Buyout investor Fortino Capital invests in the Operations1 platform

Munich/Frankfurt am Main – Fort­ino Capi­tal, one of Europe’s leading buyout inves­tors in B2B soft­ware compa­nies, is inves­t­ing in Operations1, ther­eby driving the deve­lo­p­ment of one of Europe’s leading plat­forms for produc­tion workers in the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try. The three founders—Daniel Grobe, Benja­min Brock­mann, and Anian Ziegler—will remain on board and actively shape the company’s future direction. 

Operations1 was foun­ded in 2017 and has since become a tech­no­logy leader in soft­ware solu­ti­ons for produc­tion workers in German-spea­king count­ries. The AI-powered B2B SaaS plat­form digi­ti­zes employee-led produc­tion proces­ses end-to-end: from task plan­ning to know­ledge sharing and intui­tive process guidance, all the way to docu­men­ta­tion, real-time analy­sis, and colla­bo­ra­tive inci­dent management. 

With one of the largest custo­mer bases in the industry—comprising a total of over 160 leading indus­trial compa­nies, inclu­ding global market leaders such as ABB, Daim­ler Truck, Trumpf, Lieb­herr, and Thys­sen­krupp, as well as fast-growing tech­no­logy compa­nies such as Quan­tum Systems—Operations1 is one of Europe’s leading soft­ware provi­ders for produc­tion workers.

A Billion-Dollar Market in Flux – Struc­tu­ral Drivers for Sustainable Growth

With its invest­ment in Operations1, Fort­ino Capi­tal is conti­nuing its stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in Euro­pean B2B SaaS compa­nies that offer solu­ti­ons for busi­­ness-criti­­cal proces­ses and possess excel­lent prere­qui­si­tes for lever­aging AI to deli­ver even grea­ter value to custo­mers in the future. With this move, Fort­ino Capi­tal posi­ti­ons Operations1 at the center of a highly dyna­mic, future-orien­­ted market within the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try. The market for soft­ware desi­gned for produc­tion workers is under­go­ing profound struc­tu­ral chan­ges. A shortage of skil­led workers, rising compli­ance requi­re­ments, and the indus­­try-wide shift away from paper-based proces­ses are driving demand for scalable, digi­tal solu­ti­ons for produc­tion workers. In this compe­ti­tive land­scape, the platform’s product depth stands out: Operations1 covers work instruc­tions, main­ten­ance, quality assu­rance, and process analy­tics in a single, end-to-end solu­tion, with an imple­men­ta­tion time of just a few weeks. 

Phil­ipp Remy, Mana­ging Part­ner at Fort­ino Capi­tal, commen­ted: “It’s impres­sive what Daniel, Benja­min, Anian, and the entire Operations1 team have built since the company was foun­ded. What star­ted as a bold idea has grown into a leading plat­form in the German-spea­king world for produc­tion workers in the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try. We’ve been follo­wing this deve­lo­p­ment for a long time and are convin­ced that, with an end-to-end plat­form that maps the entire spec­trum of shop floor proces­ses, Operations1 is not just another tool, but the central plat­form for day-to-day work on the shop floor. We see a key market trend here: AI is incre­asingly taking on the work itself, rather than merely support­ing people, and Operations1 is actively shaping this very transformation—from a docu­men­ta­tion system, through a decis­­ion-making system, to an action-orien­­ted system. The Future Manu­fac­tu­ring Summit 2026, which Operations1 hosted with over 200 parti­ci­pa­ting compa­nies, recently demons­tra­ted just how much enthu­si­asm the indus­try alre­ady has for this tech­no­logy. A signi­fi­cant expan­sion of the event’s format is alre­ady plan­ned for 2027. In Germany alone, the addressa­ble market amounts to around 800 million euros; across Europe, the poten­tial is many times grea­ter. We are extre­mely exci­ted to write this next chap­ter toge­ther with the entire team and to actively help shape the future of connec­ted manufacturing.”

Stra­te­gic Part­ner­ship on the Path to Beco­ming a Euro­pean Champion

With the support of Fort­ino Capi­tal, Operations1 aims to consis­t­ently conti­nue its successful course and set the stage for Euro­pean market leader­ship. The focus is on three areas: further streng­thening its posi­tion in its core German-spea­king market, targe­ted expan­sion into other Euro­pean count­ries, and the conti­nuous deve­lo­p­ment of the platform’s AI capa­bi­li­ties. In its home market, the company aims to acquire new custo­mers and further expand exis­ting custo­mer rela­ti­onships, parti­cu­larly with medium-sized and large indus­trial compa­nies. At the same time, Operations1 is driving targe­ted expan­sion into attrac­tive Euro­pean growth markets and syste­ma­ti­cally expan­ding its AI-powered features. These capa­bi­li­ties build on the platform’s exten­sive opera­tio­nal data base and are desi­gned to support custo­mers even more effec­tively in opti­mi­zing their produc­tion proces­ses in the future—a key buil­ding block on the path to beco­ming the Euro­pean cham­pion in soft­ware for produc­tion workers. 

Daniel Grobe, CEO of Operations1, says: “With Fort­ino Capi­tal, we’re gaining a part­ner that perfectly aligns with our vision of shaping the future of indus­trial produc­tion as a Euro­pean soft­ware cham­pion. Since Operations1 was foun­ded, we’ve been driven by one goal: to make people’s work in manu­fac­tu­ring easier, safer, and more digi­tal, ther­eby incre­asing the produc­ti­vity and flexi­bi­lity of manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies. Today, over 160 indus­trial compa­nies alre­ady trust us—we want to build on that and, with Fort­ino Capital’s support, take our success story to the next level. In addi­tion to their tech­ni­cal and opera­tio­nal exper­tise, the “fit” on a perso­nal level was a key factor in our decis­ion to choose Fort­ino Capi­tal as our new part­ner. We are very much looking forward to this colla­bo­ra­tion and to conti­nuing Operations1’s incre­di­ble jour­ney. At the same time, we would like to take this oppor­tu­nity to thank our entire team, our custo­mers, and our exis­ting inves­tors and part­ners for their trust and for ever­y­thing we have achie­ved so far.” 

About Fort­ino Capital

Fort­ino Capi­tal, foun­ded in 2013, is one of Europe’s leading buyout inves­tors in B2B soft­ware compa­nies. Fort­ino invests in soft­ware compa­nies that provide solu­ti­ons for busi­­ness-criti­­cal proces­ses and supports their foun­ders and CEOs in acce­le­ra­ting the growth of their compa­nies. Fort­ino has offices in Antwerp, Amster­dam, and Munich. Its assets under manage­ment total more than 1.3 billion euros. Its private equity port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as SIMCON (DE), mpmX (DE), Ariadne (DE), Worklinq (DK), Addac­tis (BE), VanRoey (BE), Bizz­mine (BE), Efficy CRM (BE), Seenons (NL), InTouch (NL), SpeakUp (NL), Maxx­ton (NL), and Boni­ta­soft (FR). For more infor­ma­tion, visit fortinocapital.com.

About Operations1

Operations1 was foun­ded in Augs­burg in 2017 and has become the leading plat­form for produc­tion workers in the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try across German-spea­king count­ries. Using AI-powered B2B SaaS solu­ti­ons, Operations1 digi­ti­zes employee-driven produc­tion proces­ses end-to-end—from task plan­ning, know­ledge sharing, and process manage­ment to docu­men­ta­tion, real-time analy­sis, and colla­bo­ra­tive inci­dent manage­ment. More than 160 well-known indus­trial compa­nies, inclu­ding ABB, Daim­ler Truck, Trumpf, Lieb­herr, and Thys­sen­krupp, rely on the Operations1 plat­form. Toge­ther with Fort­ino Capi­tal, the company is pursuing its vision of beco­ming the leading Euro­pean cham­pion in soft­ware for produc­tion workers. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.operations1.com