Munich/ Zurich — Munich-based Eve Systems GmbH has gained the Zurich-based energy and auto­ma­tion tech­no­logy group ABB Ltd. as its new owner. Foun­ded in 1999, Eve Systems is a renow­ned provi­der of smart home products of high quality and ease of use, they include a wide range of devices for home auto­ma­tion, energy manage­ment, secu­rity and device moni­to­ring. With its 40 employees, Eve is a pioneer of the new connec­ti­vity stan­dard Matter, which allows smart home products to be fully inter­ope­ra­ble regard­less of the manu­fac­tu­rer or the user’s opera­ting system via Thread wire­less technology.

Accor­ding to ABB manage­ment, the tran­sac­tion will make ABB a leading provi­der of smart home products based on Matter and Thread, the new inter­ope­ra­bi­lity stan­dard and wire­less connec­ti­vity tech­no­logy. Combi­ned with Eve’s comple­men­tary range of products tail­o­red to the consu­mer retro­fit market, ABB aims to acce­le­rate the deli­very of safe, smart and energy-effi­ci­ent homes and buil­dings. The finan­cial terms of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

Signi­fi­cant market growth and robust valuations

Accor­ding to the experts at Bryan, Garnier & Co., provi­ders of smart home appli­ca­ti­ons, espe­ci­ally compa­nies with corre­spon­ding energy solu­ti­ons, have recently bene­fi­ted greatly from the energy crisis. The invest­ment bank also expects signi­fi­cant growth in this area in the future: the number of smart homes world­wide, curr­ently around 300 million, is expec­ted to rise to around 500 million by 2025. Accor­din­gly, this market is attrac­tive for inves­tors — for exam­ple, the German heating app specia­list tado repor­ted at the begin­ning of April 2023 that the finan­cing round of EUR 43 million, which was only concluded at the begin­ning of Janu­ary 2023, was subse­quently increased by a further EUR 12 million.

The experts at Bryan, Garnier & Co. are also obser­ving a sustained high level of M&A tran­sac­tions in the smart home segment: after 44 acqui­si­ti­ons across Europe in 2021, there were a total of 41 deals in 2022, with a further 15 tran­sac­tions alre­ady added by the end of May 2023. Accor­ding to invest­ment bankers, this trend will continue:

“There is a high level of inno­va­tion in the market for smart home appli­ca­ti­ons, many vendors are expe­ri­en­cing strong growth rates, and both stra­te­gic play­ers and finan­cial inves­tors are incre­asingly inves­t­ing in this space to capi­ta­lize on the trend toward connec­ted and smart homes,” said Falk Müller-Veerse, part­ner at Bryan, Garnier & Co. (Photo © Bryan Garnier) “In doing so, we observe robust company valuations.”

Stra­te­gists in parti­cu­lar are willing to pay considera­ble premi­ums to expand their product port­fo­lios or enter new markets, as can be seen in the exam­ple of Somfy SA. At the begin­ning of 2023, the Despa­ture family, based in France, had comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of the remai­ning 26.1% of this listed company, paying almost 1.4 billion euros. “This corre­spon­ded to a multi­ple of 3.1x reve­nue and 14.4x EBITDA,” Müller-Veerse explains.

Accor­ding to the experts at Bryan, Garnier & Co., Eve is curr­ently the global tech­no­logy leader with a total of 16 Thread-certi­fied devices and four Matter-certi­fied products alre­ady. Matter is a tech­no­logy that ensu­res inter­ope­ra­bi­lity of brands and devices while maxi­mi­zing usabi­lity, Thread is a wire­less stan­dard deve­lo­ped for the Inter­net of Things (IoT), which is used by Matter to improve connec­ti­vity between devices. Both stan­dards are conside­red ground­brea­king for the industry.

Markus Fest, foun­der of Eve Systems comm­ents, “Selling a company you foun­ded and helped build is a big step for any entre­pre­neur. This was my fourth exit, and I was abso­lut­ely thril­led with the support and indus­try exper­tise we recei­ved from the Bryan Garnier team throug­hout the process.”

“This mile­stone is signi­fi­cant for me as CEO and marks an exci­ting new chap­ter for Eve. ABB is the perfect fit for Eve’s mission to deve­lop energy-effi­ci­ent connec­ted home products that protect user privacy. We are very grateful to Bryan Garnier for putting this deal toge­ther for us. Her network and in-depth indus­try know­ledge were instru­men­tal in brin­ging this deal to frui­tion. The entire Eve team looks forward to conti­nuing to grow with one of the world’s most inno­va­tive brands as a leader in the smart home market,” said Jerome Gackel, CEO of Eve Systems.

Bryan Garnier’s multi­na­tio­nal deal team consis­ted of Falk Müller-Veerse (Part­ner), Olivier Beau­douin (Part­ner), Martin Eich­ler (Direc­tor) and Jakub Veiner (Asso­ciate).

About Bryan, Garnier & Co

Bryan, Garnier & Co, foun­ded in 1996 in Paris and London, is an invest­ment bank focu­sed on Euro­pean growth compa­nies with over 200 employees in six offices in Europe (London, Paris, Munich, Stock­holm, Oslo, Amster­dam) and the US (New York). As an inde­pen­dent, full-service invest­ment bank, Bryan, Garnier & Co provi­des compre­hen­sive finan­cing advice and support along the complete life­cy­cle of its clients — from initial rounds of finan­cing to a poten­tial sale or IPO with subse­quent follow-on finan­cing. On average, the bank accom­pa­nies a good 70 tran­sac­tions per year.

The range of services includes equity analy­sis, equity sales and trading, private and public capi­tal raising, and M&A advi­sory for growth compa­nies and their inves­tors. The focus is on the growth sectors of tech­no­logy, health­care and sustaina­bi­lity. Bryan, Garnier & Co is a regis­tered broker and licen­sed with the AMF and FCA in Europe and FINRA in the US.