Equistone acquires majority stake in cybersecurity provider eperi

Munich / Pfung­stadt — Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”) acquire a majo­rity stake in eperi, a leading provi­der of cyber­se­cu­rity soft­ware for cloud appli­ca­ti­ons. The sellers of the secu­rity specia­list from Pfung­stadt, Hesse, are the venture capi­tal compa­nies Evolu­tion Equity Part­ners and btov. Elmar Eperiesi-Beck, foun­der and CEO of eperi, will conti­nue to lead the company as Mana­ging Direc­tor and will retain a signi­fi­cant stake in the company. The further scaling and inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion of the company as well as a targe­ted buy & build stra­tegy are to be the focus of the new part­ner­ship. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the transaction.

Since its foun­da­tion in 2014, Eperi GmbH, head­quar­te­red in the Rhine-Main area, has become a leading provi­der of cyber­se­cu­rity solu­ti­ons for data protec­tion and secu­rity in on-premise, hybrid and multi-cloud envi­ron­ments. The company has many years of expe­ri­ence in the field of data encryp­tion for cloud appli­ca­ti­ons and an inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base with a focus on (large) compa­nies from the finan­cial, health­care and indus­trial sectors. eperi’s solu­ti­ons allow custo­mers to use any type of IT infra­struc­ture and soft­ware appli­ca­ti­ons in a secure and compli­ant manner. With eperi, custo­mers can take full advan­tage of the cloud without worry­ing about data secu­rity, compli­ance and liability.

With the recently concluded part­ner­ship, the successful course of the data secu­rity specia­list is now to be further advan­ced: Toge­ther with the foun­der and CEO of eperi, Elmar Eperiesi-Beck, the focus will be on expan­ding part­ner manage­ment and the orga­niza­tion. With further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and a targe­ted buy & build stra­tegy, the company’s growth trajec­tory is to be taken to a new level.

“We were looking for a part­ner who not only brings capi­tal strength, but above all can support us on our future growth path through relia­bi­lity and many years of expe­ri­ence in the further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies. With Equis­tone we have found such a part­ner,” eperi foun­der and CEO Elmar Eperiesi-Beck comm­ents on the tran­sac­tion. “Espe­ci­ally when it comes to driving inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and imple­men­ting buy-&-build stra­te­gies, we rely on Equistone’s expe­ri­ence and support to acce­le­rate our company’s success trajec­tory once again together.”

“For us, the acqui­si­tion of eperi marks another important mile­stone in the addi­tion of high-growth and future-orien­­ted IT compa­nies to our tradi­tio­nal port­fo­lio. eperi has deve­lo­ped into a leading inter­na­tio­nal company with an outstan­ding custo­mer and part­ner network in only a short period of time — not least due to its founder’s many years of expe­ri­ence in cloud secu­rity,” explains Dr. Marc Arens, Senior Part­ner and Coun­try Head DACH/NL at Equistone.

“Nume­rous inter­na­tio­nal patents illus­trate the inno­va­tive and modern approach behind eperi’s tech­no­lo­gies — this is exactly what we want to leverage to sustain­ably acce­le­rate growth toge­ther with the foun­der and manage­ment team. eperi stands for preven­ting third parties from acces­sing criti­cal data at any time while enab­ling the use and bene­fits of a scalable hybrid or multi-cloud infra­struc­ture as well as any type of soft­ware appli­ca­tion for all users,” commen­ted Sebas­tian Wint­gens, Direc­tor at Equis­tone Part­ners Europe.

“We are plea­sed to support eperi along its strong growth path and to work with the company’s manage­ment to estab­lish it as an inter­na­tio­nal cyber­se­cu­rity cham­pion,” added Chris­toph Wüste­meyer, Invest­ment Mana­ger at Equis­tone Part­ners Europe.

Dr. Marc Arens, Sebas­tian Wint­gens and Chris­toph Wüste­meyer are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion on the part of Equistone.
Equis­tone was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by BCG (Commer­cial), Code & Co. (Tech­no­logy), Bird & Bird (IP & Regu­la­tion), PWC (Finan­cial & Tax), and Pöllath (Legal & Contrac­tual Documentation).

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with a team of more than 50 invest­ment specia­lists in seven offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­da­tion, equity has been inves­ted in around 160 tran­sac­tions in the DACH region and the Nether­lands, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 50 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion. www.equistonepe.com

About Eperi Ltd.
Eperi GmbH, head­quar­te­red in the Rhine-Main area, is a leading provi­der of cyber­se­cu­rity solu­ti­ons for data protec­tion and secu­rity in on-premise, hybrid and multi-cloud envi­ron­ments. eperi’s inno­va­tive and easy-to-use solu­ti­ons allow its end users to use any type of IT infra­struc­ture and soft­ware appli­ca­ti­ons in a secure and compli­ant manner. The advan­ta­ges of the cloud can thus be opti­mally exploi­ted without having to worry about data secu­rity, compli­ance and liabi­lity. With seve­ral inter­na­tio­nal patents, eperi acts as a pioneer for inno­va­tive and relia­ble multi-cloud tech­no­logy and supports its custo­mers’ ESG efforts by protec­ting private data. The inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base of the cloud secu­rity specia­list includes in parti­cu­lar (large) compa­nies from the finan­cial, health­care and indus­trial sectors.