rian Growth Fund speaks for itself: Over the past five years, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted a total of 70 million euros in 23 start-ups from the fund, mobi­li­zing a further 300 million euros of private capi­tal for Bava­ria’s foun­ders through coope­ra­tion with dome­stic and foreign inves­tors, such as private venture capi­ta­lists and family offices.

“Parti­cu­larly in the tech­no­logy sector, compa­nies not only need deve­lo­p­ment time for long-term success, but above all finan­cial support. Inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion stra­te­gies and the deve­lo­p­ment of new markets, but also appr­oval studies and the further deve­lo­p­ment or diver­si­fi­ca­tion of one’s own product range are capi­tal-inten­sive and often present young compa­nies with immense chal­lenges. We are ther­e­fore plea­sed to be able to conti­nue to relia­bly support the inno­va­tion leaders of the Free State in large-volume finan­cing rounds with the Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund,” says Roman Huber (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal.

“Whether it’s service robots from Robo­tise, high-reso­lu­tion LiDAR sensors from Blick­feld, the smart ProGlove glove to opti­mize manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses, the mole­cu­lar diagno­stics company GNA Bioso­lu­ti­ons, which is curr­ently making great stri­des in the deve­lo­p­ment of a rapid corona test, or Regens­burg-based Numa­res AG, which offers diagno­stic tests based on NMR tech­no­logy: With the Bava­rian Growth Fund, we have been able to support a wide range of viable compa­nies in recent years, inclu­ding larger finan­cing rounds with natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors,” sums up Dr. Georg Ried, also Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapital.

The second edition of the Bava­rian Growth Fund, with a capi­tal of 115 million euros and an addi­tio­nal 15 million euros, can provide the inno­va­tion leaders of the Free State with invest­ment volu­mes of between two and, in indi­vi­dual cases, up to ten million euros per inves­tee, depen­ding on the situa­tion. A gene­ral condi­tion for parti­ci­pa­tion by the Bava­rian Growth Fund 2 is that at least one other private inves­tor commits on the same terms. Thus, the start-ups not only have the pros­pect of larger capi­tal volu­mes, but also bene­fit from the exper­tise as well as the regio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal network of the invest­ment partners.

“Throug­hout the Free State, Bava­ria’s foun­ders are produ­cing exci­ting and inno­va­tive busi­ness models — from Passau to Würz­burg, from Regens­burg to Augs­burg. Howe­ver, in order to succeed on the market, young compa­nies are often depen­dent on state finan­cing instru­ments. This is true both in times of econo­mic weak­ness and in growth phases. Without targe­ted support, promi­sing ideas would often fall by the wayside at crucial moments because the compa­nies lack money for larger invest­ments. The Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund is ther­e­fore an important tool for driving the long-term busi­ness success of Bava­ria’s tech­no­logy leaders,” says Dr. Otto Beierl, Chair­man of the Board of LfA Förder­bank Bayern.

Growth finan­cing for high-tech compa­nies ulti­m­ately bene­fits Bava­ria as a busi­ness loca­tion as a whole: Around 1,700 highly quali­fied, new jobs and many inno­va­tive busi­ness models ‘Made in Bava­ria’ in various indus­tries of the future have been crea­ted thanks to the first growth fund in the Free State alone.

Bava­ria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Hubert Aiwan­ger: “The Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund is an important compo­nent of our econo­mic policy course. We want to create many strong clus­ters for econo­mic growth in all admi­nis­tra­tive districts in the long term and at the same time provide targe­ted support for future indus­tries. In this way, we are secu­ring today’s jobs and at the same time crea­ting the career pros­pects for tomorrow.”

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, was foun­ded in 1995 as a wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern on the initia­tive of the Bava­rian state govern­ment. As the venture capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, Bayern Kapi­tal provi­des equity capi­tal to the foun­ders of inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies and young, inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in Bava­ria. Bayern Kapi­tal curr­ently mana­ges 13 invest­ment funds with an invest­ment volume of around 500 million euros. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted around 320 million euros of venture capi­tal in over 275 inno­va­tive tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies from a wide range of sectors, inclu­ding life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 7,500 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable companies.
www.bayernkapital.de

News

Munich/Nuremberg — The clam­ping tech­no­logy company SAV GmbH, Nurem­berg, announ­ces a capi­tal increase. The new capi­tal comes from BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, which takes over 20 percent of the company’s shares as a mino­rity share­hol­der and at the same time contri­bu­tes a silent part­ner­ship. BayB­G’s invest­ment will enable SAV, which has annual sales of €27 million at sites in Nurem­berg, Mitt­weida and Göppin­gen, to conti­nue its deve­lo­p­ment into an engi­nee­ring specia­list and thus successfully complete the restruc­tu­ring process of recent years.

As one of the few full-range suppli­ers, SAV can draw on many years of exper­tise in magne­tic, rotary and statio­nary clam­ping and auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons, giving the company a high level of solu­tion compe­tence for all clam­ping tech­no­logy requi­re­ments in a wide range of indus­tries. Well-known compa­nies from the fields of mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, trans­port and traf­fic, agri­cul­tu­ral tech­no­logy, aero­space and medi­cal tech­no­logy are among SAV’s custo­mer port­fo­lio. Inde­pen­dent product deve­lo­p­ments form a focal point of the further orientation.

SAV is also incre­asingly rely­ing on intel­li­gent auto­ma­tion concepts, such as the robot cell deve­lo­ped in-house. Martin Schach­erl, Mana­ging Direc­tor of SAV, is very plea­sed with the new inves­tor: “With BayBG, we have gained a very expe­ri­en­ced new part­ner. The newly acqui­red network and the addi­tio­nal capi­tal give us the free­dom to leverage growth poten­tial, for further deve­lo­p­ments and for opening up new markets. We are convin­ced that the coope­ra­tion will be very successful for both sides.”

Thomas Becher, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger of BayBG, adds: “We were parti­cu­larly convin­ced by the expe­ri­en­ced and compe­tent SAV manage­ment team. With its consis­tent further focus on beco­ming an engi­nee­ring specia­list, the company is tapping addi­tio­nal poten­tial as a provi­der of clam­ping tech­no­logy solutions.”

About BayBG
With an inves­ted volume of more than 300 million euros, BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH is one of the largest venture capi­tal and private equity inves­tors and provi­ders of mezza­nine finance for medium-sized compa­nies. It curr­ently has a commit­ment of over 300 million euros. With its venture capi­tal and equity invest­ments, it enables medium-sized compa­nies and start-ups to imple­ment inno­va­tion and growth projects, arrange for company succes­sion or opti­mize their capi­tal structure.

News

Berlin — Fly Ventures was able to raise its second venture capi­tal fund. Like the first gene­ra­tion of funds, Fly Ventures II, with a total volume of 53 million euros, focu­ses its invest­ment on tech­no­logy start­ups. Fly Ventures (photo from left to right: Gabriel Matuschka, Marie Wenne­gren, Felix Wolf, Matt Wichrow­ski, David Mali­gne, Frede­rik Bergen­lid) recei­ved compre­hen­sive legal, regu­la­tory and tax advice on the struc­tu­ring of the fund from a team led by SMP part­ner Jens Kretz­schmann.

“Espe­ci­ally in these chal­len­ging times, it is important to set an exam­ple and signal that topics such as deep tech must conti­nue to be advan­ced despite econo­mic uncer­tain­ties” says Jens Kretzschmann.

About Fly Ventures
Fly Ventures is an early-stage inves­tor based in Berlin. The Berlin-based VC has its invest­ment focus on deep-tech start­ups. The main focus here is on soft­ware compa­nies that use machine lear­ning to drive busi­ness auto­ma­tion. The VC fund was one of the first of a new gene­ra­tion in Europe to specia­lize in one sector rather than being gene­ral or purely local.

Advi­sor Fly Ventures: SMP
Jens Kretz­schmann (lead), Part­ner; Julian Albrecht, Asso­cia­ted Part­ner; David John, Asso­ciate; Michael Blank, Asso­ciate; Florian Wilbrink, Associate.

About SMP
SMP is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of corpo­rate, funds, liti­ga­tion, tax and tran­sac­tions. SMP attor­neys and tax advi­sors repre­sent 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. Since its foun­da­tion in 2017, SMP has become one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners have been reco­gni­zed natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, SMP employs over 50 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers and tax advi­sors in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.

News

Berlin — 468 Capi­tal is a new heavy­weight among German venture capi­ta­lists. The focus of the new fund is on young deep-tech compa­nies. The fund, with a volume of 170 million euros, plans to support start­ups from the machine lear­ning, open source and auto­ma­tion segments. 468 Capi­tal is backed by ex-Rocket Inter­net foun­ders Alex­an­der Kudlich and Ludwig Enstha­ler as well as Meso­phere foun­der Florian Leibert. The capi­tal raised comes from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, successful foun­ders and larger family offices. 468 Capi­tal recei­ved compre­hen­sive legal, regu­la­tory and tax advice on the struc­tu­ring of the fund from a team led by SMP part­ners Helder Schnitt­ker (photo: SMP) and Stephan Bank. 468 Capi­tal has also alre­ady relied on SMP’s exper­tise on the tran­sac­tion side.

468 Capi­tal’s first invest­ments include Enerige plat­form Frequency, Karls­ruhe-based graphics app Vector­na­tor — an invest­ment Leibert likes to talk about as a compe­ti­tor to top dog Adobe — and vete­ri­nary media­tor Felmo. The focus of the fund is to be on highly tech­ni­cal invest­ments in Europe.

“The launch of this fund is forward-looking for the deep tech indus­try.” says Helder Schnitt­ker. “468 Capi­tal is advan­cing important topics such as machine lear­ning, open source and auto­ma­tion through this fund.”

About 468 Capital
468 Capi­tal is a Berlin-based invest­ment firm specia­li­zing in invest­ment manage­ment and finan­cial services. The company focu­ses on inves­t­ing in compa­nies that specia­lize in provi­ding energy plat­form frequency and high-tech invest­ments. 468 Capi­tal was foun­ded by Alex­an­der Kudlich, Ludwig Enstha­ler and Florian Leibert.

About SMP
SMP is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of corpo­rate, funds, liti­ga­tion, tax and tran­sac­tions. SMP attor­neys and tax advi­sors repre­sent 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. Since its foun­da­tion in 2017, SMP has become one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners have been reco­gni­zed natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, SMP employs over 50 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers and tax advi­sors in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.

Advi­sor 468 Capi­tal: SMP
Helder Schnitt­ker (Lead), Part­ner, Stephan Bank (Lead), Part­ner, Benja­min Ullrich, Part­ner , Lenn­art Lorenz, Part­ner, Jens Kretz­schmann, Part­ner, Matthias Enge, Asso­ciate Part­ner, Adrian Haase, Senior Asso­ciate, Niklas Ulrich, Asso­ciate, David John, Asso­ciate, Mirco Zantopp, Asso­ciate, Florian Wilbrink, Associate.

 

News

GOF advi­ses EQT Infra­struc­ture II in connec­tion with the sale of Hector Rail Group to Ancala Infrastructure

Munich, June 18, 2020 — Corpo­rate law firms Vinge and Gütt Olk Feld­haus advi­sed EQT Infra­struc­ture II in connec­tion with the conclu­sion of an agree­ment to sell Hector Rail Group (photo: Hector Rail) to Ancala’s Euro­pean Infra­struc­ture Fund II. Vinge acted as lead coun­sel; GOF advi­sed on the German legal aspects of the transaction.

Hector Rail is the largest private rail freight opera­tor in Scan­di­na­via and has signi­fi­cant opera­ti­ons in Germany. With a fleet of over 100 loco­mo­ti­ves and 400 employees, inclu­ding about 250 drivers, the company trans­ports goods for a wide range of custo­mers. — EQT Infra­struc­ture II had acqui­red Hector Rail in Novem­ber 2014.

Legal advi­sors EQT:
Vinge, Stock­holm: Daniel Rosvall, Karl Klacken­berg, Milad Kamali, Olivia Belding (all M&A), Mikael Ståhl, Axel Jans­son (both Banking/Finance), Mathilda Pers­son (Commer­cial Agree­ments) and Kris­toffer Säll­fors (Regu­la­tory).
Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich: Dr. Tilmann Gütt (Part­ner, Banking/Finance, Lead), Thomas Becker (of Coun­sel, IP/IT/Software), Chris­to­pher Ghabel (Senior Asso­ciate, Banking/Finance), Karl Ehren­berg (Asso­ciate, M&A).
Held Jagut­tis, Colo­gne: Dr. Simeon Held, Dr. Malte Jagut­tis, Bernard Altpe­ter (all Regulatory)

About Gütt Olk Feldhaus
Gütt Olk Feld­haus is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm based in Munich. We provide compre­hen­sive advice on commer­cial and corpo­rate law. Our focus is on corpo­rate law, M&A, private equity and finan­cing. In these specia­list areas we also take on the litigation.

News

Berlin — Raue advi­sed early-stage inves­tor signals Venture Capi­tal on its invest­ment in start-up zenloop in a Series A finan­cing round. The finan­cing round totals €6.1 million. In addi­tion to signals Venture Capi­tal, the inves­tors also included the old inves­tors Nauta Capi­tal and Piton Capi­tal, which had joined zenloop as share­hol­ders a year ago. Photo: Markus Polke (left), Chris­tian Weni­ger, Signals Venture.

zenloop GmbH offers soft­ware that allows compa­nies to evaluate feed­back from their custo­mers or users.

signals Venture Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent early-stage inves­tor based in Berlin, foun­ded by the Signal Iduna Group. signals Venture Capi­tal invests prima­rily in tech compa­nies and focu­ses on seed to Series B finan­cing rounds.

Advi­sor signals Venture Capi­tal, Berlin: Raue
Dr. Jörg Jaecks (Part­ner, Lead, Corporate/M&A/Venture Capi­tal), Manuel Milde (Senior Asso­ciate, Labor Law), Dr. Max Fabian Starke (Asso­ciate, IP/IT), Fabian Massen­berg (Asso­ciate, Corporate/ M&A/Venture Capital).

About zenloop
zenloop is the leading inte­gra­ted expe­ri­ence manage­ment plat­form (IXM). The SaaS solu­tion auto­ma­ti­cally coll­ects custo­mer feed­back through various chan­nels along the custo­mer jour­ney, analy­zes and clus­ters it, and deri­ves tail­o­red measu­res to retain satis­fied custo­mers as well as win back chur­ning custo­mers. The zenloop soft­ware can be seam­lessly inte­gra­ted into solu­ti­ons such as Sales­force, Spry­ker, Emar­sys, Zendesk, Slack, or Shop­ify or used as an addi­tion to the exis­ting tech stack. The zenloop custo­mer port­fo­lio includes brands such as Momox, Douglas, Peek & Clop­pen­burg, A.T.U, Mister Spex, Food­spring, Carhartt, and Jochen Schwei­zer. The company was foun­ded in 2016 by the two former Flaconi foun­ders Björn Kolbmül­ler and Paul Schwar­zen­holz as well as Lukasz Lazew­ski and is based in Berlin with more than 50 employees.

News

Berlin — SMP advi­sed Berlin-based proptech Home­day on its latest finan­cing round. The joint venture consis­ting of Axel Sprin­ger and Purple­bricks is again inves­t­ing in the company. As part of this finan­cing round with a total volume of 40 million euros, the joint venture increa­ses its stake in Home­day to over 54%. Accor­ding to its own state­ments, the online portal, which specia­li­zes in the brokerage of brokers, plans to invest the capi­tal raised in tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment and further expan­sion. Home­day recei­ved compre­hen­sive legal advice from SMP part­ners Martin Scha­per and Peter Möllmann.

About Home­day
Home­day is a proptech company based in Berlin. In 2015, Home­day was foun­ded by Stef­fen Wicker, Dmitri Uvarov­ski and Phil­ipp Reichle and has since been broke­ring real estate agents across Germany via its online plat­form. The tech­no­logy company employs around 200 people and 180 inde­pen­dent Home­day brokers across Germany.

About SMP
SMP is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of corpo­rate, funds, liti­ga­tion, tax and tran­sac­tions. SMP attor­neys and tax advi­sors repre­sent 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. Since its foun­da­tion in 2017, SMP has become one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners have been reco­gni­zed natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, SMP employs over 50 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers and tax advi­sors in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.

Advi­sors to Home­day: SMP Schnitt­ker Möll­mann Partners
Dr. Martin Scha­per, Photo (Lead), Partner
Dr. Peter Möll­mann, Partner

News

Frank­furt am Main — The part­ner­ship of Allen & Overy has appoin­ted Dr. Wolf Bussian, LL.M. (43, photo) has been appoin­ted as the new Mana­ging Part­ner for Allen & Over­y’s German offices. He succeeds Thomas Ubber (Senior Part­ner) and Dr. Astrid Krüger (Mana­ging Part­ner) in the same posi­tion. The successful term of office of Thomas Ubber and Astrid Krüger ended as sche­du­led on April 30, 2020. Due to the phase of inten­sive Corona rest­ric­tions, they had still contin­ued their work for a tran­si­tio­nal period.

Wolf Bussian was admit­ted to the bar in 2005. He joined Allen & Overy in 2013 as a part­ner in the Liti­ga­tion & Arbi­tra­tion prac­tice group, which he has led for two years. He specia­li­zes in complex and large-volume dispu­tes and inves­ti­ga­ti­ons in the finan­cial sector.
“On behalf of the part­ner­ship, I would like to thank Thomas Ubber and Astrid Krüger for their dedi­ca­tion and the successful deve­lo­p­ment of Allen & Over­y’s German offices in recent years,” said Wolf Bussian on taking office. With Bussian, a part­ner who has demons­tra­ted leader­ship and busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment skills is once again taking on respon­si­bi­lity. Bussian will use the next four years to conti­nue Allen & Over­y’s successful deve­lo­p­ment: “These are chal­len­ging times for all of us — our employees, our clients and our society. We are guiding our clients around the world through the econo­mic crisis trig­ge­red by the coronavirus.”
The new Mana­ging Part­ner relies on the strengths of Allen & Overy: “In such diffi­cult situa­tions there are also unique oppor­tu­ni­ties. Our part­ners and staff demons­trate enorm­ous flexi­bi­lity, inno­va­tive strength, relia­bi­lity and soli­da­rity even in these times. Toge­ther, we will shape our legal advice in an inno­va­tive and future-proof way.”

About Allen & Overy
Allen & Overy is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with appro­xi­m­ately 5,500 employees, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately 550 part­ners, in more than 40 loca­ti­ons world­wide. Allen & Overy is repre­sen­ted in Germany at its offices in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg and Munich with appro­xi­m­ately 220 lawy­ers, inclu­ding 47 part­ners. The lawy­ers advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies prima­rily in the areas of banking, finance and capi­tal markets law, corpo­rate law and M&A, tax law as well as other areas of busi­ness law.

News

Berlin — The legal soft­ware company Bryter wants to expand its US busi­ness with a finan­cing round of 16 million dollars (about 14 million euros). She plans to open an office in New York in the fall. Series A is led by Dawn Capi­tal and Accel.

Accel has alre­ady been invol­ved since last year’s seed round, when the startup raised six million dollars (about 5.5 million euros) in a late-seed round, and is now expan­ding its stake. Exis­ting inves­tors Notion Capi­tal, Chal­fen Ventures and Cavalry Ventures are also parti­ci­pa­ting in the Series A.

Bryter opened an office in London last year, and now New York is on the sche­dule for the fall. Bryter intends to invest the new capi­tal prima­rily in expan­ding the US repre­sen­ta­tive office.

Michael Grupp, CEO (photo center, M. Hübl left, M. Bues right): “BRYTER is deve­lo­ping soft­ware that can be used to deve­lop inter­ac­tive appli­ca­ti­ons for decis­ion auto­ma­tion, inclu­ding for lawy­ers. One can visua­lize and digi­tize complex decis­i­ons with the soft­ware.” Bryter’s custo­mers include many legal depart­ments and law firms, which can create custo­mi­zed appli­ca­ti­ons based on the no-code soft­ware it offers, such as virtual assistants, chat­bots and auto­ma­tion tools.

Advi­sors to Dawn Capi­tal: Schnitt­ker Möll­mann Part­ners (Berlin)
Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Lead Part­ner); Asso­ciate: Daniela Machado (both Venture Capital)

Advi­sor Accel: Osborne Clarke (Colo­gne)
Nico­las Gabrysch (Venture Capital)

Cavalry Ventures: Hyac­inth (Berlin)
Kris­tian Lutz; Asso­ciate: Johan­nes Steinacher (both Venture Capital)

Advi­sor Bryter: Taylor Wessing (Hamburg)
Dr. Jens Wolf (lead); Asso­ciate: Phil­ipp Hoegl (both M&A/Venture Capital)
Inhouse Legal (Berlin): Konstan­tin Heil­mann (Senior Legal Counsel)

 

News

Munich — British inves­tor Bail­lie Gifford is inves­t­ing $35 million in Munich-based air cab deve­lo­per Lilium. Gifford is Tesla’s largest inves­tor after Elon Musk.

Most recently, Chinese Inter­net group Tencent, Atomico, Frei­geist and LGT inves­ted $240 million in the company. A total of 275 million was thus inves­ted in Lilium in the current invest­ment round. In this latest round of funding, Lilium reaches a billion-dollar valua­tion. The air cab manu­fac­tu­rer was foun­ded in 2015 by four engi­neers Daniel Wiegand, Sebas­tian Born, Patrick Nathen and Matthias Meiner.

The German startup has deve­lo­ped an all-elec­tric passen­ger jet (photo Lilium) that can take off and land vertically.

News

London — IK Invest­ment Part­ners (“IK” or “the Firm”), a leading Pan-Euro­pean private equity firm, is plea­sed to announce that it has closed its ninth Mid Cap fund, the IK IX Fund (“the Fund”), having reached its hard cap of €2.85 billion. IK’s previous Mid Cap fund, IK VIII, raised €1.85 billion in 2016.

The fund­raise attrac­ted signi­fi­cant inte­rest from a high-quality insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tor base across Europe (60%), North America (30%), Asia (7%) and South America (3%), with over a third of the money raised coming from new limi­ted part­ners inves­t­ing in IK funds for the first time.

Reflec­ting the opera­tio­nal strength of the Firm and its local market foot­print with seven offices across Europe, the Fund will conti­nue to invest across its core markets of the Nordics, the DACH region, France and the Bene­lux. The successful stra­tegy of support­ing growing and resi­li­ent Mid Cap busi­nesses in the Busi­ness Services, Consu­mer / Food, Engi­nee­red Products and Health­care sectors remains in place.

Chris­to­pher Masek, IK CEO (photo)said: “We are grateful for the confi­dence of our inves­tors in our active approach to trans­forming Euro­pean mid-market compa­nies through inter­na­tio­nal reach and shar­pe­ned opera­tio­nal capa­ci­ties. We are confi­dent that the IK IX Fund is well posi­tio­ned to leverage the strengths and expe­ri­ence acqui­red over 30 years in this new envi­ron­ment of change and opportunity.”

Mads Ryum Larsen, Head of IR and a Mana­ging Part­ner, said:
“We are deligh­ted to welcome both new and exis­ting inves­tors to IK IX, our largest ever fund. With our expan­ded team and on-the-ground exper­tise in all the markets we operate, we have never been better placed to seek out oppor­tu­ni­ties and support attrac­tive busi­nesses across Europe.”

Kirk­land & Ellis LLP acted as the legal coun­sel to the Fund.

This press release is not an offer of secu­ri­ties for sale in the United States or any other juris­dic­tion and inte­rests in the Fund may not be offe­red or sold in the United States or any other juris­dic­tions save in accordance with appli­ca­ble law.

About IK Invest­ment Partners
IK Invest­ment Part­ners (“IK”) is a Pan-Euro­pean private equity firm focu­sed on invest­ments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, Bene­lux, and the UK. Since 1989, IK has nearly €13 billion of capi­tal and inves­ted in over 130 Euro­pean compa­nies. Across its stra­te­gies, IK funds support compa­nies with strong under­ly­ing poten­tial, part­ne­ring with manage­ment teams and inves­tors to create robust, well-posi­tio­ned busi­nesses with excel­lent long-term pros­pects. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.ikinvest.com

News

Berlin — Plus­Den­tal has closed a EUR 32 million Series C finan­cing round. The core of the Plus­Den­tal busi­ness is the sale of trans­pa­rent dental trays and the digi­tiza­tion of denti­stry. In addi­tion to the exis­ting inves­tors HV Holtz­brinck Ventures and Lake­star , PING AN and Chris­tian Wegner are also parti­ci­pa­ting in Plus­Den­tal’s finan­cing round. Plus­DEn­tal was advi­sed by Dr. Clemens Waitz, Sabine Röth, Dr. Jan Heerma and Lorenz Frey from the law firm Vogel Heerma Waitz.

This makes the Berlin-based start-up, foun­ded in 2017, one of Euro­pe’s leading health tech compa­nies with a total valua­tion of over 100 million euros. Plus­Den­tal is led by indus­trial engi­neer and expe­ri­en­ced mana­ger Eva-Maria Meij­nen (photo), former McKin­sey consul­tant Dr. Peter Baum­gart and well-known entre­pre­neur and angel inves­tor Lukas Bros­se­der, who alre­ady successfully took his previous company public in New York.

Plus­Den­tal’s mission is to provide all pati­ents with access to high-quality and inno­va­tive denti­stry. As a pioneer in digi­tiza­tion, Plus­Den­tal has mana­ged to become the leading Euro­pean digi­tiza­tion part­ner for dentists after just two and a half years and has so far mana­ged over 15,000 dental correc­tions in Germany, Austria, Switz­er­land, the UK and Spain at the highest medi­cal level.

Among the well-known inves­tors such as HV Holtz­brinck Ventures and Lake­star, Chris­tian Wegner, foun­der of the Berlin-based re-commerce plat­form Momox, was joined by Hong Kong-based insu­rance group Ping An through its Global Voya­ger Fund. Ping An, as a tech­no­logy-based finan­cial services company and a global leader in tele-medi­cine, opera­tes the “Ping An Good Doctor” plat­form with over 700,000 digi­tal doctor visits daily. Plus­Den­tal thus bene­fits not only from the high invest­ment volume but also from a wealth of expe­ri­ence and in-depth know­ledge in the field of digi­tal medicine.

Plus­Den­tal consul­tants: Vogel Heerma Waitz
Dr. Clemens Waitz, Sabine Röth, Dr. Jan Heerma, Lorenz Frey

About Vogel Heerma Waitz
Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media that has been opera­ting since May 2014

News

Düssel­dorf — ARQIS advi­sed Omnes Capi­tal on the closing of a solar energy joint venture with German solar power deve­lo­per ILOS New Energy. The French private equity firm invests through its Capen­er­gie 4 fund.

The fund is dedi­ca­ted to rene­wa­ble energy and now has three invest­ments in its port­fo­lio. He part­ne­red with Spain’s Proso­lia Energy and became invol­ved with Danish solar energy provi­der Better Energy. Further tran­sac­tions are curr­ently being exami­ned and are alre­ady at an advan­ced stage.

The goal of the Capen­er­gie funds is to provide growth capi­tal to support Euro­pean rene­wa­ble energy deve­lo­pers on their way to beco­ming inde­pen­dent energy produ­cers. The current tran­sac­tion illus­tra­tes this strategy.

ILOS New Energy is an inter­na­tio­nal solar power deve­lo­per based in Germany and was foun­ded by Michael Winter and Niko­laus Krane, two experts in utility systems and the solar indus­try. The aim of the part­ner­ship is to create a plat­form for pan-Euro­pean solar power projects with a total capa­city of more than 1.5 GW. The company alre­ady has a project pipe­line that includes a total capa­city of more than 500 MW in the Nether­lands, Ireland, the United King­dom, Spain and Italy. The part­ner­ship with Omnes comes with the inten­tion of beco­ming an inde­pen­dent power produ­cer across multi­ple markets.

Advi­sors to Omnes Capi­tal: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düssel­dorf)
Dr. Mirjam Boche (Lead; M&A); Coun­sel: Dr. Gerhard Schwartz (Energy; Munich); Asso­cia­tes: Thomas Chwa­lek, Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Back­haus (both M&A)

About ARQIS
ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent law firm opera­ting in Germany and Japan. The firm was foun­ded in 2006 at its current offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo. Around 55 employees advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on the core issues of German and Japa­nese busi­ness law. The focus is on M&A, corpo­rate law, private equity, venture capi­tal, employ­ment law, private clients, intellec­tual property, liti­ga­tion as well as real estate law and tax law.

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