Stutt­gart — Stut­t­­gart-based inves­tor FOSTEC Ventures is selling its stake in factor‑a to digi­tal agency Dept. Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose the amount of the transaction.

The digi­tal agency Dept acqui­res 100 percent of the shares in factor‑a. The specia­list for market­place tech­no­logy and brand manage­ment on Amazon supports manu­fac­tu­r­ers and brands in presen­ting them­sel­ves opti­mally on Amazon and incre­asing their sales. Mana­ging direc­tors Marc Aufzug and Domi­nik Bors reco­gni­zed early on that brand manu­fac­tu­r­ers who want to sell their products on Amazon need support in doing so. Since 2016, they have deve­lo­ped a range of services for this under the umbrella of factor‑a: Product Data Manage­ment, Search Marke­ting Campaigns, Amazon Adver­ti­sing and Vendor Sales Excel­lence. A proprie­tary soft­ware solu­tion, the factor‑a suite, rounds off the offering.

Support­ing factor‑a in the deve­lo­p­ment of the agency was co-part­­ner and co-initia­­tor of the company, Markus Fost (Fost). His invest­ment company FOSTEC Ventures, which also includes the stra­tegy consul­ting boutique FOSTEC & Company, accom­pa­nied the deve­lo­p­ment of factor‑a’s busi­ness model. Today, the agency is the leading specia­list for market­place tech­no­logy and brand manage­ment on Amazon in Germany and works with the largest budget for Amazon Marke­ting Services from clients in Europe.

factor‑a Mana­ging Direc­tor Marc Aufzug: “The coope­ra­tion with FOSTEC Ventures on our entry into factor‑a was excel­lent. We were able to dock on easily, both as entre­pre­neurs and as mana­ging direc­tors. The team around Markus Fost supported us with their stra­te­gic exper­tise, which helped us to quickly deve­lop a successful service and product port­fo­lio with factor‑a, with which we were able to convince leading brand manu­fac­tu­r­ers in a very short time. This made it very easy for us to get star­ted.” Toge­ther with co-mana­­ging direc­tor Domi­nik Bors, he led factor‑a to an eight-figure company valua­tion on the market.

“That’s what every foun­der wants,” says Markus Fost, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of FOSTEC Ventures. He adds, “We see oursel­ves as an entre­pre­­neur-inves­­tor that not only provi­des finan­cing, but also supports smart foun­ders with promi­sing digi­tal ideas with know-how and market access.”

About FOSTEC Ventures
FOSTEC Ventures is a private equity firm that focu­ses on start-ups and SMEs in Europe as a company buil­der. We operate across indus­tries with a parti­cu­lar affi­nity for the digi­tal economy. As “entre­pre­­neur-inves­­tors”, we not only provide the finan­cing, but also actively contri­bute our many years of expe­ri­ence as entre­pre­neurs and mana­ging direc­tors. Ther­e­fore, for us, the invest­ment of capi­tal is only the begin­ning of a syste­ma­tic and part­­ner­­ship-based further deve­lo­p­ment for the long-term success of the company. We are your access to entre­pre­neu­rial exper­tise & capital!