Exit: Main Capital Partners sells majority stake in GBTEC to Carlyle

GBTEC is a leading provi­der of SaaS soft­ware in the market segments of intel­li­gent Busi­ness Process Manage­ment (iBPM), Digi­tal Process Auto­ma­tion (DPA) and Process Gover­nance, Risk and Compli­ance (GRC). GBTEC’s products stand out in parti­cu­lar due to their high level of user-frien­d­­li­­ness based on no- and low-code tech­no­lo­gies and a state-of-the-art product plat­form. GBTEC is highly regarded by leading tech­no­logy analysts. The company has over 1,200 custo­mers, inclu­ding many well-known Euro­pean and inter­na­tio­nal blue chip compa­nies and public insti­tu­ti­ons, and employs around 300 people. In addi­tion to the DACH home market, GBTEC has alre­ady estab­lished bran­ches in Spain and Austra­lia and has conti­nuously inves­ted in the inter­na­tio­nal aware­ness of the brand in recent years.

Toge­ther with GBTEC’s manage­ment team, Carlyle plans to further acce­le­rate the company’s inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and further deve­lop its product port­fo­lio, parti­cu­larly in the area of Digi­tal Process Auto­ma­tion (DPA). Signi­fi­cant invest­ments are to be made in sales and marke­ting in parti­cu­lar, as well as in arti­fi­cial intelligence.

The equity for the invest­ment is provi­ded by Carlyle Europe Tech­no­logy Part­ners (“CETP”) V, a EUR 3 billion fund that invests in tech­no­logy compa­nies in Europe. In its colla­bo­ra­tion with GBTEC, Carlyle will draw on its many years of expe­ri­ence in the inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion of Euro­pean soft­ware compa­nies, inclu­ding SER Group, Shop­ware, CSS, 1E, Phrase and Hack The Box.

Gregor Greinke, foun­der and CEO of GBTEC, said: “With our modern and user-friendly products, we have deve­lo­ped into a leading BPM and GRC SaaS provi­der in Europe in recent years. Carlyle’s invest­ment marks the begin­ning of the next phase of GBTEC’s growth story. As one of the leading tech­no­logy inves­tors, we have found in Carlyle the ideal part­ner to realize our further growth plans. We would like to thank Main Capi­tal Part­ners for their excel­lent coope­ra­tion and part­ner­ship over the past four years.”

Michael Wand, Mana­ging Direc­tor and co-head of the CETP advi­sory team, said: “GBTEC is active in one of the most important tech­no­logy trends of our time: digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion and, above all, the auto­ma­tion of busi­ness proces­ses. We are deligh­ted that Gregor Greinke and his team have deci­ded to part­ner with us. We are convin­ced that with our track record of over 20 years in infra­struc­ture soft­ware invest­ments and in the inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion of Euro­pean soft­ware compa­nies, we can signi­fi­cantly support GBTEC in its further deve­lo­p­ment into a global market leader.”

Sven van Berge Henegou­wen, Mana­ging Part­ner at Main Capi­tal Part­ners, said: “The deve­lo­p­ment of GBTEC over the past years has been impres­sive, and the time spent with the manage­ment on stra­te­gic initia­ti­ves such as inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and product expan­sion has been extre­mely exci­ting. We are convin­ced that Carlyle is inves­t­ing in an outstan­din­gly posi­tio­ned company with excel­lent future prospects.”