Author: Tatjana Anderer

Düssel­dorf — The SCIO Auto­ma­tion Group has joined forces with Elek­tro Eggers. SCIO Auto­ma­tion, the inter­na­tio­nal group of compa­nies for indus­trial auto­ma­tion, is thus expan­ding its service port­fo­lio in the Process Solu­ti­ons divi­sion to include essen­tial services in the areas of PLC programming and switch­gear cons­truc­tion. At the same time, the resul­ting syner­gies will streng­then SCIO Auto­ma­ti­on’s market posi­tion and open up further custo­mer segments in the areas of water treat­ment, food and pet food produc­tion and pharmaceuticals. 

The SCIO Auto­ma­tion Group, head­quar­te­red in Fran­ken­thal, Germany, is an inter­na­tio­nal end-to-end auto­ma­tion plat­form that supports compa­nies on their way to Indus­try 4.0. As a system inte­gra­tor, SCIO auto­ma­tes produc­tion and logi­stics proces­ses and, as an inno­va­tor, deve­lops value-adding and custo­mer-speci­fic auto­ma­tion products in the areas of auto­no­mous mobile robots, soft­ware, clean­room and food intra­lo­gi­stics and indus­trial coding. The Group unites seve­ral compa­nies and other indi­vi­dual brands at over 40 loca­ti­ons in eight count­ries world­wide under the SCIO Auto­ma­tion brand. 

Elek­tro Eggers GmbH, based in Grasberg, Lower Saxony, is an auto­ma­tion specia­list focu­sing on PLC programming, process control tech­no­logy, hard­ware design, engi­nee­ring services and elec­tri­cal assem­bly and instal­la­tion. Within the SCIO Auto­ma­tion Group, Elek­tro Eggers will be inte­gra­ted as a subsi­diary of VESCON Process GmbH, which also has loca­ti­ons in Colo­gne, Krif­tel, Flens­burg and Schuby. 

An ARQIS team led by Thomas Chwa­lek provi­ded SCIO Auto­ma­tion with compre­hen­sive legal advice on this tran­sac­tion. ARQIS advi­sed SCIO Auto­ma­tion for the first time in connec­tion with this merger. 

Advi­sor SCIO Auto­ma­tion: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Part­ners: Thomas Chwa­lek, Foto (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP, Munich), Coun­sel: Chris­tian Judis (Compli­ance, Munich), Jens Knip­ping (Tax), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial, Munich), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (HR Law), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Chris­tos Chou­de­lou­dis (Tran­sac­tions), Tim Brese­mann (Real Estate), Rolf Tichy (IP, Munich), Asso­cia­tes: Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial, Munich), Dr. Bern­hard Gröhe (Regu­la­tory), Marius Mesen­brink (Japan Desk), Anna Munsch (HR Law), Senior Legal Specia­list: Qing Xia (Tran­sac­tions), Legal Specia­list: Tim Kott­mann (HR Law)

Berlin — Berlin-based n8n, an AI work­flow auto­ma­tion plat­form for tech­ni­cal teams, has closed its EUR 55 million Series B funding round. The finan­cing round was led by High­land Europe with parti­ci­pa­tion from HV Capi­tal and previous inves­tors Sequoia, Feli­cis and Harpoon. The Ameri­can venture capi­ta­lists are convin­ced that inves­t­ing in N8n is worthwhile. 

Florian Kozok and Sinje Clau­sen of V14 have advi­sed Berlin-based n8n, an AI work­flow auto­ma­tion plat­form for tech­ni­cal teams, on a EUR 55 million Series B finan­cing round.

After a year of explo­sive growth, n8n has passed the 200,000 active user mark. Foun­der Jan Ober­hau­ser comes from the Allgäu region. He will use this Series B funding to further invest in tech­no­logy, expand his team and expand into new markets, such as the USA. — n8n is desi­gned to help compa­nies and their employees to auto­mate certain tasks that need to be done over and over again. Various programs can be linked toge­ther for this purpose, such as Slack, Google Sheets or Telegram. 

Connec­ting and inter­ac­ting with Slack, Tele­gram and Google Sheets? This networ­king is orga­ni­zed by the start-up N8n. The Berlin-based company has raised 12 million euros in a recent finan­cing round. Jan Ober­hau­ser is the brains behind N8n and foun­ded the start-up in 2019. He was able to raise 1.5 million dollars in a seed finan­cing round at the begin­ning of 2020 — inclu­ding venture capi­ta­list Sequoia Capi­tal, which has rarely inves­ted in German start-ups to date and is one of the inves­tors behind Linke­din, Whats­app and Airbnb. 

Consul­tant: V14, Berlin

Florian Kozok, Sinje Clau­sen

The law firm V14

V14 is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media.
www.v14.de

Munich — Early­bird Venture Capi­tal leads EUR 2.3m finan­cing round at peop­leIX. neoteq ventures, TS Ventures and HRTech Busi­ness Angels also parti­ci­pa­ted. peop­leIX is an AI-powered people intel­li­gence plat­form that enables orga­niza­ti­ons to conso­li­date, analyze and act on key people data. By focu­sing on intui­tive, no-code analy­tics, peop­leIX helps compa­nies improve their produc­ti­vity, employee reten­tion and recruitment. 

Dr. Simon Pfef­ferle and Sven Demar­c­zyk from the law firm V14 advi­sed Early­bird Venture Capi­tal on the finan­cing round.

Advi­sor Early­bird: V14

Dr. Simon Pfef­ferle (Photo: V14)
Sven Demarczyk

The law firm V14

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

Colo­gne — The Colo­gne-based pricing and reve­nue opti­miza­tion startup Buyno­mics has closed a Series B finan­cing round of 30 million US dollars. Parti­ci­pants in the Series B included the Swiss early-growth inves­tor Forestay Capi­tal, the Swiss inves­tor Anais Ventures, VI Part­ners, Insight Part­ners, Seed­camp, DvH Ventures and Toma­hawk. Buyno­mics was advi­sedon this tran­sac­tion by HEUKING. 

Insight Part­ners, La Fami­glia, Seed­camp, DvH Ventures and Toma­hawk had previously inves­ted 13 million euros in the company.

Foun­ded in 2018, Buyno­mics offers a commer­cial opera­ting system that helps compa­nies opti­mize their pricing, promo­ti­ons and product port­fo­lios by simu­la­ting the beha­vior of real shop­pers. Custo­mers include Danone, Unile­ver, L’Oréal and Voda­fone. This enables compa­nies to improve their sales, profi­ta­bi­lity and market posi­tion in real time across diffe­rent regi­ons and products. Buyno­mics is a clear leader in its field, with well-known custo­mers in various indus­tries and regi­ons and one technology. 

The capi­tal provi­ded by new and exis­ting inves­tors will be used to drive inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment of AI-based price opti­miza­tion technology.

Advi­sor Buyno­mics: HEUKING

Dr. Oliver Bött­cher, Foto (lead)
Mark Ross­broich, LL.M. (King’s College London) (both Private Equity / Venture Capi­tal), both Cologne,
Fabian G. Gaffron (Tax Law), Hamburg,
Chris­toph Hexel (Employ­ment Law), Düsseldorf,
Dr. Lutz Martin Keppe­ler (IP, Media & Tech­no­logy), Cologne,
Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (Anti­trust Law), Hamburg,
Michael Kömpel, and Meike Dani­els (both Private Equity / Venture Capi­tal), both Cologne

Cologne/Berlin/Hamburg — YPOG has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the up-and-coming start-up Rema­tiq on the struc­tu­ring and imple­men­ta­tion of a modern employee parti­ci­pa­tion program. Rema­tiq uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to auto­mate regu­la­tory proces­ses in medi­cal tech­no­logy to help compa­nies achieve market appr­ovals faster and more efficiently. 

The model chosen by Rema­tiq enables employees to obtain a genuine, indi­rect stake in the company’s shares — an attrac­tive and sustainable alter­na­tive to tradi­tio­nal virtual parti­ci­pa­tion models (VSOP). A key advan­tage is the tax relief under Section 19a of the German Income Tax Act (EStG), which was crea­ted speci­fi­cally for young compa­nies. This regu­la­tion enables start-ups such as Rema­tiq to retain their employees in the company in the long term and give them a genuine share in the company’s econo­mic success. 

About Rema­tiq

Rema­tiq is an inno­va­tive start-up that uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to auto­mate regu­la­tory proces­ses in medi­cal tech­no­logy. The company supports manu­fac­tu­r­ers in making appr­oval proce­du­res more effi­ci­ent and getting to market faster. By using state-of-the-art tech­no­lo­gies, Rema­tiq helps to reduce bureau­cra­tic hurd­les and streng­then the inno­va­tive power of the indus­try. https://rematiq.com/

With this step, Rema­tiq is laying the foun­da­tion for further growth and plans to further deve­lop its tech­no­logy in order to make regu­la­tory proces­ses in the medi­cal tech­no­logy sector even more effi­ci­ent and to expand internationally.

Advi­sor Rema­tiq: YPOG
Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Cologne
Dr. Sebas­tian Schwarz (Tax), Part­ner, Berlin
Nina Ahlert (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Dr. Jannik Zerbst (Funds), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Elena Lessing (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Laura Franke (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Project Lawyer, Cologne

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice. The firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity and jointly crea­ting opti­mal solu­ti­ons. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion, Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in Germany for venture capi­tal, private equity, fund struc­tu­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons of distri­bu­ted ledger tech­no­logy (DLT) in finan­cial services. YPOG employs more than 150 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists as well as a notary in its offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich.

Landshut/Munich — Bayern Kapi­tal, the venture and growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, is inves­t­ing in Vantis, an inno­va­tive provi­der of hybrid care for chro­ni­cally ill pati­ents using digi­tal solu­ti­ons in combi­na­tion with regu­lar visits to the doctor, through its Bayern 2 growth fund. — Twip Impact Ventures and the exis­ting inves­tors first­mi­nute capi­tal and b2venture are also parti­ci­pa­ting in the Series A finan­cing round led by Ange­lini Ventures in the double-digit million range. 

The funds from the finan­cing round will prima­rily be used to further expand the team and the data-driven, proac­tive manage­ment of chro­ni­cally ill pati­ents, as well as to expand the network of GP prac­ti­ces opera­ted by Vantis.

When caring for pati­ents with chro­nic illnesses, such as cardio­vas­cu­lar dise­a­ses, it is important to provide regu­lar outpa­ti­ent care and acute emer­gency care as well as conti­nuous long-term care and support for pati­ents in their ever­y­day lives, ideally tail­o­red to their indi­vi­dual needs. The latter in parti­cu­lar are often complex and require conti­nuous moni­to­ring of the pati­en­t’s state of health and vital signs. At the same time, the demand for appro­priate care is conti­nuously incre­asing as demo­gra­phic change progres­ses, while a shortage of doctors is threa­tening to lead to a lack of care, parti­cu­larly in rural regi­ons. Hubert Aiwan­ger (Bava­rian Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs) explains: “Demo­gra­phic change and the resul­ting increase in the number of chro­nic illnesses in the popu­la­tion means that inno­va­tive approa­ches are needed for the health­care system. With its combi­na­tion of digi­tal and perso­nal care, Vantis shows what such inno­va­tions can look like. The company is a good exam­ple of a Bava­rian company that is successful on the market as a ‘first mover’ with a future-proof busi­ness model. It demons­tra­tes the inno­va­tive strength and future viabi­lity of the Bava­rian tech­no­logy sector.” 

Vantis addres­ses the chall­enge of under­sup­ply in particular.

The company has set itself the goal of ensu­ring opti­mal care and making it simp­ler and more effi­ci­ent for pati­ents and doctors. Foun­ded in 2019, the company combi­nes inno­va­tive digi­tal treat­ment methods such as tele­me­di­cine, data-driven remote moni­to­ring and support from arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) with tail­o­red, pati­ent-cente­red care from GPs to create digi­tal long-term therapy for chro­ni­cally ill patients. 

“The digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of the health­care system requi­res considera­ble invest­ment to ensure that ever­yone bene­fits in the end — doctors, pati­ents and payers. As a digi­tal health­care company with our own prac­ti­ces, we have the unique oppor­tu­nity to tailor our tech­no­logy to the current and future chal­lenges in GP care and to conti­nuously opti­mize it. Our goal is to achieve better treat­ment outco­mes for pati­ents and to make doctors’ ever­y­day work easier so that they can focus more on medi­cal care,” says Till Jansen, CEO of Vantis.

“We invest in young compa­nies that are prepared to chall­enge the status quo and bring inno­va­tions to the market. With the combi­na­tion of its own GP prac­ti­ces and comple­men­tary digi­tal health appli­ca­ti­ons, Vantis is pursuing the goal of sustain­ably impro­ving GP care for doctors and pati­ents. This forward-looking stra­tegy makes Vantis a promi­sing invest­ment for us. The company offers a solu­tion that is in tune with the times and addres­ses the growing requi­re­ments in the health­care market. In addi­tion, Vantis has a diver­si­fied, solid busi­ness model and attrac­tive growth pros­pects,” says Monika Steger (photo), Co-Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal.

About Vantis

Vantis is a Munich-based company and a pioneer in digi­tal health­care. The company addres­ses one of the biggest chal­lenges in the German health­care system: more pati­ents, fewer doctors. Through the targe­ted use of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies and inno­va­tive treat­ment methods, Vantis combi­nes the best of medi­cine, tech­no­logy and effi­ci­ent prac­tice orga­niza­tion. To this end, Vantis is inves­t­ing in its own network of gene­ral medi­cal prac­ti­ces to ensure compre­hen­sive, future-proof medi­cal care. www.vantis-health.com/de/

About Bayern Kapital

Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, is the venture/growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria. It supports inno­va­tive high-tech and deep-tech compa­nies in Bava­ria through various growth phases, from seed to later stage, with equity capi­tal of EUR 0.25 to 25 million. Bayern Kapi­tal often closes gaps in the VC sector in proven consor­tium constel­la­ti­ons with private investors. 

Bayern Kapi­tal mana­ges specia­li­zed invest­ment funds with a volume of around 700 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion in 1995, the wholly-owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern has inves­ted over 500 million euros of its own equity capi­tal in more than 320 start-ups and scale-ups from sectors such as life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. This has crea­ted over 10,000 perma­nent jobs in sustainable compa­nies in Bava­ria. The active port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses almost 100 companies.

Examp­les of nume­rous ground­brea­king success stories that Bayern Kapi­tal has been invol­ved in at an early stage include EOS (today the worl­d’s leading tech­no­logy provi­der in indus­trial 3D prin­ting of metals and plas­tics), Proglove, Fazua, SimS­cale, Scom­pler, egym, Parcel­lab, Cobrai­ner, Quan­tum Systems, Casavi, Riskme­thods, Tubu­lis, Cata­lym, Immu­nic, Sirion, tado and many more. www.bayernkapital.de

Zug / Fried­richs­ha­fen — Funds advi­sed by BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”), the largest and most active mid-market private equity firm based in the DACH region, have ente­red into an agree­ment with Keen­sight Capi­tal (“Keen­sight”), one of Euro­pe’s leading growth buyout firms, under which Keen­sight will acquire a majo­rity stake in ACTICO Group. The Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal Fonds (“BU Funds”), the previous majo­rity share­hol­der since March 2021, as well as the manage­ment team of ACTICO Group will remain invol­ved via a reverse invest­ment and will conti­nue to closely support the expan­sion of the market posi­tion of the leading provi­der of soft­ware solu­ti­ons for regu­la­tory compli­ance and risk manage­ment in the long term. The plan is to acce­le­rate inter­na­tio­nal growth and conti­nuously expand the product range both orga­ni­cally and through acquisitions. 

ACTICO Group, with head­quar­ters in Fried­richs­ha­fen and four other loca­ti­ons, specia­li­zes in the intel­li­gent auto­ma­tion of compli­ance, asset manage­ment, regu­la­tory report­ing and credit proces­ses for finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons world­wide. The company stands for modern tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons that support finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons in comply­ing with growing regu­la­tory requi­re­ments and effec­tive risk manage­ment. ACTICO was foun­ded in 1997 and acqui­red by a German indus­trial group in 2008; in 2015, the manage­ment team sepa­ra­ted the company from the parent company as part of a carve-out. As part of a struc­tu­red busi­ness succes­sion, the company part­ne­red with the BU funds in 2021 to realize its growth plans and vision with a well-funded and soft­ware-expe­ri­en­ced new majo­rity shareholder. 

In close part­ner­ship, the orga­niza­tion and proces­ses were expan­ded in the follo­wing years and further profes­sio­na­li­zed for the strong growth ahead. Among other things, the company’s manage­ment was put on a broa­der footing, sales struc­tures were expan­ded and the IT infra­struc­ture was streng­the­ned. At the same time, signi­fi­cant invest­ments were made on the product side in areas such as cloud tech­no­logy, inte­grabi­lity, machine lear­ning and AI capa­bi­li­ties. In parti­cu­lar, the new deve­lo­p­ment of a credit risk plat­form and the trans­for­ma­tion of the ACTICO Compli­ance Suite into a cloud-native solu­tion also gene­ra­ted strong inte­rest outside the previous Euro­pean core market. In 2022, ACTICO Group acqui­red Fact Infor­ma­ti­ons­sys­teme und Consul­ting, a company specia­li­zing in the digi­ta­liza­tion of invest­ment manage­ment. The merger led to a signi­fi­cantly broa­der custo­mer base in the finan­cial sector, parti­cu­larly in the areas of fund compa­nies and insu­r­ers. In the course of the part­ner­ship with BU, ACTICO Group was thus able to record strong growth in its core market of Europe as well as strong momen­tum with new custo­mers in America and Asia, more than doubling its turno­ver. The Group is one of the market leaders in the DACH region and today serves more than 300 well-known compa­nies in the finan­cial sector worldwide. 

Hans Jürgen Rieder, CEO of the ACTICO Groupsays: “We would like to thank BU for their support over the past four years. The team has deve­lo­ped ACTICO Group with dedi­ca­tion and expe­ri­ence in the soft­ware indus­try and we are plea­sed that BU will conti­nue to be a valued part­ner under the new majo­rity owner­ship of Keen­sight. By part­ne­ring with Keen­sight, we can embark on the next phase of our growth. Keen­sigh­t’s expe­ri­ence in scaling soft­ware busi­nesses and their global network will enable ACTICO Group to capi­ta­lize on new oppor­tu­ni­ties in key markets and deli­ver even grea­ter value to our customers.”

Phil­ipp Struth (photo), Part­ner at BU, explains: “Over the past four years, we have actively supported ACTICO Group in deve­lo­ping its product port­fo­lio, buil­ding a strong manage­ment team and posi­tio­ning the company for sustainable growth. With this strong foun­da­tion, ACTICO Group is well posi­tio­ned for the next phase of scaling. We look forward to conti­nuing to support the fanta­stic team as a partner.”

Stanis­las de Tinguy, Part­ner at Keen­sight Capi­tal, added: “ACTICO Group is uniquely posi­tio­ned to capi­ta­lize on the rapidly evol­ving market for credit and compli­ance soft­ware. With its expe­ri­en­ced and inno­va­tive leader­ship team, we look forward to support­ing the company’s expan­sion and acce­le­ra­ting growth in exis­ting and new markets.”

About BU

BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) is a leading private equity firm with offices in Zug, Munich, Milan and London. With a total of €7.0 billion in capi­tal raised since incep­tion, BU is the largest mid-market private equity firm head­quar­te­red in the DACH region. The funds advi­sed by BU invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Germany, Switz­er­land, Italy and Austria. With the mission to be the prefer­red part­ner for entre­pre­neurs and family busi­nesses, BU focu­ses on part­ner­ships with market leaders and “hidden cham­pi­ons” with strong manage­ment teams and growth poten­tial. Since its foun­da­tion in 2015, the funds advi­sed by BU have inves­ted in more than 140 compa­nies with over 29,000 employees. Around 10,000 jobs have been crea­ted in the process. BU supports entre­pre­neurs and fami­lies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to further deve­lop, inter­na­tio­na­lize and digi­ta­lize their compa­nies, helping them to create sustainable value respon­si­bly and with a view to the next gene­ra­tion. — www.bu-partners.ch

About ACTICO Group

ACTICO Group is a leading inter­na­tio­nal provi­der of digi­tal solu­ti­ons for regu­la­tory compli­ance, invest­ment manage­ment, credit risk, data & report­ing and decis­ion auto­ma­tion. Its flexi­ble and agile soft­ware solu­ti­ons help compa­nies meet regu­la­tory requi­re­ments, opti­mize proces­ses and focus on growth with the help of AI-powered tech­no­logy. With over 25 years of expe­ri­ence, ACTICO Group serves more than 300 clients world­wide in the finan­cial, indus­trial and tech­no­logy sectors, provi­ding powerful solu­ti­ons with a clear focus on custo­mer success. The company opera­tes in six loca­ti­ons and employs a team of 230 people support­ing clients in over 25 count­ries. — www.acticogroup.com

About Keen­sight Capital

Keen­sight Capi­tal (“Keen­sight”), one of Euro­pe’s leading growth buyout firms, is dedi­ca­ted to helping entre­pre­neurs realize their growth stra­te­gies. With more than 25 years of expe­ri­ence and €5.5 billion in assets under manage­ment, the Keen­sight Capi­tal team lever­a­ges its diffe­ren­tia­ted private equity expe­ri­ence to invest in profi­ta­ble growth compa­nies with reve­nues between €10 million and €400 million. Drawing on its exper­tise in the tech­no­logy and health­care sectors, Keen­sight iden­ti­fies the best invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in Europe and works closely with manage­ment teams, provi­ding capi­tal, stra­te­gic advice and opera­tio­nal support. Keen­sight opera­tes in more than 90 count­ries world­wide and has offices in Paris, London, Boston and Singa­pore. — www.keensight.com

Tübin­gen — Selfapy GmbH, a digi­tal health pioneer for mental illness, has been acqui­red by the MEDICE Health Family, the Euro­pean market leader in the treat­ment of ADHD. As part of the tran­sac­tion, inves­tors SHS Capi­tal, Think.Health Ventures, IBB Ventures and HTGF sold their shares. 

Selfa­py’s CE-certi­fied medi­cal devices offer flexi­ble and quickly acces­si­ble online therapy programs for people with mental illnesses such as depres­sion, gene­ra­li­zed anxiety disor­der, buli­mia nervosa, binge eating disor­der and chro­nic pain. The programs are available as an app on smart­phones and tablets and can be prescri­bed by doctors or psychotherapists. 

The acqui­si­tion of Selfapy is another important step for the MEDICE Health Family on its way from a pure phar­maceu­ti­cal manu­fac­tu­rer to a provi­der of clini­cally vali­da­ted, multi­mo­dal health­care solu­ti­ons combi­ning phar­maceu­ti­cals, digi­tal solu­ti­ons and nutri­tio­nal concepts.

“We want to take even more compre­hen­sive care of pati­ents while also keeping an eye on current chal­lenges in the health­care system. This is why we have been expan­ding our strong core in the phar­maceu­ti­cal busi­ness for seve­ral years to include deve­lo­p­ments in the field of digi­tal health­care solu­ti­ons,” says Dr. Katja Pütter-Ammer, Mana­ging Part­ner of MEDICE, explai­ning the stra­tegy of the family-run company.

“Selfapy alre­ady accounts for 20% of all perma­nently listed DiGAs in the mental health sector. By joining forces with MEDICE and their strong ties to doctors and psycho­the­ra­pists, we can now work even more speci­fi­cally on reali­zing our vision so that no one with a mental illness has to wait for help. Toge­ther, we want to take digi­tal care to a new level and reach even more people faster and more effec­tively,” says Selfapy Mana­ging Direc­tor and CEO Adham Kassab.

Dr. Corne­lius Maas, Part­ner at SHS Capi­tal, who served as Chair­man of the Advi­sory Board at Selfapy for many years, comm­ents on the tran­sac­tion as follows: “We are deligh­ted that we have been able to firmly estab­lish Selfapy with its digi­tal health appli­ca­ti­ons as an inno­va­tive form of treat­ment in the German health­care market in recent years. With MEDICE as a stra­te­gic buyer, we have found the perfect part­ner for the next deve­lo­p­ment phase of Selfapy and wish both compa­nies contin­ued success together.”

About SHS

“Buil­ding Euro­pean Health­care Cham­pi­ons” is the guiding prin­ci­ple of the Tübin­gen-based inves­tor SHS Capi­tal. With this in mind, the inves­tor specia­li­zing in health­care invest­ments finan­ces and deve­lops its port­fo­lio compa­nies. Since its foun­da­tion in 1993, the focus of its invest­ments has been on expan­sion finan­cing, share­hol­der chan­ges and succes­sion situations. 

www.shs-capital.eu

Karlsruhe/ Stuttgart/ Berlin — YPOG has advi­sed Deal­front, a leading marke­ting and sales intel­li­gence plat­form head­quar­te­red in Karls­ruhe, on all legal and tax aspects of the acqui­si­tion of Wired­Minds. Wired­Minds, based in Stutt­gart, is a pioneer in the field of intel­li­gent website visi­tor analysis. 

With this tran­sac­tion, Deal­front further streng­thens its market leader­ship in the DACH region while expan­ding its tech­no­lo­gi­cal capa­bi­li­ties and service offe­ring. For over 20 years, Wired­Minds has been a leading provi­der of website visi­tor analy­tics, helping compa­nies turn their website traf­fic into valuable leads. The inte­gra­tion with Deal­front ensu­res that exis­ting clients conti­nue to bene­fit from a seam­less service, with addi­tio­nal access to advan­ced features inclu­ding a data­base of over 300 million B2B cont­acts, enhan­ced audi­ence filters and seam­less CRM inte­gra­ti­ons for Sales­force, HubS­pot, Pipedrive and other leading tools. 

In late 2024, Deal­front recei­ved €30 million in funding from AshGrove Capi­tal to acce­le­rate Deal­fron­t’s growth in its core DACH and Nordics regi­ons, as well as further geogra­phic expan­sion and oppor­tu­ni­stic stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons. — Deal­front was formed in 2022 through the merger of Echo­bot and Lead­fee­der, supported by a €180 million equity invest­ment from Great Hill Part­ners (“GHP”).

The acqui­si­tion marks the first step in a broa­der expan­sion stra­tegy follo­wing Deal­fron­t’s recent €30 million finan­cing round
. This was led by AshGrove Capital
, with a YPOG team led by Matthias Kres­ser and Martin Scha­per provi­ding legal advice to Dealfront
.

About Deal­front

Deal­front is a leading Euro­pean go-to-market plat­form based in Karls­ruhe, Germany, that combi­nes AI-powered marketing
and sales intel­li­gence to help compa­nies iden­tify and convert their customers
. Foun­ded through the merger of Echo­bot and Lead­fee­der, Deal­front offers a
data-driven ecosys­tem with real-time insights, high-quality B2B cont­acts and seam­less integrations
into CRM and marke­ting auto­ma­tion tools. The company relies on the highest European
data protec­tion stan­dards to ensure data secu­rity and compli­ance for its customers.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.dealfront.com

Advi­sor Deal­front: YPOG

Dr. Martin Scha­per, Foto (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Hamburg
Ciro D’Ame­lio (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Jacob Schrei­ber (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Munich
Anja Schind­ler (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Anna Eick­meier (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Jonas von Kalben (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Benja­min Müller (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Chris­toph Cordes (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice.
The law firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity to
create opti­mal solu­ti­ons toge­ther. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in
the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protection,
Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in 

Colo­gne — VYTAL Global GmbH, a leading provi­der of intel­li­gent reusable pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons, has successfully closed a growth finan­cing of EUR 14.2 million to further drive its inter­na­tio­nal growth. The current invest­ment was led by Inven Capi­tal, a growth fund specia­li­zing in climate tech, toge­ther with NRW.Venture, the venture capi­tal fund of NRW.BANK. Both inves­tors streng­then Vytal’s renow­ned group of share­hol­ders, which alre­ady includes Emer­ald Tech­no­logy Ventures, Grazia Equity, Kiko, Rubio Impact Ventures and Chi Impact Capital. 

Since 2020, Vytal has been offe­ring reusable contai­ners as an ecolo­gi­cal alter­na­tive for take-away meals, which can be found at more than 450 restau­rants in Colo­gne alone.

Colo­gne — The Colo­gne-based startup METYCLE, a digi­tal plat­form for the inter­na­tio­nal trade in secon­dary metals, has successfully comple­ted a Series A finan­cing round of 14.1 million euros. The finan­cing round was led by 2150, with parti­ci­pa­tion from DFF Ventures, Market One Capi­tal, Partech and Project A. The capi­tal will be used to further deve­lop the AI infra­struc­ture in order to make recy­cling proces­ses more effi­ci­ent, sustainable and transparent. 

The funding under the leader­ship of 2150 enables the expan­sion of AI-supported sort­ing tech­no­logy, which increa­ses recy­cling rates, shor­tens trade routes and redu­ces CO₂ emissions.

AI-supported plat­form for sustainable metal recycling

METYCLE has set itself the task of revo­lu­tio­ni­zing the inter­na­tio­nal trade in recy­cled metals. Using AI-driven sort­ing tech­no­logy, the company iden­ti­fies the chemi­cal and physi­cal proper­ties of scrap metals in real time. This enables precise mate­rial sepa­ra­tion, redu­ces manual labor and lowers CO₂ emissions. 

“Metal recy­cling is important for the tran­si­tion to a carbon-neutral economy. Our approach not only saves resour­ces, but also redu­ces CO₂ emis­si­ons by up to 95% compared to primary metal produc­tion,” says Sebas­tian Bren­ner, co-foun­der of METYCLE.

Foun­ded in 2022 by Rafael Suchan and Sebas­tian Bren­ner (photo), METYCLE combi­nes indus­try expe­ri­ence with modern tech­no­logy. The plat­form covers the entire retail process, from quality assu­rance to logi­stics and payment processing. 

Growing demand and chal­lenges in the market

The global demand for recy­cled metals is incre­asing as more and more compa­nies and count­ries want to achieve their sustaina­bi­lity goals. The EU has set clear recy­cling quotas, but the supply of high-quality scrap metal remains limi­ted. Accor­ding to fore­casts, there could be a short­fall of 15 million tons by 2030. “Rafael and Sebas­tian have crea­ted a plat­form that is driving urban mining and rede­fi­ning the secon­dary metals trade,” explains Rahul Parekh, Part­ner at 2150. 

This is where METYCLE comes in with its Smart Sort­ing Hubs, which opti­mize local trade routes. Instead of costly trans­por­ta­tion to central reloa­ding points, the recy­cled mate­rial is proces­sed and traded in the region where­ver possible. 

Over 2150

We support tech­no­logy entre­pre­neurs who are reim­agi­ning and inno­vat­ing the urban stack. We help build compa­nies that are chan­ging the way our cities are desi­gned, built and powered forever. 

The hunt for giga­corns — the tech­no­logy cham­pi­ons of the coming deca­des, with the poten­tial to help billi­ons of people, create billi­ons in commer­cial value and reduce giga­tons of emis­si­ons. 2150 is part of Stadt­part­ner, a plat­form for visio­nary, diffe­ren­tia­ted invest­ment stra­te­gies focu­sed on solving urban problems. 2150 is part of Stadt­part­ner, a plat­form for visio­nary, diffe­ren­tia­ted invest­ment stra­te­gies focu­sed on solving urban problems. www.2150.vc

Grün­wald near Munich/Madrid — SOLUTIO AG, a leading provi­der of inno­va­tive invest­ment concepts for insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, and Alan­tra Solar, the rene­wa­ble energy invest­ment stra­tegy of the global finan­cial services company Alan­tra, which specia­li­zes in invest­ment banking and alter­na­tive asset manage­ment, have ente­red into a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship. The aim of the joint venture is to create a joint fund for rene­wa­ble ener­gies. It is to be laun­ched in 2025 as an Article 9 fund in accordance with the EU Disclo­sure Regu­la­tion (SFDR) and will have a target volume of between EUR 500 million and EUR 1 billion. 

The plan­ned fund will invest directly in solar energy and energy storage projects in Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United King­dom. The focus will be on finan­cing projects that make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to the energy tran­si­tion in Europe and are in line with the objec­ti­ves of the EU’s “REPowerEU” program and the “Green Deal”, in parti­cu­lar the recently published Green Deal Indus­trial Plan. 

“With this part­ner­ship, we are taking a signi­fi­cant step towards sustainable energy invest­ments. The combi­na­tion of our exper­tise with that of Alan­tra Solar enables us to launch a fund that pursues both ecolo­gi­cal and econo­mic goals,” explains Robert Massing (photo), CEO of SOLUTIO AG.

Alan­tra Solar has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the rene­wa­ble energy sector. Since its foun­da­tion in 2021, Alan­tra Solar has finan­ced projects with a total capa­city of 5.2 giga­watts and inves­ted over 1 billion euros in photo­vol­taics. Four funds have been successfully laun­ched to date. The team of 20 profes­sio­nals works from offices in Madrid and Milan. The entire Alan­tra team consists of more than 600 employees world­wide and opera­tes from 20 offices in 18 countries. 

“The coope­ra­tion with SOLUTIO AG enables us to further expand our exper­tise in the field of rene­wa­ble ener­gies and to jointly estab­lish a fund that meets the high requi­re­ments of an Article 9 fund,” says Javier Mellado, CEO and part­ner of Alan­tra Solar.

The plan­ned fund will offer insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors the oppor­tu­nity to invest in a diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of rene­wa­ble energy projects and thus bene­fit from both attrac­tive yield oppor­tu­ni­ties and a posi­tive envi­ron­men­tal impact.

The plan­ned fund will invest directly in solar energy and energy storage projects in Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United King­dom. The focus will be on finan­cing projects that make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to the energy tran­si­tion in Europe and are in line with the objec­ti­ves of the EU’s “REPowerEU” program and the “Green Deal”, in parti­cu­lar the recently published Green Deal Indus­trial Plan. 

About SOLUTIO AG

SOLUTIO AG, foun­ded in Munich in 1998, deve­lops inno­va­tive invest­ment concepts espe­ci­ally for the needs of German and Austrian insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in the field of real assets. SOLUTIO initia­tes invest­ment concepts exclu­si­vely toge­ther with mana­gers who have a proven track record of above-average success. The company itself also parti­ci­pa­tes in all invest­ment concepts. Over the past 25 years, SOLUTIO AG and its joint venture part­ners have laun­ched a total of 24 invest­ment programs in the asset clas­ses of private equity, infra­struc­ture, private debt and real estate with a total volume of over EUR 7.3 billion. More infor­ma­tion at www.solutio.ag

About ALANTRA

Alan­tra is an inde­pen­dent global finan­cial services firm focu­sed on provi­ding invest­ment banking and alter­na­tive asset manage­ment services to compa­nies, fami­lies and inves­tors active in the middle market. The Group has more than 600 profes­sio­nals in Europe, the US, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. The Alter­na­ti­ves Asset Manage­ment divi­sion offers unique access to a broad range of invest­ment stra­te­gies in five highly specia­li­zed asset manage­ment clas­ses (private equity, active funds, private debt, energy and venture capi­tal). As of Septem­ber 30, 2024, assets under manage­ment from conso­li­da­ted and stra­te­gic busi­ness units amoun­ted to more than EUR 16.8 billion. More infor­ma­tion at www.alantra.com

Stutt­gart — The SICK Group, an inter­na­tio­nal provi­der of sensor-based auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons head­quar­te­red in Germany, is estab­li­shing a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with the Swiss measu­re­ment tech­no­logy specia­list Endress+Hause. With this part­ner­ship, the compa­nies invol­ved are joining forces in the field of process auto­ma­tion to provide their custo­mers with even better support and drive forward new tech­no­lo­gi­cal solu­ti­ons for the decar­bo­niza­tion of the process industry. 

As part of the tran­sac­tion, the corner­stone of which was laid with the signing of the contract in summer 2024 and which has now been comple­ted follo­wing the conclu­sion of the anti­trust reviews, the global play­ers SICK and Endress+Hauser have estab­lished the joint venture “Endress+Hauser SICK GmbH+Co. KG” based in Germany, in which they each hold a 50% stake.

The joint venture Endress+Hauser SICK GmbH+Co. KG will streng­then the deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion of analy­ti­cal measu­re­ment tech­no­logy and gas flow measu­re­ment and further expand the part­ners’ range of solu­ti­ons. The deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion of analy­ti­cal measu­re­ment tech­no­logy and gas flow measu­re­ment of the former SICK busi­ness unit “Clea­ner Indus­tries” and its appro­xi­m­ately 730 employees will be contin­ued by the joint venture in the future. The Endress+Hauser Group Sales Centers will take over the distri­bu­tion of the product solu­ti­ons manu­fac­tu­red there. 

In plan­ning and imple­men­ting the stra­te­gic part­ner­ship, the SICK Group was not only able to draw on the exper­tise of Deloitte Legal and Deloitte in Germany, but also bene­fit from the global Deloitte/Deloitte Legal network. Under the leader­ship of Deloitte Legal Germany, Deloitte Legal teams from over 40 juris­dic­tions supported the trans­fer of appro­xi­m­ately 800 sales and service employees from the SICK sales and service units in 42 count­ries to the respec­tive sales centers of the Endress+Hauser Group. 

Since April 2023, more than 90 employees of Deloitte Legal and Deloitte in Germany as well as nume­rous Deloitte and Deloitte Legal colle­agues from other Euro­pean and non-Euro­pean juris­dic­tions have supported the SICK Group in the merger in the field of process automation.

In this project, the SICK Group relied on the legal advi­sory services of Deloit­te’s legal prac­tice led by Stutt­gart part­ner Michael K. Schnei­der, who has an excel­lent network in the south-west German SME sector. “We are very plea­sed to have relied on the Deloitte and Deloitte Legal teams for this complex inter­na­tio­nal project. The expe­ri­ence and exper­tise of the Deloitte consul­tants helped us to iden­tify all rele­vant aspects in good time and to find a solu­tion, and their inter­di­sci­pli­nary approach saved us a lot of coor­di­na­tion effort,” says Dr. Matthias Rebmann, Vice Presi­dent Legal, Gover­nance & Compli­ance at SICK. “The prudent leader­ship of Michael K. Schnei­der enab­led a smooth and rapid imple­men­ta­tion in the 42 count­ries concerned.” 

Advi­sor to SICK AG: Deloitte Legal Rechts­an­walts­ge­sell­schaft mbH

Corporate/M&A: Michael Schnei­der (Lead, Part­ner, Stutt­gart), Jose­fin Wied­mann (Senior Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart), Marc Albrecht (Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart), Dr. Johan­nes Kapp­ler (Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart); Corporate/M&A | Chinese Law: Alex­an­der Fischer (Part­ner, Frank­furt am Main), Xinyi Wang (Senior Legal Advi­sor, Chinese Attor­ney at Law, Frank­furt am Main); Employ­ment Law: Claus Wilker (Coun­sel, Hano­ver); Anti­trust Law: Felix Skala (Part­ner, Hamburg), Katha­rina Zicker­mann (Coun­sel, Hamburg); Data and Data Protec­tion Law: Nikola Werry (Part­ner, Frank­furt am Main), Alina Scheja (Asso­ciate, Frank­furt am Main); Foreign Trade Law: Bettina Mert­gen (Part­ner, Frank­furt am Main), Jan-Michael Mergler (Senior Asso­ciate, Frank­furt am Main)

Deloitte GmbH Wirt­schafts­prü­fungs­ge­sell­schaft: Tax: Chris­tian Himmels­bach (over­all project respon­si­bi­lity, Part­ner, Stutt­gart), Björn Neumann (Direc­tor, Stutt­gart), Wladi­mir Petri (Senior Manager,
Stutt­gart); Finan­cial Advi­sory | M&A Opera­tio­nal Tran­sac­tion Services: Ihsan Ugurlu (Part­ner, Cologne),
Iven Krause (Direc­tor, Munich), Stefan Nguyen (Senior Mana­ger, Düssel­dorf); Finan­cial Advisory |
Valua­tion, Mode­ling & Econo­mics: Stefan Brauchle (Part­ner, Stutt­gart), Henrik Schar­now­ski (Senior
Mana­ger, Stuttgart).

About SICK

SICK is one of the worl­d’s leading solu­tion provi­ders for sensor-based appli­ca­ti­ons for industrial
appli­ca­ti­ons. Foun­ded in 1946 by Dr. Ing. e. h. Erwin Sick and head­quar­te­red in
Wald­kirch in Breis­gau near Frei­burg, Germany, the company is one of the tech­no­logy and market leaders and is present around the globe with 60
subsi­dia­ries and affi­lia­tes as well as nume­rous agencies.
SICK employs more than 12,000 people world­wide and gene­ra­ted conso­li­da­ted sales of EUR 2.3 billion in fiscal year 2023
. www.sick.com

Berlin/London — Corsair Capi­tal has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in IDnow, a leading Euro­pean provi­der of digi­tal iden­tity solu­ti­ons. With this tran­sac­tion, the private equity inves­tor has secu­red control of the Munich-based fintech company, which was foun­ded in 2014, and is thus focu­sing on further expan­ding its market posi­tion in Europe. The previous foun­ders and inves­tors sold the majo­rity of their shares as part of the transaction. 

IDnow is a key player in the field of digi­tal iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion and has estab­lished itself as a leading provi­der with inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons such as Video-Ident, Photo-Ident and AI-supported iden­tity checks. The company serves over 900 inter­na­tio­nal custo­mers, inclu­ding banks, finan­cial service provi­ders, mobile network opera­tors and public authorities. 

IDnow has consis­t­ently expan­ded its market posi­tion through stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons, such as that of the French market leader Ariad­next in 2021, and conti­nuous tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment. The acqui­si­tion by Corsair Capi­tal provi­des IDnow with addi­tio­nal resour­ces to further deve­lop its plat­form, expand into new markets and imple­ment new iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion technologies. 

About IDnow

IDnow was foun­ded in Munich in 2014 and is now one of the leading provi­ders of digi­tal iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion and KYC (Know Your Custo­mer) solu­ti­ons in Europe. The company offers a wide range of secure, AI-powered iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion solu­ti­ons for banks, finan­cial service provi­ders, mobi­lity compa­nies and the public sector. With offices in Germany, the UK and France, IDnow serves over 900 custo­mers world­wide. www.idnow.io

Consul­tant IDnow: YPOG

Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Sebas­tian Schödel (Corpo­rate), Part­ner, Cologne
Dana Fran­ziska Ritter (Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Matthias Kres­ser (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin/Hamburg
Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Hamburg
Jan Stamm­ler (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin/Hamburg
Martin Acker (Tax), Asso­ciate, Hambur­gA­boutYPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice. The firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity and jointly crea­ting opti­mal solu­ti­ons. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion, Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in Germany for venture capi­tal, private equity, fund struc­tu­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons of distri­bu­ted ledger tech­no­logy (DLT) in finan­cial services. The firm and its part­ners are regu­larly reco­gni­zed by renow­ned publi­ca­ti­ons such as JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Cham­bers and Part­ners, Leaders League and Legal 500. YPOG employs more than 150 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists as well as a notary in its offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich.

Soest / Hamburg — GENUI GmbH has acqui­red the IT specia­list Aagon. GENUI is a private invest­ment company foun­ded by renow­ned entre­pre­neurs and expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment experts. GENUI pursues the “Good Entre­pre­neur­ship” approach, which combi­nes attrac­tive returns with posi­tive impact. The finan­cing is provi­ded by funds mana­ged by Capi­tal Four. — Herbert Smith Freeh­ills advi­sed GENUI GmbH on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Aagon GmbH. 

Aagon was foun­ded in 1992 by Wilko Fren­zel and Sascha Häckel. Based in Soest, North Rhine-West­pha­lia, the company curr­ently employs almost 150 people and works for more than 2,800 custo­mers and part­ners in over 20 sectors. 

With its modu­lar system, Aagon offers a holi­stic solu­tion approach for the daily chal­lenges of IT depart­ments, such as the central manage­ment of devices and soft­ware licen­ses, fault recor­ding or in the area of cyber secu­rity. — With Aagon Client Manage­ment Plat­form (ACMP) and the Aagon Enter­prise Service Bus (AESB), Aagon offers client and soft­ware manage­ment systems such as license manage­ment, secu­rity manage­ment, patch manage­ment and custo­mer support from a single source. 

Advi­sor GENUI GmbH: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills (Frank­furt a.M.)

Dr. Fritz Kleweta, Foto (lead), Chris­tian H. Hinz­mann (coun­sel; both finance), Dr. Stef­fen C. Hörner (tax law); asso­cia­tes: Marc Soltau, Florian Möller (both finance), Tatiana Güns­ter (tax law)

Colo­gne — NRW.BANK has inves­ted EUR 3.5 million in growth capi­tal in Vytal Global via its venture capi­tal fund NRW.Venture. In total, the finan­cing amoun­ted to EUR 14.2 million. The current invest­ment was led by Inven Capi­tal toge­ther with NRW.Venture, which is comple­men­ted by inves­tors such as Emer­ald Tech­no­logy Ventures, Grazia, Rubio, Chi Impact Capi­tal and Kiko. 

“Vytal impres­ses both with its highly scalable tech­no­logy plat­form and the steadily incre­asing market trac­tion that the company has been able to demons­trate in recent years,” says Maxi­mi­lian Erb, Invest­ment Mana­ger at NRW.Venture, who will also repre­sent the bank on the company’s advi­sory board. “With its digi­tal reusable solu­ti­ons, Vytal Global shows that sustainable busi­ness ideas are compe­ti­tive and can also scale internationally.” 

“This new funding follows less than nine months after our last one and reflects the excep­tio­nal success the Vytal team has achie­ved in 2024,” says Dr. Tim Breker, co-foun­der and CEO of Vytal. “With our new inves­tors’ exper­tise in support­ing inter­na­tio­nal growth stra­te­gies, we are ideally posi­tio­ned to further scale our impact and estab­lish digi­tal reusable pack­a­ging as the new stan­dard in the hospi­ta­lity, event and enter­tain­ment sectors worldwide.” 

VYTAL Global GmbH deve­lops data-driven intel­li­gent reusable solu­ti­ons that outper­form exis­ting single-use pack­a­ging in terms of both user expe­ri­ence and cost-effec­ti­ve­ness, ther­eby driving the trans­for­ma­tion of the pack­a­ging indus­try towards a circu­lar economy. The new capi­tal will prima­rily be used to streng­then Vytal’s global market leader­ship, acce­le­rate product deve­lo­p­ment and drive inter­na­tio­nal expansion. 

NRW.BANK parti­ci­pa­tes in finan­cing rounds such as this one in order to be able to support forward-looking start-ups with equity capi­tal in a targe­ted manner. With its pack­a­ging tech­no­logy, the young company VYTAL Global conser­ves resour­ces and also contri­bu­tes to the trans­for­ma­tion of the economy. 

About VYTAL Global GmbH

VYTAL Global is revo­lu­tio­ni­zing the pack­a­ging indus­try by repla­cing single-use pack­a­ging with intel­li­gent reusable solu­ti­ons. Using state-of-the-art soft­ware and data analy­tics, Vytal provi­des econo­mic­ally viable and sustainable pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons that bene­fit both busi­nesses and the envi­ron­ment. The company has been inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed by the Harvard Busi­ness Review for its inno­va­tive data model and is a leader in the global tran­si­tion to a circu­lar economy. With a network of over 7,000 part­ners in 24 count­ries, Vytal is driving the reduc­tion of single-use pack­a­ging waste. 

Vytal has laun­ched a specia­li­zed busi­ness unit to expand its reach and provide reusable solu­ti­ons for the event and enter­tain­ment indus­try. This initia­tive demons­tra­tes Vytal’s commit­ment to sustaina­bi­lity by meeting the speci­fic needs of large events and venues. 

VYTAL Global and its inter­na­tio­nal subsi­dia­ries share a clear vision: to trans­form pack­a­ging systems world­wide and create inno­va­tive, envi­ron­men­tally friendly alter­na­ti­ves for a more sustainable future. www.vytal.org

About NRW.Venture

NRW.Venture is NRW.BANK’s response to the shortage of finan­cing for young, inno­va­tive, often tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies that are often unable to obtain finan­cing through loans. Their main capi­tal consists of a new market idea, which makes it diffi­cult to assess their chan­ces of success. NRW.Venture invests up to EUR 15 million of equity in such start-ups over seve­ral finan­cing rounds — toge­ther with private-sector inves­tors. NRW.BANK takes mino­rity stakes over a period of three to seven years. Howe­ver, the commit­ment invol­ves more than just capi­tal — an expe­ri­en­ced team is the key to joint success. NRW.Venture’s invest­ment profes­sio­nals with many years of venture capi­tal expe­ri­ence, and often also tech­no­logy and start-up expe­ri­ence, use their know-how and network to ensure that start-ups have the best chan­ces of success.

Munich/London — Sales­five GmbH, a subsi­diary of AMIRA, has acqui­red fluent:cx UK. Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advi­sed Sales­five Group, Euro­pe’s largest Sales­force boutique part­ner, on the acqui­si­tion of fluent:cx UK. 

fluent:cx UK is a Sales­force boutique part­ner with many years of expe­ri­ence in the imple­men­ta­tion of digi­tiza­tion projects. The company supports its clients in trans­la­ting their visi­ons, goals and stra­te­gies into effec­tive Sales­force solu­ti­ons in the areas of marke­ting, sales and custo­mer service. 

This stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion repres­ents an important mile­stone in Sales­fi­ve’s expan­sion stra­tegy and comple­ments Armi­ra’s previous acqui­si­tion of a simi­lar busi­ness in Germany, which was also advi­sed by a Norton Rose Fulbright team in early 2024. The signi­fi­cant cross-border tran­sac­tion also under­lines Sales­fi­ve’s commit­ment to expan­ding its service offe­ring and streng­thening its presence in key markets such as the UK. 

About Sales­five

As Euro­pe’s largest Sales­force Boutique Part­ner, Sales­five sets the stan­dard for digi­tal excel­lence. With an expert team of over 340 profes­sio­nals in 9 loca­ti­ons, Sales­five has seen itself as a stra­te­gic part­ner for compa­nies that want to lead in the digi­tal world since 2016. — Sales­five offers a 360 custo­mer and part­ner perspec­tive, from initial inter­ac­tion to after-sales service. Our agile orga­niza­tio­nal struc­ture and opera­tio­nal excel­lence are key to your successful digitalization. 

As in previous tran­sac­tions, Sales­five was advi­sed by a Norton Rose Fulbright team led by Munich part­ner Bernd Dreier and London part­ner Sophie O’Connor.

Advi­sor Sales­five Group: Norton Rose Fulbright

In addi­tion to Bernd Dreier and Sophie O’Con­nor, the team consis­ted of part­ner Antoine Colonna (tax, Paris), part­ner Karine Monta­gut (corpo­rate, Paris), part­ner Lesley Brow­ning (pensi­ons, London), part­ner Matthew Find­ley (corpo­rate, London), part­ner Mike Knap­per (corpo­rate, London), Part­ner Domi­nic Stut­taford (Tax, London), Part­ner Laure Joncour (Corpo­rate, Paris), Part­ner Jamie Cooke (Corpo­rate, London), Coun­sel Ben Wright (Employ­ment, London), Coun­sel Fiona Bundy-Clarke (Data Protec­tion, London), Coun­sel Graeme Tricker (Pensi­ons, London), Coun­sel Marie-Adelaide de Fleu­rieu (Corpo­rate, Paris), Lead Asso­ciate Dan Harman (Corpo­rate, London), Senior Asso­ciate Alex­an­der Redbourne (IP, London), Soli­ci­tor Alex­an­der Roper, Asso­ciate Alex­an­dra Bloch-Mani­kow (Tax, Paris), Senior Asso­ciate Barbara Gaffey (Employ­ment, London), Asso­ciate Ines Azouaou (Corpo­rate, Paris), Asso­ciate Katha­rine Wadia (Corpo­rate, London), Asso­ciate Lauren Pies­ley (Corpo­rate, London), Asso­ciate Polina Maloshch­inskaia (Corpo­rate, London), Senior Asso­ciate Rebecca Your­stone (Corpo­rate, London), Senior Asso­ciate George Hairs (Corpo­rate, London).

About Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global busi­ness law firm. With more than 3,500 lawy­ers at over 50 loca­ti­ons world­wide in Europe, the USA, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Austra­lia, Africa and the Middle East, we advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal companies.

We offer our clients compre­hen­sive advice in all major indus­tries. These include Finan­cial Insti­tu­ti­ons; Energy; Infra­struc­ture, Mining and Commo­di­ties; Trans­por­ta­tion; Tech­no­logy and Inno­va­tion; and Life Scien­ces and Health­care. Our global Risk Advi­sory Group combi­nes this exten­sive indus­try expe­ri­ence with its exper­tise in legal, regu­la­tory, compli­ance and gover­nance matters. This enables us to provide our clients with prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons to the legal and regu­la­tory risks they face.

The Swiss asso­cia­tion Norton Rose Fulbright helps to coor­di­nate the acti­vi­ties of Norton Rose Fulbright members, but does not provide legal advice to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in more than 50 cities world­wide, inclu­ding London, Hous­ton, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johan­nes­burg. For more infor­ma­tion, visit nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices.

Munich — Main Capi­tal Part­ners’ port­fo­lio company Time­grip has acqui­red Software4You, a provi­der of soft­ware for person­nel control­ling and person­nel cost plan­ning. The acqui­si­tion is the third step in the buy-and-build stra­tegy of Time­grip, in which Main Capi­tal Part­ners has been inves­ted since 2022. McDer­mott advi­sed Main Capi­tal Part­ners and Time­grip on this transaction. 

Foun­ded in 1995 and based in Denmark, Time­grip’s work­force manage­ment solu­ti­ons serve over 800 custo­mers in a variety of indus­tries, inclu­ding retail, hospi­ta­lity, health­care and logistics.

Software4You Planungs­sys­teme GmbH, based in Munich, offers solu­ti­ons for active and dyna­mic person­nel plan­ning, varia­ble compen­sa­tion design and orga­niza­tio­nal transformation.

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor in the DACH region, the Bene­lux count­ries, the Nordic count­ries and the United States. Main Capi­tal mana­ges assets of around EUR 6 billion and main­ta­ins an active port­fo­lio of more than 50 soft­ware groups.

McDer­mott regu­larly advi­ses Main Capi­tal on tran­sac­tions, inclu­ding financing.

Advi­sors to Main Capi­tal Part­ners and Time­grip: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Munich

Hanno M. Witt, LL.M. (Photo)Holger H. Ebers­ber­ger, LL.M. (both lead, private equity), Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger (finance), Dr. Chris­tian Rolf (employ­ment law, Frank­furt), Stef­fen Woitz, LL.M. (IP/IT), Dr. Claus Färber (coun­sel, data protec­tion law), Marcus Fischer (coun­sel, tax law, Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Manuel Weiß, Nicole Kaps, Marion Dalvai-König, Julia Külzer (all Private Equity), Matthias M. Bosbach (Düssel­dorf), Tim Becker (both Finance), Sönke Wasser­mann (Frank­furt), Janek Joos­ten (Düssel­dorf; both Employ­ment), Andreas H. Janßen (Liti­ga­tion, Colo­gne), Jan Ischreyt (Corpo­rate, Frankfurt) 

Gorris­sen Feder­spiel, Copen­ha­gen:

Mikael Philip Schmidt; Asso­ciate: Esben Gjet­rang (both Danish Local Counsel)

USA — The AI startup Anthro­pic, known for its chat­bot Claude, is about to close an enorm­ous finan­cing round worth 3.5 billion US dollars. This values the company at 61.5 billion US dollars, as repor­ted by the Wall Street Jour­nal. — The inves­tors include promi­nent inves­tors such as Helsing-Inves­tor, Lightspeed Venture Part­ners, Gene­ral Cata­lyst and Besse­mer Venture Part­ners. The Abu Dhabi-based invest­ment firm MGX is also said to be in talks. 

Anthro­pic is also bene­fiting from signi­fi­cant invest­ment from tech giants. Amazon had alre­ady made a commit­ment of four billion US dollars in 2023, while Google recently inves­ted a further one billion US dollars, in addi­tion to the two billion US dollars previously pled­ged. These stra­te­gic finan­cial injec­tions under­line the confi­dence in the start-up’s inno­va­tive strength. 

Dario Amodei, CEO and co-foun­der of the US AI company Anthro­pic, belie­ves that arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) could surpass human capa­bi­li­ties in almost all areas in the near future. — Amodei foun­ded Anthro­pic in 2021 toge­ther with his sister and former OpenAI employees. 

As one of the main compe­ti­tors of OpenAI, the deve­lo­per of ChatGPT, Anthro­pic is posi­tio­ning itself in the race for supre­macy in the field of gene­ra­tive AI models. The company recently unvei­led its latest model, “Claude 3.7 Sonnet”, which offers faster respon­ses and impro­ved step-by-step reaso­ning. This tech­no­lo­gi­cal advance­ment is expec­ted to further streng­then Anthro­pic’s competitiveness. 

The current valua­tion of USD 61.5 billion repres­ents a signi­fi­cant jump compared to the previous valua­tion of USD 18 billion last year. This illus­tra­tes the enorm­ous growth poten­tial that inves­tors see in the AI sector. 

This funding conso­li­da­tes Anthro­pic’s posi­tion as one of the leading play­ers in the field of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and sends a strong signal in the global race for tech­no­lo­gi­cal innovation.

Düssel­dorf — Cumu­lo­city manage­ment joins forces with a consor­tium of inves­tors led by Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners to create the leading inde­pen­dent IoT platform.

Cumu­lo­city, the German IIoT (Indus­trial IoT) pioneer, has been acqui­red by its manage­ment team with the support of key inves­tors Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners, Schro­ders Capi­tal and Verso Capi­tal. The part­ner­ship will provide Cumu­lo­city with the neces­sary resour­ces and stra­te­gic support to conso­li­date its posi­tion as a market leader in the fast-growing IoT sector. This includes further impro­ving the product, scaling opera­ti­ons and inves­t­ing in talent. 

Cumu­lo­city has stood out for years as one of the leading plat­forms for IIoT and is reco­gni­zed by indus­trial equip­ment manu­fac­tu­r­ers in various sectors for its strong product-market fit and repu­ta­tion. Cumu­lo­ci­ty’s cutting-edge tech­no­logy is now used by hundreds of compa­nies in various indus­tries world­wide. One of the largest and most compe­ti­tive growth markets for the Germany-based company is the United States, where Cumu­lo­city has alre­ady achie­ved signi­fi­cant success. In addi­tion, the company serves custo­mers in over 30 other count­ries, offe­ring a compre­hen­sive full-service approach, 24-hour support, Clou­dOps and custo­mi­zed IIoT solutions. 

Cumu­lo­ci­ty’s manage­ment team — Bernd Gross, Jürgen Krämer, Stefan Vail­lant, Jari Salmi­nen and Philip Hooker — consists of passio­nate foun­ders with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in growth compa­nies in the IIoT sector. They are ideally equip­ped to drive forward the company’s ambi­tious global expan­sion plans. 

Cumu­lo­ci­ty’s plat­form has been reco­gni­zed as a leader in both the Gart­ner Magic Quadrant for Global Indus­trial IoT Plat­forms and the Forres­ter Wave for Indus­trial IoT. The posi­tive feed­back and recom­men­da­ti­ons from Gart­ner Peer Insights unders­core the solu­ti­on’s poten­tial to succeed in the rapidly growing market for smart, connec­ted products. 

Commen­ting on the tran­sac­tion, Bernd Gross, co-foun­der and CEO, said: “We are very exci­ted to enter this new phase of inde­pen­dence with rene­wed momen­tum and a streng­the­ned struc­ture. Our new corpo­rate struc­ture will allow us to be more flexi­ble and adapt to the chan­ging needs of our customers.”

He added: “The dyna­mic IIoT market, where we have alre­ady proven our quali­ties, will provide the right envi­ron­ment for Cumu­lo­city to thrive in its next chap­ter. The long-term part­ner­ship with our inves­tors will enable us to deli­ver value to our custo­mers and part­ners while crea­ting an attrac­tive work­place for our talen­ted employees.”

Ben von Schulz, Invest­ment Direc­tor at Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners, said: “Cumu­lo­city is a funda­men­tal enabler for custo­mers tran­si­tio­ning to digi­tal busi­ness and service models. Cumu­lo­ci­ty’s IoT plat­form enables manu­fac­tu­r­ers to trans­form their hard­ware into plat­forms for inno­va­tive services, unlo­cking new reve­nue streams and deli­ve­ring grea­ter custo­mer value. We look forward to support­ing the manage­ment team in taking Cumu­lo­city to the next level and reali­zing its full growth potential.”

About Cumu­lo­city

Foun­ded in 2012, Cumu­lo­city is a world-leading Indus­trial Inter­net of Things (IoT) plat­form that provi­des out-of-the-box device manage­ment and low-code appli­ca­ti­ons for rapid ROI. The cloud-native plat­form enables orga­niza­ti­ons to take a “buy and build” approach, shor­tening time to market for new, diffe­ren­tia­ting digi­tal services. Cumu­lo­city is the prefer­red choice for indus­trial equip­ment suppli­ers and is used by leading compa­nies world­wide to power their smart, connec­ted products in manu­fac­tu­ring, fleet manage­ment, consu­mer elec­tro­nics and other areas. Cumu­lo­city is available as a cloud, on-premi­ses, edge and hybrid solution. 

About Avedon Capi­tal Partners

Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading private equity firm based in Amster­dam and Düssel­dorf. We focus on support­ing growth-stage compa­nies in the Bene­lux and DACH regi­ons and part­ner with excep­tio­nal entre­pre­neurs and manage­ment teams to acce­le­rate orga­nic growth, inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and buy-and-build stra­te­gies. Our invest­ments focus on four key sectors: Busi­ness Services, Soft­ware & Tech­no­logy, Smart Indus­tries and Consu­mer & Health. https://avedoncapital.com.

About Schro­ders Capital

Schro­ders Capi­tal offers inves­tors access to a broad range of private market invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, port­fo­lio buil­ding blocks and custo­mi­zed private market stra­te­gies. The Schro­ders Capi­tal team is focu­sed on deli­ve­ring supe­rior risk-adjus­ted returns and execu­ting invest­ments through a combi­na­tion of direct invest­ments and broa­der solu­ti­ons across all private markets asset clas­ses, through comingled funds and bespoke private markets manda­tes. With $97.3 billion (£77.0 billion; €90.8 billion)* of assets under manage­ment, Schro­ders Capi­tal offers a diverse range of invest­ment stra­te­gies inclu­ding real estate, private equity, secon­da­ries, venture capi­tal, infra­struc­ture, secu­ri­ti­zed products and asset-based finance, private debt, insu­rance-linked secu­ri­ties and Blue­Or­chard (impact specialists). 

About Verso Capital

Verso Capi­tal is a Nordic private equity firm that invests in Euro­pean B2B compa­nies with a turno­ver between 10 and 100 million euros. We look for compa­nies that are aiming for a leading posi­tion in their target market. We specia­lize in carve-outs and buy-outs. Our team has expe­ri­ence from over 100 carve-out and M&A tran­sac­tions — we have the neces­sary know-how and metho­do­logy to execute even compli­ca­ted tran­sac­tions quickly and effi­ci­ently. We invest mainly in Nort­hern Europe and have offices in Helsinki, Stock­holm and Munich. 

Advi­sor Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills, Düssel­dorf, Frankfurt:

Dr. Chris­tian Johnen, Dr. Sönke Becker (both lead), Gregor Klenk (all corpo­rate); Dr. Marius Boewe (FDI); Moritz Kunz, Dr. Anja Ling­scheid (coun­sel; both employ­ment law); Dr. Stef­fen C. Hörner (tax law); Dr. Marcel Nuys (anti­trust law); Stefa­nie Herkert (real estate law); Dr. Fritz Kleweta (Finance); Asso­cia­tes: Sören Flecks, Marjel Dema, Chris­toph Hempel, Tobias Beuker, Fran­ciska Meier, Dr. Marius Dicke, Nasta­sja Bühr­mann (all Corpo­rate); Dejan Einfeldt (FDI); Dr. Simone Zieg­ler, Julia Ickstadt, Matthias Joschko (all Employ­ment); Eva Jürgens, Dirk Metz­ler (both Tax); Anne Ecken­roth (Anti­trust); Florian Möller (Finance)

London: John Taylor (Corpo­rate); Michael Aherne, Mark Howard (Of Coun­sel; both Employ­ment); Asso­cia­tes: Matthew Gallag­her, Raul Vellani, Shuheb Ahmed (all Corpo­rate); Max Kauf­man, Louis Austin (both CRT); Hannah Gould, Khan Mir (both Employment)

New York: James Robin­son (Corpo­rate); Joseph Falcone (Dispu­tes); Asso­cia­tes: Tyler Hendry, Emily Shapiro, Yash Dattani (all Corpo­rate); Chris­to­pher Boyd (Dispu­tes); David Peraza (Finance)

Paris: Chris­to­pher Theris, Frédé­ric Bouvet, Martin Dijos (Of Coun­sel; all Corpo­rate); Sophie Brézin (Employ­ment); Asso­cia­tes: Lucas Lemasson (Corpo­rate); Guil­hem Sero­nie-Doutriaux (Employ­ment)

Frank­furt a.M. — McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­ses global private equity firm Invest­corp Tech­no­logy Part­ners on the sale of Content­serv Group, a leading provi­der of product infor­ma­tion manage­ment (PIM) systems, to Centric Soft­ware, a subsi­diary of French Dassault Systèmes.

Content­serv GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Rohrbach/Ilm near Munich, was foun­ded in 2000 and today has 14 bran­ches in Europe, the USA and Asia. With around 250 employees, the company serves more than 1,500 brands in 89 count­ries with its products. 

Centric Soft­ware GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Munich, offers product life­cy­cle manage­ment (PLM) solu­ti­ons for nume­rous indus­tries. The company has been part of the multi­na­tio­nal soft­ware deve­lo­per Dassault Systè­mes since 2018. 

Invest­corp Tech­no­logy Part­ners focu­ses on inves­t­ing in growing, Euro­pean-based tech­no­logy compa­nies with proven products and end markets.

Advi­sor Invest­corp Tech­no­logy Part­ners: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt

Dr. Michael Cziesla, Dr. Felix Ganzer (both Corporate/Private Equity; both lead), Dr. Chris­tian Marz­lin, Fabrice Piol­let (Paris; both Corporate/M&A), Stef­fen Woitz, LL.M. (IP/IT, Munich), Marcus Fischer (Coun­sel, Tax Law), Dr. Laura Stamm­witz (Coun­sel, Anti­trust Law); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Chris­tian Lebrecht (Health­care), Lea Hauser (Anti­trust Law, Colo­gne), Naré Arshak­yan (Employ­ment Law, Paris)

London (UK) — Thoma Bravo, a leading global soft­ware invest­ment firm, has announ­ced the comple­tion of the fund­rai­sing of its first Euro­pean fund, the Thoma Bravo Europe Fund (the “Fund”), with total capi­tal commit­ments of appro­xi­m­ately €1.8 billion.

The fund aims to invest in inno­va­tive, medium-sized soft­ware compa­nies in the most important Euro­pean markets. The aim is to support foun­ders, entre­pre­neurs and manage­ment teams in deve­lo­ping their compa­nies from Europe into global market leaders. The company sees great growth poten­tial with a view to the next gene­ra­tion of leading Euro­pean soft­ware companies. 

“Our first fund for invest­ments in the Euro­pean soft­ware indus­try is a signi­fi­cant mile­stone for our company,” says Orlando Bravo (photo), foun­der and Mana­ging Part­ner of Thoma Bravo. “We see a great oppor­tu­nity to support tech­no­logy pioneers in Europe and help them grow further. We are grateful for the long-term support of our investors.” 

“The closing of our first Euro­pean fund allows us to further streng­then our presence in the region,” says Irina Hemmers, Part­ner and Head of Thoma Bravo’s Euro­pean office in London. “Digi­ta­liza­tion in Europe is advan­cing rapidly and leading soft­ware compa­nies are incre­asingly looking for targe­ted support and invest­ment to realize their growth stra­te­gies. As a highly specia­li­zed inves­tor, we bring deca­des of opera­tio­nal exper­tise to the table. We believe that this expe­ri­ence can help leading regio­nal soft­ware compa­nies to deve­lop into Euro­pean cham­pi­ons and global market leaders.” 

Thoma Bravo has been inves­t­ing in Europe for 14 years and has alre­ady inves­ted more than €14 billion of equity in 16 tran­sac­tions in the region. Since opening its first inter­na­tio­nal office in London in 2023, Thoma Bravo’s Euro­pean team has acqui­red four compa­nies in the Nether­lands, Germany and Sweden, inclu­ding the €400 million take-private of EQS Group and growth invest­ments in USU, Hyper­gene and LOGEX. 

About Thoma Bravo

Thoma Bravo is one of the largest soft­ware inves­tors in the world with assets under manage­ment of more than 166 billion US dollars (as of Septem­ber 30, 2024). With private equity, growth equity and credit stra­te­gies, the company invests in growth-orien­ted, inno­va­tive compa­nies opera­ting in the soft­ware and tech­no­logy sectors. Thoma Bravo lever­a­ges its deep indus­try exper­tise and proven stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal capa­bi­li­ties to part­ner with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to imple­ment best prac­ti­ces in opera­ti­ons and drive growth initia­ti­ves. Over the past 20+ years, the firm has acqui­red or inves­ted in more than 500 compa­nies with an enter­prise value in excess of $265 billion, inclu­ding both control­ling and non-control­ling invest­ments. The firm has offices in Chicago, Dallas, London, Miami, New York and San Fran­cisco. www.thomabravo.com

Boston / Munich — Nordic Capi­tal, a leading private equity inves­tor in tech­no­logy & payment systems, acqui­res Anaqua with the aim of driving the company’s further growth.

Anaqua, a leading provi­der of tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons and services for inno­va­tion and intellec­tual property (IP) manage­ment, today announ­ced that Nordic Capi­tal (https://www.nordiccapital.com/) , an expe­ri­en­ced private equity inves­tor in tech­no­logy & payment systems globally, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Anaqua from Astorg.

The acqui­si­tion is a key stra­te­gic invest­ment by Nordic Capi­tal. It aims to drive Anaqua’s contin­ued growth through the deve­lo­p­ment of incre­asingly inno­va­tive IP manage­ment solu­ti­ons. Nordic Capi­tal will support Anaqua’s global expan­sion and conti­nuous impro­ve­ments to its soft­ware and services to further streng­then the company’s market posi­tion. With its AQX® and PATTSY WAVE® plat­forms, Anaqua inte­gra­tes best-prac­tice work­flows, data analy­tics, inter­na­tio­nal patent filings and payments for patent and trade­mark rene­wals into specia­li­zed soft­ware solu­ti­ons for IP profes­sio­nals. The plat­forms offer a unique end-to-end value propo­si­tion to opti­mize work­flows, deve­lop stra­te­gies and make decis­i­ons around clients’ valuable IP portfolios. 

Nordic Capi­tal has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in support­ing the growth of inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies and has made 33 tech­no­logy-based invest­ments in compa­nies — with a total value of around EUR 26 billion.

“Nordic Capi­tal will be a great part­ner — both for Anaqua and our custo­mers — as our shared vision for soft­ware-enab­led IP manage­ment plat­forms will enable us to drive indus­try trans­for­ma­tion,” commen­ted Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua. Justin Crotty, COO of Anaqua, added: “Nordic­Ca­pi­tal will be instru­men­tal in execu­ting Anaqua’s growth stra­tegy and provi­ding tech­no­logy-based solu­ti­ons for our clients and the IP market.”

Fred­rik Näslund, Part­ner and Head of Tech­no­logy & Payment Systems at Nordic Capi­tal Advi­sors, said: “We look forward to support­ing Anaqua in their next phase of growth and helping them to further expand their global presence and estab­lish the leading IP manage­ment plat­form for inno­va­tion-driven industries.”

About Anaqua

Anaqua, Inc. is a leading provi­der of inte­gra­ted tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons and services for intellec­tual property (IP) manage­ment. Anaqua’s IP manage­ment plat­forms, AQX® and PATTSY WAVE®, combine best-prac­tice work­flows with big data analy­tics and tech­no­logy-enab­led services to create an intel­li­gent envi­ron­ment that supports IP stra­te­gies, enables infor­med IP decis­i­ons and opti­mi­zes IP proces­ses. Today, nearly half of the top 100 US patent filers and global brands, as well as a growing number of law firms world­wide, use Anaqua’s solu­ti­ons. More than two million IP execu­ti­ves, attor­neys, para­le­gals, admi­nis­tra­tors and inno­va­tors use the plat­form for their IP manage­ment. The company is head­quar­te­red in Boston, with offices in the US, Europe, Asia and Austra­lia. Further infor­ma­tion https://www.anaqua.com/de/

About Nordic Capital

Nordic Capi­tal is a leading private equity inves­tor focu­sing on selec­ted sectors and crea­ting stron­ger, sustainable compa­nies through opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ments and trans­for­ma­tio­nal growth. Nordic Capi­tal focu­ses on speci­fic regi­ons and sectors in which the inves­tor has exten­sive and long-stan­ding expe­ri­ence: Healthcare,Technology & Payment Systems, Finan­cial Services and Services &Industrial Tech­no­lo­gies. The core region is Europe, while Nordic Capi­tal is active world­wide in the health­care and tech­no­logy & payment systems sectors. 

Since its foun­da­tion in 1989, Nordic Capi­tal has inves­ted appro­xi­m­ately 26 billion euros in almost 150 invest­ments. The most recent funds are Nordic Capi­tal XI with EUR 9 billion in commit­ted capi­tal and Nordic Capi­tal Evolu­tion II with EUR 2 billion in commit­ted capi­tal, mainly from inter­na­tio­nal insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors such as pension funds. Nordic Capi­tal Advi­sors has offices in Sweden, the United King­dom, the United States, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway and South Korea. www.nordiccapital.com

“Nordic Capi­tal” refers to any or all of the enti­ties, invest­ment vehic­les, struc­tures and affi­lia­tes opera­ting under the Nordic Capi­tal brand, as the context requi­res. The gene­ral part­ners and/or dele­ga­ted port­fo­lio mana­gers of Nordic Capi­tal’s enti­ties and invest­ment vehic­les are advi­sed by a number of non-discre­tio­nary sub-advi­sors refer­red to indi­vi­du­ally or coll­ec­tively as “Nordic Capi­tal Advisors”. 

Frank­furt a. M. — KKR, a leading global inves­tor, announ­ced that KKR has ente­red into stra­te­gic part­ner­ship agree­ments with EGC, an energy services provi­der based in Düssel­dorf. The engi­nee­ring services provi­der ITG is also part of the group. The foun­ding and owner family will retain a stake in the company and conti­nue to serve as members of the manage­ment board. 

The former CEO of the GETEC Group in Germany, Michael Lowak, joins the group as Chair­man of the Advi­sory Board and will support the manage­ment in the stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with his exten­sive indus­try exper­tise. With KKR as a stra­te­gic part­ner, EGC aims to become the leading decar­bo­niza­tion part­ner with and for the real estate indus­try in Germany and acce­le­rate its growth. To this end, the company will incre­asingly invest in orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth. 

EGC is a second-gene­ra­tion, family-run and inde­pen­dent provi­der of energy services in Germany. The company covers the entire value chain: From the plan­ning and crea­tion of concepts for energy and buil­ding tech­no­logy systems to the finan­cing, main­ten­ance and opera­tion of heating centers and power supply networks to the supply of energy. The company mana­ges a real estate port­fo­lio of over 2 million m² for more than 100 custo­mers and around 800 instal­led heating centers. ITG also includes a team of expe­ri­en­ced engi­nee­ring employees for the plan­ning of energy and buil­ding tech­no­logy systems and installations. 

The combi­na­tion of engi­nee­ring exper­tise with a broad port­fo­lio of energy services in parti­cu­lar crea­tes good condi­ti­ons for the Group. Buil­dings are respon­si­ble for around a third of global CO2 emis­si­ons, mainly due to space heating and water heating. The decar­bo­niza­tion of heating systems in buil­dings plays a decisive role in achie­ving the EU’s climate targets. EGC supports land­lords in deve­lo­ping solu­ti­ons to achieve their decar­bo­niza­tion targets. Follo­wing the successful comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, KKR will support the company in rolling out a broad-based employee owner­ship and enga­ge­ment model. The program will ensure that all employees can help shape EGC’s future and parti­ci­pate in the company’s future success. 

Corinna Pitz and Dirk Pitz, members of EGC’s manage­ment board, said: “The coope­ra­tion with KKR opens up comple­tely new oppor­tu­ni­ties for us to further expand our strong market posi­tion and deve­lop our group of compa­nies. In KKR, we have found a part­ner who shares both our stra­te­gic goals and our entre­pre­neu­rial approach. KKR is not only an estab­lished infra­struc­ture inves­tor, but also has many years of expe­ri­ence in working with family-run compa­nies. All the more reason for us to look forward to the next growth phase with KKR, which offers many new oppor­tu­ni­ties for our group of compa­nies and our employees.” 

Michael Lowak, future Chair­man of EGC’s Advi­sory Board, says: “EGC enables land­lords to effi­ci­ently imple­ment and finance the decar­bo­niza­tion of their proper­ties. The company is thus making a decisive contri­bu­tion to both the real estate sector and the energy tran­si­tion in Germany. I look forward to contri­bu­ting my expe­ri­ence and indus­try know­ledge and working with KKR to further drive EGC’s growth.”

Ryan Miller, Mana­ging Direc­tor in KKR’s Infra­struc­ture team in Europe, comm­ents: “To drive the energy tran­si­tion in Germany at the neces­sary speed, we need crea­tive solu­ti­ons and long-term capi­tal. We see a growing inte­rest in contrac­ting solu­ti­ons and great poten­tial in this still very frag­men­ted market.” 

KKR has exten­sive exper­tise in global infra­struc­ture invest­ments, parti­cu­larly in the energy sector, and is commit­ted to inves­t­ing further in the future of rene­wa­ble energy. With appro­xi­m­ately USD 77 billion of infra­struc­ture assets under manage­ment, of which over USD 21 billion has been inves­ted in the energy tran­si­tion, KKR brings a global invest­ment perspec­tive, exten­sive expe­ri­ence in large-scale infra­struc­ture projects and a proven track record in high-profile tran­sac­tions in Europe such as Enca­vis, Vantage Towers, Zenobe or Greenvolt. 

In Germany, KKR has inves­ted more than EUR 18 billion in long-term equity across various alter­na­tive asset clas­ses in more than 35 compa­nies since the late 1990s, prima­rily in part­ner­ship with foun­ders, family busi­nesses and corpo­ra­ti­ons. The stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with EGC builds on KKR’s long track record of working with family busi­nesses in Germany. KKR is making the invest­ment through its Global Climate Stra­tegy, through which KKR invests at scale in solu­ti­ons that support the tran­si­tion to a low-carbon economy. 

About KKR

KKR is a leading global inves­tor provi­ding alter­na­tive asset manage­ment, capi­tal markets and insu­rance solu­ti­ons. It focu­ses on gene­ra­ting attrac­tive invest­ment returns through a long-term and disci­pli­ned invest­ment approach, employ­ing highly skil­led profes­sio­nals and support­ing growth in the assets where KKR has a presence. KKR finan­ces funds that invest in private equity, credit products, real assets, and — through stra­te­gic part­ners — hedge funds. KKR’s insu­rance subsi­dia­ries offer pension, life and reinsu­rance products under the manage­ment of Global Atlan­tic Finan­cial Group. Refe­ren­ces to KKR’s invest­ments may also refer to the acti­vi­ties of funds mana­ged by KKR and its insu­rance subsi­dia­ries. Further infor­ma­tion: www.kkr.com.

Infor­ma­tion about the Global Atlan­tic Finan­cial Group can be found at www.globalatlantic.com.

About EGC

EGC is a second-gene­ra­tion, family-run and inde­pen­dent provi­der of energy services in Germany. The company covers the entire value chain: From the plan­ning and crea­tion of concepts for energy and buil­ding tech­no­logy systems to the finan­cing, main­ten­ance and opera­tion of heating centers and power supply networks to the supply of energy. The company mana­ges a real estate port­fo­lio of over 2 million m² for more than 100 custo­mers and around 800 instal­led heating centers. EGC’s custo­mers include private and public housing asso­cia­ti­ons, insti­tu­tio­nal real estate inves­tors such as insu­rance compa­nies, banks and invest­ment compa­nies. The group of compa­nies provi­des services for new and exis­ting buil­dings, both for indi­vi­dual proper­ties and for entire real estate port­fo­lios. With ITG, the group also includes a team of expe­ri­en­ced engi­nee­ring employees for the plan­ning of energy and buil­ding tech­no­logy systems and faci­li­ties. www.egc-fm.de

Munich — A Heuking team has provi­ded legal advice to the AL-KO Group on the sale of the AL-KO Garden­tech divi­sion to the Chinese group Ningbo Daye Garden Machi­nery. The tran­sac­tion was successfully comple­ted after appr­oval by the compe­tent autho­ri­ties with a closing at the begin­ning of Febru­ary 2025. 

The AL-KO Garden­tech divi­sion produ­ces and sells a range of lawn mowers world­wide, inclu­ding smart robo­tic lawn mowers, lawn trac­tors, equip­ment for pruning trees and hedges and garden irri­ga­tion equip­ment, making it one of the market leaders in the gardening equip­ment sector. Most of the garden tools and compon­ents are produ­ced in the company’s own factory in Austria. The Garden­tech divi­sion, consis­ting of AL-KO Geräte GmbH as the parent company and subsi­dia­ries in Austria, Great Britain, Austra­lia and New Zealand, among others, gene­ra­tes a turno­ver of over 250 million euros with more than 700 employees at 19 locations. 

Ningbo Daye Garden Machi­nery Co. Ltd. is a China-based group listed on the Shen­zhen Stock Exch­ange, specia­li­zing in the deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion and sales of land­scape main­ten­ance products.

Heuking regu­larly advi­ses the AL-KO Group and its share­hol­der PRIMEPULSE on M&A tran­sac­tions and other projects, most recently on the sale of a majo­rity stake in the listed STEMMER IMAGING AG to the US private equity inves­tor Midd­le­Ground Capi­tal and the sale of the glueck kanja Group to Norves­tor, a Norwe­gian private equity investor.

Consul­tant AL-KO GmbH: HEUKING

Boris Dürr (lead part­ner over­all tran­sac­tion; corpo­rate law / M&A), Chris­tian Schild, LL.M. (lead part­ner contract nego­tia­ti­ons; corpo­rate law / M&A),

Dr. Rein­hard Siegert, (anti­trust law),
Dr. Ruth Jung­kind, (anti­trust law / distri­bu­tion law),
Peter M. Schäff­ler, (tax law),
Felix Noack, (corpo­rate law / M&A), all Munich,
Dr. Lutz Martin Keppe­ler, (IT / Data Protection),
Anna Rich­ter (Corpo­rate Law / M&A), both Cologne,
Astrid Lued­tke (IP Media & Technology),
Sarah Radon (Corpo­rate Law / M&A), both Düsseldorf.

Düssel­dorf — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird has advi­sed TriMas Corpo­ra­tion on the acqui­si­tion of the aero­space divi­sion of Gummi-Metall-Tech­nik GmbH (GMT). With the acqui­si­tion, TriMas intends to expand its aero­space and defense offe­rings while streng­thening its rela­ti­onships with Euro­pean defense suppliers. 

TriMas Corpo­ra­tion is a diver­si­fied manu­fac­tu­rer of engi­nee­red products head­quar­te­red in Bloom­field Hills, Michi­gan (USA). The company serves various indus­tries world­wide and opera­tes in three segments: Pack­a­ging, Aero­space and Specialty Products. TriMas Aero­space specia­li­zes in the design and manu­fac­ture of highly engi­nee­red compon­ents for commer­cial aircraft manu­fac­tu­r­ers and the U.S. military. 

GMT is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of vibra­tion damping compon­ents and systems and was foun­ded in 1968 in Bühl, Germany. The company offers inno­va­tive, high-perfor­mance solu­ti­ons for various indus­tries, inclu­ding mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, aero­space and rail vehic­les. GMT opera­tes world­wide with subsi­dia­ries and sales offices in seve­ral countries. 

Dr. Stefa­nie Orttmann (photo), lead part­ner on the tran­sac­tion, commen­ted: “We are deligh­ted to have been able to support TriMas in this tran­sac­tion. This deal is an exam­ple of Bird & Bird’s strong cross-border capa­bi­li­ties and in parti­cu­lar our close rela­ti­onships with US companies.”

Advi­sor TriMas Corpo­ra­tion: Bird & Bird 

Part­ner Dr. Stefa­nie Orttmann, LL.M. (lead) and asso­cia­tes Jan Medele, Henrike Camph­au­sen, Anna Klings­ei­sen, Felix Spind­ler, LL.M. and Moritz Wargalla, LL.M. (all Corpo­rate, Düssel­dorf), Part­ner Miriam Rich­ter, Asso­ciate Tom Jako­beit (both Commer­cial, Munich), Part­ner Lenn­art Schüß­ler, Coun­sel Lea Noemi Mackert, LL.M.Coun­sel Dr. Nils Lölfing, Asso­ciate Dr. Natal­lia Karni­ye­vich, Part­ner Dr. Matthias Lang (all Commer­cial, Düssel­dorf), Part­ner Ronald Hendrikx and Legal Direc­tor Anthony Rosen, Asso­ciate Teni­sha Cramer (all Commer­cial, London) as well as Part­ner Stéphane Leri­che (Commer­cial, Paris), Part­ner Dr. Stephan Wald­heim and Asso­cia­tes Tamy Tietze, Gitty Nary­many Shandy (all Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Florian Hinde­rer (Anti­trust, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Phil­ipp Egler, LL.M. (Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Catha­rina Klumpp, LL.M., and asso­cia­tes Sebas­tian Bünte and Julia Neuper (all employ­ment law, Düssel­dorf), asso­ciate Stanis­lav Schmidt (finan­cing & finan­cial regu­la­tion, Frank­furt), part­ner Dr. Chris­to­pher Maier­hö­fer and asso­ciate Roksana Hoss­eini, LL.M. (both patent law, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Constan­tin Eikel and Asso­ciate Dr. Rick Wend­ler (both trade­mark law, Düssel­dorf), Coun­sel Jürgen Schlink­mann (real estate law, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Rolf Schmich, Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann and Asso­cia­tes Thomas Schmidt and Julian Stra­ßel (all tax law, Frankfurt). 

About Bird & Bird

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 1,700 lawy­ers in 32 offices in 22 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