ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Wetz­lar / Göppin­gen / Wollerau (CH) — Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor, in asso­cia­tion with sonn­tag corpo­rate finance, has advi­sed the owner family of MAIBACH Verkehrs­si­cher­heits- und Lärm­schutz­ein­rich­tun­gen GmbH (“MAIBACH”) in the course of a succes­sion plan by the new owner NOLEX AG (“NOLEX”).
MAIBACH was foun­ded in 1946 with its head­quar­ters in Göppin­gen, Baden-Würt­tem­berg, and has since posi­tio­ned itself as a leading specia­list for traf­fic safety and noise protec­tion equip­ment in Germany.
With its three largely inde­pendently opera­ting divi­si­ons — Traf­fic Safety, Reptile and Amphi­bian Protec­tion and Noise Protec­tion Systems — MAIBACH offers its custo­mers a wide range of inno­va­tive and high-quality products as well as services and instal­la­tion work.
MAIBACH’s long-stan­ding custo­mer base includes, in parti­cu­lar, compa­nies from the traf­fic safety and (road) cons­truc­tion sectors. New owner for further growth As part of an age-rela­ted succes­sion, the owner family is now handing over the compa­nies MAIBACH VUL GmbH, based in Göppin­gen, MAIBACH AUS GmbH, based in Strobl am Wolf­gang­see, and MAIBACH VUL GmbH, based in St. Gallen, to the new owner NOLEX.
The Swiss invest­ment holding company based in Wollerau (CH) has focu­sed on the long-term deve­lo­p­ment of medium-sized compa­nies in Switz­er­land, southern Germany and Vorarl­berg (AT).
“We are deligh­ted to have found a new, strong part­ner in NOLEX, who will take MAIBACH’s previous success story to a new level in the long term and with compre­hen­sive exper­tise,” says Hans-Dieter Maibach. Stra­te­gic succes­sion plan­ning is beco­ming incre­asingly important For the Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor project team, led by Julian Will, Dennis Minnert and Sebas­tian Ring­leb, the take­over marks the 22nd tran­sac­tion they have supported this year.
“MAIBACH opera­tes in a dyna­mic market envi­ron­ment in which stra­te­gic corpo­rate decis­i­ons are beco­ming incre­asingly important along­side tech­ni­cal inno­va­tions. Road safety tech­no­lo­gies must be conti­nuously deve­lo­ped in order to keep pace with the requi­re­ments of auto­ma­ted and connec­ted driving. At the same time, there is incre­asing pres­sure to find ecolo­gi­cally compa­ti­ble solu­ti­ons that ensure both the protec­tion of amphi­bi­ans and the reduc­tion of traf­fic noise,” explains Dennis Minnert, Senior Asso­ciate at Nachfolgekontor.
Julian Will, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor, adds: “A successful succes­sion plan is crucial not only to secure a sustainable market posi­tion, but also to drive forward the long-term deve­lo­p­ment of the company. We are ther­e­fore all the more plea­sed that in NOLEX we have been able to iden­tify the ideal part­ner for our client, with whose support MAIBACH can once again expand its pionee­ring role within the indus­try.” About Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor and sonn­tag corpo­rate finance Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor GmbH, toge­ther with sonn­tag corpo­rate finance GmbH, is one of the leading M&A advi­sory firms in the German SME sector. The team of almost 30 experts accom­pa­nies medium-sized entre­pre­neurs exclu­si­vely through the entire sales process. “Our task is to safe­guard life’s work,” is how we see oursel­ves. In doing so, custo­mers bene­fit from a unique approach that has won multi­ple awards from the busi­ness press, and which protects the iden­tity of their compa­nies to a special degree. Thanks to their excel­lent access to medium-sized compa­nies, Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor and sonn­tag corpo­rate finance have also estab­lished them­sel­ves as a strong part­ner at the side of renow­ned natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal major compa­nies and inves­tors in acqui­si­ti­ons. This is also demons­tra­ted by the top posi­tion recently achie­ved at the Merger­mar­ket League Table. With a total of ten accom­pa­nied tran­sac­tions in the first quar­ter of 2024, the M&A consul­tancy ranks first in Germany.
www.nachfolgekontor.de | www.sonntagcf.com About MAIBACH Verkehrs­si­cher­heits- und Lärm­schutz­ein­rich­tun­gen GmbH MAIBACH.com/ About Nolex www.nolex.ch

News

Munich — Airbus Ventures, one of the most proli­fic inves­tors in space start­ups, has laun­ched a USD 155 million fund to be deployed in the emer­ging space sector as well as the broa­der “deep tech” ecosystem.
Airbus Ventures curr­ently has USD 465 million under manage­ment, with Fund‑Y being the fourth fund laun­ched to date.
“This fund is to explore new oppor­tu­ni­ties, and space is one of them,” Thomas d’Hal­luin, Mana­ging Part­ner of Airbus Ventures, told CNBC.
— The move comes at a time when invest­ment in the space indus­try, parti­cu­larly from venture capi­ta­lists, is reco­ve­ring after two lean years.
Airbus Ventures’ new “Fund‑Y” targets long-term oppor­tu­ni­ties in early-stage deep tech start­ups, which d’Hal­luin defi­nes as “going back to the laws of physics and not being afraid of what’s hard.”
Histo­ri­cally, “deep tech” is a clas­si­fi­ca­tion for compa­nies working on tech­no­lo­gies that face major scien­ti­fic or tech­ni­cal obstacles.
— While Airbus Ventures has tradi­tio­nally deployed the majo­rity of its funding in the U.S., d’Hal­luin explai­ned that Fund‑Y is inten­ded to be global in scope.
In parti­cu­lar, he sees “very strong momen­tum” for space start­ups in Europe and Japan.
Foun­ded in 2016, Airbus Ventures takes a diffe­rent approach to tradi­tio­nal venture capi­tal firms.
The company keeps its distance from its name­sake company, the Euro­pean aero­space company, and more than half of its Fund‑Y comes from exter­nal capi­tal such as insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, private equity and family offices.
About a third of the capi­tal provi­ded by Airbus Ventures so far has gone to the space sector, it said, back­ing 14 pure-play compa­nies in the space, inclu­ding startup Impulse, lunar cargo company ispace and track­ing service LeoLabs.
“This is about pati­ence. Often, and too often, people want instant wins. Space is not a place of instant grati­fi­ca­tion,” said d’Halluin.
He empha­si­zed the importance of funding foun­ders with the “extre­mely rare” trait of great execu­tion and high­ligh­ted Airbus Ventures’ support for Impulse.
The startup was foun­ded by Tom Muel­ler, who is known for deve­lo­ping SpaceX’s rocket engines.
“Impulse was successful in its first mission thanks to Tom’s 17 years of expe­ri­ence at SpaceX,” said d’Halluin.
“This element of human capi­tal that is often negle­c­ted in deep tech dili­gence — this notion of who captures the execu­tion, know­ledge and skills in a parti­cu­lar company — is what we focus on,” he added. 

News

Colo­gne — YPOG provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to REWE Group in connec­tion with the $150 million finan­cing round of the Berlin-based express deli­very service Flink.
The total amount consists of $115 million equity and $35 million debt.
In addi­tion to exis­ting inves­tors such as Bond, North­zone and Muba­d­ala, various new inves­tors also parti­ci­pa­ted in the round.
At the same time, Flink has ente­red into a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with Just Eat Takea­way, and a part­ner­ship with REWE Group has been in place since 2021.
These part­ner­ships enable Flink to further inte­grate its services in Europe and thus expand its market presence in Europe.
As part of its expan­sion stra­tegy, Flink plans to open 30 new loca­ti­ons over the next 12 months to expand its range of fast deli­very services and reach more custo­mers. About REWE Group The coope­ra­tive REWE Group is one of the leading retail and tourism groups in Germany and Europe.
In 2023, the company achie­ved a total exter­nal turno­ver of over €92 billion.
Foun­ded in 1927, REWE Group is present in 21 Euro­pean count­ries with around 390,000 employees.
Johan­nes Jannin­g’s team has advi­sed REWE Group seve­ral times in the past, inclu­ding on the €58 million finan­cing round of Infi­nite Roots and most recently on the $61 million finan­cing round of Formo.
Advi­sors REWE: YPOG Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Colo­gne; Matthias Kres­ser (Venture Debt), Part­ner, Berlin/Hamburg; Laura Franke (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Project Lawyer, Colo­gne; Nina Ahlert (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Colo­gne; Dr. Matthias Schatz (Corpo­rate), Part­ner, Colo­gne; Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Tax), Part­ner, Hamburg; Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin The in-house team of REWE Group was led by Dr. Ulrich Flei­scher (Senior Legal Coun­sel — M&A and Financing).
About YPOG YPOG is a law firm specia­li­zing in tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax, banking + finance and transactions.
The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are ranked natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, Cham­bers and Part­ners and Leaders League. Today, YPOG employs more than 120 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax consul­tants, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.ypog.law

News

Frank­furt a. M. — Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP has advi­sed Insight Part­ners on the $54 million Series B finan­cing round of Quali­f­yze GmbH (“Quali­f­yze”) with parti­ci­pa­tion of exis­ting inves­tors HV Capi­tal, Harbour­Vest Part­ners, H14 and Cherry Ventures. Quali­f­yze, based in Frank­furt am Main, opera­tes an inte­gra­ted audit manage­ment plat­form that simpli­fies compli­ance audits for life scien­ces compa­nies and serves over 1,200 phar­maceu­ti­cal and health­care compa­nies worldwide.
The plat­form provi­des a centra­li­zed system to manage all aspects of audits and ensu­res the highest quality and compli­ance stan­dards for clients across the indus­try. Insight Part­ners is a global soft­ware inves­tor that part­ners with high-growth tech­no­logy, soft­ware and inter­net start­ups and scale-up compa­nies that are driving trans­for­ma­tive change in their industries.
Insight Part­ners has inves­ted in more than 800 compa­nies globally and had over $80 billion in regu­la­tory assets under manage­ment as of Decem­ber 31, 2023.
Will­kie advi­sed on all aspects of the tran­sac­tion, KNPZ Rechts­an­wälte advi­sed on IP, IT and data protec­tion issues Advi­sors on the tran­sac­tion: Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP The Will­kie team was led by part­ner Miriam Steets (Corporate/M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich) and included part­ners Matthew Haddad (Corporate/M&A/Venture Capi­tal, New York), Dr. Patrick Meiisel (Tax, Frank­furt) and Andrew Silber­stein (Tax, New York), coun­sel Wulf Kring (Tax, Frank­furt) and Martin Waskow­ski (Employ­ment, Frank­furt) as well as asso­cia­tes Denise Kamme­rer (Frank­furt), David Strät­ling (Munich), Marie Moel­le­ring (Frank­furt), Luca Fuhr­mann (Frank­furt), Nils Hörnig (Munich) (all Corporate/M&A), Sascha Wink­ler (Employ­ment, Frank­furt), Dr. Laurin Havlik (Compli­ance, Munich) and Marcel Seemaier (Tax, Frankfurt).
About Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP provi­des leading legal solu­ti­ons to complex, busi­ness-criti­cal issues that span markets and industries.
Our appro­xi­m­ately 1,200 lawy­ers in 15 offices world­wide provide inno­va­tive, prag­ma­tic and sophisti­ca­ted legal services in appro­xi­m­ately 45 prac­tice areas.
Find out more at www.willkie.com. The KNPZ team compri­sed part­ner Dr. Kai-Uwe Plath as well as senior asso­cia­tes Matthias Struck and Jan Schä­fer and asso­cia­tes Moritz Schmitz and Julius Hilde­brandt (all Hamburg).

News

Hamburg — The Hamburg-based Ufenau Capi­tal subsi­diary The Rele­vance Group GmbH (TRG) has acqui­red IMG Inter­ac­tive Marke­ting Group GmbH.
A GÖRG team led by Frank­furt part­ners Dr. Tobias Fenck and Markus Beyer provi­ded The Rele­vance Group with compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice on the transaction.
Foun­ded by Jürgen Rösger, Hamburg-based IMG GmbH has estab­lished itself as a high-end consul­ting agency for digi­tal growth since 2014.
It specia­li­zes in support­ing inter­na­tio­nally active bran­ded goods and service provi­ders (parti­cu­larly from the fast-moving consu­mer goods, auto­mo­tive, retail, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, IT and commu­ni­ca­ti­ons indus­tries), in parti­cu­lar in the deve­lo­p­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of new forms of consu­mer commu­ni­ca­tion, espe­ci­ally in the area of mobile commu­ni­ca­tion and advertising.
The company also acts as a “task force” and “think tank” for the top marke­ting manage­ment of sales-orien­ted industries.
Its clients include Luft­hansa, Deut­sche Bahn and Deut­sche Glasfaser.
TRG is a Euro­pean group of compa­nies of a fund advi­sed by Ufenau Capi­tal Partners.
It was foun­ded in Hamburg in 2022 and is a provi­der of data-driven sales and marke­ting optimization.
IMG is alre­ady the sixth part­ner company in the rapidly growing TRG and signi­fi­cantly enri­ches the group’s port­fo­lio in the areas of digi­tal busi­ness, custo­mer expe­ri­ence, orga­nic growth and data analytics.
In addi­tion to IMG, TRG’s network of experts includes five other specia­li­zed part­ner compa­nies in Germany, the Nether­lands and Switz­er­land: Data­lo­gue Group, Data­Lab GmbH, Converto AG, Markt­ef­fect and DirectResearch.
Under the leader­ship of GROUP CEO Andreas Hanne­mann, CFO Jan Kaeten and CPO Peter Joachim Fiegel, TRG aims to become Euro­pe’s leading part­ner for data-driven relevance.
The expan­sion is supported by the Swiss inves­tor group Ufenau Capi­tal Partners.
GÖRG advi­sed TRG on the acqui­si­tion of IMG, inclu­ding corpo­rate, tax, employ­ment and IT law.
In this context, the team led by Dr. Tobias Fenck and Markus Beyer had alre­ady successfully advi­sed Ufenau on its invest­ment in Data­lo­gue. Advi­sor to The Rele­vance Group GmbH: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB
Dr. Tobias Fenck, Foto (Lead, Part­ner, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Frank­furt am Main) Markus Beyer, LL.M. (Lead, Part­ner, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Frank­furt am Main) Dr. Adal­bert Rödding, LL.M. (Part­ner, Tax, Colo­gne) Jonas Hain (Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Frank­furt am Main) Dr. Karl-Georg Küsters, LL.B., LL.M. Taxa­tion (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Tax, Colo­gne) Phil­ipp Albert (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main) Fabi­enne Lampe, M.mel. (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Hamburg) Florian Seidl (Asso­ciate, Employ­ment Law, Frank­furt am Main) Dr. Valen­tin Zipfel (Asso­ciate, IP,IT, Commer­cial, Frank­furt am Main) About Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent Swiss invest­ment group based on Lake Zurich.
It focu­ses on majo­rity invest­ments in service compa­nies in the DACH region as well as Spain, Portu­gal, Poland, Bene­lux and the UK, which are active in the areas of busi­ness services, health­care, IT services, educa­tion and finan­cial services.
Since 2011, Ufenau has inves­ted in >350 service compa­nies in Europe.
With an exten­sive circle of renow­ned and expe­ri­en­ced indus­try part­ners (owners, CEOs, CFOs), Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners pursues an active value-added invest­ment approach at eye level with the entrepreneurs.
Ufenau mana­ges EUR 3.0 billion in assets under management.

News

Hattingen/Uelzen — The Rivean subsi­diary Toner­Part­ner Group, one of the leading online retail­ers of prin­ter ink and toner in Europe, is streng­thening its market posi­tion by acqui­ring its compe­ti­tor Trensco.
Rivean Capi­tal has owned the Toner­Part­ner Group since 2021.
— Toner­Part­ner acqui­res 100 percent of Trensco GmbH und Co KG in Uelzen with its sales brands HD Toner and HQ-Fit.
This crea­tes the largest German online distri­bu­tor in this sector with around one million active custo­mers and an annual turno­ver of over 100 million euros.
Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of the French provi­der SAS Rousselle.com in 2021 and the purchase of Druckerpatronen.de one year later, the Toner­Part­ner Group is thus conti­nuing its dyna­mic growth.
“HD Toner serves an impres­sive number of private and busi­ness custo­mers. We see strong growth poten­tial for the company through opti­mi­zed, AI-supported online marke­ting, syner­gies in purcha­sing and the marke­ting of our sustainable products under our own ‘Green Line’ brand to HD Toner custo­mers,” says Toner­Part­ner Group CEO Morten Severon.
He adds: “With products rela­ting to sport and fitness, which are sold under HQ-Fit, the Uelzen-based company has successfully estab­lished a second main­stay that is also of inte­rest to the Toner­Part­ner Group.”
The Trensco products will conti­nue to be sold under the estab­lished HD Toner and HQ-Fit brands.
“The Toner­Part­ner Group provi­des Trensco with comple­tely new growth oppor­tu­ni­ties. Toge­ther with the Toner­Part­ner Group’s strong brands, a highly profes­sio­nal sales plat­form and excel­lent know-how, we know that Trensco and its employees are in the best hands,” empha­size Anja and Patric Weiß, foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of Trensco.
“With the acqui­si­tion of Trensco, Rivean Capi­tal is inves­t­ing further in the Toner­Part­ner plat­form and signi­fi­cantly expan­ding its market posi­tion. This is another exam­ple of Rivean Capi­tal’s role as a growth part­ner for entre­pre­neurs in the SME sector,” says Andreas Klab, Part­ner and Head of Rivean Capi­tal’s German office. Rivean Capi­tal has owned the Toner­Part­ner Group since 2021. Relo­ca­tion of logi­stics from Hattin­gen to Uelzen in 2025 The Toner­Part­ner Group’s admi­nis­tra­tive loca­tion will remain in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The logi­stics center will move to Uelzen, where Trensco has its own warehouse.
The lease for the logi­stics warehouse in Hattin­gen (North Rhine-West­pha­lia) will expire in the middle of next year due to the land­lor­d’s new deve­lo­p­ment plans. About Rivean Capi­tal Rivean Capi­tal is a leading Euro­pean private equity inves­tor for mid-market tran­sac­tions with acti­vi­ties in the DACH region, the Bene­lux count­ries and Italy.
Funds advi­sed by Rivean Capi­tal manage assets in excess of €5 billion.
Since its foun­da­tion in 1982, Rivean Capi­tal has supported more than 250 compa­nies in reali­zing their growth targets.
In Germany, Rivean Capi­tal is inves­ted in the follo­wing compa­nies in addi­tion to Toner­Part­ner: Data­ci­ders, Green Mobi­lity Holding, ]init[ AG für digi­tale Kommu­ni­ka­tion and Best4Tires.
www.riveancapital.com

News

Colo­gne — Oppen­hoff has once again compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed the EIC Fund on its German investments.
This time, the EIC Fund inves­ted in the Munich-based start-up Reverion GmbH toge­ther with the US lead inves­tor Energy Impact Part­ners (EIP) and Honda Motor, among others.
The exis­ting inves­tors Extan­tia Capi­tal, UVC Part­ners, Green Gene­ra­tion Fund, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures and Possi­ble Ventures were also invol­ved in the finan­cing round.
The invest­ment was made as an equity invest­ment as part of a Series A finan­cing round under the “Hori­zon Europe Program”.
The over­sub­scri­bed finan­cing round had a total volume of around 62 million US dollars.
Reverion is a spin-off of the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich.
The Clima­te­Tech company builds rever­si­ble, CO2-nega­tive power plants using an inno­va­tive high-tempe­ra­ture fuel cell system.
It thus reali­zes carbon-nega­tive and emis­sion-redu­cing energy gene­ra­tion. The EIC Fund is the special fund of the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil and thus the central invest­ment vehicle of the Euro­pean Commis­sion. It serves to imple­ment the Euro­pean Commis­si­on’s EIC Acce­le­ra­tor program, which supports inno­va­tive and sustainable Euro­pean growth compa­nies. The EIC Fund is advi­sed by the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank. The EIC (Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil) was foun­ded in the context of the pilot project “Hori­zon 2020 — the Frame­work Programme for Rese­arch and Inno­va­tion” and was successfully contin­ued in 2021 with the launch of the “Hori­zon Europe Programme”. With a dura­tion from 2021 to 2027 and a total budget of up to €95.5 billion, it is one of the largest funding programs for rese­arch and inno­va­tion world­wide. In 2023, the EIC Fund supported over 100 invest­ment rounds in deep tech compa­nies and secu­red co-invest­ments from 280 other inves­tors worth EUR 1.2 billion.
Oppen­hoff has regu­larly advi­sed the EIC Fund on its invest­ments in German start-ups since 2021. Advi­sor EIC Fund: Oppen­hoff & Part­ner lead Dr. Caro­lin Roßko­then (Corpo­rate / M&A); Dr. Maike Mestmä­cker (Corpo­rate), Dr. Patric Mau (IP), Marvin Roch­ner (Real Estate) and Dr. Cars­ten Bormann (Regu­la­tory).
Oppen­hoff regu­larly advi­ses compa­nies in the field of venture capi­tal, most recently for exam­ple the EIC Fund on the 53 million Euro Series B finan­cing round of Infi­nite Roots or on the invest­ment in the tech start-up STABL Energy as well as SellerX on the acqui­si­tion of KW-Commerce and Beyond­Build on the stra­te­gic merger of spaceOS and Equiem Holdings. About Oppen­hoff & Part­ner The full-service law firm Oppen­hoff deve­lops indus­try-speci­fic solu­ti­ons for natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons, large owner-mana­ged compa­nies, insti­tu­ti­ons, stra­te­gic inves­tors and finan­cial investors.
More than 100 lawy­ers advise clients throug­hout Germany in all important areas of commer­cial and tax law. Oppen­hoff & Part­ner Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter mbB (“Oppen­hoff”) is a part­ner­ship company regis­tered in the part­ner­ship regis­ter of the Essen Local Court with the regis­tra­tion number PR 1850 and its regis­tered office in Cologne.

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Munich — SKW Schwarz has advi­sed the Munich-based soft­ware deve­lo­per Probis Soft­ware GmbH on an invest­ment by JLL Spark Global Ventures.
In the course of a Series A finan­cing round, JLL Spark inves­ted the largest share of the parti­ci­pa­ting investors.
Munich-based Probis offers cloud-based soft­ware for multi-project control­ling in the real estate and finance sectors.
Since its foun­da­tion in 2022, the company has comple­ted up to 1,000 projects annually.
JLL Spark Global Ventures is the corpo­rate venture arm of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).
Since June 2018, JLL Spark has inves­ted over USD 390 million in more than 50 early-stage proptechs.
SKW Schwarz had alre­ady advi­sed Probis Soft­ware GmbH in 2022 on the entry of the inves­tor EKK. Advi­sor Probis Soft­ware GmbH: SKW Schwarz, Munich Dr. Martin Bött­ger, photo © SKW (Corporate/M&A, lead), Dr. Daniel Meßmer (IT); Asso­cia­tes: Chris­tine Wärl (Corporate/M&A), Tamara Ulm (Employ­ment)

News

Colo­gne — Oppen­hoff has advi­sed the Saint-Gobain Group on the sale of the auto­mo­tive supplier FREEGLASS GmbH & Co. KG to Hanno­ver Finanz as part of a carve-out.
Saint-Gobain is a global supplier of mate­ri­als and solu­ti­ons used in the cons­truc­tion sector, among others.
In Germany, the company is prima­rily known for its leading buil­ding mate­rial brands ISOVER, Rigips, Weber and Ecophon as well as for its glass production.
As an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner to the auto­mo­tive indus­try, FREEGLASS deve­lops and produ­ces three-dimen­sio­nal plas­tic compon­ents at its plant near Stuttgart.
Its products include windows and covers with inno­va­tive products that enable the inte­gra­tion of func­tions and sensors.
The company employs 120 people and produ­ces around two million compon­ents per year. Advi­sor Saint-Gobain Group: Oppen­hoff & Part­ner led by Myriam Baars-Schil­ling and Sebas­tian Gutmann included Maike Mestmä­cker (all Corpo­rate / M&A), Dr. Gunnar Knorr (Tax) and Dr. Stefa­nie Minzen­may (Real Estate).
Advi­sor Saint-Gobain Group : Oppen­hoff & Part­ner has been advi­sing on tran­sac­tions of natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies as well as on corpo­rate law matters for decades.
The M&A team, which has recei­ved nume­rous awards in indus­try hand­books, recently advi­sed the Wilms Group on the sale of Südka­bel, the Iveco Group on an agree­ment with Muta­res to trans­fer the MAGIRUS Group, Snow­World on the complete take­over of Alpen­park Neuss and the Austrian Fede­ral Rail­ways ÖBB on the acqui­si­tion of Go-Ahead Deutschland.
The in-house Saint-Gobain team consis­ted of Matthias Zenner, Eva Beutin and Henrik von Wietersheim.

News

Berlin — Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advi­sed Kommu­nal­kre­dit Austria AG on the finan­cing of ther­mondo GmbH in the amount of EUR 20 million for the acqui­si­tion of the solar energy company FeBe­Sol GmbH.
The finan­cing consists of a fixed term loan faci­lity in the amount of EUR 17 million and a revol­ving term loan faci­lity in the amount of EUR 3 million.
Berlin-based ther­mondo GmbH is Germany’s largest heat pump instal­ler with over 600 perma­nent employees.
Since it was foun­ded in 2013, the company says it has repla­ced over 50,000 heating systems in Germany with heat pumps.
ther­mondo is backed by Cana­dian inves­tor Brook­field Infra­struc­ture Part­ners and German inves­tors E.ON, HV Capi­tal, Vorwerk, Rocket Inter­net and 10x.
FeBe­Sol GmbH, based in Sankt Leon-Rot in southern Germany, is a solar energy company foun­ded in 2009 that supports its custo­mers from plan­ning and appli­ca­tion to the instal­la­tion and main­ten­ance of solar systems.
To date, the company has instal­led more than 6,000 photo­vol­taic systems in Germany and abroad.
The acqui­si­tion of FeBe­Sol makes ther­mondo one of the top 10 play­ers on the German photo­vol­taic market and conso­li­da­tes its leading posi­tion on the German B2C heat pump market.
Kommu­nal­kre­dit Austria AG, based in Vienna, is a specia­list bank for infra­struc­ture and energy finan­cing in Europe.
From the provi­sion of debt and subor­di­na­ted capi­tal to mezza­nine and bridge finan­cing and equity, the company offers flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons across the entire capi­tal struc­ture. Kommu­nal­kre­dit Austria was advi­sed by an inter­na­tio­nal team from Norton Rose Fulbright led by Frank­furt part­ner Dr. Bern­hard Fied­ler (Banking/Finance).
In addi­tion, the team consis­ted of Jan Peter Weiland (Coun­sel, London), Lenka Mich­alko (Senior Asso­ciate), Kris­tina Thie­le­mann (Asso­ciate) (both Frank­furt, Banking/Finance) as well as Bernd Dreier (Part­ner, Munich) and Dr. Malte Ingwer­sen (Coun­sel, Hamburg) (both Corporate/M&A).
ther­mondo was advi­sed by Lupp+Partner. About Norton Rose Fulbright Norton Rose Fulbright is a global commer­cial 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. Where­ver we operate, we act in accordance with our busi­ness prin­ci­ples of “Quality, Unity and Inte­grity”. We provide legal services of the highest stan­dard and main­tain this level of quality in every cont­act. 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.

News

Munich/Bonn — Rödl & Part­ner has advi­sed Ipsos SA with an inter­di­sci­pli­nary team on a public take­over offer to acquire infas Holding AG, a major player in the field of market, opinion and social rese­arch in Germany.
Ipsos, one of the worl­d’s leading market rese­arch compa­nies, has laun­ched a volun­t­ary public take­over offer for infas Holding AG.
This tran­sac­tion enables Ipsos to combine its inter­na­tio­nal reach and opera­tio­nal know-how with the exper­tise and repu­ta­tion of infas.
This will enable Ipsos to further streng­then its posi­tion as a provi­der of market rese­arch and consul­ting services in Germany.
The Rödl & Part­ner team supported Ipsos with a finan­cial and tax due diligence.
Part­ner James Murphy was respon­si­ble for the over­all project manage­ment and finan­cial due diligence.
The tax due dili­gence was carried out by part­ner Dr. Chris­toph Götz. About Ipsos SA Ipsos claims to be one of the worl­d’s leading market and opinion rese­arch companies.
The company employs around 20,000 people and is repre­sen­ted in 90 countries.
With more than 5,000 clients, Ipsos offers compre­hen­sive rese­arch and analy­sis exper­tise that provi­des deep insights into peop­le’s beha­vior, opini­ons and motives.
In Germany, more than 500 employees work in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Frank­furt and Nuremberg.
The company was foun­ded in 1975 by Didier Truchot and is head­quar­te­red in Paris, France.
Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exch­ange since 1999. About infas Holding AG infas is a listed, private and inde­pen­dent rese­arch insti­tute based in Bonn, Germany, which conducts natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal ad hoc studies on topics such as the labor market, educa­tion and transport.
Foun­ded in 1959, the company employs 300 people, inclu­ding over 150 scien­tists, and gene­ra­ted a turno­ver of around 50 million euros in 2023.
The company consists of seve­ral subsi­dia­ries, inclu­ding infas Insti­tut für ange­wandte Sozi­al­wis­sen­schaft, infas 360, infas quo and Lutum+Tappert.
infas conducts quali­ta­tive and quan­ti­ta­tive surveys as well as market analy­ses in various subject areas, inclu­ding trans­por­ta­tion and health. Rödl & Part­ner — The agile caret­a­ker for medium-sized global market leaders As lawy­ers, tax consul­tants, busi­ness and IT consul­tants and audi­tors, we are repre­sen­ted at 110 of our own loca­ti­ons in 50 count­ries. Our clients trust our 5,800 colle­agues world­wide. www.roedl.de. Advi­sor to Ipsos SA: Rödl & Part­ner­Ja­mesMurphy, Part­ner, Munich (© Roedl & Part­ner) — Over­all project manage­ment Nick Phil­lips, Mana­ger, London Chris­toph Niederl, Senior Asso­ciate, Munich Tax Services: Dr. Chris­toph Götz, Part­ner, Munich, Dr. Susann Sturm, Mana­ger, Munich Lucas Reilly-Schott, Tax Assistant, Munich

News

Atlanta/ Düsseldorf/ — UPS (NYSE: UPS) announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of Frigo-Trans and its sister company BPL (coll­ec­tively “Frigo-Trans”), indus­try-leading provi­ders of complex health­care logi­stics based in Germany.
Once the acqui­si­tion is fina­li­zed, UPS will enhance its end-to-end capa­bi­li­ties across Europe for UPS Health­care custo­mers who incre­asingly require tempe­ra­ture-sensi­tive and time-sensi­tive logistics.
“Rapid inno­va­tion in the phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­try is crea­ting the need for more inte­gra­ted refri­ge­ra­ted and frozen supply chains,” said Kate Gutmann, EVP and Presi­dent of Inter­na­tio­nal, Health­care and Supply Chain Solu­ti­ons at UPS.
“Frigo-Trans will help deepen our port­fo­lio of solu­ti­ons for our custo­mers and acce­le­rate our jour­ney to become the global leader in complex health­care logi­stics to meet their needs.”
Frigo-Trans’ network includes a tempe­ra­ture-control­led warehouse cove­ring six tempe­ra­ture zones from cryo­p­re­ser­va­tion (-196°C) to ambi­ent (+15° to +25°C), a pan-Euro­pean cold chain trans­por­ta­tion solu­tion and tempe­ra­ture-control­led and time-criti­cal freight forwar­ding services.
The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the first quar­ter of 2025, subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory reviews and approvals.
The value and terms of the tran­sac­tion will not be disc­lo­sed at this time. About Frigo-Trans Frigo-Trans provi­des a compre­hen­sive warehousing and trans­por­ta­tion solu­tion for phar­maceu­ti­cal and biotech customers.
Frigo-Trans utili­zes world-class distri­bu­tion faci­li­ties and a phar­macy-focu­sed, pan-Euro­pean cold chain trans­por­ta­tion network.
Other value-added services include pack­a­ging, hand­ling and inven­tory management.
The Frigo-Trans network is head­quar­te­red in Fußgön­heim, Germany and covers all Euro­pean count­ries. About BPL BPL offers custo­mi­zed trans­port manage­ment for GDP-compli­ant ship­ping of time-criti­cal and tempe­ra­ture-sensi­tive products.
BPL mana­ges a high-quality network of air and sea freight carri­ers and hand­les customs clearance to meet custo­mers’ complex cross-border requirements.
Tempe­ra­ture-control­led pack­a­ging is an addi­tio­nal value-added service.
BPL prima­rily caters to biopharma custo­mers with speci­fic tempe­ra­ture, quality and speed requirements.
BPL is head­quar­te­red in Düssel­dorf, Germany. About UPS UPS (NYSE: UPS) is one of the worl­d’s largest compa­nies, with reve­nues of $91.0 billion in 2023, provi­ding a broad range of inte­gra­ted logi­stics solu­ti­ons to custo­mers in more than 200 count­ries and territories.
The company’s appro­xi­m­ately 500,000 employees pursue a stra­tegy that is simply formu­la­ted and powerfully imple­men­ted: “Moving our world forward by deli­ve­ring what matters”: Custo­mer first.
People led.
Inno­va­tion driven.
UPS is commit­ted to redu­cing its impact on the envi­ron­ment and support­ing the commu­ni­ties we serve around the world.
UPS is also a tire­less advo­cate for diver­sity, equa­lity and inclusion.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit ups.com, about.ups.com and investors.ups.com.

News

Munich — Mavie, the leading provi­der of work­place health promo­tion in Austria, is expan­ding into the German market by acqui­ring a majo­rity stake in wellabe.
The stra­te­gic part­ner­ship offers compa­nies and employees a more compre­hen­sive range of services to promote physi­cal and mental health with inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons and a strong network of experts.
Mavie, an inno­va­tive holi­stic health­care provi­der from Austria, is ente­ring the German market with the acqui­si­tion of a 60% stake in the Health­Tech start-up wellabe.
wellabe offers health check-ups at the work­place and perso­na­li­zed, digi­tal preven­tion programs.
With their mobile health stati­ons, they provide employees with a compre­hen­sive insight into their current health status in less than 20 minutes.
The results are available to parti­ci­pants in real time in the wellabe app and can be discus­sed with a health coach as part of a video consultation.
By acqui­ring a majo­rity stake in wellabe, Mavie is taking a further step in its expan­sion stra­tegy and conso­li­da­ting its posi­tion as a leading provi­der of work­place health promo­tion in Austria.
Buil­ding on Mavie Work’s strong market posi­tion in Austria, the company will work with wellabe to offer an even broa­der range of inno­va­tive health services for compa­nies in future. wellabe: Health­Tech startup for healt­hier coope­ra­tion Foun­ded in Germany in 2018, the Health­Tech startup wellabe curr­ently supports around 100 B2B custo­mers in the field of occu­pa­tio­nal healthcare.
With health check-ups at the work­place, perso­na­li­zed, digi­tal preven­tion programs and mobile health stati­ons, the company gives parti­ci­pants a compre­hen­sive insight into their current health status.
The resul­ting data-based recom­men­da­ti­ons are tail­o­red to the speci­fic needs of the parti­ci­pants and support them in making sustainable life­style changes.
Over­all, risk factors can be iden­ti­fied in good time and life­style dise­a­ses can be proac­tively prevented.
The company is owned by the Austrian health­care provi­der Mavie and SANA Klini­ken AG, the third-largest private clinic opera­tor in Germany. Mavie Work: Number 1 in Austria Mavie Work is a leading provi­der of work­place health promo­tion in Austria and supports compa­nies and their employees on the path to a healt­hier organization.
Mavie’s port­fo­lio includes ever­y­thing that helps orga­niza­ti­ons and their employees stay healthy.
The services are holi­stic, encom­pass physi­cal and mental health and range from modern, low-thres­hold diagno­stic services to exer­cise programs, mental coaching and nutri­tio­nal advice.
EAP (Employee Assis­tance Program) is dedi­ca­ted to the mental health of employees in confi­den­tial perso­nal consultations.
Mana­gers are supported with coaching, semi­nars and training.
Mavie curr­ently supports around 190 compa­nies with around 145,000 employees.
Mavie is backed by expe­ri­en­ced and passio­nate health experts who are commit­ted to making a lasting and tangi­ble diffe­rence to health. Mavie: inno­va­tive holi­stic health provi­der Mavie has been active as a group of compa­nies since 2020. The Group’s aim is to deve­lop into a holi­stic, modern health­care provi­der that supports and accom­pa­nies people throug­hout their lives in main­tai­ning and impro­ving their health.
Mavie focu­ses on preven­tion (stay­ing healthy) and reha­bi­li­ta­tion (getting healthy).
Offers are available to both end custo­mers (B2C) and corpo­rate part­ners (B2B).
Mavie is alre­ady active with offe­rings such as Mavie Work, a provi­der of occu­pa­tio­nal health­care with around 190 corpo­rate custo­mers throug­hout Austria.
The port­fo­lio also includes cura domo, the Austrian market leader in 24-hour care and an expert in active & assis­ted ageing with more than 2,500 caregivers.
This is comple­men­ted by MavieMe, inno­va­tive home tests for blood and gut micro­biome, both of which can be carried out conve­ni­ently and easily from home.
In addi­tion, Mavie coope­ra­tes with the Premi­Qa­Med Group in the deve­lo­p­ment of health­care services such as Health Mobil, a mobile health­care service for companies.
As a holi­stic health­care provi­der and stra­te­gic inves­tor, Mavie focu­ses on exis­ting busi­ness models and inno­va­tions in equal measure, iden­ti­fy­ing, deve­lo­ping and scaling them to make them acces­si­ble to as many people as possible.
Mavie sees itself as an inno­va­tor and busi­ness part­ner and invests in compa­nies that fit its stra­te­gic focus in the health­care sector and with which joint busi­ness models can be deve­lo­ped through colla­bo­ra­tion. POELLATH provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Mavie with the follo­wing team:Chris­tian Tönies, LL.M. Eur. (Part­ner, Co-Lead, M&A/VC, Munich) Markus Döll­ner (Photo © Poellath) , LL.M.
(London) (Coun­sel, Co-Lead, M&A/VC, Munich) Dr. Sebas­tian Gerlin­ger, LL.M.
(Part­ner, M&A/VC, Munich) Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Frank­furt aM)
Marvin May (Asso­ciate, Employ­ment Law, Munich)

News

Berlin/ Munich — Alpha­ly­tik Phar­ma­ser­vice GmbH, a leading expert in phar­maceu­ti­cal analy­tics, announ­ces its inte­gra­tion into GREENPEAK Part­ners’ subsi­diary, the CERTANIA Group, a dyna­mic group specia­li­zing in test­ing, inspec­tion and certi­fi­ca­tion services.
This stra­te­gic move repres­ents a signi­fi­cant mile­stone for Alpha­ly­tik as it expands its offe­ring of specia­li­zed stabi­lity test­ing and method vali­da­tion services to a broa­der range of phar­maceu­ti­cal clients. Alpha­ly­tik was foun­ded in 1995 and is head­quar­te­red in Berlin, Germany.
Alpha­ly­tik has built a strong repu­ta­tion as an inde­pen­dent labo­ra­tory specia­li­zing in drug product stabi­lity test­ing, method deve­lo­p­ment and release test­ing under Good Manu­fac­tu­ring Prac­tice (GMP) and US Food and Drug Admi­nis­tra­tion (FDA) guidelines.
With a focus on complex drug formu­la­ti­ons, inclu­ding low-dose and hormo­nal prepa­ra­ti­ons, Alpha­ly­tik serves a diverse custo­mer base that includes some of the worl­d’s leading phar­maceu­ti­cal companies.
The company’s exper­tise in ensu­ring the long-term safety and effi­cacy of phar­maceu­ti­cal products makes it a relia­ble partner.
The merger with CERTANIA will give Alpha­ly­tik access to a powerful plat­form that will enable it to expand its service offe­ring and streng­then its posi­tion in the phar­maceu­ti­cal analy­tics market.
This part­ner­ship will enable Alpha­ly­tik to meet the growing demand for specia­li­zed phar­maceu­ti­cal test­ing services driven by incre­asing drug deve­lo­p­ment and regu­la­tory requirements.
Dr. Nico­las Schauer has been appoin­ted as the new Mana­ging Direc­tor, while Dr. Richard Herzog, the foun­der of Alpha­ly­tik, will conti­nue to support the company in an advi­sory capa­city to ensure a seam­less tran­si­tion and conti­nuity in custo­mer relationships.
“We are exci­ted to join CERTANIA, a group that shares our commit­ment to excel­lence in phar­maceu­ti­cal test­ing,” said Dr. Richard Herzog, foun­der of Alphalytik.
“This part­ner­ship will provide us with the resour­ces and support we need to conti­nue provi­ding high-quality, relia­ble services to our custo­mers while pursuing new growth oppor­tu­ni­ties.” Kars­ten Xander, CEO and foun­der of CERTANIA, welco­med Alpha­ly­tik to the group and empha­si­zed the stra­te­gic importance of the acquisition.
“The addi­tion of Alpha­ly­tik signi­fi­cantly streng­thens CERTA­NIA’s posi­tion in the field of phar­maceu­ti­cal labo­ra­tory analy­tics. Their exper­tise in stabi­lity test­ing and method vali­da­tion comple­ments our exis­ting services and we see great poten­tial for syner­gies and growth.”
The acqui­si­tion of Alpha­ly­tik by CERTANIA under­lines the Group’s commit­ment to expan­ding its compe­ten­cies in the life scien­ces and streng­thening its market presence in Germany and beyond.
The inte­gra­tion is expec­ted to drive inno­va­tion, enhance the service offe­ring and promote signi­fi­cant growth within the CERTANIA Group. CERTANIA offers medium-sized, know­ledge-based compa­nies a plat­form to deve­lop under one roof, retain entre­pre­neu­rial free­dom and at the same time bene­fit from the resour­ces and support of the group. About Alpha­ly­tik: Foun­ded in 1995 and head­quar­te­red in Berlin, Alpha­ly­tik Phar­ma­ser­vice GmbH is a specia­li­zed phar­maceu­ti­cal labo­ra­tory offe­ring stabi­lity test­ing, method deve­lo­p­ment and release test­ing for medi­cinal products.
With a focus on complex analy­ti­cal requi­re­ments, Alpha­ly­tik serves a diverse clientele, inclu­ding leading phar­maceu­ti­cal companies.
The company’s exper­tise and accre­di­ted services ensure the long-term safety and effi­cacy of phar­maceu­ti­cal products.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit alphalytik.com. About CERTANIA: Under the umbrella of CERTANIA Holding GmbH, a new global market player in the fields of Test­ing, Inspec­tion & Certi­fi­ca­tion is emerging.
The group offers medium-sized part­ners a sustainable home for their life’s work.
CERTANIA enables entre­pre­neurs and owners to deve­lop their busi­ness with like-minded people while preser­ving their entre­pre­neu­rial roots, corpo­rate culture, brand and values.
More infor­ma­tion at certania.com  

News

Munich — The global law firm Reed Smith, toge­ther with Deal­Cir­cle as main spon­sors, invi­tes you to the inter­na­tio­nal confe­rence pema­com for private equity specia­lists and M&A experts on Septem­ber 24, 2024 in Munich.
Since 2010, the annual pema­com confe­rence has taken place in Munich during the Okto­ber­fest and has conti­nuously expan­ded the range of topics into a private equity and M&A platform.
The event sees itself as a “networ­king place-to-be” to exch­ange views on current deve­lo­p­ments in the markets, economy and stra­tegy. Prof. Dr. Gregor Kirch­hof, LL.M. from the Univer­sity of Augs­burg will open this year’s pema­com with a keynote speech on “Para­digm Lost? — About the Euro­pean Path in a New World”. Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs (photo © Reed­S­mith) and Chris­tian von Sydow, both private equity and M&A experts and Partner/Senior Coun­sel at Reed Smith, will intro­duce the event.
“With this event, we are brin­ging toge­ther top-class discus­sion part­ners and experts from inter­na­tio­nal private equity funds with leading German compa­nies and inter­na­tio­nal insti­tu­ti­ons and consul­ting firms, thus crea­ting a unique oppor­tu­nity for networ­king and direct exch­ange on the current private equity and M&A chal­lenges in the market,” says Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs, Part­ner at Reed Smith in Munich and Co-Chair pemacom.
The over­ar­ching theme against the back­drop of the impact of the US elec­tions is to take stock of the private equity land­scape in the current market.
Cross-border tran­sac­tions to and from the US and within Europe are a topic of this year’s confe­rence, along­side special sector panels on topics inclu­ding ESG stan­dards, the role of family offices, sector exper­tise for healthcare/life scien­ces and digi­tal busi­ness models, a look at mid-market tran­sac­tions and deve­lo­p­ments in the areas of AI and digi­ta­liza­tion, finan­cing and private funds.
Chris­tian von Sydow, Senior Coun­sel at Reed Smith and Co-Chair of pema­com: “It may come as a surprise that the current tran­sac­tion data shows that the market is gaining stabi­lity. It will be inte­res­t­ing to see what impact, if any, the US elec­tion will have on take­over acti­vity. To explore this, our panels in the various sectors will provide an in-depth snapshot of the market and the expec­ta­ti­ons of market participants.”
All further infor­ma­tion on the pema­com event on 24.9.2024 at the Baye­ri­scher Hof in Munich and the current program can be found on the website www.pemacom.com

News
The Hague — Bizz­de­sign announ­ces the comple­tion of two acqui­si­ti­ons that will make the company a global leader in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion soft­ware market.
Bizz­de­sign and MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal, two Gart­ner-reco­gni­zed leaders in Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture (EA) soft­ware, announ­ced a defi­ni­tive merger agreement.
In addi­tion, Bizz­de­sign has signed a further acqui­si­tion that will bring the group to total reve­nues of EUR 110 million and over 600 employees.
These two signi­fi­cant acqui­si­ti­ons will create a leading global player in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion soft­ware market with offices, employees and custo­mers around the world.
The combi­ned group will conti­nue to operate under the Bizz­de­sign brand, reflec­ting a shared commit­ment to inno­va­tion and custo­mer-centric solu­ti­ons. MEGA MEGA will be acqui­red by its foun­der and manage­ment, as well as by Belgian private equity inves­tor GIMV.
The acqui­si­tion of MEGA marks the second step in Bizz­de­si­gn’s buy-and-build stra­tegy since the merger with stra­te­gic soft­ware inves­tor Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”).
MEGA was foun­ded in 1991 and is head­quar­te­red in Paris, France.
The company is repre­sen­ted world­wide, has offices in 10 count­ries and employs appro­xi­m­ately 350 people.
MEGA’s HOPEX plat­form enables colla­bo­ra­tion, auto­ma­tion and actionable insights to acce­le­rate trans­for­ma­tion initiatives.
HOPEX’s four core solu­ti­ons focus on Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture (EA), Busi­ness Process Manage­ment (BPM), Gover­nance, Risk & Compli­ance (GRC) and Data Governance.
MEGA serves more than 600 custo­mers in the EMEA, North America, LATAM and APAC regi­ons, inclu­ding major banks, insu­rance compa­nies and aero­space compa­nies. Buil­ding a global leader in Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture The combi­na­tion of Bizz­de­sign and MEGA crea­tes a new market leader in Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture and Digi­tal Trans­for­ma­tion, serving a diverse client base of more than 1,000 corpo­rate and govern­ment insti­tu­ti­ons, inclu­ding blue-chip clients such as HSBC, Shell, Wells Fargo and EDF.
With a highly comple­men­tary market presence across all conti­nents, the merger will create a true global market leader in this field.
Bizz­de­sign and MEGA have been reco­gni­zed as market leaders in Gart­ner’s Magic Quadrant for Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture for over ten years, under­li­ning the leading posi­tion of both compa­nies in this field.
The combi­ned product offe­ring is well posi­tio­ned to support orga­niza­ti­ons in their enter­prise trans­for­ma­tion initiatives.
“We are very exci­ted to part­ner with MEGA,” said Bert van der Zwan, CEO of Bizz­de­sign.
“The merger will acce­le­rate our growth and enable us to deli­ver more inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons and provide grea­ter value to our custo­mers around the world. We see a fruitful stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with great poten­tial to deli­ver a value propo­si­tion in inter­na­tio­nal markets toge­ther with MEGA.” 

Luca de Risi, CEO of MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal, explains: “Bizz­de­sign is an excel­lent stra­te­gic and cultu­ral fit for MEGA.
Our combi­ned strengths and resour­ces will greatly enhance the value of enter­prise archi­tec­ture in trans­forming organizations.
The MEGA manage­ment team is very exci­ted to be a part of this. Sven van Berge Henegou­wen, Mana­ging Part­ner at Main and Chair­man of the Super­vi­sory Board of Bizz­de­sign, summa­ri­zes: “This tran­sac­tion is a mile­stone in Bizz­de­si­gn’s growth stra­tegy. We stron­gly believe in working with commit­ted entre­pre­neurs to acce­le­rate inno­va­tion for the bene­fit of their custo­mers. Over the past 20 years, this has been one of the key value drivers for Main Capi­tal in the successful orga­nic and buy-and-build growth stra­te­gies we have execu­ted with our busi­ness part­ners. With Bizz­de­sign and MEGA, we are brin­ging toge­ther two compa­nies that are both known for their inno­va­tion and exper­tise in enter­prise archi­tec­ture, crea­ting a strong foun­da­tion for further global expan­sion. The merger rein­forces our stra­tegy of buil­ding leading inter­na­tio­nal soft­ware groups in one of our core product markets and also marks the offi­cial launch of our expan­sion into France.”
The closing of the MEGA acqui­si­tion is still subject to the neces­sary regu­la­tory appr­ovals. Addi­tio­nal stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion in the field of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion In addi­tion to the acqui­si­tion of MEGA, Bizz­de­sign recently signed another signi­fi­cant stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion in the field of digi­tal transformation.
This further acqui­si­tion will further streng­then the Group’s alre­ady global market-leading posi­tion in this area and bring addi­tio­nal comple­men­tary and syner­gi­stic product oppor­tu­ni­ties to the Group.
The combi­ned group, inclu­ding this undis­c­lo­sed acqui­si­tion, will gene­rate reve­nues of appro­xi­m­ately EUR 110 million and employ over 600 people, crea­ting a strong foun­da­tion for further orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth.
A detailed announce­ment of this latest acqui­si­tion is expec­ted to be published during Q4 2024. About Bizz­de­sign https://bizzdesign.com/ Foun­ded in 2000, Bizz­de­sign is reco­gni­zed as the trus­ted global SaaS plat­form for enter­prise archi­tec­ture and is reco­gni­zed as a leader by major analyst firms such as Gart­ner and Forrester.
Bizz­de­sign helps the worl­d’s leading public and private orga­niza­ti­ons ensure successful prio­ri­tiza­tion of invest­ments, trans­for­ma­tion initia­ti­ves and risk management.
Bizz­de­sign helps archi­tects and execu­ti­ves to fully envi­sion multi­di­men­sio­nal archi­tec­tu­ral struc­tures, design and plan both current and future archi­tec­ture, and execute their stra­te­gic trans­for­ma­tion initia­ti­ves with confi­dence. About MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal https://www.mega.com/ Foun­ded in 1991, MEGA is a global soft­ware provi­der specia­li­zing in digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion solu­ti­ons to connect IT leaders, process owners, risk mana­gers and data gover­nance officers.
The company is head­quar­te­red in Paris, France, and has offices in 10 count­ries worldwide.
MEGA’s SaaS plat­form, HOPEX, enables colla­bo­ra­tion, auto­ma­tion and crea­tes actionable insights to acce­le­rate trans­for­ma­tion initia­ti­ves. MEGA serves more than 600 clients in the EMEA, North America, LATAM and APAC regi­ons, inclu­ding large banks, insu­rance compa­nies, public admi­nis­tra­tion and the airspace indus­try. About Main Capi­tal Part­ners https://main.nl/ Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor in the Bene­lux, DACH, the Nordics, and the United States with appro­xi­m­ately EUR 6 billion in assets under management.
Main has over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams in its port­fo­lio as a stra­te­gic part­ner to achieve profi­ta­ble growth and larger outstan­ding soft­ware groups.
As a leading soft­ware inves­tor mana­ging private equity funds active in Northwes­tern Europe and North America, Main has over 75 employees opera­ting out of its offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp, and an affi­lia­ted office in Boston.
Main main­ta­ins an active port­fo­lio of over 45 soft­ware companies.
The under­ly­ing port­fo­lio employs over 12,000 employees.
Through its Main Social Insti­tute, Main supports students with grants and scho­lar­ships to study IT and Compu­ter Science at Tech­ni­cal Univer­si­ties and Univer­si­ties of Applied Sciences. 

News

Berlin — Monda, the all-in-one data mone­tiza­tion plat­form, announ­ced that it has raised USD 5 million in a seed funding round.
The round was led by Senovo and Acro­ba­tor Ventures, with parti­ci­pa­tion from Techstars.
The capi­tal will be used to expand busi­ness opera­ti­ons in the US, grow the part­ner ecosys­tem and expand the plat­form to enable any busi­ness to secu­rely mone­tize data.
Monda’s soft­ware enables compa­nies to start and scale a data services business.
Monda has seen strong growth in 2024 and the plat­form is now used by over 150 Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) compa­nies that have crea­ted more than 6,000 data products.
Monda has built key part­ner­ships and inte­gra­ti­ons with world-leading cloud plat­forms such as Google Cloud, Datab­ricks and SAP.
Since the begin­ning of the year, the team has doubled to 32 employees.
In addi­tion, Monda is opening its first US office in Boston in fall 2024 to be closer to North Ameri­can custo­mers, who make up 50% of its custo­mer base.
Monda was foun­ded by tech entre­pre­neurs and data experts Thani Shamsi and Richard Hoffmann
as a spin-off of Berlin-based Datarade, the worl­d’s largest compa­ri­son plat­form for data provi­ders. Thani Shamsi, foun­der and CEO of Monda, said: “AI has crea­ted a huge demand for high-quality and unique data sets to train AI models. Compa­nies have reco­gni­zed the mone­tiza­tion of their proprie­tary data for AI as a busi­ness oppor­tu­nity, but face an incre­asingly complex global data market. Having worked for a data provi­der myself, I know these chal­lenges first-hand. We have crea­ted Monda to enable any company to build a secure, growing and sustainable data services busi­ness — driving AI forward.” More and more AI compa­nies are trying to secure access to proprie­tary data sets to train and refine their models — and are signing data licen­ses with data-rich compa­nies like Reddit, Shut­ter­stock, or Yelp. But tech­ni­cal, regu­la­tory and opera­tio­nal chal­lenges prevent compa­nies from mone­tiz­ing their data: Buil­ding a successful data-as-a-service busi­ness invol­ves crea­ting data products, inte­gra­ting with data market­places, setting up data distri­bu­tion, secu­rely sharing data, hand­ling data licen­ses, and mana­ging compli­ance. Mona Gind­ler, Part­ner at Senovosaid: “As the sourcing and mone­tiza­tion of data moves into the main­stream, data provi­ders need better tools to manage the incre­asing comple­xity of the data market. Monda helps them reach more custo­mers while redu­cing opera­tio­nal over­head, putting the company in a strong posi­tion to lead this new soft­ware cate­gory. Thani and Richard have built a fanta­stic team and culture in Berlin. We are exci­ted to support their expan­sion into the US with the new Boston office.” Monda’s data mone­tiza­tion plat­form has three key diffe­ren­tia­tors: First, the product is easy to use and allows busi­ness users to create data products and publish them to their own data store­front or data market­places in just a few clicks. Secondly, Monda’s verti­cal SaaS approach enables compa­nies to run and manage their entire data services busi­ness on one plat­form. Thirdly, custo­mers appre­ciate the first-class service and support from an inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer care team. Part of the seed funding will be used to further deve­lop data inte­gra­ti­ons with cloud plat­forms, support unstruc­tu­red data products and roll out addi­tio­nal compli­ance functionalities.
Richard Hoff­mann, Foun­der and Presi­dent of Monda, said: “The opening of our first US office in Boston is a pivo­tal moment for Monda, our US custo­mers and for me perso­nally. I am curr­ently relo­ca­ting with my family from Germany to the United States to fully dedi­cate myself to the success and growth of our US client base and local team. The US has always been our most important market as a pioneer in data and AI inno­va­tion.” About Monda Monda is a leading B2B SaaS company in the data services industry.
Monda’s all-in-one data mone­tiza­tion plat­form enables any busi­ness to secu­rely share and mone­tize its proprie­tary data.
The company was foun­ded in 2024 by Thani Shamsi and Richard Hoff­mann as a spin-off of Datarade, the worl­d’s largest compa­ri­son plat­form for data providers.
Monda’s vision is to create a global ecosys­tem for trans­pa­rent, secure data sharing to acce­le­rate the AI revo­lu­tion and progress.
— https://www.monda.ai/ About Senovo Senovo is an early stage venture capi­tal firm based in Munich and Berlin, part­ne­ring with excep­tio­nal foun­ders and buil­ding global B2B SaaS cate­gory leaders from Europe.
As a Euro­pean first-mover, the fund has been inves­t­ing since 2013 in a new gene­ra­tion of B2B soft­ware start-ups that enable the digi­ta­liza­tion of medium-sized and large companies.
Senovo invests after the first sales of a company in a late seed or Series A round.
The team of SaaS specia­lists looks for meaningful rela­ti­onships at eye level and regu­larly publishes their insights and exper­tise on https://medium.com/senovovc. — https://senovo.vc About Acro­ba­tor Ventures Acro­ba­tor Ventures is an opera­tor-led VC focu­sed on (pre-)seed foun­ders buil­ding tech­no­logy and data companies.
The part­ners bring a deep under­stan­ding of AI/ML and opera­tio­nal excel­lence with a foun­der-first mentality.
— https://acrobator.vc

News
London — The British start-up Doccla wants to go inter­na­tio­nal with its tele­me­di­cine system and has raised almost 41 million euros.
— Lake­star is leading the Series B round, with Elaia and Gene­ral Cata­lyst, Speed­in­vest and Bertels­mann as well as seve­ral exis­ting inves­tors also participating.
The funding comes two years after Doccla raised a $17 million Series A round. 
Hospi­tals around the world regu­larly struggle with bed shorta­ges — a problem that can be exacer­ba­ted in the event of a health crisis or other large-scale disaster.
The startup Doccla is using tech­no­logy to solve this problem: It is deve­lo­ping “virtual bed” tech­no­logy that allows doctors to remo­tely care for pati­ents who have either been dischar­ged early or, in some cases, never come to the hospi­tal at all. 
Doccla has been provi­ding doctors with tech­no­logy to moni­tor their pati­ents at home since 2019.
The company has comple­ted the new finan­cing round to ensure that its expan­sion into the D‑A-CH region (Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land) and France is as successful as possible. 
To date, Doccla has moni­to­red over 4 million pati­ent days, with a compli­ance rate of over 95%.
The company claims to enroll 1,000 new pati­ents per month.
In the long term, Doccla is aiming for 100,000 new pati­ents per month. 
An initial pilot project is alre­ady under­way in Germany Doccla enables pati­ents to be dischar­ged from hospi­tal and receive conti­nuous, high-quality care at home.
— Accor­ding to a study funded by the NHS, regio­nal NHS depart­ments were able to reduce emer­gency room visits by 63 percent by using Doccla and at the same time achieve a 300 percent return on investment.
This proba­bly also convin­ced those respon­si­ble at the Bad Reichen­hall district clinic: they brought the system to Germany without further ado as part of a pilot project in Febru­ary 2024, but are only using it for indi­vi­dual pati­ents for the time being due to the health­care system not yet being geared towards telemedicine. 
News

Munich / Hamburg — Liberta Part­ners, a Munich-based multi-family holding company, has taken over CBW- College Beruf­li­che Weiter­bil­dung GmbH from foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor Fahima Wieg­hard as part of a succes­sion solution.
As part of the take­over, Ms. Wieg­har­d’s daugh­ter Naheed Priehn has been appoin­ted as the new Mana­ging Director.
Ms. Priehn has been with the company for 16 years and was most recently respon­si­ble for the opera­tio­nal manage­ment of the company as divi­sion manager.
Ms. Priehn has acqui­red a stake in the company as part of the tran­sac­tion, thus sending a strong signal for the joint growth plans.
CBW is a DIN EN ISO and AZAV-certi­fied trai­ning insti­tute with loca­ti­ons in Berlin, Hamburg and Frank­furt am Main.
In addi­tion to subsi­di­zed further trai­ning and retrai­ning, which can be funded by educa­tion or acti­va­tion vouch­ers, CBW also offers in-service and open semi­nars as well as indi­vi­dual company seminars.
CBW offers retrai­ning and further trai­ning with state-reco­gni­zed profes­sio­nal quali­fi­ca­ti­ons from the Cham­ber of Indus­try and Commerce as well as inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed certi­fi­ca­tes, for exam­ple from SAP or Microsoft.
The focus is on commer­cial topics, IT trai­ning and indi­vi­dual coaching.
CBW also offers special German cour­ses for refu­gees, parti­cu­larly in the field of acade­mic health­care profes­si­ons, which are funded by the Fede­ral Office for Migra­tion and Refu­gees (BAMF).
Fahima Wieg­hard says: “After 20 years, it is time for me to pass the company on to new hands. I am deligh­ted that we have found a respon­si­ble owner in Liberta Part­ners, who will provide my daugh­ter with the best possi­ble support in the further deve­lo­p­ment of CBW.”
Naheed Priehn, Mana­ging Direc­tor of CBW, says: “I am looking forward to working with Liberta Part­ners. The labor market is in the midst of struc­tu­ral change. We want to accom­pany this change with our offer and enable people to bene­fit from digi­ta­liza­tion and give them new oppor­tu­ni­ties on the job market.” Nils von Wietz­low, Part­ner at Liberta Part­ners says: “CBW is ideally posi­tio­ned for further growth. Fahima Wieg­hard and her team have deve­lo­ped a strong product that we want to expand further with Naheed Priehn. We see great poten­tial for new loca­ti­ons, parti­cu­larly in other major German cities, in order to give even more people access to CBW’s high-quality educa­tio­nal offe­rings.” CBW- College Beruf­li­che Weiter­bil­dung GmbH CBW is a leading trai­ning provi­der in the field of voca­tio­nal training/retraining with loca­ti­ons in Berlin, Hamburg and Frank­furt am Main.
The company provi­des parti­ci­pants with up-to-date profes­sio­nal know­ledge using the latest tech­no­lo­gies for the labor market.
CBW offers chal­len­ging further trai­ning and retrai­ning in commer­cial subjects, IT trai­ning, language cour­ses and indi­vi­dual coaching.
Further infor­ma­tion can be found at: www.cbw-weiterbildung.de About Liberta Part­ners Liberta Part­ners is a multi-family holding company based in Munich. The company makes targe­ted invest­ments in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries, parti­cu­larly in succes­sion situa­tions and group spin-offs, with clear opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. These compa­nies are actively deve­lo­ped as part of the 100% Core & Care concept and bene­fit from the entre­pre­neu­rial exper­tise of Liberta Part­ners. The Liberta Part­ners team consists of 20 employees working in the areas of M&A, Corpo­rate Deve­lo­p­ment and Legal & Admi­nis­tra­tion, supported by an active indus­try advi­sory board. www.liberta-partners.com

News

Munich — With a cross-loca­tion team led by Munich part­ner Eike Fietz (Corporate/M&A), Deloitte Legal advi­sed Rohlik foun­der Tomáš Čupr and his family office TCF Capi­tal on the prepa­ra­tion of a stra­te­gic invest­ment to rescue Töpfer GmbH based in Allgäu.
In coope­ra­tion with the restruc­tu­ring experts from PLUTA and Grub Brug­ger as well as Deloitte Finan­cial Advi­sory, the Deloitte Legal team deve­lo­ped an invest­ment concept that includes a capi­tal reduc­tion and breaks new ground in a number of aspects.
The inno­va­tive deal struc­ture provi­des for TCF Capi­tal, an invest­ment company owned by Tomáš Čupr, foun­der and CEO of the Rohlik Group, to acquire all of Töpfer’s busi­ness acti­vi­ties and assets.
The tran­sac­tion will enable Töpfer to conti­nue its busi­ness opera­ti­ons, in parti­cu­lar the produc­tion site in Diet­manns­ried, while preser­ving around 135 jobs.
Deloitte will conti­nue to support the project with an inter­di­sci­pli­nary team until completion.
The closing of the tran­sac­tion will take place in early fall 2024, subject to outstan­ding closing condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding the appr­oval of the respon­si­ble anti­trust autho­ri­ties. Peter Klekner, CEO of TCF Capi­talsays about the colla­bo­ra­tion with Deloitte Legal: “With the Deloitte Legal team and Eike Fietz in parti­cu­lar, we had a part­ner at our side who was extre­mely commit­ted, solu­tion-focu­sed and had an eye for the key issues. We were able to imple­ment our invest­ment in Töpfer quickly and effi­ci­ently and always had the legal issues under control.” Advi­sor TCF Capi­tal: Deloitte Legal Eike Fietz (lead, corporate/M&A, Munich), Tors­ten Cülter (restruc­tu­ring, Hamburg), Theresa Bayer (employ­ment law, Munich), Stefan Weste (employ­ment law, Berlin) Advi­sor to Töpfer: PLUTA Rechts­an­walts GmbH Florian A. Zist­ler, Ludwig Stern, Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Pluta, Daniel Barth, Laura Holz­mann­stet­ter, Dennis Stroh Grub Brug­ger: Dr. Hans Konrad Schenk, Phil­ipp Nuber, Lime Dauti About TCF Capi­tal TCF Capi­tal is an invest­ment company and family office foun­ded by entre­pre­neur Tomáš Čupr.
Its most important asset is the Czech Rohlik Group.
With a company valua­tion of over one billion US dollars, the Rohlik Group is one of the leading play­ers in Euro­pean online grocery retail.
Its broad product range includes around 17,000 products, from fresh food from regio­nal suppli­ers to super­mar­ket products and own brands.
With a turno­ver of 700 million euros and growth of 25% in 2023, the group is active in five Euro­pean countries.
In Germany, Rohlik is known under the Knuspr.de brand. About Töpfer Töpfer GmbH is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of orga­nic baby food.
Its products include baby milk formula and baby porridge.
The company also produ­ces natu­ral cosme­tics for mothers and babies.
All products are manu­fac­tu­red at the Diet­manns­ried site in the Allgäu region. Deloitte Legal Deloitte Legal refers to the legal prac­ti­ces of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limi­ted member firms, their affi­lia­tes or part­ner firms that provide legal services. Deloitte provi­des indus­try-leading audit and assu­rance, tax, consul­ting, finan­cial advi­sory and risk advi­sory services to nearly 90% of Fortune Global 500® compa­nies and thou­sands of private compa­nies. Legal services in Germany are provi­ded by Deloitte Legal. Our people deli­ver measura­ble, long-term results that help build public confi­dence in the capi­tal markets, support our clients to trans­form and grow, and lead the way to a stron­ger economy, a fairer society and a sustainable world. Deloitte builds on more than 175 years of history and opera­tes in more than 150 count­ries. Find out more about how Deloit­te’s appro­xi­m­ately 457,000 employees live the mission state­ment “making an impact that matters” every day: www.deloitte.com/de.

News

Stutt­gart — Menold Bezler has advi­sed BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in VTQ Video­tro­nik GmbH.
The long-stan­ding mana­ging direc­tor and share­hol­der, Dr. Stef­fen Enke of VTQ Video­tro­nik GmbH, will remain closely asso­cia­ted with the company.
BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, foun­ded in 1990 and based in Stutt­gart, is one of the largest German private equity companies.
BWK has around 300 million euros in invest­ment funds at its dispo­sal and curr­ently has around 150 million euros inves­ted in 20 companies.
VTQ Video­tro­nik GmbH, based in Quer­furt, Saxony-Anhalt, deve­lops and produ­ces high-quality elec­tro­nic assem­blies as well as various products and complete solu­ti­ons in the field of video technology.
A Menold Bezler team led by part­ner Vladi­mir Cutura advi­sed BWK on all legal and tax aspects of the tran­sac­tion, inclu­ding the finan­cing. Advi­sor BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft: Menold Bezler (Stutt­gart)Vladi­mir Cutura, Foto (part­ner, lead), Thomas Futte­rer, Dr. Björn Stau­din­ger, Nicole Brandt, LL.M.
(all corpo­rate law/M&A); Caro­lin Nemec, LL.M.
(IT and inter­net law/data protec­tion law); Isabelle Hörner (commer­cial); Lea Gäbler (IP); Elisa Himmer (real estate law); Dr. Frie­der Werner (part­ner, employ­ment law); Nico Haldy (part­ner), Clemens Mauch (part­ner), Laura Bommer (all tax); Daniel Haug (part­ner), Kevin Steg­bauer (both audit) About Menold Bezler Menold Bezler is a commer­cial law firm in Stutt­gart with a part­ner­ship struc­ture and around 350 employees.
More than 140 profes­sio­nals offer legal advice, tax advice, audi­ting and busi­ness advice from a single source. Our clients include well-known medium-sized compa­nies, listed corpo­ra­ti­ons, the public sector and its compa­nies as well as non-profit orga­niza­ti­ons. More at www.menoldbezler.de.

News

Frank­furt a. M. — Tike­hau Capi­tal, the global alter­na­tive asset manage­ment group, announ­ces the appoint­ment of Chris­toph Rinnert as Head of Private Equity Germany.
In this role, Chris­toph Rinnert will lead the stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment and manage­ment of Tike­hau Capi­tal’s private equity port­fo­lio in the DACH region and focus on reali­zing invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties that align with Tike­hau Capi­tal’s invest­ment objectives.
The Group’s private equity stra­tegy invests in mid-market compa­nies with high growth poten­tial, with a focus on digi­ta­liza­tion, build-up and natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal expansion.
It targets dyna­mic themes such as sustaina­bi­lity, energy tran­si­tion, rege­ne­ra­tive agri­cul­ture, cyber secu­rity, aero­space and defense.
With this announce­ment, Tike­hau Capi­tal is expan­ding its exten­sive invest­ment exper­tise and product offe­ring in Germany across all four asset clas­ses: Private Debt, Private Equity, Real Assets and Capi­tal Markets Strategies.
Chris­toph Rinnert will be based in Tike­hau Capi­tal’s Frank­furt office and will report to Domi­nik P. Fels­mann, Head of Germany, and Emma­nuel Lail­lier, Head of Private Equity at Tike­hau Capi­tal. Chris­toph Rinnert (photo © Tike­haus Capi­tal) has more than 15 years of expe­ri­ence in private equity and M&A.
Previously, he was a Direc­tor at 3i Deutsch­land Indus­trie­be­tei­li­gungs GmbH and led the DACH indus­trial holdings busi­ness, global initia­ti­ves and nume­rous transactions.
Chris­toph Rinnert was a member of the Super­vi­sory Board of Weener Plas­tics Holding B.V., a port­fo­lio company of 3i, where he played a key role in the growth of the company and the execu­tion of various acquisitions.
Prior to that, he gained exten­sive expe­ri­ence in M&A advi­sory at Roth­schild GmbH and Price­wa­ter­hous­e­Coo­pers AG, where he led buy-side and sell-side projects and advi­sed clients on valua­tion and stra­te­gic analysis.
Chris­toph Rinnert holds a Master of Engi­nee­ring with First-Class Honors in Elec­tri­cal and Elec­tro­nic Engi­nee­ring with Manage­ment from Impe­rial College London.
“With Chris­toph Rinnert, we have gained an expe­ri­en­ced private equity expert for the German market. He brings a deep under­stan­ding of local condi­ti­ons and a strong buy & build track record, which he has built up in his port­fo­lio compa­nies. His appoint­ment also streng­thens our holi­stic invest­ment exper­tise across all four asset clas­ses and under­lines Tike­hau Capi­tal’s strong one-stop-shop offe­ring,” said Domi­nik.
P. Fels­mann, Head of Germany at Tike­hau Capi­tal . About Tike­hau Capi­tal Tike­hau Capi­tal is a global alter­na­tive asset manage­ment group with €46.1 billion in assets under manage­ment (as of June 30, 2024).
Tike­hau Capi­tal has a broad range of exper­tise across four asset clas­ses (private debt, real assets, private equity and capi­tal markets stra­te­gies) as well as private debt, real assets, private equity and capi­tal markets stra­te­gies) and multi-asset and special oppor­tu­ni­ties strategies.
Tike­hau Capi­tal is a foun­der-led team with a diffe­ren­tia­ted busi­ness model, a strong balance sheet, proprie­tary global deal flow and a track record of support­ing high quality compa­nies and executives.
Deeply rooted in the real economy, Tike­hau Capi­tal provi­des custo­mi­zed and inno­va­tive alter­na­tive finan­cing solu­ti­ons to compa­nies, stri­ving to create long-term value for its inves­tors and a posi­tive impact on society.
The Group lever­a­ges its strong equity base (€3.1 billion of equity as of June 30, 2024) and invests its own capi­tal along­side that of its clients under each of its strategies.
Tike­hau Capi­tal is driven by a strong entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and DNA, which is also shared by its 763 employees (as of June 30, 2024) across its 17 offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America.
Tike­hau Capi­tal is listed on compart­ment A of the regu­la­ted market of Euron­ext Paris (ISIN code: FR0013230612; ticker: TKO.FP).
www.tikehaucapital.com.  

 

News

Bochum — Skin­Love Ruhr GmbH, an inno­va­tive MedTech start-up from Bochum, has successfully comple­ted a seed finan­cing round.
The company was able to raise a mid-six-figure invest­ment, which will be used to further deve­lop and launch its revo­lu­tio­nary skin health solutions.
Foun­ded in 2023 by Dr. Frie­de­rike Kogel­heide, Skin­Love Ruhr specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment of cutting-edge cold plasma tech­no­logy to effec­tively treat skin problems.
The company’s goal is to replace nume­rous consu­ma­ble cosme­tic products with its self-deve­lo­ped and German-made device.
This tech­no­logy offers an inno­va­tive and sustainable alter­na­tive to conven­tio­nal skin­care products and aims to signi­fi­cantly improve users’ skin health.
Skin­Love Ruhr successfully went through the acce­le­ra­tor program of Batch #1 of our part­ner HIGH-TECH.NRW and has recently laun­ched its product successfully on the market.
The funds raised from the seed finan­cing round will mainly be inves­ted in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the cold plasma tech­no­logy and the prepa­ra­tion of the market launch.
In addi­tion, Skin­Love Ruhr plans to expand its produc­tion capa­ci­ties and estab­lish stra­te­gic part­ner­ships in the health and cosme­tics sector.
The seed finan­cing round was legally advi­sed by a team led by Dr. Patrick Müller, part­ner at the Düssel­dorf office of the law firm HEUKING.
He was supported by Dr. Henrik Lay and Caro­line Frohn­wie­ser from Hamburg and Phil­ipp Börger from Berlin.
HEUKING regu­larly advi­ses young start-up entre­pre­neurs and supports them in all legal matters from their foun­da­tion to market entry. Advi­sors to Skin­Love Ruhr GmbH: HEUKING Dr. Patrick Müller (lead), Düssel­dorf, Dr. Henrik Lay, Caro­line Frohn­wie­ser, both Hamburg, Phil­ipp Börger (all VC), Berlin

News

Stutt­gart — A cross-loca­tion HEUKING team led by Stutt­gart part­ner Dr. Hermann Ali Hinde­rer has provi­ded legal and tax advice to Nolex AG on the take­over of Maibach Verkehrs­si­cher­heits- und Lärm­schutz­ein­rich­tun­gen GmbH.

The previous owners Hans-Dieter Maibach, Barbara Maibach, Sabrina Maibach and Marc-Chris­tian Maibach are selling all of their shares in order to promote the future deve­lo­p­ment of the company.
In the short term, there are plans to expand the product range and inter­na­tio­nal sales. 

Maibach VuL GmbH is a well-known and reco­gni­zed specia­list company in Germany and Europe in its product segments, prima­rily road safety, noise protec­tion and amphi­bian protection.
The company has subsi­dia­ries in Austria and Switzerland.
On August 1, 2024, Sven Becht­l­off took over the manage­ment of the Maibach Group.
Sabrina Maibach, who was a member of the manage­ment board toge­ther with Hans-Dieter Maibach, will remain with the company. 

Nolex AG is a Swiss invest­ment holding company based in Wollerau that invests in small and medium-sized compa­nies and deve­lops them stra­te­gi­cally and opera­tio­nally on a sustainable basis using entre­pre­neu­rial expertise.
The acqui­si­tion of Maibach is the second tran­sac­tion for Nolex this year. 

Consul­tant Nolex AG: HEUKING

Dr. Hermann Ali Hinde­rer, LL.M. (lead, M&A), Dr. Frank Baßler (real estate law), both Stutt­gart, Fabian G. Gaffron (tax law), Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (anti­trust law), both Hamburg, Chris­toph Hexel (employ­ment law), Düssel­dorf, Dr. Andreas Scha­ben­ber­ger (trade­mark, design & copy­right law), Dr. Tania von Schwa­ne­bach (commer­cial), Marcel Behrendt, (corpo­rate law), Carina Bart (employ­ment law), all Stutt­gart, Simon Pommer (tax law), Hamburg

News

Munich/Gütersloh — Biotec GmbH, a leading consul­ting and envi­ron­men­tal labo­ra­tory specia­li­zing in micro­bio­lo­gi­cal hygiene and occu­pa­tio­nal safety, has joined the CERTANIA Group, a dyna­mic orga­niza­tion known for its services in test­ing, inspec­tion and certification.
This stra­te­gic inte­gra­tion marks a turning point for Biotec GmbH and streng­thens its ability to expand its envi­ron­men­tal and hygiene solu­ti­ons globally.
The CERTANIA Group is a port­fo­lio company of GREENPEAK Partners.
Foun­ded in 1991 and based in Güters­loh, Germany, Biotec GmbH has built a solid repu­ta­tion over 25 years as a pioneer in air puri­fi­ca­tion technology.
Its custo­mer base includes indus­trial giants as well as major play­ers in the food indus­try who rely on its exper­tise in compre­hen­sive air puri­fi­ca­tion test­ing and certi­fi­ca­tion, drin­king water analy­sis and specia­li­zed hygiene training.
By joining CERTANIA, Biotec GmbH posi­ti­ons itself on a strong plat­form that supports its commit­ment to excellence.
The part­ner­ship streng­thens Biotec GmbH’s capa­bi­li­ties in the opti­miza­tion of hygiene-sensi­tive produc­tion proces­ses and the vali­da­tion of washer-disin­fec­tors in hospi­tals to meet strin­gent hygiene standards.
Under the leader­ship of Mana­ging Direc­tors Dr. Andreas Berm­pohl, Jörg Weißer and Frank Weißer, Biotec GmbH’s manage­ment team will main­tain its inde­pen­dence while acces­sing the resour­ces of the larger group, which will allow for contin­ued growth and expan­sion of services.
“We are very exci­ted to be part of CERTANIA, as this allows us to increase our impact on ensu­ring safe and compli­ant envi­ron­ments,” said Dr. Andreas Berm­pohl, Co-Foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of Biotec GmbH.
“This part­ner­ship not only expands our service offe­ring, but also unders­cores our dedi­ca­tion to provi­ding high-quality solu­ti­ons backed by rigo­rous scien­ti­fic expertise.”
Moritz Gruber, CEO and major share­hol­der of CERTANIA, welco­mes Biotec and invi­tes other entre­pre­neurs and compa­nies in the field of scien­ti­fic, labo­ra­tory and compli­ance services to join this unique group: “We offer the oppor­tu­nity to inte­grate your busi­ness into a future-proof struc­ture. Our goal is to build a group for the future where strong part­ner compa­nies thrive while main­tai­ning their iden­tity. Biotec GmbH’s renow­ned exper­tise in micro­bio­lo­gi­cal hygiene perfectly comple­ments CERTA­NIA’s focus on envi­ron­men­tal and regu­la­tory services. Toge­ther, we are well posi­tio­ned to support indus­tries in meeting safety and compli­ance stan­dards amidst global chal­lenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.”
CERTA­NIA’s ecosys­tem provi­des a plat­form for mid-sized, know­ledge-based compa­nies to thrive under one roof, retai­ning their entre­pre­neu­rial free­dom while bene­fiting from the group’s resour­ces and support. About Biotec GmbH Foun­ded in 1991 with head­quar­ters in Güters­loh, Germany and a branch office in Mitt­weida, Germany, Biotec GmbH is a leading consul­ting and envi­ron­men­tal labo­ra­tory specia­li­zing in micro­bio­lo­gi­cal hygiene and occu­pa­tio­nal safety.
With over 25 years of expe­ri­ence, we deve­lop pionee­ring solu­ti­ons for air puri­fi­ca­tion in various indus­tries and the food sector. Our services include air purity tests, inspec­tions of HVAC systems accor­ding to VDI 6022 stan­dards and hygiene training.
Biotec GmbH stands for excel­lence and supports its custo­mers with high-quality services and expert opini­ons to ensure safe and compli­ant environments.
www.biotec-gmbh.de About CERTANIA Under the umbrella of CERTANIA Holding GmbH, a new global market player in the fields of Test­ing, Inspec­tion & Certi­fi­ca­tion is emerging.
The group offers medium-sized part­ners a sustainable home for their life’s work.
CERTANIA enables entre­pre­neurs and owners to deve­lop their busi­ness with like-minded people while preser­ving their entre­pre­neu­rial roots, corpo­rate culture, brand and values.
More infor­ma­tion at certania.com About GREENPEAK PARTNERS Our goal is long-term growth and profi­ta­bi­lity by buil­ding sustainable businesses.
We are convin­ced that compa­nies that are truly sustainable can achieve above-average returns in the long term.
At the same time, compa­nies can only be truly sustainable if they are finan­ci­ally viable and growing.

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News

Düsseldorf/Munich — McDer­mott Will & Emery has advi­sed Great Point Part­ners (GPP) on the acqui­si­tion of contract deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring orga­niza­tion (CDMO) Lyocon­tract GmbH.
The senior secu­red loan provi­ded by Rantum Private Debt Fund III serves as part of the purchase price finan­cing for this acquisition.
— The tran­sac­tion marks the first invest­ment by the Euro­pean arm of GPP Great Point Part­ners, which recently estab­lished a presence in London.
A McDer­mott team of German and US lawy­ers led by Dr. Jan Hückel and Ludwig Zesch provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice on the M&A tran­sac­tion, inclu­ding the acqui­si­tion finan­cing by Rantum Capi­tal. Great Point Part­ners, head­quar­te­red in Green­wich, Conne­ti­cut, is a leading invest­ment firm focu­sed on the health­care industry.
Since its foun­ding in 2003, GPP has provi­ded growth capi­tal and manage­ment buyout finan­cing to more than 100 growth-orien­ted companies.
GPP is curr­ently making new mino­rity and majo­rity private equity invest­ments from its GPP IV fund. Rantum Capi­tal is a mid-market finan­cier for the German-spea­king region (DACH), foun­ded by finan­cial profes­sio­nals, successful entre­pre­neurs and former DAX top managers.
Rantum Capi­tal curr­ently mana­ges three private debt funds focu­sed on flexi­ble, custo­mi­zed debt finan­cing and one private equity fund focu­sed on majo­rity invest­ments in mid-market companies.
Lyocon­tract GmbH, foun­ded in 2007, is an inde­pen­dent contract deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring company based in Ilsen­berg, Germany.
The company specia­li­zes in the produc­tion of liquid and lyophi­li­zed paren­te­ral drugs, which are distri­bu­ted world­wide for both clini­cal and commer­cial appli­ca­ti­ons. Advi­sor Great Point Part­ners: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Düsseldorf/Munich Dr. Jan Hückel (Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf), Ludwig Zesch (Finance, Munich; both lead), Robert K. Clagg (Chicago, Corporate/M&A), Daniel N. Zucker (Chicago), Alex Farr (Dallas), Michael J. Bruno (Miami), Daniel J. Bell (Washing­ton, DC), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Meyer (Coun­sel, Frank­furt), Sarah Gabbai (Coun­sel, London; all Tax), Chris­tian Krohs, Carina Kant (both Düsseldorf/Cologne), Dr. Laura Stamm­witz (Coun­sel, Frank­furt), Timo­thy Carson (Coun­sel, Washing­ton, DC; all Anti­trust), Dr. Alexa Ningel­gen (Public Law), Dr. Thomas Gennert (Employ­ment Law; both Düssel­dorf), Jana Grieb (Health­care & Life Scien­ces, Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Alex­an­der Hoppe, Darius M. Mosleh (both Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf), Jeff Cass­idy, Joe Luzad­der, Betty Migue­lina Brito (all Corporate/M&A, Chicago), Matthias M. Bosbach, Romy Lanz (both Finance), Julian Rößler-Weis, Dr. Anja Bert­rand, Max Kütt­ner (all Anti­trust; all Düssel­dorf), Alex­an­dra Heberle (Healthcare/Regulatory, Frank­furt), Dr. Tim Weill (Public Law), Lukas Deutz­mann (Employ­ment; both Düssel­dorf), Carina Schüt­ze­berg (Frank­furt)

News

Essen/ Frank­furt a. M. — Global growth inves­tor The River­side Company (“River­side”) has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in GFOS Group (“GFOS”), a market leader for profes­sio­nal work­force manage­ment and person­nel requi­re­ments planning.
River­side will support GFOS in key stra­te­gic value crea­tion stra­te­gies, in parti­cu­lar further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and cloud migration.
The manage­ment of the company remains unchanged.
POELLATH provi­ded legal and tax advice to the share­hol­ders of GFOS in connec­tion with the transaction.
Foun­ded in 1988 and based in Essen, GFOS Group is an inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed provi­der of inno­va­tive soft­ware solu­ti­ons in the areas of work­force manage­ment, smart manu­fac­tu­ring and access control as well as secure and flexi­ble cloud & IT infrastructures.
GFOS employs more than 200 people and, in addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Essen, has another office in Hamburg and a subsi­diary in Switz­er­land (GFOS Schweiz AG).
The company’s custo­mer base compri­ses 4,500 custo­mers in 30 countries.
These include ARI Arma­tu­ren Albert Rich­ter GmbH & Co KG, Arthrex GmbH, Feller AG, IMS Gear SE & Co KG, MANN + HUMMEL Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH & Co KG, Trans­gour­met Deutsch­land GmbH & Co KG, NOWEDA Apothe­ker­ge­nos­sen­schaft eG, Schwan Cosme­tics Germany GmbH & Co KG and Senn­ei­ser elec­tro­nic GmbH & Co KG. About River­side River­side is a global invest­ment firm that focu­ses on part­ne­ring with compa­nies to drive trans­for­ma­tio­nal growth and lasting value.
Since its incep­tion, River­side has made more than 1,000 invest­ments and curr­ently holds 140 port­fo­lio companies.
The company employs more than 350 people at 15 loca­ti­ons on three conti­nents. POELLATH advi­sed the share­hol­ders of GFOS on the legal and tax aspects of the tran­sac­tion with the follo­wing team: Otto Haber­stock, M.C.J. (NYU) (Part­ner, Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich) Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax, Munich) Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M.
(NYU) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust, Frank­furt aM) Dr. Andreas Reuther (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Employ­ment, Munich) Daniel Zhu (Coun­sel, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)

News

Berlin — Macqua­rie Bank is faci­li­ta­ting new funding for the rental fintech Topi, which has grown stron­gly over the past year.
Further growth is now to be finan­ced: Macqua­rie Bank Europe is provi­ding a credit line of 50 million euros — linked to indi­vi­dual inte­rim targets.
Previously, promi­nent venture capi­ta­lists such as Index Ventures and Crean­dum had inves­ted a total of 50 million dollars in the young company, part of which alre­ady consis­ted of a credit line. Topi turno­ver increased twenty-fold The Topi foun­ders Char­lotte Pallua and Estelle Merle (photo © topi) toge­ther with online retail­ers such as Conrad and Cyber­port, who offer “Rent with Topi” as a payment method for corpo­rate custo­mers along­side PayPal, credit cards and the like.
topi offers retail­ers a hard­ware-as-a-service plat­form through which they can offer their products for rent.
— With this finan­cing, topi wants to conti­nue to grow in both the German and Austrian markets.
Along­side this loan finan­cing, Macqua­rie has also inves­ted in the fintech start-up so that “our refi­nan­cing part­ners have an inte­rest in the over­all long-term success”, says Char­lotte Pallua, one of the two founders.
Char­lotte Pallua came up with her start-up idea during her job at tech company Apple.
At the time, she was analy­zing possi­ble subscrip­tion programs for iPho­nes — and thought about offe­ring the service to diffe­rent companies.
Corpo­rate custo­mers can now rent smart­phones, laptops, robots and other devices from the Berlin-based company Topi, which Pallua foun­ded toge­ther with Estelle Merle.
To date, the propor­tion of women in many deve­lo­p­ment teams at German start-ups has been low.
At topi, the propor­tion of women is high.
The fintech curr­ently employs 35+ people. Advi­sor topi: Vogel Heerma Waitz Dr. Clemens Waitz and Dr. Lorenz Frey from the law firm Vogel Heerma Waitz advi­sed the fintech topi on this financing.
The company raised EUR 50 million from the Austra­lian invest­ment bank Macquarie.
The new finan­cing consists partly of equity, but also of funds to refi­nance new products.
Dr. Clemens Waitz, Dr. Lorenz Frey Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media.

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