Author: Tatjana Anderer

USA — The AI startup Anthro­pic, known for its chat­bot Claude, is about to close an enorm­ous finan­cing round worth 3.5 billion US dollars. This values the company at 61.5 billion US dollars, as repor­ted by the Wall Street Jour­nal. — The inves­tors include promi­nent inves­tors such as Helsing-Inves­tor, Lightspeed Venture Part­ners, Gene­ral Cata­lyst and Besse­mer Venture Part­ners. The Abu Dhabi-based invest­ment firm MGX is also said to be in talks. 

Anthro­pic is also bene­fiting from signi­fi­cant invest­ment from tech giants. Amazon had alre­ady made a commit­ment of four billion US dollars in 2023, while Google recently inves­ted a further one billion US dollars, in addi­tion to the two billion US dollars previously pled­ged. These stra­te­gic finan­cial injec­tions under­line the confi­dence in the start-up’s inno­va­tive strength. 

Dario Amodei, CEO and co-foun­der of the US AI company Anthro­pic, belie­ves that arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) could surpass human capa­bi­li­ties in almost all areas in the near future. — Amodei foun­ded Anthro­pic in 2021 toge­ther with his sister and former OpenAI employees. 

As one of the main compe­ti­tors of OpenAI, the deve­lo­per of ChatGPT, Anthro­pic is posi­tio­ning itself in the race for supre­macy in the field of gene­ra­tive AI models. The company recently unvei­led its latest model, “Claude 3.7 Sonnet”, which offers faster respon­ses and impro­ved step-by-step reaso­ning. This tech­no­lo­gi­cal advance­ment is expec­ted to further streng­then Anthropic’s competitiveness. 

The current valua­tion of USD 61.5 billion repres­ents a signi­fi­cant jump compared to the previous valua­tion of USD 18 billion last year. This illus­tra­tes the enorm­ous growth poten­tial that inves­tors see in the AI sector. 

This funding conso­li­da­tes Anthropic’s posi­tion as one of the leading play­ers in the field of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and sends a strong signal in the global race for tech­no­lo­gi­cal innovation.

Düssel­dorf — Cumu­lo­city manage­ment joins forces with a consor­tium of inves­tors led by Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners to create the leading inde­pen­dent IoT platform.

Cumu­lo­city, the German IIoT (Indus­trial IoT) pioneer, has been acqui­red by its manage­ment team with the support of key inves­tors Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners, Schro­ders Capi­tal and Verso Capi­tal. The part­ner­ship will provide Cumu­lo­city with the neces­sary resour­ces and stra­te­gic support to conso­li­date its posi­tion as a market leader in the fast-growing IoT sector. This includes further impro­ving the product, scaling opera­ti­ons and inves­t­ing in talent. 

Cumu­lo­city has stood out for years as one of the leading plat­forms for IIoT and is reco­gni­zed by indus­trial equip­ment manu­fac­tu­r­ers in various sectors for its strong product-market fit and repu­ta­tion. Cumulocity’s cutting-edge tech­no­logy is now used by hundreds of compa­nies in various indus­tries world­wide. One of the largest and most compe­ti­tive growth markets for the Germany-based company is the United States, where Cumu­lo­city has alre­ady achie­ved signi­fi­cant success. In addi­tion, the company serves custo­mers in over 30 other count­ries, offe­ring a compre­hen­sive full-service approach, 24-hour support, Clou­dOps and custo­mi­zed IIoT solutions. 

Cumulocity’s manage­ment team — Bernd Gross, Jürgen Krämer, Stefan Vail­lant, Jari Salmi­nen and Philip Hooker — consists of passio­nate foun­ders with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in growth compa­nies in the IIoT sector. They are ideally equip­ped to drive forward the company’s ambi­tious global expan­sion plans. 

Cumulocity’s plat­form has been reco­gni­zed as a leader in both the Gart­ner Magic Quadrant for Global Indus­trial IoT Plat­forms and the Forres­ter Wave for Indus­trial IoT. The posi­tive feed­back and recom­men­da­ti­ons from Gart­ner Peer Insights unders­core the solution’s poten­tial to succeed in the rapidly growing market for smart, connec­ted products. 

Commen­ting on the tran­sac­tion, Bernd Gross, co-foun­der and CEO, said: “We are very exci­ted to enter this new phase of inde­pen­dence with rene­wed momen­tum and a streng­the­ned struc­ture. Our new corpo­rate struc­ture will allow us to be more flexi­ble and adapt to the chan­ging needs of our customers.”

He added: “The dyna­mic IIoT market, where we have alre­ady proven our quali­ties, will provide the right envi­ron­ment for Cumu­lo­city to thrive in its next chap­ter. The long-term part­ner­ship with our inves­tors will enable us to deli­ver value to our custo­mers and part­ners while crea­ting an attrac­tive work­place for our talen­ted employees.”

Ben von Schulz, Invest­ment Direc­tor at Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners, said: “Cumu­lo­city is a funda­men­tal enabler for custo­mers tran­si­tio­ning to digi­tal busi­ness and service models. Cumulocity’s IoT plat­form enables manu­fac­tu­r­ers to trans­form their hard­ware into plat­forms for inno­va­tive services, unlo­cking new reve­nue streams and deli­ve­ring grea­ter custo­mer value. We look forward to support­ing the manage­ment team in taking Cumu­lo­city to the next level and reali­zing its full growth potential.”

About Cumu­lo­city

Foun­ded in 2012, Cumu­lo­city is a world-leading Indus­trial Inter­net of Things (IoT) plat­form that provi­des out-of-the-box device manage­ment and low-code appli­ca­ti­ons for rapid ROI. The cloud-native plat­form enables orga­niza­ti­ons to take a “buy and build” approach, shor­tening time to market for new, diffe­ren­tia­ting digi­tal services. Cumu­lo­city is the prefer­red choice for indus­trial equip­ment suppli­ers and is used by leading compa­nies world­wide to power their smart, connec­ted products in manu­fac­tu­ring, fleet manage­ment, consu­mer elec­tro­nics and other areas. Cumu­lo­city is available as a cloud, on-premi­ses, edge and hybrid solution. 

About Avedon Capi­tal Partners

Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading private equity firm based in Amster­dam and Düssel­dorf. We focus on support­ing growth-stage compa­nies in the Bene­lux and DACH regi­ons and part­ner with excep­tio­nal entre­pre­neurs and manage­ment teams to acce­le­rate orga­nic growth, inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and buy-and-build stra­te­gies. Our invest­ments focus on four key sectors: Busi­ness Services, Soft­ware & Tech­no­logy, Smart Indus­tries and Consu­mer & Health. https://avedoncapital.com.

About Schro­ders Capital

Schro­ders Capi­tal offers inves­tors access to a broad range of private market invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, port­fo­lio buil­ding blocks and custo­mi­zed private market stra­te­gies. The Schro­ders Capi­tal team is focu­sed on deli­ve­ring supe­rior risk-adjus­ted returns and execu­ting invest­ments through a combi­na­tion of direct invest­ments and broa­der solu­ti­ons across all private markets asset clas­ses, through comingled funds and bespoke private markets manda­tes. With $97.3 billion (£77.0 billion; €90.8 billion)* of assets under manage­ment, Schro­ders Capi­tal offers a diverse range of invest­ment stra­te­gies inclu­ding real estate, private equity, secon­da­ries, venture capi­tal, infra­struc­ture, secu­ri­ti­zed products and asset-based finance, private debt, insu­rance-linked secu­ri­ties and Blue­Or­chard (impact specialists). 

About Verso Capital

Verso Capi­tal is a Nordic private equity firm that invests in Euro­pean B2B compa­nies with a turno­ver between 10 and 100 million euros. We look for compa­nies that are aiming for a leading posi­tion in their target market. We specia­lize in carve-outs and buy-outs. Our team has expe­ri­ence from over 100 carve-out and M&A tran­sac­tions — we have the neces­sary know-how and metho­do­logy to execute even compli­ca­ted tran­sac­tions quickly and effi­ci­ently. We invest mainly in Nort­hern Europe and have offices in Helsinki, Stock­holm and Munich. 

Advi­sor Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills, Düssel­dorf, Frankfurt:

Dr. Chris­tian Johnen, Dr. Sönke Becker (both lead), Gregor Klenk (all corpo­rate); Dr. Marius Boewe (FDI); Moritz Kunz, Dr. Anja Ling­scheid (coun­sel; both employ­ment law); Dr. Stef­fen C. Hörner (tax law); Dr. Marcel Nuys (anti­trust law); Stefa­nie Herkert (real estate law); Dr. Fritz Kleweta (Finance); Asso­cia­tes: Sören Flecks, Marjel Dema, Chris­toph Hempel, Tobias Beuker, Fran­ciska Meier, Dr. Marius Dicke, Nasta­sja Bühr­mann (all Corpo­rate); Dejan Einfeldt (FDI); Dr. Simone Zieg­ler, Julia Ickstadt, Matthias Joschko (all Employ­ment); Eva Jürgens, Dirk Metz­ler (both Tax); Anne Ecken­roth (Anti­trust); Florian Möller (Finance)

London: John Taylor (Corpo­rate); Michael Aherne, Mark Howard (Of Coun­sel; both Employ­ment); Asso­cia­tes: Matthew Gallag­her, Raul Vellani, Shuheb Ahmed (all Corpo­rate); Max Kauf­man, Louis Austin (both CRT); Hannah Gould, Khan Mir (both Employment)

New York: James Robin­son (Corpo­rate); Joseph Falcone (Dispu­tes); Asso­cia­tes: Tyler Hendry, Emily Shapiro, Yash Dattani (all Corpo­rate); Chris­to­pher Boyd (Dispu­tes); David Peraza (Finance)

Paris: Chris­to­pher Theris, Frédé­ric Bouvet, Martin Dijos (Of Coun­sel; all Corpo­rate); Sophie Brézin (Employ­ment); Asso­cia­tes: Lucas Lemasson (Corpo­rate); Guil­hem Sero­nie-Doutriaux (Employ­ment)

Frank­furt a.M. — McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­ses global private equity firm Invest­corp Tech­no­logy Part­ners on the sale of Content­serv Group, a leading provi­der of product infor­ma­tion manage­ment (PIM) systems, to Centric Soft­ware, a subsi­diary of French Dassault Systèmes.

Content­serv GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Rohrbach/Ilm near Munich, was foun­ded in 2000 and today has 14 bran­ches in Europe, the USA and Asia. With around 250 employees, the company serves more than 1,500 brands in 89 count­ries with its products. 

Centric Soft­ware GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Munich, offers product life­cy­cle manage­ment (PLM) solu­ti­ons for nume­rous indus­tries. The company has been part of the multi­na­tio­nal soft­ware deve­lo­per Dassault Systè­mes since 2018. 

Invest­corp Tech­no­logy Part­ners focu­ses on inves­t­ing in growing, Euro­pean-based tech­no­logy compa­nies with proven products and end markets.

Advi­sor Invest­corp Tech­no­logy Part­ners: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt

Dr. Michael Cziesla, Dr. Felix Ganzer (both Corporate/Private Equity; both lead), Dr. Chris­tian Marz­lin, Fabrice Piol­let (Paris; both Corporate/M&A), Stef­fen Woitz, LL.M. (IP/IT, Munich), Marcus Fischer (Coun­sel, Tax Law), Dr. Laura Stamm­witz (Coun­sel, Anti­trust Law); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Chris­tian Lebrecht (Health­care), Lea Hauser (Anti­trust Law, Colo­gne), Naré Arshak­yan (Employ­ment Law, Paris)

London (UK) — Thoma Bravo, a leading global soft­ware invest­ment firm, has announ­ced the comple­tion of the fund­rai­sing of its first Euro­pean fund, the Thoma Bravo Europe Fund (the “Fund”), with total capi­tal commit­ments of appro­xi­m­ately €1.8 billion.

The fund aims to invest in inno­va­tive, medium-sized soft­ware compa­nies in the most important Euro­pean markets. The aim is to support foun­ders, entre­pre­neurs and manage­ment teams in deve­lo­ping their compa­nies from Europe into global market leaders. The company sees great growth poten­tial with a view to the next gene­ra­tion of leading Euro­pean soft­ware companies. 

“Our first fund for invest­ments in the Euro­pean soft­ware indus­try is a signi­fi­cant mile­stone for our company,” says Orlando Bravo (photo), foun­der and Mana­ging Part­ner of Thoma Bravo. “We see a great oppor­tu­nity to support tech­no­logy pioneers in Europe and help them grow further. We are grateful for the long-term support of our investors.” 

“The closing of our first Euro­pean fund allows us to further streng­then our presence in the region,” says Irina Hemmers, Part­ner and Head of Thoma Bravo’s Euro­pean office in London. “Digi­ta­liza­tion in Europe is advan­cing rapidly and leading soft­ware compa­nies are incre­asingly looking for targe­ted support and invest­ment to realize their growth stra­te­gies. As a highly specia­li­zed inves­tor, we bring deca­des of opera­tio­nal exper­tise to the table. We believe that this expe­ri­ence can help leading regio­nal soft­ware compa­nies to deve­lop into Euro­pean cham­pi­ons and global market leaders.” 

Thoma Bravo has been inves­t­ing in Europe for 14 years and has alre­ady inves­ted more than €14 billion of equity in 16 tran­sac­tions in the region. Since opening its first inter­na­tio­nal office in London in 2023, Thoma Bravo’s Euro­pean team has acqui­red four compa­nies in the Nether­lands, Germany and Sweden, inclu­ding the €400 million take-private of EQS Group and growth invest­ments in USU, Hyper­gene and LOGEX. 

About Thoma Bravo

Thoma Bravo is one of the largest soft­ware inves­tors in the world with assets under manage­ment of more than 166 billion US dollars (as of Septem­ber 30, 2024). With private equity, growth equity and credit stra­te­gies, the company invests in growth-orien­ted, inno­va­tive compa­nies opera­ting in the soft­ware and tech­no­logy sectors. Thoma Bravo lever­a­ges its deep indus­try exper­tise and proven stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal capa­bi­li­ties to part­ner with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to imple­ment best prac­ti­ces in opera­ti­ons and drive growth initia­ti­ves. Over the past 20+ years, the firm has acqui­red or inves­ted in more than 500 compa­nies with an enter­prise value in excess of $265 billion, inclu­ding both control­ling and non-control­ling invest­ments. The firm has offices in Chicago, Dallas, London, Miami, New York and San Fran­cisco. www.thomabravo.com

Boston / Munich — Nordic Capi­tal, a leading private equity inves­tor in tech­no­logy & payment systems, acqui­res Anaqua with the aim of driving the company’s further growth.

Anaqua, a leading provi­der of tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons and services for inno­va­tion and intellec­tual property (IP) manage­ment, today announ­ced that Nordic Capi­tal (https://www.nordiccapital.com/) , an expe­ri­en­ced private equity inves­tor in tech­no­logy & payment systems globally, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Anaqua from Astorg.

The acqui­si­tion is a key stra­te­gic invest­ment by Nordic Capi­tal. It aims to drive Anaqua’s contin­ued growth through the deve­lo­p­ment of incre­asingly inno­va­tive IP manage­ment solu­ti­ons. Nordic Capi­tal will support Anaqua’s global expan­sion and conti­nuous impro­ve­ments to its soft­ware and services to further streng­then the company’s market posi­tion. With its AQX® and PATTSY WAVE® plat­forms, Anaqua inte­gra­tes best-prac­tice work­flows, data analy­tics, inter­na­tio­nal patent filings and payments for patent and trade­mark rene­wals into specia­li­zed soft­ware solu­ti­ons for IP profes­sio­nals. The plat­forms offer a unique end-to-end value propo­si­tion to opti­mize work­flows, deve­lop stra­te­gies and make decis­i­ons around clients’ valuable IP portfolios. 

Nordic Capi­tal has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in support­ing the growth of inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies and has made 33 tech­no­logy-based invest­ments in compa­nies — with a total value of around EUR 26 billion.

“Nordic Capi­tal will be a great part­ner — both for Anaqua and our custo­mers — as our shared vision for soft­ware-enab­led IP manage­ment plat­forms will enable us to drive indus­try trans­for­ma­tion,” commen­ted Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua. Justin Crotty, COO of Anaqua, added: “Nordic­Ca­pi­tal will be instru­men­tal in execu­ting Anaqua’s growth stra­tegy and provi­ding tech­no­logy-based solu­ti­ons for our clients and the IP market.”

Fred­rik Näslund, Part­ner and Head of Tech­no­logy & Payment Systems at Nordic Capi­tal Advi­sors, said: “We look forward to support­ing Anaqua in their next phase of growth and helping them to further expand their global presence and estab­lish the leading IP manage­ment plat­form for inno­va­tion-driven industries.”

About Anaqua

Anaqua, Inc. is a leading provi­der of inte­gra­ted tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons and services for intellec­tual property (IP) manage­ment. Anaqua’s IP manage­ment plat­forms, AQX® and PATTSY WAVE®, combine best-prac­tice work­flows with big data analy­tics and tech­no­logy-enab­led services to create an intel­li­gent envi­ron­ment that supports IP stra­te­gies, enables infor­med IP decis­i­ons and opti­mi­zes IP proces­ses. Today, nearly half of the top 100 US patent filers and global brands, as well as a growing number of law firms world­wide, use Anaqua’s solu­ti­ons. More than two million IP execu­ti­ves, attor­neys, para­le­gals, admi­nis­tra­tors and inno­va­tors use the plat­form for their IP manage­ment. The company is head­quar­te­red in Boston, with offices in the US, Europe, Asia and Austra­lia. Further infor­ma­tion https://www.anaqua.com/de/

About Nordic Capital

Nordic Capi­tal is a leading private equity inves­tor focu­sing on selec­ted sectors and crea­ting stron­ger, sustainable compa­nies through opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ments and trans­for­ma­tio­nal growth. Nordic Capi­tal focu­ses on speci­fic regi­ons and sectors in which the inves­tor has exten­sive and long-stan­ding expe­ri­ence: Healthcare,Technology & Payment Systems, Finan­cial Services and Services &Industrial Tech­no­lo­gies. The core region is Europe, while Nordic Capi­tal is active world­wide in the health­care and tech­no­logy & payment systems sectors. 

Since its foun­da­tion in 1989, Nordic Capi­tal has inves­ted appro­xi­m­ately 26 billion euros in almost 150 invest­ments. The most recent funds are Nordic Capi­tal XI with EUR 9 billion in commit­ted capi­tal and Nordic Capi­tal Evolu­tion II with EUR 2 billion in commit­ted capi­tal, mainly from inter­na­tio­nal insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors such as pension funds. Nordic Capi­tal Advi­sors has offices in Sweden, the United King­dom, the United States, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway and South Korea. www.nordiccapital.com

“Nordic Capi­tal” refers to any or all of the enti­ties, invest­ment vehic­les, struc­tures and affi­lia­tes opera­ting under the Nordic Capi­tal brand, as the context requi­res. The gene­ral part­ners and/or dele­ga­ted port­fo­lio mana­gers of Nordic Capital’s enti­ties and invest­ment vehic­les are advi­sed by a number of non-discre­tio­nary sub-advi­sors refer­red to indi­vi­du­ally or coll­ec­tively as “Nordic Capi­tal Advisors”. 

Frank­furt a. M. — KKR, a leading global inves­tor, announ­ced that KKR has ente­red into stra­te­gic part­ner­ship agree­ments with EGC, an energy services provi­der based in Düssel­dorf. The engi­nee­ring services provi­der ITG is also part of the group. The foun­ding and owner family will retain a stake in the company and conti­nue to serve as members of the manage­ment board. 

The former CEO of the GETEC Group in Germany, Michael Lowak, joins the group as Chair­man of the Advi­sory Board and will support the manage­ment in the stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with his exten­sive indus­try exper­tise. With KKR as a stra­te­gic part­ner, EGC aims to become the leading decar­bo­niza­tion part­ner with and for the real estate indus­try in Germany and acce­le­rate its growth. To this end, the company will incre­asingly invest in orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth. 

EGC is a second-gene­ra­tion, family-run and inde­pen­dent provi­der of energy services in Germany. The company covers the entire value chain: From the plan­ning and crea­tion of concepts for energy and buil­ding tech­no­logy systems to the finan­cing, main­ten­ance and opera­tion of heating centers and power supply networks to the supply of energy. The company mana­ges a real estate port­fo­lio of over 2 million m² for more than 100 custo­mers and around 800 instal­led heating centers. ITG also includes a team of expe­ri­en­ced engi­nee­ring employees for the plan­ning of energy and buil­ding tech­no­logy systems and installations. 

The combi­na­tion of engi­nee­ring exper­tise with a broad port­fo­lio of energy services in parti­cu­lar crea­tes good condi­ti­ons for the Group. Buil­dings are respon­si­ble for around a third of global CO2 emis­si­ons, mainly due to space heating and water heating. The decar­bo­niza­tion of heating systems in buil­dings plays a decisive role in achie­ving the EU’s climate targets. EGC supports land­lords in deve­lo­ping solu­ti­ons to achieve their decar­bo­niza­tion targets. Follo­wing the successful comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, KKR will support the company in rolling out a broad-based employee owner­ship and enga­ge­ment model. The program will ensure that all employees can help shape EGC’s future and parti­ci­pate in the company’s future success. 

Corinna Pitz and Dirk Pitz, members of EGC’s manage­ment board, said: “The coope­ra­tion with KKR opens up comple­tely new oppor­tu­ni­ties for us to further expand our strong market posi­tion and deve­lop our group of compa­nies. In KKR, we have found a part­ner who shares both our stra­te­gic goals and our entre­pre­neu­rial approach. KKR is not only an estab­lished infra­struc­ture inves­tor, but also has many years of expe­ri­ence in working with family-run compa­nies. All the more reason for us to look forward to the next growth phase with KKR, which offers many new oppor­tu­ni­ties for our group of compa­nies and our employees.” 

Michael Lowak, future Chair­man of EGC’s Advi­sory Board, says: “EGC enables land­lords to effi­ci­ently imple­ment and finance the decar­bo­niza­tion of their proper­ties. The company is thus making a decisive contri­bu­tion to both the real estate sector and the energy tran­si­tion in Germany. I look forward to contri­bu­ting my expe­ri­ence and indus­try know­ledge and working with KKR to further drive EGC’s growth.”

Ryan Miller, Mana­ging Direc­tor in KKR’s Infra­struc­ture team in Europe, comm­ents: “To drive the energy tran­si­tion in Germany at the neces­sary speed, we need crea­tive solu­ti­ons and long-term capi­tal. We see a growing inte­rest in contrac­ting solu­ti­ons and great poten­tial in this still very frag­men­ted market.” 

KKR has exten­sive exper­tise in global infra­struc­ture invest­ments, parti­cu­larly in the energy sector, and is commit­ted to inves­t­ing further in the future of rene­wa­ble energy. With appro­xi­m­ately USD 77 billion of infra­struc­ture assets under manage­ment, of which over USD 21 billion has been inves­ted in the energy tran­si­tion, KKR brings a global invest­ment perspec­tive, exten­sive expe­ri­ence in large-scale infra­struc­ture projects and a proven track record in high-profile tran­sac­tions in Europe such as Enca­vis, Vantage Towers, Zenobe or Greenvolt. 

In Germany, KKR has inves­ted more than EUR 18 billion in long-term equity across various alter­na­tive asset clas­ses in more than 35 compa­nies since the late 1990s, prima­rily in part­ner­ship with foun­ders, family busi­nesses and corpo­ra­ti­ons. The stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with EGC builds on KKR’s long track record of working with family busi­nesses in Germany. KKR is making the invest­ment through its Global Climate Stra­tegy, through which KKR invests at scale in solu­ti­ons that support the tran­si­tion to a low-carbon economy. 

About KKR

KKR is a leading global inves­tor provi­ding alter­na­tive asset manage­ment, capi­tal markets and insu­rance solu­ti­ons. It focu­ses on gene­ra­ting attrac­tive invest­ment returns through a long-term and disci­pli­ned invest­ment approach, employ­ing highly skil­led profes­sio­nals and support­ing growth in the assets where KKR has a presence. KKR finan­ces funds that invest in private equity, credit products, real assets, and — through stra­te­gic part­ners — hedge funds. KKR’s insu­rance subsi­dia­ries offer pension, life and reinsu­rance products under the manage­ment of Global Atlan­tic Finan­cial Group. Refe­ren­ces to KKR’s invest­ments may also refer to the acti­vi­ties of funds mana­ged by KKR and its insu­rance subsi­dia­ries. Further infor­ma­tion: www.kkr.com.

Infor­ma­tion about the Global Atlan­tic Finan­cial Group can be found at www.globalatlantic.com.

About EGC

EGC is a second-gene­ra­tion, family-run and inde­pen­dent provi­der of energy services in Germany. The company covers the entire value chain: From the plan­ning and crea­tion of concepts for energy and buil­ding tech­no­logy systems to the finan­cing, main­ten­ance and opera­tion of heating centers and power supply networks to the supply of energy. The company mana­ges a real estate port­fo­lio of over 2 million m² for more than 100 custo­mers and around 800 instal­led heating centers. EGC’s custo­mers include private and public housing asso­cia­ti­ons, insti­tu­tio­nal real estate inves­tors such as insu­rance compa­nies, banks and invest­ment compa­nies. The group of compa­nies provi­des services for new and exis­ting buil­dings, both for indi­vi­dual proper­ties and for entire real estate port­fo­lios. With ITG, the group also includes a team of expe­ri­en­ced engi­nee­ring employees for the plan­ning of energy and buil­ding tech­no­logy systems and faci­li­ties. www.egc-fm.de

Munich — A Heuking team has provi­ded legal advice to the AL-KO Group on the sale of the AL-KO Garden­tech divi­sion to the Chinese group Ningbo Daye Garden Machi­nery. The tran­sac­tion was successfully comple­ted after appr­oval by the compe­tent autho­ri­ties with a closing at the begin­ning of Febru­ary 2025. 

The AL-KO Garden­tech divi­sion produ­ces and sells a range of lawn mowers world­wide, inclu­ding smart robo­tic lawn mowers, lawn trac­tors, equip­ment for pruning trees and hedges and garden irri­ga­tion equip­ment, making it one of the market leaders in the gardening equip­ment sector. Most of the garden tools and compon­ents are produ­ced in the company’s own factory in Austria. The Garden­tech divi­sion, consis­ting of AL-KO Geräte GmbH as the parent company and subsi­dia­ries in Austria, Great Britain, Austra­lia and New Zealand, among others, gene­ra­tes a turno­ver of over 250 million euros with more than 700 employees at 19 locations. 

Ningbo Daye Garden Machi­nery Co. Ltd. is a China-based group listed on the Shen­zhen Stock Exch­ange, specia­li­zing in the deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion and sales of land­scape main­ten­ance products.

Heuking regu­larly advi­ses the AL-KO Group and its share­hol­der PRIMEPULSE on M&A tran­sac­tions and other projects, most recently on the sale of a majo­rity stake in the listed STEMMER IMAGING AG to the US private equity inves­tor Midd­le­Ground Capi­tal and the sale of the glueck kanja Group to Norves­tor, a Norwe­gian private equity investor.

Consul­tant AL-KO GmbH: HEUKING

Boris Dürr (lead part­ner over­all tran­sac­tion; corpo­rate law / M&A), Chris­tian Schild, LL.M. (lead part­ner contract nego­tia­ti­ons; corpo­rate law / M&A),

Dr. Rein­hard Siegert, (anti­trust law),
Dr. Ruth Jung­kind, (anti­trust law / distri­bu­tion law),
Peter M. Schäff­ler, (tax law),
Felix Noack, (corpo­rate law / M&A), all Munich,
Dr. Lutz Martin Keppe­ler, (IT / Data Protection),
Anna Rich­ter (Corpo­rate Law / M&A), both Cologne,
Astrid Lued­tke (IP Media & Technology),
Sarah Radon (Corpo­rate Law / M&A), both Düsseldorf.

Düssel­dorf — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird has advi­sed TriMas Corpo­ra­tion on the acqui­si­tion of the aero­space divi­sion of Gummi-Metall-Tech­nik GmbH (GMT). With the acqui­si­tion, TriMas intends to expand its aero­space and defense offe­rings while streng­thening its rela­ti­onships with Euro­pean defense suppliers. 

TriMas Corpo­ra­tion is a diver­si­fied manu­fac­tu­rer of engi­nee­red products head­quar­te­red in Bloom­field Hills, Michi­gan (USA). The company serves various indus­tries world­wide and opera­tes in three segments: Pack­a­ging, Aero­space and Specialty Products. TriMas Aero­space specia­li­zes in the design and manu­fac­ture of highly engi­nee­red compon­ents for commer­cial aircraft manu­fac­tu­r­ers and the U.S. military. 

GMT is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of vibra­tion damping compon­ents and systems and was foun­ded in 1968 in Bühl, Germany. The company offers inno­va­tive, high-perfor­mance solu­ti­ons for various indus­tries, inclu­ding mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, aero­space and rail vehic­les. GMT opera­tes world­wide with subsi­dia­ries and sales offices in seve­ral countries. 

Dr. Stefa­nie Orttmann (photo), lead part­ner on the tran­sac­tion, commen­ted: “We are deligh­ted to have been able to support TriMas in this tran­sac­tion. This deal is an exam­ple of Bird & Bird’s strong cross-border capa­bi­li­ties and in parti­cu­lar our close rela­ti­onships with US companies.”

Advi­sor TriMas Corpo­ra­tion: Bird & Bird 

Part­ner Dr. Stefa­nie Orttmann, LL.M. (lead) and asso­cia­tes Jan Medele, Henrike Camph­au­sen, Anna Klings­ei­sen, Felix Spind­ler, LL.M. and Moritz Wargalla, LL.M. (all Corpo­rate, Düssel­dorf), Part­ner Miriam Rich­ter, Asso­ciate Tom Jako­beit (both Commer­cial, Munich), Part­ner Lenn­art Schüß­ler, Coun­sel Lea Noemi Mackert, LL.M.Coun­sel Dr. Nils Lölfing, Asso­ciate Dr. Natal­lia Karni­ye­vich, Part­ner Dr. Matthias Lang (all Commer­cial, Düssel­dorf), Part­ner Ronald Hendrikx and Legal Direc­tor Anthony Rosen, Asso­ciate Teni­sha Cramer (all Commer­cial, London) as well as Part­ner Stéphane Leri­che (Commer­cial, Paris), Part­ner Dr. Stephan Wald­heim and Asso­cia­tes Tamy Tietze, Gitty Nary­many Shandy (all Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Florian Hinde­rer (Anti­trust, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Phil­ipp Egler, LL.M. (Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Catha­rina Klumpp, LL.M., and asso­cia­tes Sebas­tian Bünte and Julia Neuper (all employ­ment law, Düssel­dorf), asso­ciate Stanis­lav Schmidt (finan­cing & finan­cial regu­la­tion, Frank­furt), part­ner Dr. Chris­to­pher Maier­hö­fer and asso­ciate Roksana Hoss­eini, LL.M. (both patent law, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Constan­tin Eikel and Asso­ciate Dr. Rick Wend­ler (both trade­mark law, Düssel­dorf), Coun­sel Jürgen Schlink­mann (real estate law, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Rolf Schmich, Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann and Asso­cia­tes Thomas Schmidt and Julian Stra­ßel (all tax law, Frankfurt). 

About Bird & Bird

As a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm, Bird & Bird is the part­ner for ever­yone who wants to defend and streng­then their super­powers. Thanks to our orig­ins in IP law, we under­stand the core of every company, the requi­re­ments of the market and compe­ti­tion and how to achieve sustainable success. We call it sector focus. And with this DNA, we are now your law firm for all legal issues rela­ting to tech­no­logy, digi­ta­liza­tion and regu­la­tion. With over 1,700 lawy­ers in 32 offices in 22 count­ries, we are repre­sen­ted in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia-Paci­fic and Africa and main­tain close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 280 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich. www.twobirds.com

Munich — Green­Gate Part­ners has advi­sed High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) on the EUR 30 million Series A finan­cing round of Avelios Medi­cal GmbH. The leading inves­tor is Sequoia Capi­tal, accom­pa­nied by exis­ting inves­tors Revent and HTGF. The finan­cing round is one of the largest Series A invest­ments in the digi­tal health sector in recent months. 

Foun­ded in 2020, the health tech company is deve­lo­ping a modern hospi­tal infor­ma­tion system (HIS) that is driving digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion in the health­care sector. With the immi­nent with­dra­wal of a leading HIS provi­der from the market by 2030, many Euro­pean hospi­tals are facing the chall­enge of rene­wing their IT systems. With its inno­va­tive plat­form, Avelios offers a future-orien­ted solu­tion that not only faci­li­ta­tes the digi­ta­liza­tion of pati­ent care, but also enables effi­ci­ency gains and impro­ved quality of care. 

With this invest­ment, Avelios Medi­cal is secu­ring the finan­cial resour­ces to further expand its team and estab­lish its soft­ware in other hospi­tals. The Avelios solu­tion is alre­ady being used by leading univer­sity hospi­tals such as the Ludwig Maxi­mi­lian Univer­sity Hospi­tal in Munich, Hanno­ver Medi­cal School and Sana Kliniken. 

Advi­sor HTGF: Green­Gate Part­ners Rechts­an­walts­ge­sell­schaft mbH

Dr. Tobias Schön­haar, LL.M. (Bond) (Lead / Part­ner / Corporate)
Marc René Spitz, LL.M. (USC) (Part­ner / Corporate)
Constan­tin Forst­ner (Senior Asso­ciate / Corporate)
Dr. Leonie Singer, LL.M. (Sydney) (Asso­ciate / Corporate)
Carl von Sydow (Asso­ciate / Corporate) 

About High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF)

High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) is a major seed inves­tor that finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial. Since its foun­da­tion in 2005, HTGF has helped more than 700 start-ups on their way. 

About Green­Gate Partners

Green­Gate Part­ners is a tech­no­logy law firm with parti­cu­lar exper­tise around tran­sac­tions and venture capi­tal. From our offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers offer their clients first-class advice at eye level.

Munich — FTAPI, a provi­der of secure data exch­ange, has raised 65 million euros in its latest finan­cing round. The inves­tors Armira Growth, an inves­tor specia­li­zing in tech scale-ups, and Tike­hau Capi­tal, a global asset mana­ger with a focus on cyber secu­rity, want to use the funds to drive the company’s expan­sion in the Euro­pean market, among other things. 

FTAPI has deve­lo­ped into a leading plat­form for secure data exch­ange and is now a relia­ble part­ner for more than 2,000 custo­mers from various sectors — inclu­ding finan­cial service provi­ders, public autho­ri­ties, indus­trial compa­nies and compa­nies in the health­care sector. With the support of Armira Growth and Tike­hau Capi­tal, FTAPI plans to build on its leading market posi­tion in its core markets of Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land and to expand into other Euro­pean markets. 

Ari Alber­tini, new CEO of FTAPI: “The stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion with Armira Growth and Tike­hau Capi­tal under­lines our clear focus on Euro­pean tech­no­lo­gies and values. Our mission is to give our clients full control over their data while main­tai­ning the highest stan­dards of compli­ance and cybersecurity.”

As part of the finan­cing, Daniel Nies­ler, foun­der and long-stan­ding CEO of FTAPI, is step­ping down as Mana­ging Direc­tor, but will remain part of the company as an important share­hol­der and member of the Advi­sory Board. At the same time, the previous inves­tor Yttrium has sold all of its shares. The manage­ment would like to thank the Yttrium team for the many years of trustful coope­ra­tion and support, which have contri­bu­ted signi­fi­cantly to FTAPI’s growth and success to date. 

The invest­ment will be used to further expand FTAPI’s product port­fo­lio for secure, trust­wor­thy data exch­ange. FTAPI aims to offer solu­ti­ons “made and hosted in Europe” to support compa­nies in comply­ing with Euro­pean secu­rity stan­dards. This ensu­res inde­pen­dence from inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies and streng­thens Europe’s digi­tal sovereignty. 

The part­ner­ship between FTAPI, Armira Growth and Tike­hau Capi­tal under­lines the common stra­te­gic direc­tion: With a clear focus on Euro­pean values and stan­dards, the coope­ra­tion sends a strong signal for inde­pen­dence and data sove­reig­nty and under­lines the common goal of streng­thening the digi­tal ecosys­tem in Europe.

About FTAPI

The Munich-based soft­ware company FTAPI offers a compre­hen­sive plat­form for simple and secure data work­flows and auto­ma­tion. FTAPI connects people, data and systems secu­rely, quickly and easily. Since 2010, over 2,000 compa­nies, public autho­ri­ties and medi­cal faci­li­ties with more than one million users have placed their trust in the Secu­Mails, Secu­Rooms, Secu­Forms and SecuF­lows products — regard­less of whether they are sending or recei­ving data, recei­ving struc­tu­red data, sharing confi­den­tial infor­ma­tion or secu­rely auto­ma­ting data work­flows: FTAPI’s secure data work­flow plat­form protects sensi­tive data at all times. www.ftapi.com

About Armira Growth

Armira Growth invests in fast-growing compa­nies in Europe that are driving tech­no­lo­gi­cal change and revo­lu­tio­ni­zing tradi­tio­nal value chains through inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons. Buil­ding on Armira’s entre­pre­neu­rial values and unique capi­tal base from leading German and inter­na­tio­nal entre­pre­neurs and entre­pre­neu­rial fami­lies, Armira Growth supports foun­ders and entre­pre­neurs in buil­ding market leaders in the tech­no­logy sector through growth invest­ments of 10–100 million euros as a long-term and trus­ted part­ner. https://www.armira.de.

About Tike­hau Capital

Tike­hau Capi­tal is a global alter­na­tive asset manage­ment group with 47.1 billion euros in assets under manage­ment (as of Septem­ber 30, 2024). Tike­hau Capi­tal has broad exper­tise across four asset clas­ses (private debt, real assets, private equity and capi­tal markets stra­te­gies) as well as multi-asset and special oppor­tu­ni­ties stra­te­gies. Tike­hau Capi­tal is a foun­der-led team with a diffe­ren­tia­ted busi­ness model, a strong balance sheet, proprie­tary global deal flow and a track record of support­ing world-class compa­nies and mana­gers. Deeply rooted in the real economy, Tike­hau Capi­tal provi­des custo­mi­zed and inno­va­tive alter­na­tive finan­cing solu­ti­ons to the compa­nies in which it invests, crea­ting long-term value for its inves­tors while deli­ve­ring posi­tive social impact. The Group lever­a­ges its strong equity base (EUR 3.1 billion in equity as of June 30, 2024) and invests along­side its invest­ment clients’ capi­tal as part of their indi­vi­dual stra­te­gies. Tike­hau Capi­tal is led by its mana­gers toge­ther with leading insti­tu­tio­nal part­ners and guided by a strong entre­pre­neu­rial spirit shared by its 767 employees (as of Septem­ber 30, 2024) across its 17 offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America. Tike­hau Capi­tal is listed on Segment A of the regu­la­ted market of Euron­ext Paris (ISIN code: FR0013230612; ticker: TKO.FP). www.tikehaucapital.com.

Berlin — The HBSN group beco­mes part of ]init[ AG. With the acqui­si­tion of the HBSN group, a specia­list for digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion in the health­care indus­try, ]init[ is expan­ding its holi­stic port­fo­lio for end-to-end digi­tiza­tion beyond the public sector into the health­care indus­try. The acqui­si­tion crea­tes a leading digi­tal specia­list with more than 1,500 employees at 18 loca­ti­ons. Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. 

Over the past 18 years, the HBSN Group has deve­lo­ped into a successful consul­ting and tech­no­logy part­ner in the health­care market. The HBSN Group includes HBSN GmbH with its subsi­dia­ries HBSN Certi­fi­ca­ti­ons GmbH in Germany and xitee k.s. and xitee Betei­li­gungs s.r.o. in the Czech Repu­blic. The compa­nies support univer­sity clinics and hospi­tals, private and statu­tory health insu­rance compa­nies, medi­cal services, the public health service of the fede­ral states and IT system houses in soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment, IT opera­ti­ons and trans­for­ma­tion projects. Around 150 perma­nent employees and an estab­lished network of part­ners work at the HBSN Group’s loca­ti­ons in Bad Hers­feld, Braun­schweig, Brno, Hamburg, Horn­burg, Frank­furt am Main, Leip­zig, Lüne­burg, Munich and Prague. 

init[ AG for digi­tal commu­ni­ca­tion is an expert in digi­ta­liza­tion in the public sector and regu­la­ted indus­tries. Foun­ded in 1995, the company employs around 1,400 people in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne, Leip­zig, Munich and Mainz. 

Advi­sor HBSN Group: POELLATH provi­ded legal and tax advice on the tran­sac­tion throug­hout the entire project with the follo­wing cross-loca­tion team:

Jens Hörmann (Part­ner, Lead, M&A, Munich)
Dr. Katha­rina Hemmen, LL.M. (Part­ner, Private Client, Frankfurt)
Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax Law, Munich)
Alex­an­der Pfef­fer­ler (Coun­sel, M&A, Munich)
Dr. Andreas Reuther (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Employ­ment Law, Munich)
Sebas­tian Pasch (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Real Estate Law, Berlin)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (NYU) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M., (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Frank­furt aM)
Dr. Marcel Duplois (Coun­sel, Private Client, Frankfurt)
Ksenia Marchenko (Asso­ciate, M&A, Munich)
Jannis Lührs (Asso­ciate, Tax Law, Munich)
Hanno Dassel (Asso­ciate, Private Client, Berlin)

Wiesbaden/ Wetzlar/ Karls­ruhe — BMH and Adjus­ted Ventures are inves­t­ing in DIA Digi­tal Consul­ting GmbH, a leading digi­ta­liza­tion and sales­force consul­tancy in the DACH region. The invest­ment compa­nies BMH and Adjus­ted Ventures are jointly inves­t­ing in the company, which BMH is support­ing for the third time with the Hessen Kapi­tal I fund. 

Foun­ded in Wetz­lar in 2001, DIA Digi­tal Consul­ting GmbH has been led by Hendrik Adam as sole share­hol­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor since 2021 and is one of the specia­lists in the field of Sales­force consul­ting and imple­men­ta­tion. DIA helps compa­nies to trans­form their busi­ness models, inclu­ding by tapping into the poten­tial of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI).

As a stra­te­gic part­ner of Sales­force, DIA uses its exper­tise in process and tech­no­logy consul­ting to intro­duce modern cloud plat­forms with a focus on custo­mer rela­ti­onship manage­ment (CRM), inte­grate them deeply into the customer’s exis­ting land­scape and dove­tail them with solu­ti­ons from other tech­no­logy provi­ders. The focus here is on the areas of sales, marke­ting and custo­mer service as well as data-driven decis­ion-making proces­ses. In this context, DIA plays a leading role in support­ing compa­nies in the intro­duc­tion of auto­no­mous AI agents to effi­ci­ently support their employees and custo­mers and in crea­ting the neces­sary foun­da­ti­ons to ensure their successful implementation. 

With over 100 experts at its loca­ti­ons in Wetz­lar, Berlin, Munich and Villin­gen-Schwen­nin­gen, DIA deli­vers tailor-made solu­ti­ons and enables its custo­mers to opti­mize working methods and busi­ness proces­ses. Its custo­mers include compa­nies such as Bosch, Hella, Bayer, B. Braun, Endress+Hauser, TUI, Tele­fó­nica, Canyon and LG Elec­tro­nics as well as other compa­nies from various sectors such as mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, high-tech, medi­cal tech­no­logy, auto­mo­tive, retail, tourism, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and media. DIA intends to use the fresh capi­tal to further expand its port­fo­lio of consul­ting, tech­ni­cal imple­men­ta­tion and mana­ged services. 

Hendrik Adam, foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of DIA: “The stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with BMH and Adjus­ted Ventures enables us to streng­then our inno­va­tive power and further rein­force our posi­tion as a leading digi­ta­liza­tion partner.”

Axel Jahn, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Adjus­ted Ventures (Photo © Adjus­ted Ventures): “As part of our company analy­sis, it quickly became clear to us what a jewel DIA repres­ents in the digi­ta­liza­tion indus­try and how great the growth poten­tial is. We are deligh­ted to be part of this growth and look forward to shaping the next steps toge­ther with the team. We are proud to now also be a share­hol­der in DIA.”

Dirk Pieper from BMH adds: “After support­ing DIA as a silent part­ner since 2019 as part of a realignment, we are now looking forward to conti­nuing the growth trajec­tory toge­ther with Adjus­ted Ventures and the DIA manage­ment. At the same time, the rene­wed invest­ment in DIA Digi­tal Consul­ting is a first for BMH: It is our first direct invest­ment as a ‘later stage’ invest­ment in a company that has alre­ady been opera­ting on the market for many years and a sector that we want to expand further in the future.”

About BMH

BMH Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH, based in Wies­ba­den, was foun­ded in 2001 and is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Hessen-Thürin­gen Giro­zen­trale (Helaba). Through Wirt­schafts- und Infra­struk­tur­bank Hessen (WIBank), BMH is actively invol­ved in the econo­mic deve­lo­p­ment acti­vi­ties of the State of Hesse. As a medium-sized invest­ment and venture capi­tal company, BMH bund­les public invest­ment inte­rests and finan­cing instru­ments for early-stage, growth and medium-sized compa­nies in Hesse. BMH curr­ently mana­ges six invest­ment funds with a volume of over 200 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion, BMH has inves­ted in more than 500 compa­nies. Invest­ment focu­ses include the sectors software/analytics; fintech/insuretech; life science; deep tech; IoT/industrial tech; hardware/industrial goods; cleantech.
More infor­ma­tion about BMH and its funds: www.bmh-hessen.de

Adjus­ted Ventures
https://www.adjusted-ventures.com/

Aachen/ Colo­gne — The Colo­gne-based green tech startup Plan­ted has recei­ved seed funding of 5 million euros. The invest­ment is backed by Tech­Vi­sion Fonds, WENVEST Capi­tal, neoteq ventures, AWS Grün­dungs­fonds and Smart Infra­struc­ture Ventures to further deve­lop the ESG software. 

“Through smart auto­ma­tion, Plan­ted combi­nes ecolo­gi­cal respon­si­bi­lity with econo­mic success — and makes sustaina­bi­lity measur­a­bly profi­ta­ble,” says Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher, Mana­ging Part­ner of the Tech­Vi­sion Fund. “Plan­ted is alre­ady support­ing over 350 custo­mers in Germany with their sustaina­bi­lity strategy.” 

Plan­ted offers an AI-powered ESG plat­form that supports compa­nies holi­sti­cally in their sustaina­bi­lity trans­for­ma­tion — from mate­ria­lity analy­sis, carbon accoun­ting, decar­bo­niza­tion and local envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion projects to the final report in accordance with the Corpo­rate Sustaina­bi­lity Report­ing Direc­tive (CSRD).

Why another ESG solu­tion is needed

The market for ESG soft­ware is highly compe­ti­tive. What makes Plan­ted unique is that the plat­form is not limi­ted to pure compli­ance, but enables compa­nies to undergo a complete trans­for­ma­tion towards sustainable value crea­tion. In addi­tion to meeting regu­la­tory requi­re­ments, Plan­ted supports decar­bo­niza­tion — often with a reduc­tion in emis­si­ons of more than 50 percent. Custo­mers can also get invol­ved in local envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion, for exam­ple by plan­ting mixed forests. 

Up to 75 percent time savings

Plan­ted uses advan­ced AI tech­no­lo­gies to imple­ment the CSRD. For exam­ple, the soft­ware can extract speci­fic data from docu­ments, iden­tify suita­ble reduc­tion measu­res and high­light impacts, risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties in the double mate­ria­lity analy­sis. This saves users up to 75 percent of their time. 

“We are turning the CSRD obli­ga­tion into an oppor­tu­nity,” says Wilhelm Hammes, CEO and co-foun­der of Plan­ted. “Instead of spen­ding months measu­ring and report­ing CO2, we auto­mate these proces­ses. This allows compa­nies to focus their resour­ces on effec­tive measu­res, such as decarbonization.” 

Support from a large consor­tium of investors

Chris­to­phe Aumaître, Part­ner at WENVEST Capi­tal, says: “Plan­ted offers compa­nies an intel­li­gent solu­tion to not only docu­ment sustainable trans­for­ma­tion, but to actively shape it. The team combi­nes in-depth ESG exper­tise with state-of-the-art tech­no­logy, going signi­fi­cantly further than many other solu­ti­ons on the market.”

In addi­tion to the afore­men­tio­ned inves­tors, busi­ness angels Nina Kani, Felix Schür­holz (CO-Foun­der & MD SoSafe), Frank Piotraschke (CRO SoSafe), Arno Nonnen and Julius Göll­ner (ARRtist) are support­ing the investment.

Finan­cing brings person­nel reinforcement

The Colo­gne-based start-up was foun­ded in 2021 by Cindy Schül­ler, Hein­rich Rauh, Wilhelm Hammes and Jan Borchert. Jonas Quilitz joined the team as CPO in Febru­ary 2023. With the finan­cing round, Julian Grune­wald joins as CFO and brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in finance and strategy. 

About TVF

The Tech­Vi­sion Fund (TVF) is the leading early-stage VC fund from the Rhineland/NRW with a focus on tech­no­logy start-ups in the pre-seed to Series A phases. the borde­ring Nether­lands and Belgium. TVF Manage­ment has expe­ri­ence from four gene­ra­ti­ons of funds and curr­ently has over €100 million in assets under manage­ment. The fund is backed by potent inves­tors such as NRW.BANK, seven savings banks from western NRW and more than 15 successful entrepreneurs.
TVF supports start-up teams with proxi­mity, network and exper­tise and paves the way for them to become the next inter­na­tio­nal indus­try leader. Through the S‑UBG Group network, the TVF offers unique access to over 150 successful compa­nies in various indus­tries and estab­lishes cont­acts between start-ups and their first custo­mers, part­ners and advisors.
TVF — Brain | Cash | Proximity
www.tvf.vc

About Plan­ted

Plan­ted is a leading provi­der of a holi­stic ESG manage­ment solu­tion. With a combi­na­tion of inno­va­tive soft­ware and perso­nal consul­ting, Plan­ted supports compa­nies in their sustaina­bi­lity trans­for­ma­tion — from mate­ria­lity analy­sis,_{carbon accoun­ting} and decar­bo­niza­tion to the final CSRD report. Plan­ted combi­nes compli­ance with real trans­for­ma­tion and inte­gra­tes active envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion: compa­nies can protect forests locally or plant their own company forest. More than 350 compa­nies, inclu­ding Cari­tas­ver­band Bruch­sal, Sena­cor Tech­no­lo­gies AG and Insta GmbH, rely on Plan­ted to achieve their sustaina­bi­lity goals.
www.planted.green

Nurem­berg — Under the umbrella of global growth inves­tor Warburg Pincus, Nürn­ber­ger Baugruppe GmbH + Co KG (“Nürn­ber­ger Baugruppe”) brings BRZ Deutsch­land GmbH into a joint plat­form with Info­niqa Group. POELLATH advi­sed Nürn­ber­ger Baugruppe on the merger. 

As early as 1968, brot­hers Wolf­gang and Gernot Hanne­wald had the idea of crea­ting a “Baure­chen­zen­trum” (BRZ) as part of the Nurem­berg cons­truc­tion group. Today’s BRZ Deutsch­land GmbH subse­quently deve­lo­ped into one of the market leaders for ERP soft­ware and payroll solu­ti­ons in the cons­truc­tion sector. Today, it supports more than 12,500 custo­mers with around 650 employees. 

The Info­niqa Group was foun­ded in 1988 in Wels, Austria, and is now majo­rity-owned by the growth inves­tor Warburg Pincus. It specia­li­zes in soft­ware and service solu­ti­ons in all areas of admi­nis­tra­tive and stra­te­gic HR manage­ment: payroll accoun­ting, time manage­ment and outsour­cing. As one of the few full-service provi­ders in the DACH market with loca­ti­ons in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Czech Repu­blic and Poland, the company also opera­tes inter­na­tio­nally with 500 employees at 11 locations. 

The merger of the Info­niqa Group and BRZ Deutsch­land GmbH crea­tes a strong group of compa­nies in the DACH region under the umbrella of Warburg Pincus, which conti­nues to invest in tech­no­lo­gi­cal inno­va­tion and growth.

POELLATH advi­sed the Nurem­berg cons­truc­tion group on the legal and tax aspects of the merger with the follo­wing cross-loca­tion team:

Dr. Tim Kauf­hold (Part­ner, Co-Lead, M&A/Equity, Munich)
Dr. Moritz Klein (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Co-Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (NYU) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust, Frank­furt aM)
Dr. Verena Sten­zel (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Jan-Eckhard Wege­ner, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Private Clients, Munich)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Frank­furt aM) 

POELLATH is a market-leading, inter­na­tio­nally active commer­cial and tax law firm with more than 180 lawy­ers and tax advi­sors in Berlin, Frank­furt and Munich. We stand for high-end advice on tran­sac­tions and asset manage­ment. We offer legal and tax services from a single source. In our selec­ted and highly specia­li­zed prac­tice groups, we not only know the law, but also shape best prac­tice in the market toge­ther with our clients. Natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal rankings regu­larly reco­gnize our advi­sors as leaders in their fields. https://www.pplaw.com