Author: Tatjana Anderer

Colo­gne — BELGRAVIA & CO. exclu­si­vely advi­sed the share­hol­der of Fraga Dental GmbH (Fraga Dental, https://www.fraga-dental.de/) and FairIm­plant GmbH (FairIm­plant, https://www.fairimplant.de/) on the sale of the majo­rity of the shares to Euro­pean Dental Part­ners Holding GmbH (EDP), a subsi­diary of the Swedish LIFCO Group.

EDP is a German invest­ment company that prima­rily invests in Euro­pean compa­nies in the dental indus­try. www.edp.com

Fraga Dental has been a specia­list dental depot for 60 years, supp­ly­ing inno­va­tive and high-quality dental products for dental surgery, implan­to­logy and peri­odon­to­logy and offe­ring high-quality dental trai­ning for over 20 years. — In 2024, Fraga Dental recor­ded a net turno­ver of 2.5 million euros. The company is based in Hamburg, Germany, and has seven employees. Fraga Dental is conso­li­da­ted in the Dental divi­sion. Conso­li­da­tion is expec­ted to take place in the second quar­ter of 2025. 

FairIm­plant is a specia­li­zed provi­der of high-quality and sustainable dental implants.

BELGRAVIA & CO. acted as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to the seller on this transaction.

The acqui­si­tion will not have a mate­rial impact on Lifco’s earnings and finan­cial posi­tion in the current finan­cial year.

About Lifco

Lifco provi­des a safe haven for small and medium-sized compa­nies. Lifco’s busi­ness concept is to acquire and deve­lop market-leading niche compa­nies that have the poten­tial to deli­ver sustainable earnings growth and robust cash flows. Lifco is guided by a clear philo­so­phy of long-term growth, a focus on profi­ta­bi­lity and a highly decen­tra­li­zed orga­niza­tion. The Group has three divi­si­ons: Dental, Demo­li­tion & Tools and System Solu­ti­ons. At the end of 2024, the Lifco Group consis­ted of 257 opera­ting compa­nies in 34 count­ries. In 2024, Lifco repor­ted EBITA of SEK 5.9 billion on net sales of SEK 26.1 billion. The EBITA margin amoun­ted to 22.6 percent. www.lifco.se.

Berlin — AMBOSS has comple­ted its trans­for­ma­tion into a Euro­pean Company (SE) and closed a €240 million finan­cing round with the new main inves­tors KIRKBI, M&G Invest­ments and Light­rock with the parti­ci­pa­tion of exis­ting share­hol­ders. — The exis­ting share­hol­ders Project A Ventures, Partech, Burda Prin­ci­pal Invest­ments (BPI) and Quadrille Capi­tal recei­ved compre­hen­sive legal advice from YPOG in connec­tion with the €240 million finan­cing round. 

The health and EdTech company AMBOSS, foun­ded in Berlin in 2012 by Sievert Weiss, Madjid Salimi, Nawid Salimi and Bene­dikt Hoch­kir­chen, is revo­lu­tio­ni­zing the trans­fer of medi­cal know­ledge. The plat­form combi­nes lear­ning soft­ware and refe­rence work for doctors — from univer­sity to specia­list exams. With up-to-date know­ledge in a matter of seconds, AMBOSS supports effi­ci­ent, evidence-based health­care. Over one million users world­wide rely on the company. 

In 2024, AMBOSS, which was recently conver­ted into a Euro­pean Company (SE), acqui­red Nova­heal, a start-up in the care sector, and NEJM Know­ledge+, an exam prepa­ra­tion product for medi­cal resi­dents in the USA. The inter­na­tio­nal team has now grown to over 400 doctors, scien­tists and soft­ware deve­lo­pers with offices in Colo­gne, Berlin and New York. 

Streng­thening the next gene­ra­tion of health­care professionals

Over 1 million users in more than 180 count­ries trust AMBOSS for clini­cal decis­ion-making and medi­cal educa­tion. Every second inpa­ti­ent treat­ment in Germany is perfor­med by a physi­cian supported by AMBOSS. In the USA, the majo­rity of medi­cal students use AMBOSS to successfully prepare for exams and achieve better results than with other ques­ti­on­n­aires. 25% of Ameri­can first-year resi­dents rely on AMBOSS to provide excel­lent pati­ent care. The concept is as simple as it is successful: medi­cal experts distill rele­vant medi­cal know­ledge, and AI-powered tech­no­logy makes it directly available to users. 

Peter Bason (photo), Head of Private Capi­tal at KIRKBI (Lego family), says: “We have follo­wed the impres­sive growth of AMBOSS, from its successful expan­sion in the US to its strong focus on inno­va­tion. AMBOSS’ unique plat­form is beco­ming an indis­pensable tool for both medi­cal students and health­care profes­sio­nals, support­ing lear­ning and decis­ion making at every stage.” 

The inves­tors’ support will prima­rily be used to open up further inter­na­tio­nal markets and to expand the range of services for nursing staff and other health­care professionals.

In addi­tion, the latest finan­cing round signi­fi­cantly impro­ves access to capi­tal for AMBOSS.

Advi­sor to the follo­wing inves­tors: YPOG 

Project A Ventures

Dr. Martin Scha­per (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin; Ciro D’Ame­lio (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin

Consultant:inside Partech

Dr. Tim Schlös­ser (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin; Pia Meven (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin; Barbara Hasse (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin

Advisors:inside Burda Prin­ci­pal Invest­ments and Quadrille Capital

Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin; Tobias Lovett (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin; Dr. Stephan Bank (Funds/ Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin; Farina Weber (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin.

About AMBOSS

Foun­ded in 2012 by a team of physi­ci­ans, AMBOSS is a global medi­cal know­ledge plat­form that has funda­men­tally chan­ged the way medi­cal know­ledge is acqui­red and used at the point of care. With a focus on accu­rate, high-quality content, inno­va­tive AI-powered tech­no­logy and a user-cente­red approach, the company has grown its inter­na­tio­nal team to over 500 employees from more than 50 count­ries, inclu­ding scien­tists, soft­ware engi­neers and more than 150 physi­ci­ans. AMBOSS has more than 1 million profes­sio­nal users in 180 countries.
www.amboss.com.

About Partech

Partech is a global tech invest­ment firm head­quar­te­red in Paris with offices in Berlin, Dakar, Dubai, Nairobi and San Fran­cisco. Partech brings toge­ther capi­tal, opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence and stra­te­gic support to help entre­pre­neurs from seed to growth stage. Foun­ded 40 years ago in San Fran­cisco, the company today mana­ges €2.5 billion in assets and a current port­fo­lio of 220 compa­nies in 40 count­ries and on 4 continents. 

About Burda Prin­ci­pal Investments

Burda Prin­ci­pal Invest­ments (BPI) is a leading inter­na­tio­nal growth capi­tal provi­der with offices in London, Munich, Berlin and Singa­pore. As a divi­sion of Hubert Burda Media, BPI part­ners with visio­nary entre­pre­neurs and supports them with Burda’s capi­tal, brands and indus­try exper­tise — parti­cu­larly in the areas of busi­ness expan­sion, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and loca­liza­tion. BPI’s port­fo­lio includes nume­rous successful and fast-growing compa­nies in Europe, the USA and Asia, inclu­ding Nord Secu­rity, Vinted, Aleph Alpha, Bloom and Wild, Money­box, Skills­hare, Expel, Carsome and BillEase. 

About Quadrille Capital

Quadrille is a trans­at­lan­tic invest­ment plat­form with a focus on high-growth tech­no­logy compa­nies. For over 25 years, Quadrille has supported successful growth-stage compa­nies in Europe, the US and Asia. In addi­tion, the company invests in comple­men­tary private secon­dary and primary stra­te­gies in the tech­no­logy sector and has €1.8 billion in assets under manage­ment. The team consists of 40 profes­sio­nals based in Paris, New York and San Francisco. 

Munich — Maxburg Betei­li­gun­gen has sold its port­fo­lio company GfS Gesell­schaft für Sicher­heits­tech­nik to ASSA ABLOY Sicher­heits­tech­nik GmbH. The commer­cial law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus advi­sed Maxburg on this transaction. 

GfS Gesell­schaft für Sicher­heits­tech­nik mbH is one of the leading Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­r­ers of escape route secu­rity systems. The owner-mana­ged family busi­ness from Hamburg has been deve­lo­ping, manu­fac­tu­ring and selling these for over 40 years. Custo­mers include retail stores, hospi­tals, nursing homes, airports and museums.

Maxburg Betei­li­gun­gen, an invest­ment company focu­sed on the German-spea­king region and advi­sed by Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners, concen­tra­tes on long-term corpo­rate invest­ments. Maxburg invests in both priva­tely held and listed companies. 

Legal advi­sors Maxburg Betei­li­gun­gen: Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich

Dr. Heiner Feld­haus (Part­ner, lead, M&A/corporate law), Dr. Tilmann Gütt (Part­ner, banking/finance law), Thomas Becker (Of Coun­sel, IP/IT/data protec­tion and commer­cial), Matthias Uelner (Coun­sel), Sophie Stef­fen (Asso­ciate) (both M&A/corporate law), Anja Schmidt (Asso­ciate, banking/finance law)
Pusch Wahlig Work­place Law, Munich: Ingo Sappa (Part­ner, Employ­ment Law)
Kind & Drews, Düssel­dorf: Dr. Ernesto Drews (Part­ner, Tax Law)

Legal advi­sors ASSA ABLOY: Clif­ford Chance, Frankfurt 

Dr. Moritz Peter­sen (Part­ner), Helge Brück, Nata­lie Hember­ger (both Asso­cia­tes; all Corporate/M&A)

About Maxburg Capi­tal Partners

Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners is an invest­ment manage­ment company focu­sed on the German-spea­king region. Foun­ded by three part­ners with many years of expe­ri­ence as entre­pre­neurs and inves­tors in public and private equity, Maxburg focu­ses on long-term corpo­rate invest­ments with the aim of achie­ving lasting and sustainable value growth. On the basis of seve­ral funds and a total fund volume of € 600 million, Maxburg has an excep­tio­nally flexi­ble invest­ment mandate: we actively invest across the entire range of capi­tal struc­tures — from equity to equity-rela­ted finan­cing opti­ons such as mezza­nine and mezza­nine-like forms of invest­ment. We hold both majo­rity and mino­rity inte­rests in compa­nies. www.maxburg.com

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR S.p.A (“Ambi­enta”), one of Europe’s largest asset mana­gers focu­sed enti­rely on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity, has signed a binding agree­ment to sell Nami­rial S.p.A (“Nami­rial”), a global leader in digi­tal tran­sac­tion manage­ment. Ambi­enta is selling its majo­rity stake in the company to Bain Capi­tal, one of the world’s leading private invest­ment firms. 

Foun­der Enrico Giaco­melli and the manage­ment team led by CEO Max Pelle­g­rini will retain a signi­fi­cant stake in the company, under­li­ning their contin­ued commit­ment to the company’s future growth strategy.

Foun­ded in 2000, Nami­rial is a leading provi­der of Soft­ware-as-a-Service (SaaS) solu­ti­ons that enable the complete digi­tiza­tion of busi­ness-criti­cal tran­sac­tions and proces­ses. Nami­rial opera­tes in 20 count­ries and employs 1,000 people in 28 offices. The company helps compa­nies to go paper­less and improve opera­tio­nal perfor­mance while redu­cing their envi­ron­men­tal impact. 

Since inves­t­ing in Nami­rial in 2020, Ambi­enta has grown the company signi­fi­cantly by streng­thening the corpo­rate orga­niza­tion and leader­ship, appoin­ting a new CEO to profes­sio­na­lize the company’s opera­ti­ons and conti­nuously impro­ving the product port­fo­lio. In colla­bo­ra­tion with the manage­ment team, Ambi­enta over­saw a rigo­rous buy-and-build program that resul­ted in seven acqui­si­ti­ons and enab­led Nami­rial to conso­li­date its posi­tion in the market for compli­ance-criti­cal digi­tal tran­sac­tion manage­ment dome­sti­cally and inter­na­tio­nally. As a result, during Ambienta’s owner­ship, Nami­rial more than doubled its head­count, tripled reve­nue, more than quadru­pled profi­ta­bi­lity and expan­ded its global reach in Europe, Latin America and Southe­ast Asia. Today, the company serves 150,000 custo­mers world­wide with over 3 million users in more than 85 countries. 

Digi­tiza­tion has repla­ced paper-based proces­ses and perso­nal inter­ac­tions with digi­tal work­flows, redu­cing the need for paper and travel — a direct contri­bu­tion to envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity. By signi­fi­cantly redu­cing paper-based proces­ses and the asso­cia­ted resource requi­re­ments — inclu­ding energy, water and CO₂ emis­si­ons from paper produc­tion — as well as the redu­ced need for archi­ving space, Nami­rial enables a more effi­ci­ent and envi­ron­men­tally friendly way of working. Ambi­enta reco­gni­zed early on that the digi­ta­liza­tion of busi­ness proces­ses offers nume­rous bene­fits and is essen­tial for sustainable econo­mic progress. Ambi­enta ther­e­fore iden­ti­fied Nami­rial as a pioneer in eco-friend­li­ness and a key player in this transformation. 

Namirial’s remar­kable growth under Ambienta’s leader­ship has shown signi­fi­cant posi­tive envi­ron­men­tal results: By the end of 2024, Namirial’s trans­for­ma­tion of its custo­mers’ busi­ness proces­ses has enab­led them to save over 1.2 million cubic meters of water (equi­va­lent to 500 Olym­pic swim­ming pools), more than 15,000 tons of crude oil equi­va­lent energy (equi­va­lent to the annual energy consump­tion of 320,000 refri­ge­ra­tors) and reduce CO₂ emis­si­ons by almost 50,000 tons (equi­va­lent to the CO₂ absorp­tion of 2.2 million trees).

Gian­carlo Beraudo, Private Equity Part­ner at Ambi­enta, comm­ents: “The deve­lo­p­ment of Nami­rial is a prime exam­ple of the poten­tial of high-growth compa­nies bene­fiting from trends in envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity. It shows how by combi­ning our focus on sustaina­bi­lity-driven busi­nesses with a consis­tent value crea­tion stra­tegy, we can deli­ver success for compa­nies, inves­tors and the envi­ron­ment. We are proud to have crea­ted an Italian ‘unicorn’ and to have been part of Namirial’s impres­sive deve­lo­p­ment into an inter­na­tio­nal market leader in digi­tal tran­sac­tion management.”

Enrico Giaco­melli, Foun­der and Chair­man of Nami­rial, adds: “Part­ne­ring with Ambi­enta over the past four years has been a truly trans­for­ma­tive jour­ney. The company’s stra­te­gic vision and unwa­ve­ring support have helped us acce­le­rate our growth, enter new markets and streng­then our global presence — all while stay­ing true to our values. But what has made this jour­ney truly extra­or­di­nary is the incre­di­ble Nami­rial team: an inter­na­tio­nal group of passio­nate, dedi­ca­ted and talen­ted people who make the seemingly impos­si­ble possi­ble day after day.”

Max Pelle­g­rini, CEO of Nami­rial, adds: “Ambi­enta has been an inva­luable part­ner for our growth and inno­va­tion. Ambienta’s exper­tise and commit­ment have enab­led us to streng­then our opera­ti­ons, invest in our team and exceed our stra­te­gic goals. We are proud of what we have achie­ved toge­ther and confi­dent that we have built a solid foun­da­tion for sustainable success in this new chap­ter of the company’s history.”

Giovanni Camera, Part­ner at Bain Capi­tal, comm­ents: “This invest­ment further streng­thens our successful presence in Italy and in the tech­no­logy space and provi­des an exci­ting oppor­tu­nity to support Namirial’s mission — to deli­ver inno­va­tive digi­tal soft­ware solu­ti­ons that trans­form the way busi­nesses operate. Nami­rial has an impres­sive track record of sustained growth and conti­nuous inno­va­tion in digi­tal tran­sac­tion manage­ment. We are confi­dent that our expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in scaling tech­no­logy-driven busi­nesses will serve us well in support­ing Enrico, Max and the entire manage­ment team to drive Namirial’s growth and further expand its market presence as a global leader.”

The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the second quar­ter of 2025, subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory approvals.

Consul­tant Ambienta: 

Arma Part­ners, Roth­schild & Co, Peder­soli Gattai, Bain&Co, KPMG, FRM, West Monroe, Marsh advised.

About Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor specia­li­zing in private equity, public markets and private credit. Based in Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of appro­xi­m­ately €4 billion. The focus is on invest­ments in private and listed compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. Ambi­enta has made 82 private equity invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the world’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a whole range of other sustainable invest­ment products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds. Ambi­enta has also recently laun­ched a private credit stra­tegy, which — as with the other asset clas­ses — focu­ses on envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.

As a pioneer, Ambi­enta was one of the first signa­to­ries of the Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment (UN PRI) in 2012 and achie­ved Bene­fit Corpo­ra­tion (B Corp) status in 2019. In 2020, Ambi­enta became a member of the Insti­tu­tio­nal Inves­tors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), and in 2023 Ambi­enta set another posi­tive exam­ple for the indus­try by joining the Science-Based Targets Initia­tive (SBTi) as one of the few asset mana­gers to do so. www.ambientasgr.com

London, Munich, Milan, Madrid — Oakley Capi­tal (“Oakley”), a leading pan-Euro­pean private equity inves­tor focu­sed on the mid-market, has successfully comple­ted the fund­rai­sing for its €4.5 billion hard cap Oakley Capi­tal VI fund (“Fund VI” or the “Fund”) just six months after laun­ching the fund­rai­sing in Septem­ber 2024. The Fund was over­sub­scri­bed just three months after the start of the fundraising. 

Fund VI excee­ded the EUR 2.85 billion raised by its prede­ces­sor fund by 58%, bene­fiting in parti­cu­lar from strong support from exis­ting inves­tors across the Oakley plat­form with a re-invest­ment rate of appro­xi­m­ately 100%. In addi­tion, insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors from Europe, North America, Asia and new regi­ons such as Austra­lia and Latin America, among others, have made capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling more than EUR 2.2 billion. 

With the newly raised capi­tal, Oakley will conti­nue the successful invest­ment stra­tegy of Fund V, which is now alre­ady around 70% inves­ted. The invest­ment focus is on medium-sized, foun­der-led, unlis­ted Euro­pean compa­nies in the four core sectors of tech­no­logy, busi­ness services, digi­tal consu­mer and educa­tion. The fund will focus on compa­nies of a simi­lar size to its prede­ces­sor, but with more capi­tal available for successful buy-and-build stra­te­gies and the poten­tial for a larger number of invest­ments. To date, this stra­tegy has reali­zed total gross returns of four times capi­tal employed (3.9x MM) and has achie­ved an average gross inter­nal rate of return (IRR) of 52% since incep­tion and across all funds. Over the past 12 months, Oakley has also sold three invest­ments, conti­nuing its track record of consis­tent distributions. 

Rebecca Gibson (photo © Oakley), Part­ner at Oakley Capi­tal, said: “We would like to thank all our inves­tors for their confi­dence in Oakley and their contri­bu­tion to the successful comple­tion of Fund VI at a time of contin­ued uncer­tainty for the private equity indus­try as a whole.”

Peter Dubens, Co-Foun­der and Mana­ging Part­ner of Oakley Capi­tal, said: “Having made signi­fi­cant invest­ments over the past two years and with a full pipe­line of promi­sing invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, we look forward to working with more excep­tio­nal foun­ders and manage­ment teams across Europe and laying the foun­da­ti­ons for future returns.”

About Oakley Capital

Oakley Capi­tal was foun­ded 20 years ago with the mission to be the part­ner of choice for foun­ders and entre­pre­neurs. We back private, pan-Euro­pean compa­nies with enter­prise values ranging from €100 million to over €1 billion, acqui­ring majo­rity stakes and support­ing complex tran­sac­tions such as carve-outs. We have a diver­si­fied team of more than 200 people working across our six offices in London, Munich, Milan, Madrid, Luxem­bourg and Bermuda, giving us true Euro­pean reach and local cultu­ral exper­tise. Our unique access to primary, proprie­tary invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties enables us to iden­tify attrac­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties in our four core sectors of Tech­no­logy, Busi­ness Services, Digi­tal Consu­mer and Educa­tion. We then support foun­ders to create value and acce­le­rate the growth of their busi­nesses by helping them to expand into new markets and geogra­phies, grow manage­ment teams, deve­lop marke­ting stra­te­gies or tran­si­tion their busi­ness to recur­ring revenue. 

We focus on buil­ding long-term, recur­ring part­ner­ships with excep­tio­nal foun­ders, many of whom go on to invest in our funds them­sel­ves. Across our group, we manage a total of around 15 billion euros on behalf of our inves­tors and conti­nuously gene­rate attrac­tive returns for all our stake­hol­ders. www.oakleycapital.com

Düssel­dorf — The SCIO Auto­ma­tion Group has joined forces with Elek­tro Eggers. SCIO Auto­ma­tion, the inter­na­tio­nal group of compa­nies for indus­trial auto­ma­tion, is thus expan­ding its service port­fo­lio in the Process Solu­ti­ons divi­sion to include essen­tial services in the areas of PLC programming and switch­gear cons­truc­tion. At the same time, the resul­ting syner­gies will streng­then SCIO Automation’s market posi­tion and open up further custo­mer segments in the areas of water treat­ment, food and pet food produc­tion and pharmaceuticals. 

The SCIO Auto­ma­tion Group, head­quar­te­red in Fran­ken­thal, Germany, is an inter­na­tio­nal end-to-end auto­ma­tion plat­form that supports compa­nies on their way to Indus­try 4.0. As a system inte­gra­tor, SCIO auto­ma­tes produc­tion and logi­stics proces­ses and, as an inno­va­tor, deve­lops value-adding and custo­mer-speci­fic auto­ma­tion products in the areas of auto­no­mous mobile robots, soft­ware, clean­room and food intra­lo­gi­stics and indus­trial coding. The Group unites seve­ral compa­nies and other indi­vi­dual brands at over 40 loca­ti­ons in eight count­ries world­wide under the SCIO Auto­ma­tion brand. 

Elek­tro Eggers GmbH, based in Grasberg, Lower Saxony, is an auto­ma­tion specia­list focu­sing on PLC programming, process control tech­no­logy, hard­ware design, engi­nee­ring services and elec­tri­cal assem­bly and instal­la­tion. Within the SCIO Auto­ma­tion Group, Elek­tro Eggers will be inte­gra­ted as a subsi­diary of VESCON Process GmbH, which also has loca­ti­ons in Colo­gne, Krif­tel, Flens­burg and Schuby. 

An ARQIS team led by Thomas Chwa­lek provi­ded SCIO Auto­ma­tion with compre­hen­sive legal advice on this tran­sac­tion. ARQIS advi­sed SCIO Auto­ma­tion for the first time in connec­tion with this merger. 

Advi­sor SCIO Auto­ma­tion: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Part­ners: Thomas Chwa­lek, Foto (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP, Munich), Coun­sel: Chris­tian Judis (Compli­ance, Munich), Jens Knip­ping (Tax), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial, Munich), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (HR Law), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Chris­tos Chou­de­lou­dis (Tran­sac­tions), Tim Brese­mann (Real Estate), Rolf Tichy (IP, Munich), Asso­cia­tes: Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial, Munich), Dr. Bern­hard Gröhe (Regu­la­tory), Marius Mesen­brink (Japan Desk), Anna Munsch (HR Law), Senior Legal Specia­list: Qing Xia (Tran­sac­tions), Legal Specia­list: Tim Kott­mann (HR Law)

Berlin — Berlin-based n8n, an AI work­flow auto­ma­tion plat­form for tech­ni­cal teams, has closed its EUR 55 million Series B funding round. The finan­cing round was led by High­land Europe with parti­ci­pa­tion from HV Capi­tal and previous inves­tors Sequoia, Feli­cis and Harpoon. The Ameri­can venture capi­ta­lists are convin­ced that inves­t­ing in N8n is worthwhile. 

Florian Kozok and Sinje Clau­sen of V14 have advi­sed Berlin-based n8n, an AI work­flow auto­ma­tion plat­form for tech­ni­cal teams, on a EUR 55 million Series B finan­cing round.

After a year of explo­sive growth, n8n has passed the 200,000 active user mark. Foun­der Jan Ober­hau­ser comes from the Allgäu region. He will use this Series B funding to further invest in tech­no­logy, expand his team and expand into new markets, such as the USA. — n8n is desi­gned to help compa­nies and their employees to auto­mate certain tasks that need to be done over and over again. Various programs can be linked toge­ther for this purpose, such as Slack, Google Sheets or Telegram. 

Connec­ting and inter­ac­ting with Slack, Tele­gram and Google Sheets? This networ­king is orga­ni­zed by the start-up N8n. The Berlin-based company has raised 12 million euros in a recent finan­cing round. Jan Ober­hau­ser is the brains behind N8n and foun­ded the start-up in 2019. He was able to raise 1.5 million dollars in a seed finan­cing round at the begin­ning of 2020 — inclu­ding venture capi­ta­list Sequoia Capi­tal, which has rarely inves­ted in German start-ups to date and is one of the inves­tors behind Linke­din, Whats­app and Airbnb. 

Consul­tant: V14, Berlin

Florian Kozok, Sinje Clau­sen

The law firm V14

V14 is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media.
www.v14.de

Munich — Early­bird Venture Capi­tal leads EUR 2.3m finan­cing round at peop­leIX. neoteq ventures, TS Ventures and HRTech Busi­ness Angels also parti­ci­pa­ted. peop­leIX is an AI-powered people intel­li­gence plat­form that enables orga­niza­ti­ons to conso­li­date, analyze and act on key people data. By focu­sing on intui­tive, no-code analy­tics, peop­leIX helps compa­nies improve their produc­ti­vity, employee reten­tion and recruitment. 

Dr. Simon Pfef­ferle and Sven Demar­c­zyk from the law firm V14 advi­sed Early­bird Venture Capi­tal on the finan­cing round.

Advi­sor Early­bird: V14

Dr. Simon Pfef­ferle (Photo: V14)
Sven Demarczyk

The law firm V14

V14 is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media.

Colo­gne — The Colo­gne-based pricing and reve­nue opti­miza­tion startup Buyno­mics has closed a Series B finan­cing round of 30 million US dollars. Parti­ci­pants in the Series B included the Swiss early-growth inves­tor Forestay Capi­tal, the Swiss inves­tor Anais Ventures, VI Part­ners, Insight Part­ners, Seed­camp, DvH Ventures and Toma­hawk. Buyno­mics was advi­sedon this tran­sac­tion by HEUKING. 

Insight Part­ners, La Fami­glia, Seed­camp, DvH Ventures and Toma­hawk had previously inves­ted 13 million euros in the company.

Foun­ded in 2018, Buyno­mics offers a commer­cial opera­ting system that helps compa­nies opti­mize their pricing, promo­ti­ons and product port­fo­lios by simu­la­ting the beha­vior of real shop­pers. Custo­mers include Danone, Unile­ver, L’Oréal and Voda­fone. This enables compa­nies to improve their sales, profi­ta­bi­lity and market posi­tion in real time across diffe­rent regi­ons and products. Buyno­mics is a clear leader in its field, with well-known custo­mers in various indus­tries and regi­ons and one technology. 

The capi­tal provi­ded by new and exis­ting inves­tors will be used to drive inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment of AI-based price opti­miza­tion technology.

Advi­sor Buyno­mics: HEUKING

Dr. Oliver Bött­cher, Foto (lead)
Mark Ross­broich, LL.M. (King’s College London) (both Private Equity / Venture Capi­tal), both Cologne,
Fabian G. Gaffron (Tax Law), Hamburg,
Chris­toph Hexel (Employ­ment Law), Düsseldorf,
Dr. Lutz Martin Keppe­ler (IP, Media & Tech­no­logy), Cologne,
Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (Anti­trust Law), Hamburg,
Michael Kömpel, and Meike Dani­els (both Private Equity / Venture Capi­tal), both Cologne

Cologne/Berlin/Hamburg — YPOG has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the up-and-coming start-up Rema­tiq on the struc­tu­ring and imple­men­ta­tion of a modern employee parti­ci­pa­tion program. Rema­tiq uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to auto­mate regu­la­tory proces­ses in medi­cal tech­no­logy to help compa­nies achieve market appr­ovals faster and more efficiently. 

The model chosen by Rema­tiq enables employees to obtain a genuine, indi­rect stake in the company’s shares — an attrac­tive and sustainable alter­na­tive to tradi­tio­nal virtual parti­ci­pa­tion models (VSOP). A key advan­tage is the tax relief under Section 19a of the German Income Tax Act (EStG), which was crea­ted speci­fi­cally for young compa­nies. This regu­la­tion enables start-ups such as Rema­tiq to retain their employees in the company in the long term and give them a genuine share in the company’s econo­mic success. 

About Rema­tiq

Rema­tiq is an inno­va­tive start-up that uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to auto­mate regu­la­tory proces­ses in medi­cal tech­no­logy. The company supports manu­fac­tu­r­ers in making appr­oval proce­du­res more effi­ci­ent and getting to market faster. By using state-of-the-art tech­no­lo­gies, Rema­tiq helps to reduce bureau­cra­tic hurd­les and streng­then the inno­va­tive power of the indus­try. https://rematiq.com/

With this step, Rema­tiq is laying the foun­da­tion for further growth and plans to further deve­lop its tech­no­logy in order to make regu­la­tory proces­ses in the medi­cal tech­no­logy sector even more effi­ci­ent and to expand internationally.

Advi­sor Rema­tiq: YPOG
Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Cologne
Dr. Sebas­tian Schwarz (Tax), Part­ner, Berlin
Nina Ahlert (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Dr. Jannik Zerbst (Funds), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Elena Lessing (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Laura Franke (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Project Lawyer, Cologne

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice. The firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity and jointly crea­ting opti­mal solu­ti­ons. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion, Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in Germany for venture capi­tal, private equity, fund struc­tu­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons of distri­bu­ted ledger tech­no­logy (DLT) in finan­cial services. YPOG employs more than 150 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists as well as a notary in its offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich.

Landshut/Munich — Bayern Kapi­tal, the venture and growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, is inves­t­ing in Vantis, an inno­va­tive provi­der of hybrid care for chro­ni­cally ill pati­ents using digi­tal solu­ti­ons in combi­na­tion with regu­lar visits to the doctor, through its Bayern 2 growth fund. — Twip Impact Ventures and the exis­ting inves­tors first­mi­nute capi­tal and b2venture are also parti­ci­pa­ting in the Series A finan­cing round led by Ange­lini Ventures in the double-digit million range. 

The funds from the finan­cing round will prima­rily be used to further expand the team and the data-driven, proac­tive manage­ment of chro­ni­cally ill pati­ents, as well as to expand the network of GP prac­ti­ces opera­ted by Vantis.

When caring for pati­ents with chro­nic illnesses, such as cardio­vas­cu­lar dise­a­ses, it is important to provide regu­lar outpa­ti­ent care and acute emer­gency care as well as conti­nuous long-term care and support for pati­ents in their ever­y­day lives, ideally tail­o­red to their indi­vi­dual needs. The latter in parti­cu­lar are often complex and require conti­nuous moni­to­ring of the patient’s state of health and vital signs. At the same time, the demand for appro­priate care is conti­nuously incre­asing as demo­gra­phic change progres­ses, while a shortage of doctors is threa­tening to lead to a lack of care, parti­cu­larly in rural regi­ons. Hubert Aiwan­ger (Bava­rian Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs) explains: “Demo­gra­phic change and the resul­ting increase in the number of chro­nic illnesses in the popu­la­tion means that inno­va­tive approa­ches are needed for the health­care system. With its combi­na­tion of digi­tal and perso­nal care, Vantis shows what such inno­va­tions can look like. The company is a good exam­ple of a Bava­rian company that is successful on the market as a ‘first mover’ with a future-proof busi­ness model. It demons­tra­tes the inno­va­tive strength and future viabi­lity of the Bava­rian tech­no­logy sector.” 

Vantis addres­ses the chall­enge of under­sup­ply in particular.

The company has set itself the goal of ensu­ring opti­mal care and making it simp­ler and more effi­ci­ent for pati­ents and doctors. Foun­ded in 2019, the company combi­nes inno­va­tive digi­tal treat­ment methods such as tele­me­di­cine, data-driven remote moni­to­ring and support from arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) with tail­o­red, pati­ent-cente­red care from GPs to create digi­tal long-term therapy for chro­ni­cally ill patients. 

“The digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of the health­care system requi­res considera­ble invest­ment to ensure that ever­yone bene­fits in the end — doctors, pati­ents and payers. As a digi­tal health­care company with our own prac­ti­ces, we have the unique oppor­tu­nity to tailor our tech­no­logy to the current and future chal­lenges in GP care and to conti­nuously opti­mize it. Our goal is to achieve better treat­ment outco­mes for pati­ents and to make doctors’ ever­y­day work easier so that they can focus more on medi­cal care,” says Till Jansen, CEO of Vantis.

“We invest in young compa­nies that are prepared to chall­enge the status quo and bring inno­va­tions to the market. With the combi­na­tion of its own GP prac­ti­ces and comple­men­tary digi­tal health appli­ca­ti­ons, Vantis is pursuing the goal of sustain­ably impro­ving GP care for doctors and pati­ents. This forward-looking stra­tegy makes Vantis a promi­sing invest­ment for us. The company offers a solu­tion that is in tune with the times and addres­ses the growing requi­re­ments in the health­care market. In addi­tion, Vantis has a diver­si­fied, solid busi­ness model and attrac­tive growth pros­pects,” says Monika Steger (photo), Co-Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal.

About Vantis

Vantis is a Munich-based company and a pioneer in digi­tal health­care. The company addres­ses one of the biggest chal­lenges in the German health­care system: more pati­ents, fewer doctors. Through the targe­ted use of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies and inno­va­tive treat­ment methods, Vantis combi­nes the best of medi­cine, tech­no­logy and effi­ci­ent prac­tice orga­niza­tion. To this end, Vantis is inves­t­ing in its own network of gene­ral medi­cal prac­ti­ces to ensure compre­hen­sive, future-proof medi­cal care. www.vantis-health.com/de/

About Bayern Kapital

Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, is the venture/growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria. It supports inno­va­tive high-tech and deep-tech compa­nies in Bava­ria through various growth phases, from seed to later stage, with equity capi­tal of EUR 0.25 to 25 million. Bayern Kapi­tal often closes gaps in the VC sector in proven consor­tium constel­la­ti­ons with private investors. 

Bayern Kapi­tal mana­ges specia­li­zed invest­ment funds with a volume of around 700 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion in 1995, the wholly-owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern has inves­ted over 500 million euros of its own equity capi­tal in more than 320 start-ups and scale-ups from sectors such as life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. This has crea­ted over 10,000 perma­nent jobs in sustainable compa­nies in Bava­ria. The active port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses almost 100 companies.

Examp­les of nume­rous ground­brea­king success stories that Bayern Kapi­tal has been invol­ved in at an early stage include EOS (today the world’s leading tech­no­logy provi­der in indus­trial 3D prin­ting of metals and plas­tics), Proglove, Fazua, SimS­cale, Scom­pler, egym, Parcel­lab, Cobrai­ner, Quan­tum Systems, Casavi, Riskme­thods, Tubu­lis, Cata­lym, Immu­nic, Sirion, tado and many more. www.bayernkapital.de

Zug / Fried­richs­ha­fen — Funds advi­sed by BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”), the largest and most active mid-market private equity firm based in the DACH region, have ente­red into an agree­ment with Keen­sight Capi­tal (“Keen­sight”), one of Europe’s leading growth buyout firms, under which Keen­sight will acquire a majo­rity stake in ACTICO Group. The Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal Fonds (“BU Funds”), the previous majo­rity share­hol­der since March 2021, as well as the manage­ment team of ACTICO Group will remain invol­ved via a reverse invest­ment and will conti­nue to closely support the expan­sion of the market posi­tion of the leading provi­der of soft­ware solu­ti­ons for regu­la­tory compli­ance and risk manage­ment in the long term. The plan is to acce­le­rate inter­na­tio­nal growth and conti­nuously expand the product range both orga­ni­cally and through acquisitions. 

ACTICO Group, with head­quar­ters in Fried­richs­ha­fen and four other loca­ti­ons, specia­li­zes in the intel­li­gent auto­ma­tion of compli­ance, asset manage­ment, regu­la­tory report­ing and credit proces­ses for finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons world­wide. The company stands for modern tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons that support finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons in comply­ing with growing regu­la­tory requi­re­ments and effec­tive risk manage­ment. ACTICO was foun­ded in 1997 and acqui­red by a German indus­trial group in 2008; in 2015, the manage­ment team sepa­ra­ted the company from the parent company as part of a carve-out. As part of a struc­tu­red busi­ness succes­sion, the company part­ne­red with the BU funds in 2021 to realize its growth plans and vision with a well-funded and soft­ware-expe­ri­en­ced new majo­rity shareholder. 

In close part­ner­ship, the orga­niza­tion and proces­ses were expan­ded in the follo­wing years and further profes­sio­na­li­zed for the strong growth ahead. Among other things, the company’s manage­ment was put on a broa­der footing, sales struc­tures were expan­ded and the IT infra­struc­ture was streng­the­ned. At the same time, signi­fi­cant invest­ments were made on the product side in areas such as cloud tech­no­logy, inte­grabi­lity, machine lear­ning and AI capa­bi­li­ties. In parti­cu­lar, the new deve­lo­p­ment of a credit risk plat­form and the trans­for­ma­tion of the ACTICO Compli­ance Suite into a cloud-native solu­tion also gene­ra­ted strong inte­rest outside the previous Euro­pean core market. In 2022, ACTICO Group acqui­red Fact Infor­ma­ti­ons­sys­teme und Consul­ting, a company specia­li­zing in the digi­ta­liza­tion of invest­ment manage­ment. The merger led to a signi­fi­cantly broa­der custo­mer base in the finan­cial sector, parti­cu­larly in the areas of fund compa­nies and insu­r­ers. In the course of the part­ner­ship with BU, ACTICO Group was thus able to record strong growth in its core market of Europe as well as strong momen­tum with new custo­mers in America and Asia, more than doubling its turno­ver. The Group is one of the market leaders in the DACH region and today serves more than 300 well-known compa­nies in the finan­cial sector worldwide. 

Hans Jürgen Rieder, CEO of the ACTICO Groupsays: “We would like to thank BU for their support over the past four years. The team has deve­lo­ped ACTICO Group with dedi­ca­tion and expe­ri­ence in the soft­ware indus­try and we are plea­sed that BU will conti­nue to be a valued part­ner under the new majo­rity owner­ship of Keen­sight. By part­ne­ring with Keen­sight, we can embark on the next phase of our growth. Keensight’s expe­ri­ence in scaling soft­ware busi­nesses and their global network will enable ACTICO Group to capi­ta­lize on new oppor­tu­ni­ties in key markets and deli­ver even grea­ter value to our customers.”

Phil­ipp Struth (photo), Part­ner at BU, explains: “Over the past four years, we have actively supported ACTICO Group in deve­lo­ping its product port­fo­lio, buil­ding a strong manage­ment team and posi­tio­ning the company for sustainable growth. With this strong foun­da­tion, ACTICO Group is well posi­tio­ned for the next phase of scaling. We look forward to conti­nuing to support the fanta­stic team as a partner.”

Stanis­las de Tinguy, Part­ner at Keen­sight Capi­tal, added: “ACTICO Group is uniquely posi­tio­ned to capi­ta­lize on the rapidly evol­ving market for credit and compli­ance soft­ware. With its expe­ri­en­ced and inno­va­tive leader­ship team, we look forward to support­ing the company’s expan­sion and acce­le­ra­ting growth in exis­ting and new markets.”

About BU

BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) is a leading private equity firm with offices in Zug, Munich, Milan and London. With a total of €7.0 billion in capi­tal raised since incep­tion, BU is the largest mid-market private equity firm head­quar­te­red in the DACH region. The funds advi­sed by BU invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Germany, Switz­er­land, Italy and Austria. With the mission to be the prefer­red part­ner for entre­pre­neurs and family busi­nesses, BU focu­ses on part­ner­ships with market leaders and “hidden cham­pi­ons” with strong manage­ment teams and growth poten­tial. Since its foun­da­tion in 2015, the funds advi­sed by BU have inves­ted in more than 140 compa­nies with over 29,000 employees. Around 10,000 jobs have been crea­ted in the process. BU supports entre­pre­neurs and fami­lies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to further deve­lop, inter­na­tio­na­lize and digi­ta­lize their compa­nies, helping them to create sustainable value respon­si­bly and with a view to the next gene­ra­tion. — www.bu-partners.ch

About ACTICO Group

ACTICO Group is a leading inter­na­tio­nal provi­der of digi­tal solu­ti­ons for regu­la­tory compli­ance, invest­ment manage­ment, credit risk, data & report­ing and decis­ion auto­ma­tion. Its flexi­ble and agile soft­ware solu­ti­ons help compa­nies meet regu­la­tory requi­re­ments, opti­mize proces­ses and focus on growth with the help of AI-powered tech­no­logy. With over 25 years of expe­ri­ence, ACTICO Group serves more than 300 clients world­wide in the finan­cial, indus­trial and tech­no­logy sectors, provi­ding powerful solu­ti­ons with a clear focus on custo­mer success. The company opera­tes in six loca­ti­ons and employs a team of 230 people support­ing clients in over 25 count­ries. — www.acticogroup.com

About Keen­sight Capital

Keen­sight Capi­tal (“Keen­sight”), one of Europe’s leading growth buyout firms, is dedi­ca­ted to helping entre­pre­neurs realize their growth stra­te­gies. With more than 25 years of expe­ri­ence and €5.5 billion in assets under manage­ment, the Keen­sight Capi­tal team lever­a­ges its diffe­ren­tia­ted private equity expe­ri­ence to invest in profi­ta­ble growth compa­nies with reve­nues between €10 million and €400 million. Drawing on its exper­tise in the tech­no­logy and health­care sectors, Keen­sight iden­ti­fies the best invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in Europe and works closely with manage­ment teams, provi­ding capi­tal, stra­te­gic advice and opera­tio­nal support. Keen­sight opera­tes in more than 90 count­ries world­wide and has offices in Paris, London, Boston and Singa­pore. — www.keensight.com

Tübin­gen — Selfapy GmbH, a digi­tal health pioneer for mental illness, has been acqui­red by the MEDICE Health Family, the Euro­pean market leader in the treat­ment of ADHD. As part of the tran­sac­tion, inves­tors SHS Capi­tal, Think.Health Ventures, IBB Ventures and HTGF sold their shares. 

Selfapy’s CE-certi­fied medi­cal devices offer flexi­ble and quickly acces­si­ble online therapy programs for people with mental illnesses such as depres­sion, gene­ra­li­zed anxiety disor­der, buli­mia nervosa, binge eating disor­der and chro­nic pain. The programs are available as an app on smart­phones and tablets and can be prescri­bed by doctors or psychotherapists. 

The acqui­si­tion of Selfapy is another important step for the MEDICE Health Family on its way from a pure phar­maceu­ti­cal manu­fac­tu­rer to a provi­der of clini­cally vali­da­ted, multi­mo­dal health­care solu­ti­ons combi­ning phar­maceu­ti­cals, digi­tal solu­ti­ons and nutri­tio­nal concepts.

“We want to take even more compre­hen­sive care of pati­ents while also keeping an eye on current chal­lenges in the health­care system. This is why we have been expan­ding our strong core in the phar­maceu­ti­cal busi­ness for seve­ral years to include deve­lo­p­ments in the field of digi­tal health­care solu­ti­ons,” says Dr. Katja Pütter-Ammer, Mana­ging Part­ner of MEDICE, explai­ning the stra­tegy of the family-run company.

“Selfapy alre­ady accounts for 20% of all perma­nently listed DiGAs in the mental health sector. By joining forces with MEDICE and their strong ties to doctors and psycho­the­ra­pists, we can now work even more speci­fi­cally on reali­zing our vision so that no one with a mental illness has to wait for help. Toge­ther, we want to take digi­tal care to a new level and reach even more people faster and more effec­tively,” says Selfapy Mana­ging Direc­tor and CEO Adham Kassab.

Dr. Corne­lius Maas, Part­ner at SHS Capi­tal, who served as Chair­man of the Advi­sory Board at Selfapy for many years, comm­ents on the tran­sac­tion as follows: “We are deligh­ted that we have been able to firmly estab­lish Selfapy with its digi­tal health appli­ca­ti­ons as an inno­va­tive form of treat­ment in the German health­care market in recent years. With MEDICE as a stra­te­gic buyer, we have found the perfect part­ner for the next deve­lo­p­ment phase of Selfapy and wish both compa­nies contin­ued success together.”

About SHS

“Buil­ding Euro­pean Health­care Cham­pi­ons” is the guiding prin­ci­ple of the Tübin­gen-based inves­tor SHS Capi­tal. With this in mind, the inves­tor specia­li­zing in health­care invest­ments finan­ces and deve­lops its port­fo­lio compa­nies. Since its foun­da­tion in 1993, the focus of its invest­ments has been on expan­sion finan­cing, share­hol­der chan­ges and succes­sion situations. 

www.shs-capital.eu

Karlsruhe/ Stuttgart/ Berlin — YPOG has advi­sed Deal­front, a leading marke­ting and sales intel­li­gence plat­form head­quar­te­red in Karls­ruhe, on all legal and tax aspects of the acqui­si­tion of Wired­Minds. Wired­Minds, based in Stutt­gart, is a pioneer in the field of intel­li­gent website visi­tor analysis. 

With this tran­sac­tion, Deal­front further streng­thens its market leader­ship in the DACH region while expan­ding its tech­no­lo­gi­cal capa­bi­li­ties and service offe­ring. For over 20 years, Wired­Minds has been a leading provi­der of website visi­tor analy­tics, helping compa­nies turn their website traf­fic into valuable leads. The inte­gra­tion with Deal­front ensu­res that exis­ting clients conti­nue to bene­fit from a seam­less service, with addi­tio­nal access to advan­ced features inclu­ding a data­base of over 300 million B2B cont­acts, enhan­ced audi­ence filters and seam­less CRM inte­gra­ti­ons for Sales­force, HubS­pot, Pipedrive and other leading tools. 

In late 2024, Deal­front recei­ved €30 million in funding from AshGrove Capi­tal to acce­le­rate Dealfront’s growth in its core DACH and Nordics regi­ons, as well as further geogra­phic expan­sion and oppor­tu­ni­stic stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons. — Deal­front was formed in 2022 through the merger of Echo­bot and Lead­fee­der, supported by a €180 million equity invest­ment from Great Hill Part­ners (“GHP”).

The acqui­si­tion marks the first step in a broa­der expan­sion stra­tegy follo­wing Dealfront’s recent €30 million finan­cing round
. This was led by AshGrove Capital
, with a YPOG team led by Matthias Kres­ser and Martin Scha­per provi­ding legal advice to Dealfront
.

About Deal­front

Deal­front is a leading Euro­pean go-to-market plat­form based in Karls­ruhe, Germany, that combi­nes AI-powered marketing
and sales intel­li­gence to help compa­nies iden­tify and convert their customers
. Foun­ded through the merger of Echo­bot and Lead­fee­der, Deal­front offers a
data-driven ecosys­tem with real-time insights, high-quality B2B cont­acts and seam­less integrations
into CRM and marke­ting auto­ma­tion tools. The company relies on the highest European
data protec­tion stan­dards to ensure data secu­rity and compli­ance for its customers.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.dealfront.com

Advi­sor Deal­front: YPOG

Dr. Martin Scha­per, Foto (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Hamburg
Ciro D’Ame­lio (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Jacob Schrei­ber (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Munich
Anja Schind­ler (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Anna Eick­meier (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Jonas von Kalben (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Benja­min Müller (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Chris­toph Cordes (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice.
The law firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity to
create opti­mal solu­ti­ons toge­ther. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in
the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protection,
Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in 

Colo­gne — VYTAL Global GmbH, a leading provi­der of intel­li­gent reusable pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons, has successfully closed a growth finan­cing of EUR 14.2 million to further drive its inter­na­tio­nal growth. The current invest­ment was led by Inven Capi­tal, a growth fund specia­li­zing in climate tech, toge­ther with NRW.Venture, the venture capi­tal fund of NRW.BANK. Both inves­tors streng­then Vytal’s renow­ned group of share­hol­ders, which alre­ady includes Emer­ald Tech­no­logy Ventures, Grazia Equity, Kiko, Rubio Impact Ventures and Chi Impact Capital. 

Since 2020, Vytal has been offe­ring reusable contai­ners as an ecolo­gi­cal alter­na­tive for take-away meals, which can be found at more than 450 restau­rants in Colo­gne alone.

Colo­gne — The Colo­gne-based startup METYCLE, a digi­tal plat­form for the inter­na­tio­nal trade in secon­dary metals, has successfully comple­ted a Series A finan­cing round of 14.1 million euros. The finan­cing round was led by 2150, with parti­ci­pa­tion from DFF Ventures, Market One Capi­tal, Partech and Project A. The capi­tal will be used to further deve­lop the AI infra­struc­ture in order to make recy­cling proces­ses more effi­ci­ent, sustainable and transparent. 

The funding under the leader­ship of 2150 enables the expan­sion of AI-supported sort­ing tech­no­logy, which increa­ses recy­cling rates, shor­tens trade routes and redu­ces CO₂ emissions.

AI-supported plat­form for sustainable metal recycling

METYCLE has set itself the task of revo­lu­tio­ni­zing the inter­na­tio­nal trade in recy­cled metals. Using AI-driven sort­ing tech­no­logy, the company iden­ti­fies the chemi­cal and physi­cal proper­ties of scrap metals in real time. This enables precise mate­rial sepa­ra­tion, redu­ces manual labor and lowers CO₂ emissions. 

“Metal recy­cling is important for the tran­si­tion to a carbon-neutral economy. Our approach not only saves resour­ces, but also redu­ces CO₂ emis­si­ons by up to 95% compared to primary metal produc­tion,” says Sebas­tian Bren­ner, co-foun­der of METYCLE.

Foun­ded in 2022 by Rafael Suchan and Sebas­tian Bren­ner (photo), METYCLE combi­nes indus­try expe­ri­ence with modern tech­no­logy. The plat­form covers the entire retail process, from quality assu­rance to logi­stics and payment processing. 

Growing demand and chal­lenges in the market

The global demand for recy­cled metals is incre­asing as more and more compa­nies and count­ries want to achieve their sustaina­bi­lity goals. The EU has set clear recy­cling quotas, but the supply of high-quality scrap metal remains limi­ted. Accor­ding to fore­casts, there could be a short­fall of 15 million tons by 2030. “Rafael and Sebas­tian have crea­ted a plat­form that is driving urban mining and rede­fi­ning the secon­dary metals trade,” explains Rahul Parekh, Part­ner at 2150. 

This is where METYCLE comes in with its Smart Sort­ing Hubs, which opti­mize local trade routes. Instead of costly trans­por­ta­tion to central reloa­ding points, the recy­cled mate­rial is proces­sed and traded in the region where­ver possible. 

Over 2150

We support tech­no­logy entre­pre­neurs who are reim­agi­ning and inno­vat­ing the urban stack. We help build compa­nies that are chan­ging the way our cities are desi­gned, built and powered forever. 

The hunt for giga­corns — the tech­no­logy cham­pi­ons of the coming deca­des, with the poten­tial to help billi­ons of people, create billi­ons in commer­cial value and reduce giga­tons of emis­si­ons. 2150 is part of Stadt­part­ner, a plat­form for visio­nary, diffe­ren­tia­ted invest­ment stra­te­gies focu­sed on solving urban problems. 2150 is part of Stadt­part­ner, a plat­form for visio­nary, diffe­ren­tia­ted invest­ment stra­te­gies focu­sed on solving urban problems. www.2150.vc

Grün­wald near Munich/Madrid — SOLUTIO AG, a leading provi­der of inno­va­tive invest­ment concepts for insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, and Alan­tra Solar, the rene­wa­ble energy invest­ment stra­tegy of the global finan­cial services company Alan­tra, which specia­li­zes in invest­ment banking and alter­na­tive asset manage­ment, have ente­red into a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship. The aim of the joint venture is to create a joint fund for rene­wa­ble ener­gies. It is to be laun­ched in 2025 as an Article 9 fund in accordance with the EU Disclo­sure Regu­la­tion (SFDR) and will have a target volume of between EUR 500 million and EUR 1 billion. 

The plan­ned fund will invest directly in solar energy and energy storage projects in Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United King­dom. The focus will be on finan­cing projects that make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to the energy tran­si­tion in Europe and are in line with the objec­ti­ves of the EU’s “REPowerEU” program and the “Green Deal”, in parti­cu­lar the recently published Green Deal Indus­trial Plan. 

“With this part­ner­ship, we are taking a signi­fi­cant step towards sustainable energy invest­ments. The combi­na­tion of our exper­tise with that of Alan­tra Solar enables us to launch a fund that pursues both ecolo­gi­cal and econo­mic goals,” explains Robert Massing (photo), CEO of SOLUTIO AG.

Alan­tra Solar has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the rene­wa­ble energy sector. Since its foun­da­tion in 2021, Alan­tra Solar has finan­ced projects with a total capa­city of 5.2 giga­watts and inves­ted over 1 billion euros in photo­vol­taics. Four funds have been successfully laun­ched to date. The team of 20 profes­sio­nals works from offices in Madrid and Milan. The entire Alan­tra team consists of more than 600 employees world­wide and opera­tes from 20 offices in 18 countries. 

“The coope­ra­tion with SOLUTIO AG enables us to further expand our exper­tise in the field of rene­wa­ble ener­gies and to jointly estab­lish a fund that meets the high requi­re­ments of an Article 9 fund,” says Javier Mellado, CEO and part­ner of Alan­tra Solar.

The plan­ned fund will offer insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors the oppor­tu­nity to invest in a diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of rene­wa­ble energy projects and thus bene­fit from both attrac­tive yield oppor­tu­ni­ties and a posi­tive envi­ron­men­tal impact.

The plan­ned fund will invest directly in solar energy and energy storage projects in Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United King­dom. The focus will be on finan­cing projects that make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to the energy tran­si­tion in Europe and are in line with the objec­ti­ves of the EU’s “REPowerEU” program and the “Green Deal”, in parti­cu­lar the recently published Green Deal Indus­trial Plan. 

About SOLUTIO AG

SOLUTIO AG, foun­ded in Munich in 1998, deve­lops inno­va­tive invest­ment concepts espe­ci­ally for the needs of German and Austrian insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in the field of real assets. SOLUTIO initia­tes invest­ment concepts exclu­si­vely toge­ther with mana­gers who have a proven track record of above-average success. The company itself also parti­ci­pa­tes in all invest­ment concepts. Over the past 25 years, SOLUTIO AG and its joint venture part­ners have laun­ched a total of 24 invest­ment programs in the asset clas­ses of private equity, infra­struc­ture, private debt and real estate with a total volume of over EUR 7.3 billion. More infor­ma­tion at www.solutio.ag

About ALANTRA

Alan­tra is an inde­pen­dent global finan­cial services firm focu­sed on provi­ding invest­ment banking and alter­na­tive asset manage­ment services to compa­nies, fami­lies and inves­tors active in the middle market. The Group has more than 600 profes­sio­nals in Europe, the US, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. The Alter­na­ti­ves Asset Manage­ment divi­sion offers unique access to a broad range of invest­ment stra­te­gies in five highly specia­li­zed asset manage­ment clas­ses (private equity, active funds, private debt, energy and venture capi­tal). As of Septem­ber 30, 2024, assets under manage­ment from conso­li­da­ted and stra­te­gic busi­ness units amoun­ted to more than EUR 16.8 billion. More infor­ma­tion at www.alantra.com

Stutt­gart — The SICK Group, an inter­na­tio­nal provi­der of sensor-based auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons head­quar­te­red in Germany, is estab­li­shing a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with the Swiss measu­re­ment tech­no­logy specia­list Endress+Hause. With this part­ner­ship, the compa­nies invol­ved are joining forces in the field of process auto­ma­tion to provide their custo­mers with even better support and drive forward new tech­no­lo­gi­cal solu­ti­ons for the decar­bo­niza­tion of the process industry. 

As part of the tran­sac­tion, the corner­stone of which was laid with the signing of the contract in summer 2024 and which has now been comple­ted follo­wing the conclu­sion of the anti­trust reviews, the global play­ers SICK and Endress+Hauser have estab­lished the joint venture “Endress+Hauser SICK GmbH+Co. KG” based in Germany, in which they each hold a 50% stake.

The joint venture Endress+Hauser SICK GmbH+Co. KG will streng­then the deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion of analy­ti­cal measu­re­ment tech­no­logy and gas flow measu­re­ment and further expand the part­ners’ range of solu­ti­ons. The deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion of analy­ti­cal measu­re­ment tech­no­logy and gas flow measu­re­ment of the former SICK busi­ness unit “Clea­ner Indus­tries” and its appro­xi­m­ately 730 employees will be contin­ued by the joint venture in the future. The Endress+Hauser Group Sales Centers will take over the distri­bu­tion of the product solu­ti­ons manu­fac­tu­red there. 

In plan­ning and imple­men­ting the stra­te­gic part­ner­ship, the SICK Group was not only able to draw on the exper­tise of Deloitte Legal and Deloitte in Germany, but also bene­fit from the global Deloitte/Deloitte Legal network. Under the leader­ship of Deloitte Legal Germany, Deloitte Legal teams from over 40 juris­dic­tions supported the trans­fer of appro­xi­m­ately 800 sales and service employees from the SICK sales and service units in 42 count­ries to the respec­tive sales centers of the Endress+Hauser Group. 

Since April 2023, more than 90 employees of Deloitte Legal and Deloitte in Germany as well as nume­rous Deloitte and Deloitte Legal colle­agues from other Euro­pean and non-Euro­pean juris­dic­tions have supported the SICK Group in the merger in the field of process automation.

In this project, the SICK Group relied on the legal advi­sory services of Deloitte’s legal prac­tice led by Stutt­gart part­ner Michael K. Schnei­der, who has an excel­lent network in the south-west German SME sector. “We are very plea­sed to have relied on the Deloitte and Deloitte Legal teams for this complex inter­na­tio­nal project. The expe­ri­ence and exper­tise of the Deloitte consul­tants helped us to iden­tify all rele­vant aspects in good time and to find a solu­tion, and their inter­di­sci­pli­nary approach saved us a lot of coor­di­na­tion effort,” says Dr. Matthias Rebmann, Vice Presi­dent Legal, Gover­nance & Compli­ance at SICK. “The prudent leader­ship of Michael K. Schnei­der enab­led a smooth and rapid imple­men­ta­tion in the 42 count­ries concerned.” 

Advi­sor to SICK AG: Deloitte Legal Rechts­an­walts­ge­sell­schaft mbH

Corporate/M&A: Michael Schnei­der (Lead, Part­ner, Stutt­gart), Jose­fin Wied­mann (Senior Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart), Marc Albrecht (Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart), Dr. Johan­nes Kapp­ler (Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart); Corporate/M&A | Chinese Law: Alex­an­der Fischer (Part­ner, Frank­furt am Main), Xinyi Wang (Senior Legal Advi­sor, Chinese Attor­ney at Law, Frank­furt am Main); Employ­ment Law: Claus Wilker (Coun­sel, Hano­ver); Anti­trust Law: Felix Skala (Part­ner, Hamburg), Katha­rina Zicker­mann (Coun­sel, Hamburg); Data and Data Protec­tion Law: Nikola Werry (Part­ner, Frank­furt am Main), Alina Scheja (Asso­ciate, Frank­furt am Main); Foreign Trade Law: Bettina Mert­gen (Part­ner, Frank­furt am Main), Jan-Michael Mergler (Senior Asso­ciate, Frank­furt am Main)

Deloitte GmbH Wirt­schafts­prü­fungs­ge­sell­schaft: Tax: Chris­tian Himmels­bach (over­all project respon­si­bi­lity, Part­ner, Stutt­gart), Björn Neumann (Direc­tor, Stutt­gart), Wladi­mir Petri (Senior Manager,
Stutt­gart); Finan­cial Advi­sory | M&A Opera­tio­nal Tran­sac­tion Services: Ihsan Ugurlu (Part­ner, Cologne),
Iven Krause (Direc­tor, Munich), Stefan Nguyen (Senior Mana­ger, Düssel­dorf); Finan­cial Advisory |
Valua­tion, Mode­ling & Econo­mics: Stefan Brauchle (Part­ner, Stutt­gart), Henrik Schar­now­ski (Senior
Mana­ger, Stuttgart).

About SICK

SICK is one of the world’s leading solu­tion provi­ders for sensor-based appli­ca­ti­ons for industrial
appli­ca­ti­ons. Foun­ded in 1946 by Dr. Ing. e. h. Erwin Sick and head­quar­te­red in
Wald­kirch in Breis­gau near Frei­burg, Germany, the company is one of the tech­no­logy and market leaders and is present around the globe with 60
subsi­dia­ries and affi­lia­tes as well as nume­rous agencies.
SICK employs more than 12,000 people world­wide and gene­ra­ted conso­li­da­ted sales of EUR 2.3 billion in fiscal year 2023
. www.sick.com

Berlin/London — Corsair Capi­tal has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in IDnow, a leading Euro­pean provi­der of digi­tal iden­tity solu­ti­ons. With this tran­sac­tion, the private equity inves­tor has secu­red control of the Munich-based fintech company, which was foun­ded in 2014, and is thus focu­sing on further expan­ding its market posi­tion in Europe. The previous foun­ders and inves­tors sold the majo­rity of their shares as part of the transaction. 

IDnow is a key player in the field of digi­tal iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion and has estab­lished itself as a leading provi­der with inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons such as Video-Ident, Photo-Ident and AI-supported iden­tity checks. The company serves over 900 inter­na­tio­nal custo­mers, inclu­ding banks, finan­cial service provi­ders, mobile network opera­tors and public authorities. 

IDnow has consis­t­ently expan­ded its market posi­tion through stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons, such as that of the French market leader Ariad­next in 2021, and conti­nuous tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment. The acqui­si­tion by Corsair Capi­tal provi­des IDnow with addi­tio­nal resour­ces to further deve­lop its plat­form, expand into new markets and imple­ment new iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion technologies. 

About IDnow

IDnow was foun­ded in Munich in 2014 and is now one of the leading provi­ders of digi­tal iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion and KYC (Know Your Custo­mer) solu­ti­ons in Europe. The company offers a wide range of secure, AI-powered iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion solu­ti­ons for banks, finan­cial service provi­ders, mobi­lity compa­nies and the public sector. With offices in Germany, the UK and France, IDnow serves over 900 custo­mers world­wide. www.idnow.io

Consul­tant IDnow: YPOG

Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Sebas­tian Schödel (Corpo­rate), Part­ner, Cologne
Dana Fran­ziska Ritter (Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Matthias Kres­ser (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin/Hamburg
Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Hamburg
Jan Stamm­ler (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin/Hamburg
Martin Acker (Tax), Asso­ciate, Hambur­gA­boutYPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice. The firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity and jointly crea­ting opti­mal solu­ti­ons. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion, Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in Germany for venture capi­tal, private equity, fund struc­tu­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons of distri­bu­ted ledger tech­no­logy (DLT) in finan­cial services. The firm and its part­ners are regu­larly reco­gni­zed by renow­ned publi­ca­ti­ons such as JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Cham­bers and Part­ners, Leaders League and Legal 500. YPOG employs more than 150 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists as well as a notary in its offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich.

Soest / Hamburg — GENUI GmbH has acqui­red the IT specia­list Aagon. GENUI is a private invest­ment company foun­ded by renow­ned entre­pre­neurs and expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment experts. GENUI pursues the “Good Entre­pre­neur­ship” approach, which combi­nes attrac­tive returns with posi­tive impact. The finan­cing is provi­ded by funds mana­ged by Capi­tal Four. — Herbert Smith Freeh­ills advi­sed GENUI GmbH on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Aagon GmbH. 

Aagon was foun­ded in 1992 by Wilko Fren­zel and Sascha Häckel. Based in Soest, North Rhine-West­pha­lia, the company curr­ently employs almost 150 people and works for more than 2,800 custo­mers and part­ners in over 20 sectors. 

With its modu­lar system, Aagon offers a holi­stic solu­tion approach for the daily chal­lenges of IT depart­ments, such as the central manage­ment of devices and soft­ware licen­ses, fault recor­ding or in the area of cyber secu­rity. — With Aagon Client Manage­ment Plat­form (ACMP) and the Aagon Enter­prise Service Bus (AESB), Aagon offers client and soft­ware manage­ment systems such as license manage­ment, secu­rity manage­ment, patch manage­ment and custo­mer support from a single source. 

Advi­sor GENUI GmbH: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills (Frank­furt a.M.)

Dr. Fritz Kleweta, Foto (lead), Chris­tian H. Hinz­mann (coun­sel; both finance), Dr. Stef­fen C. Hörner (tax law); asso­cia­tes: Marc Soltau, Florian Möller (both finance), Tatiana Güns­ter (tax law)

Colo­gne — NRW.BANK has inves­ted EUR 3.5 million in growth capi­tal in Vytal Global via its venture capi­tal fund NRW.Venture. In total, the finan­cing amoun­ted to EUR 14.2 million. The current invest­ment was led by Inven Capi­tal toge­ther with NRW.Venture, which is comple­men­ted by inves­tors such as Emer­ald Tech­no­logy Ventures, Grazia, Rubio, Chi Impact Capi­tal and Kiko. 

“Vytal impres­ses both with its highly scalable tech­no­logy plat­form and the steadily incre­asing market trac­tion that the company has been able to demons­trate in recent years,” says Maxi­mi­lian Erb, Invest­ment Mana­ger at NRW.Venture, who will also repre­sent the bank on the company’s advi­sory board. “With its digi­tal reusable solu­ti­ons, Vytal Global shows that sustainable busi­ness ideas are compe­ti­tive and can also scale internationally.” 

“This new funding follows less than nine months after our last one and reflects the excep­tio­nal success the Vytal team has achie­ved in 2024,” says Dr. Tim Breker, co-foun­der and CEO of Vytal. “With our new inves­tors’ exper­tise in support­ing inter­na­tio­nal growth stra­te­gies, we are ideally posi­tio­ned to further scale our impact and estab­lish digi­tal reusable pack­a­ging as the new stan­dard in the hospi­ta­lity, event and enter­tain­ment sectors worldwide.” 

VYTAL Global GmbH deve­lops data-driven intel­li­gent reusable solu­ti­ons that outper­form exis­ting single-use pack­a­ging in terms of both user expe­ri­ence and cost-effec­ti­ve­ness, ther­eby driving the trans­for­ma­tion of the pack­a­ging indus­try towards a circu­lar economy. The new capi­tal will prima­rily be used to streng­then Vytal’s global market leader­ship, acce­le­rate product deve­lo­p­ment and drive inter­na­tio­nal expansion. 

NRW.BANK parti­ci­pa­tes in finan­cing rounds such as this one in order to be able to support forward-looking start-ups with equity capi­tal in a targe­ted manner. With its pack­a­ging tech­no­logy, the young company VYTAL Global conser­ves resour­ces and also contri­bu­tes to the trans­for­ma­tion of the economy. 

About VYTAL Global GmbH

VYTAL Global is revo­lu­tio­ni­zing the pack­a­ging indus­try by repla­cing single-use pack­a­ging with intel­li­gent reusable solu­ti­ons. Using state-of-the-art soft­ware and data analy­tics, Vytal provi­des econo­mic­ally viable and sustainable pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons that bene­fit both busi­nesses and the envi­ron­ment. The company has been inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed by the Harvard Busi­ness Review for its inno­va­tive data model and is a leader in the global tran­si­tion to a circu­lar economy. With a network of over 7,000 part­ners in 24 count­ries, Vytal is driving the reduc­tion of single-use pack­a­ging waste. 

Vytal has laun­ched a specia­li­zed busi­ness unit to expand its reach and provide reusable solu­ti­ons for the event and enter­tain­ment indus­try. This initia­tive demons­tra­tes Vytal’s commit­ment to sustaina­bi­lity by meeting the speci­fic needs of large events and venues. 

VYTAL Global and its inter­na­tio­nal subsi­dia­ries share a clear vision: to trans­form pack­a­ging systems world­wide and create inno­va­tive, envi­ron­men­tally friendly alter­na­ti­ves for a more sustainable future. www.vytal.org

About NRW.Venture

NRW.Venture is NRW.BANK’s response to the shortage of finan­cing for young, inno­va­tive, often tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies that are often unable to obtain finan­cing through loans. Their main capi­tal consists of a new market idea, which makes it diffi­cult to assess their chan­ces of success. NRW.Venture invests up to EUR 15 million of equity in such start-ups over seve­ral finan­cing rounds — toge­ther with private-sector inves­tors. NRW.BANK takes mino­rity stakes over a period of three to seven years. Howe­ver, the commit­ment invol­ves more than just capi­tal — an expe­ri­en­ced team is the key to joint success. NRW.Venture’s invest­ment profes­sio­nals with many years of venture capi­tal expe­ri­ence, and often also tech­no­logy and start-up expe­ri­ence, use their know-how and network to ensure that start-ups have the best chan­ces of success.

Munich/London — Sales­five GmbH, a subsi­diary of AMIRA, has acqui­red fluent:cx UK. Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advi­sed Sales­five Group, Europe’s largest Sales­force boutique part­ner, on the acqui­si­tion of fluent:cx UK. 

fluent:cx UK is a Sales­force boutique part­ner with many years of expe­ri­ence in the imple­men­ta­tion of digi­tiza­tion projects. The company supports its clients in trans­la­ting their visi­ons, goals and stra­te­gies into effec­tive Sales­force solu­ti­ons in the areas of marke­ting, sales and custo­mer service. 

This stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion repres­ents an important mile­stone in Salesfive’s expan­sion stra­tegy and comple­ments Armira’s previous acqui­si­tion of a simi­lar busi­ness in Germany, which was also advi­sed by a Norton Rose Fulbright team in early 2024. The signi­fi­cant cross-border tran­sac­tion also under­lines Salesfive’s commit­ment to expan­ding its service offe­ring and streng­thening its presence in key markets such as the UK. 

About Sales­five

As Europe’s largest Sales­force Boutique Part­ner, Sales­five sets the stan­dard for digi­tal excel­lence. With an expert team of over 340 profes­sio­nals in 9 loca­ti­ons, Sales­five has seen itself as a stra­te­gic part­ner for compa­nies that want to lead in the digi­tal world since 2016. — Sales­five offers a 360 custo­mer and part­ner perspec­tive, from initial inter­ac­tion to after-sales service. Our agile orga­niza­tio­nal struc­ture and opera­tio­nal excel­lence are key to your successful digitalization. 

As in previous tran­sac­tions, Sales­five was advi­sed by a Norton Rose Fulbright team led by Munich part­ner Bernd Dreier and London part­ner Sophie O’Connor.

Advi­sor Sales­five Group: Norton Rose Fulbright

In addi­tion to Bernd Dreier and Sophie O’Con­nor, the team consis­ted of part­ner Antoine Colonna (tax, Paris), part­ner Karine Monta­gut (corpo­rate, Paris), part­ner Lesley Brow­ning (pensi­ons, London), part­ner Matthew Find­ley (corpo­rate, London), part­ner Mike Knap­per (corpo­rate, London), Part­ner Domi­nic Stut­taford (Tax, London), Part­ner Laure Joncour (Corpo­rate, Paris), Part­ner Jamie Cooke (Corpo­rate, London), Coun­sel Ben Wright (Employ­ment, London), Coun­sel Fiona Bundy-Clarke (Data Protec­tion, London), Coun­sel Graeme Tricker (Pensi­ons, London), Coun­sel Marie-Adelaide de Fleu­rieu (Corpo­rate, Paris), Lead Asso­ciate Dan Harman (Corpo­rate, London), Senior Asso­ciate Alex­an­der Redbourne (IP, London), Soli­ci­tor Alex­an­der Roper, Asso­ciate Alex­an­dra Bloch-Mani­kow (Tax, Paris), Senior Asso­ciate Barbara Gaffey (Employ­ment, London), Asso­ciate Ines Azouaou (Corpo­rate, Paris), Asso­ciate Katha­rine Wadia (Corpo­rate, London), Asso­ciate Lauren Pies­ley (Corpo­rate, London), Asso­ciate Polina Maloshch­inskaia (Corpo­rate, London), Senior Asso­ciate Rebecca Your­stone (Corpo­rate, London), Senior Asso­ciate George Hairs (Corpo­rate, London).

About Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global busi­ness law firm. With more than 3,500 lawy­ers at over 50 loca­ti­ons world­wide in Europe, the USA, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Austra­lia, Africa and the Middle East, we advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal companies.

We offer our clients compre­hen­sive advice in all major indus­tries. These include Finan­cial Insti­tu­ti­ons; Energy; Infra­struc­ture, Mining and Commo­di­ties; Trans­por­ta­tion; Tech­no­logy and Inno­va­tion; and Life Scien­ces and Health­care. Our global Risk Advi­sory Group combi­nes this exten­sive indus­try expe­ri­ence with its exper­tise in legal, regu­la­tory, compli­ance and gover­nance matters. This enables us to provide our clients with prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons to the legal and regu­la­tory risks they face.

The Swiss asso­cia­tion Norton Rose Fulbright helps to coor­di­nate the acti­vi­ties of Norton Rose Fulbright members, but does not provide legal advice to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in more than 50 cities world­wide, inclu­ding London, Hous­ton, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johan­nes­burg. For more infor­ma­tion, visit nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices.