ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Berlin — The Berlin-based health and fintech company Nelly has raised 50 million euros. With this Series B finan­cing, the company aims to drive forward the digi­ta­liza­tion of the Euro­pean health­care sector. The finan­cing round was led by Cathay Inno­va­tion toge­ther with Notion Capi­tal and exis­ting inves­tors b2venture, Lake­star, Motive Ventures and arc investors. 

Nelly’s Finan­cial Opera­ting System for the health­care sector is used by over 1,200 medi­cal prac­ti­ces to increase effi­ci­ency and digi­tize admi­nis­tra­tive and finan­cial proces­ses. With a focus on product expan­sion, geogra­phic expan­sion and incre­asing market share in Germany, Nelly is posi­tio­ning itself as a leading fintech in the Euro­pean health­care sector. While many indus­tries in Germany are strugg­ling with econo­mic chal­lenges, the health­care and tech­no­logy sector is booming. With the new funding, Nelly aims to acce­le­rate its mission to become Europe’s largest health­care fintech, drive inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and further conso­li­date its posi­tion as a finan­cial opera­ting system for medi­cal prac­ti­ces. A study by McKin­sey & Company high­lights the urgent need for digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion in the health­care sector. Accor­ding to the study, 70% of health­care profes­sio­nals in Europe consider outda­ted admi­nis­tra­tive proces­ses to be a major obsta­cle to effi­ci­ency and pati­ent satisfaction.
Nelly’s Prac­tice and Pati­ent Portal and Finan­cial Opera­ting System (FinOS) were deve­lo­ped speci­fi­cally for medi­cal prac­ti­ces to opti­mize proces­ses such as pati­ent admis­sion, docu­ment manage­ment and payment proces­sing. By seam­lessly inte­gra­ting with prac­tice manage­ment soft­ware, Nelly makes it possi­ble to stream­line opera­ti­ons and give medi­cal profes­sio­nals more time for pati­ent care. Pati­ents also bene­fit from a fully digi­tal expe­ri­ence where they can manage their entire jour­ney — from check-in to payment — secu­rely from their smart­phone. Focus on product and geogra­phic expansion

Since the Series A round, Nelly has more than doubled its custo­mer base: the plat­form now digi­ti­zes proces­ses for over 1,200 medi­cal prac­ti­ces and two million pati­ents. Nelly has thus set new stan­dards for payment and admi­nis­tra­tive proces­ses in the health­care sector. The company is now plan­ning to further deve­lop its product and expand its offe­ring to new Euro­pean markets in order to streng­then its posi­tion as a leading fintech in the health­care sector. As part of its Euro­pean expan­sion, Nelly has recently ente­red the Italian market — a region facing simi­lar struc­tu­ral chal­lenges in the admi­nis­tra­tion and digi­ta­liza­tion of health­care. “One of our key invest­ment theses at Cathay Inno­va­tion is to iden­tify solu­ti­ons that sustain­ably improve effi­ci­ency in the health­care sector. At the same time, we are commit­ted to support­ing inno­va­tive fintech compa­nies that bring trans­for­ma­tive value to their indus­tries. We are proud to support Nelly in trans­forming medi­cal prac­ti­ces through new finan­cial and opera­tio­nal proces­ses. We look forward to acce­le­ra­ting their growth across the conti­nent and beyond,” says Jacky Abit­bol, Mana­ging Part­ner at Cathay Inno­va­tion.

“Notion is exci­ted to work with Nelly to deve­lop the next gene­ra­tion of opera­tio­nal and finan­cial products for hospi­tals. At Notion, we have alre­ady successfully part­ne­red with leading verti­cal soft­ware provi­ders such as Mews Systems (hospi­ta­lity sector) and Glofox (fitness sector),” said Itxaso del Pala­cio, Gene­ral Part­ner at Notion. About Nelly Solutions

Nelly revo­lu­tio­ni­zes the expe­ri­ence for pati­ents and health­care profes­sio­nals by auto­ma­ting admi-nistra­tive proces­ses and payment flows in health­care. Foun­ded in 2021 by Niklas Radner, Lukas Eicher, Rasmus Schults and Laurids Seibel, the Berlin-based startup aims to mini­mize the admi­nis­tra­tive burden for doctors, medi­cal staff and pati­ents. As the first digi­tal facto­ring provi­der in the DACH region, Nelly offers a compre­hen­sive solu­tion that not only enables the digi­ta­liza­tion of pati­ent data, but also auto­ma­tes receiv­a­bles manage­ment for medi­cal prac­ti­ces. The plat­form offers a fully GDPR-compli­ant digi­tal process — from pati­ent admis­sion to payment with just one click. Seam­less inte­gra­tion with exis­ting prac­tice manage­ment soft­ware and user-friendly opera­tion allows pati­ents to manage ever­y­thing secu­rely and effi­ci­ently via their smart­phone. https://www.getnelly.de/ https://www.getnelly.de/ About Cathay Innovation

Cathay Inno­va­tion is an all-stage growth venture capi­tal firm affi­lia­ted with Cathay Capi­tal that invests in foun­ders buil­ding trans­for­ma­tive compa­nies in Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America and Africa. The plat­form connects foun­ders with inves­tors and an ecosys­tem of leading Fortune 500 compa­nies to help start-ups scale and trans­form indus­tries with consu­mer and enter­prise solu­ti­ons and AI appli­ca­ti­ons in retail, fintech, digi­tal health and mobility/energy. Foun­ded in Paris in 2015, Cathay Inno­va­tion today mana­ges over €2.5 billion in assets under manage­ment (AUM) and has addi­tio­nal offices in Berlin, San Fran­cisco, Shang­hai and Singapore. 

www.cathayinnovation.com

About Notion Capital

Notion Capi­tal is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal inves­tor in B2B SaaS and cloud compa­nies with over $1 billion in assets under manage­ment and more than 100 invest­ments comple­ted. Notion’s team has foun­ded, built and sold two highly successful SaaS compa­nies — Star and Messa­geLabs. Notion’s port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as GoCard­less, Mews, Paddle, Unba­bel and YuLife. https://www.notion.vc/

About Lake­star
Lake­star is one of the leading pan-Euro­pean venture capi­tal firms. Foun­ded in 2012 by Klaus Hommels, Lake­star mana­ges a total volume of over €2 billion in four early-stage funds and two growth funds. Lake­star is curr­ently inves­ted in compa­nies such as Aleph Alpha, Auter­ion, Block­chain, Builder.ai, Colos­syan, GetY­our­Guide, Home­ToGo, Isar­Ae­ro­space, Neko Health, Revo­lut, senn­der and Terra Quan­tum. www.lakestar.com

About arc investors
arc inves­tors is an alter­na­tive invest­ment fund with a focus on B2B tech­no­logy compa­nies. With an entre­pre­neu­rial approach, arc drives inno­va­tion and growth at the inter­sec­tion of indus­try and tech­no­logy. arc works side-by-side with forward-thin­king entre­pre­neurs in Europe, the US and Israel and has offices in Zurich, London and Luxem­bourg. www.arcinvestors.com About b2venture
Foun­ded in 2000, b2venture is one of the most expe­ri­en­ced venture capi­tal firms in Europe. The group makes early-stage invest­ments via dedi­ca­ted funds and non-stage invest­ments via its direct invest­ment track. With offices in Berlin, Munich, St. Gallen, Luxem­bourg and Zurich, b2venture has backed compa­nies such as 1KOMMA5°, Black­lane, DeepL, Face­book, Food­spring, ORCAM, Raisin, SumUp and XING. About Motive Ventures
Motive Ventures is the early stage invest­ment arm of Motive Part­ners and specia­li­zes in finan­cial tech­no­logy invest­ments in North America and Europe. Motive Ventures is backed by globally reco­gni­zed finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, venture inves­tors, tech­no­logy entre­pre­neurs and indus­try experts. Toge­ther, they are on a mission to drive inno­va­tion and reshape the future of finance. The team curr­ently consists of 15 employees in offices in New York, Berlin, London and Amsterdam. 

Advi­sor Get Nelly: V14 advi­ses Nelly on Series B finan­cing round

Samuel Aebi and Sven Demar­c­zyk of the law firm V14 have advi­sed the Berlin-based health and fintech company Nelly on a EUR 50 million Series B finan­cing round.

News

Berlin — YPOG provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Fly Ventures on the closing of its third fund with a volume of €80 million. Exis­ting insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors as well as nume­rous company foun­ders, who were previously supported by Fly Ventures, parti­ci­pa­ted signi­fi­cantly. Fly Ventures Fund III was set up to be the first check inves­tor to invest in seve­ral signi­fi­cant compa­nies. These include Unicorn Wayve, which recently raised $1.05 billion in a Series C round led by Soft­Bank to revo­lu­tio­nize auto­no­mous driving with self-lear­ning tech­no­logy. Other recent invest­ments include Lakera, a Zurich-based startup that recently raised $20 million in Series A funding and protects compa­nies from LLM vulnerabi­li­ties, and Orbi­tal Mate­ri­als, a UK-based company deve­lo­ping funda­men­tal models for mate­ri­als science, which announ­ced its $20 million Series A round in Febru­ary. The Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund (EIF) via the ERP-EIF faci­lity and KfW Capi­tal via the ERP-Venture
Capi­tal fund finan­cing are among the inves­tors in Fund III, as they were in the prede­ces­sor fund. YPOG has alre­ady provi­ded legal advice to Fly Ventures on the previous fund gene­ra­ti­ons, most recently in 2020 on Fly Ventures Funds II with a volume of €53 million. About Fly Ventures

Fly Ventures is a leading venture capi­tal inves­tor dedi­ca­ted to back­ing tech compa­nies that solve complex problems. Focu­sed on AI, indus­trial tech­no­lo­gies and deve­lo­ping tools/infrastructure, Fly Ventures works with visio­nary early-stage foun­ders to fuel the next wave of tech­no­lo­gi­cal inno­va­tion. Berlin-based Fly Ventures was foun­ded by Gabriel Matuschka and Fred­rik Bergen­lid and specia­li­zes in early-stage invest­ments in Euro­pean start-ups. Further GPs have joined in the person of Matt Wichrow­ski and Marie Brayer. The focus is on deep tech topics such as auto­ma­tion, machine lear­ning and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. https://fly.vc/ Advi­sor Fly Ventures: YPOG

Jens Kretz­schmann, LL.M. (Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Anto­nia von Treu­en­feld (Funds), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Robert Schramm (Funds), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Johan­nes Gehring, LL.M.

(Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Florian Bacher (Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Berlin, Munich About YPOG

YPOG is a specia­list law firm for tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax, banking
+ finance and tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include
up-and-coming tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized companies
as well as corpo­rate groups and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for
venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany.

News

Kissing/ Munich/ Nurem­berg — Concen­tro Manage­ment has advi­sed the private equity company Para­gon Part­ners and its port­fo­lio company “WEKA Group” on the carve-out and sale of WEKA Fach­me­dien GmbH to a subsi­diary of Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH. About WEKA Fachmedien

WEKA Fach­me­dien GmbH is a leading provi­der of trade publi­ca­ti­ons, digital
plat­forms and events in the fields of elec­tro­nics, auto­ma­tion, infor­ma­tion and commu­ni­ca­tion tech­no­logy. Toge­ther with Nürn­berg­Messe, WEKA Fach­me­dien has been orga­ni­zing the “embedded world Exhibition&Conference”, the world’s leading trade fair for embedded elec­tro­nic systems, for over 20 years. The acqui­si­tion of WEKA Fach­me­dien crea­tes one of the world’s leading provi­ders of events and media in the field of embedded tech­no­logy and conso­li­da­tes NürnbergMesse’s posi­tion as one of the 15 largest exhi­bi­tion compa­nies in the world. Concen­tro project team:
Sebas­tian Mink (Part­ner), Julian Ihle (Project Mana­ger), Phil­ipp Geit­ner (Consul­tant), Fabienne
Frech (Consul­tant) Concen­tro Manage­ment AG is a medium-sized consul­tancy firm with a
focus on trans­pa­rency (corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment), tran­sac­tions (corpo­rate finance/M&A consul­ting) and turn­arounds. With over 40 employees at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, Concen­tro works in an imple­men­ta­tion and success-orien­ted manner.

The aim is to gene­rate added value for the custo­mer through an indi­vi­dual consul­ting service.

About Para­gon

Para­gon is an owner-mana­ged, private group of compa­nies that has been invol­ved with medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since it was foun­ded in 2004. Para­gon works closely with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to ensure sustainable growth and improve opera­tio­nal proces­ses. The Para­gon port­fo­lio spans various sectors and curr­ently compri­ses 12 compa­nies. Para­gon is based in Munich and curr­ently mana­ges over €2.4 billion of equity. Further infor­ma­tion about the company can be found at www.paragon.de.

Advi­sor Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH: Bird & Bird

Part­ner Dr. Marc Seeger (Düsseldorf/Frankfurt) and Coun­sel Michael Gaßner (Munich), both lead, Part­ner Stefan Münch (Munich), Asso­cia­tes Kilian Hummel (Frank­furt), Moritz Wargalla, LL.M. (Düssel­dorf), Lara-Lucia Klocke (Düssel­dorf), Felix Spind­ler, LL.M. (Düssel­dorf), all Corporate/M&A, Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann (Tax Law, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Michael Jüne­mann, Asso­ciate Jona­than Stoldt (both Finan­cing & Finan­cial Regu­la­tion, Frank­furt), Coun­sel Jürgen Schlink­mann (Munich), Asso­ciate Dr. Julian Lauer (Hamburg), both Real Estate Law, Part­ner Dr. Henri­ette Picot, Coun­sel Michaela von Voß, (both Commercial/Tech & Comms, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Jörg Witting (Düssel­dorf), Asso­ciate Dr. Florian Hinde­rer (Munich), both Anti­trust Law, Part­ner Thomas Hey, Asso­ciate Linus Boberg, LL.M. (both Employ­ment Law, Düssel­dorf), Part­ner Dr. Joseph Fesen­mair, Coun­sel Niklas Fels, LL.M. (both Trade­mark Law, Munich).

News

Berlin / Mann­heim / Munich — At the begin­ning of the year, WIPIT enters the legal advice market with offices in Berlin, Mann­heim and Munich. WIPIT is a merger of highly quali­fied lawy­ers from the law firm WEITNAUER with a spin-off from Büsing Müffel­mann & Theye specia­li­zing in tech­no­logy law. With a total of over twenty profes­sio­nals, the boutique law firm posi­ti­ons itself as a provi­der of sophisti­ca­ted legal advice in the future-orien­ted fields of venture capi­tal and tech law. 

“Our clients not only expect exper­tise in finan­cing issues and corpo­rate law struc­tures, but also need advi­sors who under­stand digi­tal busi­ness models and can legally secure them. This is precis­ely where our strength lies; we offer inno­va­tive and prag­ma­tic solu­ti­ons at the highest level,” says Bene­dikt Mahr, Mana­ging Part­ner of WIPIT (photo © Weit­nauer). The firm’s foun­der, Dr. Wolf­gang Weit­nauer, handed over the reins to Bene­dikt Mahr in 2023.

About WIPIT

WIPIT combi­nes tradi­tio­nal corpo­rate law prac­tice with legal advice in the field of digi­tal change and tech­ni­cal topics of the future. This combi­na­tion crea­tes signi­fi­cant added value for clients in the market: WIPIT advi­ses on complex venture capi­tal tran­sac­tions, data and AI-driven busi­ness models, tech­no­logy trans­fers and inno­va­tion part­ner­ships as well as on the protec­tion of intellec­tual property and compli­ance issues. The legal manage­ment of legal chal­lenges faced by tech­no­logy-driven compa­nies is beco­ming incre­asingly complex against the back­drop of a rapidly chan­ging tech­no­lo­gi­cal envi­ron­ment: with the combi­na­tion of inter­di­sci­pli­nary exper­tise and targe­ted advice, WIPIT will offer tailor-made solu­ti­ons for start-ups, inves­tors and estab­lished tech­no­logy compa­nies in the future.
www.wipit.legal

News

Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Reed Smith has advi­sed the family trust inves­tor FTI GmbH (FTI) and its port­fo­lio company Novia Group on the acqui­si­tion of tcam GmbH. The full inte­gra­tion of tcam GmbH into the Novia Group as the future novia Engi­nee­ring GmbH took place on Janu­ary 1, 2025. The Novia Group is thus expan­ding its port­fo­lio and streng­thening its posi­tion as a leading provi­der in the field of global sourcing. With this acqui­si­tion, the Novia Group is secu­ring compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the opti­miza­tion of manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses and the deve­lo­p­ment of effi­ci­ent produc­tion methods. In addi­tion, this acqui­si­tion will give it access to a strong network of Euro­pean supply chains and manu­fac­tu­ring part­ners as an important step towards diver­si­fy­ing and mini­mi­zing risks in global supply chains. With loca­ti­ons in Germany, Switz­er­land and Asia, the Novia Group is a relia­ble part­ner for custo­mers from sectors such as medi­cal tech­no­logy, indus­try, mobi­lity, solar, sani­tary and light­ing. The acqui­si­tion of tcam GmbH is a further mile­stone in the imple­men­ta­tion of the Novia Group’s buy & build stra­tegy and under­lines its commit­ment to achie­ving sustainable growth through targe­ted acquisitions.

Advi­sor to Family Trust Inves­tor FTI GmbH (FTI): Reed Smith

Led by Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs (photo) and Matthias Weingut
The advi­sory team also included Nina Siewert (tax law, Frank­furt), Elisa Saier (employ­ment law, Munich), Tim Sauer­ham­mer (enter­tain­ment & media, Munich), Dr. Germar Enders (corpo­rate, Munich), Robert Werz­lau (corpo­rate, Munich) and Christan Schnur­rer (employ­ment law, Munich). About Family Trust Inves­tor FTI GmbH

Family Trust is an invest­ment company mana­ged by entre­pre­neurs. In addi­tion to signi­fi­cant own funds of the foun­ders, Family Trust invests the assets of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, family offices, wealthy entre­pre­neu­rial fami­lies and private indi­vi­du­als in successful medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms with more than 1,400 lawy­ers in 31 offices in Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Asia.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.reedsmith.com.

News

Düsseldorf/ Munich — ARQIS has advi­sed the Swiss inves­tor group CONSTELLATION Capi­tal on the acqui­si­tion of the Export Pack­a­ging Sehnde Group (EVS Group), inclu­ding the Polish Export Pack Polska Sp. Z o.o.. EVS Group is now part of the ARCA Group, which belongs to CONSTELLATION Capi­tal. The acqui­si­tion repres­ents an important step in the growth stra­tegy of the ARCA Group. At the same time, the merger enables the group to expand regio­nally into nort­hern Germany and Poland. The EVS Group will be inte­gra­ted into the ARCA Group, but will retain its inde­pen­dent brand and market presence. The mana­ging direc­tors of the EVS Group will remain with the company and the previous share­hol­ders have taken a substan­tial stake in the ARCA Group. The ARCA Group, a group of CONSTELLATION Capi­tal AG, is a rapidly expan­ding provi­der of wooden pack­a­ging and pack­a­ging services in German-spea­king count­ries. This and future acqui­si­ti­ons are inten­ded to create a close-knit network of wood pack­a­ging and pack­a­ging services compa­nies that will bene­fit from syner­gies in purcha­sing, the profes­sio­na­liza­tion of proces­ses and digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion. The EVS Group compri­ses Export­ver­pa­ckung Sehnde GmbH and Export Pack Polska Sp. Z o.o. Export­ver­pa­ckung Sehnde, with sites in Sehnde and Hano­ver in Lower Saxony, offers pack­a­ging services with around 120 employees. Export Pack Polska Sp. Z o.o., based in Zabrze, Poland, specia­li­zes in the produc­tion of pack­a­ging mate­ri­als and the provi­sion of pack­a­ging and other logi­stics services. CONSTELLATION Capi­tal is a Swiss invest­ment group formed in 1992 and based in Frei­en­bach on Lake Zurich. It pursues a buy & build stra­tegy that focu­ses on majo­rity invest­ments in medium-sized compa­nies in the busi­ness service, educa­tion & life­style and health­care sectors in Switz­er­land, Germany and Austria. The ARQIS team led by Dr. Laeger has alre­ady assis­ted CONSTELLATION Capi­tal with the acqui­si­tion of the ARCA plat­form and has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice on all acqui­si­ti­ons alre­ady made for the plat­form, inclu­ding acqui­si­tion finan­cing. ARQIS was supported in Poland by a team from Wolf Theiss. 

Advi­sor Constel­la­tion Capi­tal: ARQIS (Düsseldorf/Munich)

Part­ners: Dr. Lars Laeger (M&A, Lead), Johan­nes Landry (Finan­cing), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (real estate law), Tobias Neufeld (data protec­tion), Lisa-Marie Niklas (employ­ment law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP), Coun­sel: Sina Janke (compli­ance), Jens Knip­ping (tax), Nora Strat­mann (commer­cial), Anja Mehr­tens, Martin Wein­gärt­ner (both employ­ment law), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Katrin Ludwig (M&A), Rolf Tichy (IP), Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Lina Alami, Sabine Müller (both Employ­ment Law), Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial), Dr. Bern­hard Gröhe (Regu­la­tory), Marius Mesen­brink (Data Protec­tion), Legal Specia­list: Tim Kott­mann (Labor Law) Wolf Theiss (Poland): Peter Dasz­kow­ski, Bartosz Kuras (both lead), Karo­lina Stawowska, Michal Zaja­cz­kow­ski, Agnieszka Nowak-Blaszc­zak, Adrian Krzy­za­now­ski, Jakub Pietrasik, Izabela Wiewiorka, Izabela Derylo, Kinga Kluszc­zynska, Oliwia Pecht About ARQIS

ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firm opera­ting internationally.

Around 80 lawy­ers and legal specia­lists advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on German, Euro­pean and Japa­nese commer­cial law. With its focus groups Tran­sac­tions, HR Law, Japan, Data Law, Risk and Regu­la­tory, the firm is geared towards provi­ding its clients with compre­hen­sive advice. The law firm was foun­ded in 2006 and has offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo as well as a talent hub in Berlin. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at http://www.arqis.com.

News

Wies­ba­den — BMH Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH has inves­ted in Eduneon with the Hessen Kapi­tal I fund toge­ther with the RAG-Stif­tung and lead inves­tor Futury Capi­tal. The Berlin-based start-up offers an all-in-one soft­ware solu­tion for all public admi­nis­tra­tion proces­ses as well as for the plan­ning and procu­re­ment of digi­tal equip­ment and school faci­li­ties. Eduneon intends to use the fresh capi­tal to further deve­lop its digi­tal solu­ti­ons, streng­then its team and expand into new markets. Eduneon GmbH was foun­ded in 2022 and has since estab­lished itself as a service provi­der for modern plan­ning and procu­re­ment in muni­ci­pal and district admi­nis­tra­ti­ons. With its inno­va­tive soft­ware solu­tion, the start-up has so far helped schools and school autho­ri­ties in parti­cu­lar with sustainable plan­ning, mapping the key plan­ning and procu­re­ment proces­ses of public admi­nis­tra­tion. In a market where admi­nis­tra­tive work is often still domi­na­ted by Excel and isola­ted solu­ti­ons for sub-proces­ses, Eduneon inte­gra­tes and auto­ma­tes process manage­ment and thus supports the digi­ta­liza­tion of public school admi­nis­tra­tion. The soft­ware also helps to avoid the risk of bad invest­ments and deploy resour­ces in a targe­ted manner. Nume­rous school autho­ri­ties have alre­ady relied on Eduneon since its market launch in 2023, inclu­ding cities such as Offen­bach am Main, the Hansea­tic city of Lübeck, Wolfs­burg and Solin­gen as well as the Darm­stadt-Dieburg district and the districts of Pader­born and Osthol­stein. Growth and expan­sion in the DACH region

Eduneon intends to use the new funding to grow further and expand its plat­form with AI appli­ca­ti­ons, among other things. The team is to be further streng­the­ned in the areas of deve­lo­p­ment, sales and custo­mer success and the market posi­tion in Germany is to be expan­ded. At the same time, Eduneon intends to drive forward its expan­sion into neigh­bor­ing markets and the DACH region. Clemens Grol­man, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Eduneon, explains: “We have deve­lo­ped a solu­tion that enables admi­nis­tra­ti­ons to main­tain an over­view in times of tight budgets and staff shorta­ges and to ensure the best possi­ble equip­ment for public insti­tu­ti­ons within the available resour­ces. We have laid the foun­da­tion with educa­tion admi­nis­tra­tion. Howe­ver, our fully inte­gra­ted plat­form for plan­ning and procu­re­ment can be used in a variety of ways: it covers all muni­ci­pal depart­ments, from muni­ci­pal admi­nis­tra­ti­ons to the police and daycare centers. We are also working on inte­gra­ted solu­ti­ons for state admi­nis­tra­ti­ons, data centers and solu­tion provi­ders.” Benja­min Krah­mer, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Futury Capi­tal, says: “Eduneon has impres­si­vely demons­tra­ted how great the need and demand is among public admi­nis­tra­ti­ons. The company has the poten­tial to perma­nently change the plan­ning and procu­re­ment proces­ses in the public sector. Eduneon’s inno­va­tive strength can signi­fi­cantly drive digi­tal change in public admi­nis­tra­tion.” David Schäff­ler from BMH adds: “We are convin­ced of Eduneon’s busi­ness model and the resul­ting growth oppor­tu­ni­ties, not least because the company was able to win over 30 local autho­ri­ties in five fede­ral states with its inno­va­tive soft­ware solu­tion after just a short time. 

We look forward to support­ing Eduneon on its contin­ued path to success.” About Futury Capital

Futury Capi­tal, based in Frank­furt, is a leading venture capi­tal firm specia­li­zing in early-stage and growth invest­ments in tech­no­logy-driven companies.
More infor­ma­tion can be found here: https://www.futurycapital.vc/ About the RAG-Stiftung

The private-law RAG-Stif­tung was estab­lished in 2007. Since the begin­ning of 2019, it has been respon­si­ble for finan­cing the so-called perpe­tual obli­ga­ti­ons of the German coal mining indus­try in the Ruhr, Saar and Ibben­bü­ren regi­ons. With nume­rous projects in the fields of educa­tion, science and culture, the foun­da­tion also sends out posi­tive signals in the former mining regions.
Further infor­ma­tion on the RAG-Stif­tung can be found at www.rag-stiftung.de 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 focus areas include the software/analytics, fintech/insuretech, life science, deep tech, IoT/industrial tech, hardware/industrial goods and clean­tech sectors. www.bmh-hessen.de

News

Munich — SKW Schwarz has advi­sed Airbus Defence and Space GmbH on the sale of UP42 GmbH (UP42), a next-gene­ra­tion Earth obser­va­tion plat­form, to Natio­nal Space Company (NSC), Saudi Arabia’s leading commer­cial space services provi­der. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory appr­ovals. Airbus foun­ded UP42 in Berlin in 2019. The company has more than 80 employees and is conside­red a pioneer in faci­li­ta­ting access to satel­lite and aerial image data sources and the use of geodata via the cloud. UP42 acts as a market­place and provi­des added-value services in the field of data analy­tics. Foun­ded in 2024, NSC is a subsi­diary of the Saudi Arabian Public Invest­ment Fund (PIF). For SKW Schwarz, the tran­sac­tion under­lines the firm’s important focus on tech M&A tran­sac­tions. Advi­sors to Airbus Defence and Space: SKW Schwarz, Munich Dr. Martin Bött­ger (lead), Stephan Neubauer (Hamburg); Asso­ciate: Chris­tine Wärl (all corporate/M&A).

SKW Schwarz is an inde­pen­dent full-service law firm. With around 130 lawy­ers at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, the firm advi­ses clients in all rele­vant areas of commer­cial law. At the end of 2018, the firm foun­ded SKW Schwarz @ Tech GmbH, in which the lawy­ers bundle all acti­vi­ties in the area of legal tech across loca­ti­ons and disciplines.

News

Stock­holm — Epona, a leading Dutch provi­der of legal docu­ment manage­ment solu­ti­ons, has merged with Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons, the market-leading Danish legal case manage­ment system Unik Advo­sys. This merger brings toge­ther two compa­nies of compa­ra­ble size to form a comple­men­tary Legal­Tech provi­der with a global presence in diffe­rent markets and indus­tries. The new company opera­tes under the name Epona and compri­ses a compre­hen­sive and modern product port­fo­lio. Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”), the majo­rity share­hol­der of both Epona and Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons, will retain a majo­rity stake in the company after the tran­sac­tion. Epona is a Dutch soft­ware company specia­li­zing in legal tech­no­logy and has been a stra­te­gic part­ner of Main since Decem­ber 2023. Epona’s product port­fo­lio includes Docu­ment Manage­ment Systems (DMS) and Custo­mer Rela­ti­onship Manage­ment (CRM) soft­ware desi­gned to opti­mize work­flows in law firms and corpo­rate legal depart­ments and ensure regu­la­tory compli­ance. The flag­ship Epona365 inte­gra­tes seam­lessly with Micro­soft Office 365, Share­Point and Teams and includes features such as docu­ment and email manage­ment, team colla­bo­ra­tion, matter manage­ment, contract manage­ment, work­flow auto­ma­tion and CRM capa­bi­li­ties. Today, Epona serves a global custo­mer base of over 400 law firms and corpo­rate legal depart­ments. Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons is a newly foun­ded company that emer­ged from Unik System Design — a leading provi­der of PropTech and Legal­Tech solu­ti­ons in Denmark — with which Main ente­red into a part­ner­ship in Septem­ber 2023. Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons builds on Unik’s strong foun­da­tion and will conti­nue to offer the renow­ned Unik Advo­sys system, which is used daily by more than 400 law firms and legal depart­ments across Denmark. In addi­tion, the deve­lo­p­ment of the SaaS-based Justi­Case system will expand the company’s service offe­ring and ensure that the new group remains at the fore­front of inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for legal profes­sio­nals. Crea­tion of a comple­men­tary Euro­pean Legal­Tech provider

The merger of Epona and Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons will create a comple­men­tary Legal­Tech provi­der in the docu­ment and law firm manage­ment space that can offer its custo­mers a wider range of solu­ti­ons that increase effi­ci­ency, compli­ance and produc­ti­vity for legal profes­sio­nals world­wide. Both compa­nies have estab­lished strong posi­ti­ons in their respec­tive fields and the merger crea­tes a strong combi­ned product offe­ring that is well posi­tio­ned for future inter­na­tio­nal growth. Toge­ther, the group will serve more than 800 clients in Europe, Asia and the Americas. 

Marcel Lang, Co-CEO of Epona: “The merger with Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons opens an exci­ting chap­ter in terms of growth and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Toge­ther, we will leverage our comple­men­tary strengths to deve­lop ground­brea­king solu­ti­ons that rede­fine value crea­tion for our exis­ting clients and repre­sent a bold step towards a global presence in Legal­Tech inno­va­tion.” Gitte Bisgaard, CEO at Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons and new Co-CEO of Epona, former Market Direc­tor of Unik Advo­sys: “This part­ner­ship is an important moment for Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons and Epona as we join forces with a shared vision to trans­form the legal tech­no­logy land­scape. By pooling our resour­ces and exper­tise, we are able to inno­vate and enhance our exis­ting solu­tion offe­ring and the Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons leader­ship team looks forward to contri­bu­ting to this promi­sing project.” Wessel Ploeg­ma­kers, Part­ner & Head of Nordics at Main Capi­tal Part­ners, summa­ri­zes: “The inte­gra­tion of Epona and Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons is a further step in rede­fi­ning inno­va­tive docu­ment manage­ment and law firm manage­ment solu­ti­ons in the global market. We believe that part­ne­ring with forward-thin­king entre­pre­neurs is criti­cal to enab­ling trans­for­ma­tive growth and deli­ve­ring lasting value to clients. By brin­ging toge­ther the exper­tise and comple­men­tary strengths of Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons and Epona, we are crea­ting a strong foun­da­tion to drive inno­va­tion and scale both compa­nies inter­na­tio­nally in the ever-evol­ving Legal­Tech landscape.”

About Epona

Foun­ded in 1993 in the Nether­lands, Epona is a leading provi­der of legal tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons specia­li­zing in docu­ment manage­ment and auto­ma­tion. The company’s flag­ship plat­form, Epona365, inte­gra­tes seam­lessly with Micro­soft Office365 and Share­Point to meet the speci­fic needs of legal profes­sio­nals and in-house legal depart­ments. Head­quar­te­red in Rotter­dam, with addi­tio­nal offices in the US and Portu­gal, Epona serves a global client base of appro­xi­m­ately 300 law firms and 120 corpo­rate legal depart­ments in major geogra­phic regi­ons. https://epona.eu

About Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons

Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons was foun­ded in the fall of 2024 through the spin-off of the Legal­Tech busi­ness of Unik System Design, which is head­quar­te­red in Vejle (Denmark) and has addi­tio­nal offices in Copen­ha­gen and Aalborg. Just­iSo­lu­ti­ons thus took over Unik’s almost 30 years of Legal­Tech exper­tise and became the leading soft­ware provi­der in the field of docu­ment and law firm manage­ment in Denmark. The company offers the Unik Advo­sys system, a compre­hen­sive solu­tion for lawy­ers and legal profes­sio­nals focu­sing on case, time and docu­ment manage­ment, and is curr­ently deve­lo­ping a new, inno­va­tive SaaS solu­tion called Justi­Case. The company curr­ently serves over 400 law firms and corpo­rate legal depart­ments in the Danish market and has over 5,500 daily active users. https://www.unik.dk About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor mana­ging private equity funds active in Northwest Europe and North America. Main has over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in soft­ware inves­t­ing and works closely with the manage­ment teams in its port­fo­lio as a stra­te­gic part­ner to build profi­ta­ble growth and larger, outstan­ding soft­ware groups. Main employs 85 people and has offices in The Hague, Stock­holm, Düssel­dorf, Antwerp and an affi­lia­ted office in Boston. Main has appro­xi­m­ately €6 billion in assets under manage­ment and curr­ently has an active port­fo­lio of over 50 soft­ware compa­nies. Toge­ther, these compa­nies employ around 15,000 people. 

Through the Main Social Insti­tute, Main supports students with grants and scho­lar­ships to study compu­ter science at tech­ni­cal univer­si­ties and univer­si­ties of applied sciences.

News

Munich — The London-based consul­ting firm Inter­path, a port­fo­lio company of HIG Capi­tal, has acqui­red Kerkhoff Consul­ting GmbH (“Kerkhoff”), a manage­ment consul­tancy of the Kerkhoff Group specia­li­zing in purcha­sing and supply chain manage­ment. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details.

As a result of the acqui­si­tion, Inter­path will bene­fit from Kerkhoff Consulting’s in-depth exper­tise in purcha­sing and supply chain manage­ment, while the inte­gra­tion will give Kerkhoff access to new inter­na­tio­nal markets and an expan­ded network. Of the previous three mana­ging direc­tors of the Kerkhoff Group, Gerd Kerkhoff and Thors­ten Schmidt will relin­quish their manage­ment posi­ti­ons and remain with the consul­tancy as so-called “Special Advi­sors”. Mana­ging Direc­tor Ralph Kudla will conti­nue to manage the company’s busi­ness toge­ther with the other respon­si­ble part­ners. POELLATH provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the share­hol­ders of the Kerkhoff Group in connec­tion with the sale. Kerkhoff Consul­ting GmbH, based in Düssel­dorf, is a manage­ment consul­tancy in the field of purcha­sing and supply chain manage­ment and supports medium-sized clients in parti­cu­lar in achie­ving sustainable impro­ve­ments in results through indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons along the value chain. The company has recei­ved seve­ral awards, inclu­ding “Best Consul­tant” in the field of supply chain manage­ment. The London-based finan­cial consul­tancy Inter­path is a port­fo­lio company of the finan­cial inves­tor HIG Capi­tal and was foun­ded in 2021. Inter­path has an inter­na­tio­nal focus and offers a wide range of services in the areas of tran­sac­tions, consul­ting and restructuring. 

Advi­sor Kerkhoff: POELLATH

Dr. Frank Thiä­ner, photo (Part­ner, Lead, M&A/Private Equity)
Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax)
Dr. Domi­nik Gerli­cher, LL.M. (Coun­sel, M&A/Private Equity)
Till Schwich­ten­berg (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity)
Lukas Fell­höl­ter (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity)
Jannis Lührs (Asso­ciate, Tax)
Arthur Linde­mann, LL.M., Maître en droit (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity)

News

Munich — IK Part­ners (“ IK ” or “the Company ”), a leading Euro­pean private equity firm, is plea­sed to announce that it has opened a new office in Munich as part of its ongo­ing invest­ment commitment.

The Munich office will be led by Joachim Dett­mar (photo © IK Part­ners), Part­ner in IK’s Opera­ti­ons team, and Adrian Tanski, who has been promo­ted to Part­ner and sits on the Part­ner­ship Fund team. Adrian was previously based in IK’s Hamburg office and joined the firm in 2018 as an Asso­ciate Direc­tor in the DACH Mid Cap team, where he was invol­ved in a number of tran­sac­tions inclu­ding the exit of KLINGEL Medi­cal Metal in 2023 and the acqui­si­ti­ons of MÜPRO in 2022 and CONET in 2021. 

The IK Part­ner­ship Fund stra­tegy was laun­ched in 2019 and targets larger, more estab­lished compa­nies at the upper end of the mid-market. IK invests along­side exis­ting owners or new part­ners via mino­rity positions. 

In addi­tion, IK is plea­sed to announce two further part­ner appoint­ments in the firm’s Hamburg and London offices: Ingmar Bär — Deve­lo­p­ment Capi­tal Invest­ment Team, Hamburg and Alex­an­dra Kazi — Finance and Admi­nis­tra­tion Team, London. Chris­to­pher Masek, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer at IK, commen­ted: “After another very successful year for IK, we are deligh­ted to cele­brate the contri­bu­ti­ons of Adrian and Alex­an­dra, whose dedi­ca­tion and efforts have been reco­gni­zed by their promo­ti­ons to the Part­ner group. In addi­tion, with the opening of a new office in Munich, we are streng­thening our estab­lished base in the DACH region and helping to cement our posi­tion as one of the leading part­ners to Euro­pean small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses. ” Adrian Tanski, Part­ner at IK: “I am deligh­ted to join Joachim in leading IK’s new Munich office to streng­then our presence in the dyna­mic and attrac­tive DACH market. Munich’s thri­ving economy, strong indus­trial base and access to high cali­ber talent make it an ideal place to expand our reach and create exci­ting invest­ment opportunities. ”

About IK Partners

IK Part­ners (“ IK ”) is a Euro­pean private equity firm focu­sed on invest­ments in the Bene­lux, DACH, France, the Nordics and the UK. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €17 billion of capi­tal and inves­ted in more than 195 Euro­pean compa­nies. IK backs compa­nies with strong under­ly­ing poten­tial and works with manage­ment teams and inves­tors to create robust, well-posi­tio­ned busi­nesses with excel­lent long-term pros­pects. www.ikpartners.com

News

Detmold/Paderborn — The Austrian furni­ture store chain XXXLutz is taking over the Porta Group, a second-gene­ra­tion family-run furnis­hing company from Porta West­fa­lica with around 140 loca­ti­ons in Germany, the Czech Repu­blic and Slova­kia. The foun­ding fami­lies of the Porta Group, Gärt­ner and Fahren­kamp, are leaving the company as part of the take­over. The sale is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The Porta Group is one of the largest family-run furnis­hing compa­nies in Germany. With over 370 furni­ture stores in 14 count­ries, XXXLutz is one of the largest furni­ture retail­ers in the world. The Porta Group recei­ved compre­hen­sive legal advice on the inter­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tion from a cross-loca­tion M&A team of the law firm BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte led by Detmold part­ners Dr. Helmut Dröge and Dr. Bern­hard König. The law firm UEPA Advo­káti s.r.o. in Prague and Bratis­lava advi­sed on legal issues in the Czech Repu­blic and the Slovak Repu­blic. The XXXLutz Group was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by the law firm Henge­ler Muel­ler in Düsseldorf. 

Advi­sor Porta group of compa­nies: BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte Detmold/Paderborn

Dr. Helmut Dröge (project manage­ment and conduct of nego­tia­ti­ons), Detmold
Dr. Bern­hard König, Part­ner (Co-Project Mana­ger, Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Detmold
Chris­tian Koerdt, Asso­ciate (Real Estate Law, Insu­rance Law), Detmold
Dr. Chris­tian Behrendt, Part­ner (Banking Law), Detmold
Dr. Rüdi­ger Osten, Part­ner (distri­bu­tion law), Detmold
Frank Schem­be­cker, Part­ner (trade­mark and compe­ti­tion law), Detmold
Dr. Sören Kramer, Part­ner (Employ­ment Law), Detmold
Björn Mai, Part­ner (Employ­ment Law), Detmold
Chris­tian Rödding, Asso­ciate (Real Estate Law), Detmold
Feli­cia Deppe-Hietel, Asso­ciate (Public Law), Paderborn
Nina Drüke, Part­ner (Public Law), Paderborn
Dr. Nils Grone­meyer, Part­ner (Public Law), Paderborn

UEPA advo­káti, Prague/Bratislava
Lars Klett, Part­ner (Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Prague
Eliška Valterová, Coun­sel (Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Prague
Lucie Hladě­nová, LL.M., Part­ner (Corpo­rate Law/M&A/Real Estate Law), Prague
JUDr. Marek Hudec, Part­ner (Corporate/M&A/Real Estate), Bratis­lava Advi­sor XXXLutz Group: Henge­ler Muel­ler, Düsseldorf/ Frankfurt

Dr. Georg Seyf­arth, Dr. Thomas Lang (lead)

About BRANDI Attor­neys at Law

BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte is one of the leading medium-sized commer­cial law firms in West­pha­lia and Hano­ver with offices in Biele­feld, Detmold, Güters­loh, Hano­ver, Pader­born and Minden as well as coope­ra­tion offices in Paris and Beijing. Over 100 lawy­ers, 26 of whom are also nota­ries, advise compa­nies in all areas of natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal commer­cial law and public law. BRANDI is a member of the inter­na­tio­nal network PANGEA NET. www.brandi.net.

News

Fran­furt a. M. — Perm­ira, the global invest­ment firm, and inves­tor GENUI have announ­ced that funds advi­sed by Perm­ira are acqui­ring a majo­rity stake in West­bridge Advi­sory. The Frank­furt-based firm is a leading Euro­pean energy and sustaina­bi­lity advi­sor to insti­tu­tio­nal real estate clients: West­bridge advi­ses its clients on energy procu­re­ment, impro­ving their carbon foot­print and thus meeting long-term sustaina­bi­lity targets. Outside Germany, the company has offices in London, Zurich and Warsaw. While the foun­ders of the company will signi­fi­cantly re-invest toge­ther with Perm­ira as part of the tran­sac­tion, GENUI will sell its shares. Comple­tion of the acqui­si­tion is subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted by the end of the first quar­ter of 2025. Foun­ded in 2015, West­bridge has estab­lished itself as the go-to energy and sustaina­bi­lity manage­ment advi­sor for more than 600 clients in the real estate sector. The company’s reve­nue and profi­ta­bi­lity are growing at double-digit rates. The busi­ness is bene­fiting from an incre­asing demand for green energy and CSR/ESG compli­ance consul­ting in the real estate sector. Westbridge’s services range from energy procu­re­ment consul­ting to ESG data manage­ment and green buil­ding certi­fi­ca­ti­ons. Perm­ira will support the company in its orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth plans. This applies in parti­cu­lar to the inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion in the energy and sustaina­bi­lity consul­ting market. “We are very much looking forward to writing the next chap­ter of our success story toge­ther with Perm­ira. Toge­ther we will conti­nue to inter­na­tio­na­lize our busi­ness and invest in our future growth,” said Yama Mahasher, CEO of West­bridge. “A big thank you to the team at GENUI who have successfully supported us on our growth path
since 2021. We are passio­nate about helping our clients solve their energy and sustaina­bi­lity issues. With Perm­ira as our new part­ner, we will conti­nue to drive the green trans­for­ma­tion of the real estate sector.” Florian Kreu­zer, Head of Permira’s busi­ness in the DACH region, commen­ted: “We are deligh­ted to be inves­t­ing in West­bridge along­side the foun­ders. This invest­ment once again under­lines our focus in the DACH region to support visio­nary entre­pre­neurs in their growth and expan­sion plans. Thanks to Westbridge’s important role in impro­ving the carbon foot­print of the real estate sector, this tran­sac­tion also fits well with Permira’s new climate invest­ment focus. I am perso­nally very exci­ted to join Yama and his team in crea­ting a Euro­pean cham­pion for energy and sustaina­bi­lity consul­ting in the real estate sector.” The sustaina­bi­lity trend in the real estate sector holds enorm­ous growth poten­tial. As a pioneer in this consul­ting field, West­bridge supports its clients in achie­ving complex sustaina­bi­lity goals. 

We will support Yama and the entire West­bridge team with further exper­tise in tech­no­logy and services as well as our inter­na­tio­nal network to jointly develop
new markets,” added David Brück­mann, Mana­ging Direc­tor in Permira’s Services sector. “West­bridge is an excel­lent fit with our invest­ment stra­tegy in the Services sector, which focu­ses on compa­nies with recur­ring reve­nue, strong custo­mer reten­tion and resi­li­ent growth.”
“It has been a plea­sure for our team and GENUI entre­pre­neur Andreas Jacobs, as Chair­man of the Advi­sory Board, to support West­bridge in not only growing its busi­ness and foot­print, but also further incre­asing the company’s important envi­ron­men­tal impact,” said Max Odefey of GENUI. “We are proud that West­bridge has become the market leader during GENUI’s owner­ship. Sales have increased seven-fold and a number of stra­te­gic, value-enhan­cing acqui­si­ti­ons and orga­nic expan­si­ons have been reali­zed. We wish the outstan­ding West­bridge team and the new majo­rity owner Perm­ira all the best for the contin­ued successful growth story.”

News

The Hague (NL) — Bizz­de­sign, a port­fo­lio company of Main Capi­tal Part­ners since 2022, acqui­res Alfa­bet from Soft­ware GmbH, another reco­gni­zed market leader in Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture (EA) and Stra­te­gic Port­fo­lio Manage­ment (SPM). This announce­ment follows the successful acqui­si­tion of MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal in Septem­ber 2024. The combi­ned group, opera­ting under the brand name “Bizz­de­sign”, will gene­rate reve­nues of around EUR 110 million, serve around 2,000 custo­mers and employ more than 600 people, buil­ding a truly global presence. 

This acqui­si­tion is the third add-on acqui­si­tion as part of Bizzdesign’s buy-and-build stra­tegy to expand its presence in the EA and SPM market. By combi­ning exper­tise and resour­ces, the new company is stra­te­gi­cally positioned
to drive further inno­va­tion in busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion and deli­ver grea­ter value to its customers
and part­ners. The combi­ned group will retain its three existing
and comple­men­tary products (Horiz­zon, HOPEX, Alfa­bet), crea­ting the
industry’s most compre­hen­sive end-to-end trans­for­ma­tion offe­ring, encom­pas­sing Enter­prise Architecture
Manage­ment (EAM), Stra­te­gic Port­fo­lio Manage­ment (SPM), Busi­ness Process Manage­ment (BPM) and
Gover­nance Risk & Compli­ance (GRC). In addi­tion, Bizz­de­sign is deve­lo­ping a new cloud-native, AI-based plat­form for busi­ness transformation.

Expan­sion of the Bizz­de­sign port­fo­lio through SPM

With the acqui­si­tion of Alfa­bet, Bizz­de­sign is expan­ding its offe­ring to the SPM market. As opera­ting models are chan­ging due to digi­ta­liza­tion, the depen­den­cies between busi­ness func­tions and IT are incre­asing. Alfa­bet, a reco­gni­zed leader in the SPM market, helps compa­nies, IT stra­te­gists and plan­ners to map and analyze these connec­tions. Bert van der Zwan, CEO of Bizz­de­sign (photo © Bert van der Zwan), commen­ted: “By combi­ning the skills and talents of three compa­nies, we will be able to scale our inno­va­tions across our joint road­maps and create more value for all our custo­mers much faster.” 

Sven van Berge Henegou­wen, Mana­ging Part­ner at Main and Chair­man of the Super­vi­sory Board of Bizz­de­sign: “This tran­sac­tion is another important mile­stone in Bizzdesign’s growth stra­tegy and the combi­na­tion under­pins our stra­tegy to build larger inter­na­tio­nal soft­ware groups in one of our core product markets. Since the begin­ning of our stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with Bizz­de­sign, we have been focu­sed on crea­ting a market-leading plat­form in enter­prise archi­tec­ture. The acqui­si­tion of Alfa­bet, follo­wing the successful acqui­si­tion of MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal, further streng­thens Bizzdesign’s market posi­tion. By combi­ning the strengths of Bizz­de­sign, MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal and Alfa­bet, we are brin­ging toge­ther three compa­nies that excel in inno­va­tion and exper­tise in EA, SPM and BPM, crea­ting a solid foun­da­tion for further global expansion.”

About Bizz­de­sign

Foun­ded in 2000, Bizz­de­sign is a leading global SaaS plat­form for Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture, reco­gni­zed as a market leader by major analyst firms such as Gart­ner and Forres­ter. Bizz­de­sign supports the world’s leading public and private orga­niza­ti­ons to ensure successful prio­ri­tiza­tion of invest­ments, trans­for­ma­tion initia­ti­ves and risk manage­ment. Bizz­de­sign helps archi­tects and execu­ti­ves to fully under­stand multi­di­men­sio­nal archi­tec­tu­ral struc­tures, design and plan both exis­ting and future archi­tec­ture. Horiz­zon provi­des a common language for busi­ness and IT stake­hol­ders with mode­ling, visua­liza­tion and analy­sis tools. Bizz­de­sign is listed in Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant for EA Tools for Comple­ten­ess of Vision”. About MEGA International

MEGA Inter­na­tio­nal is a global SaaS company provi­ding enter­prise archi­tec­ture, busi­ness process analy­tics, gover­nance, risk, compli­ance and data gover­nance solu­ti­ons, opera­ting in 52 count­ries. The company’s HOPEX plat­form provi­des a colla­bo­ra­tive repo­si­tory for coll­ec­ting, visua­li­zing and analy­zing infor­ma­tion to improve plan­ning and adap­ta­bi­lity. About Alfa­bet

Alfa­bet is a market-leading enter­prise trans­for­ma­tion plat­form posi­tio­ned at the inter­sec­tion of enter­prise archi­tec­ture manage­ment (EAM) and stra­te­gic port­fo­lio manage­ment (SPM), reco­gni­zed by Gart­ner and Forres­ter as a leader in both the EA and SPM market segments (Gart­ner in EAM for 17 conse­cu­tive years). Alfabet’s products are used by more than 350 custo­mers in over 40 count­ries to plan and manage busi­ness and IT change. About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor mana­ging private equity funds active in the Bene­lux, DACH, Nordics and the United States with appro­xi­m­ately €6 billion in assets under manage­ment. Main has over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams of its port­fo­lio as a stra­te­gic part­ner to create profi­ta­ble growth and larger, outstan­ding soft­ware groups. Main employs 85 people in its offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp and a branch office in Boston. Main main­ta­ins an active port­fo­lio of over 50 soft­ware compa­nies. The under­ly­ing port­fo­lio employs more than 15,000 people. 

Through the Main Social Insti­tute, Main supports students with grants and scho­lar­ships to study IT and compu­ter science at tech­ni­cal univer­si­ties and univer­si­ties of applied sciences.

www.mainsoftware.de

News

Munich — Green­Gate Part­ners has advi­sed UVC Part­ners on Predium’s Series A finan­cing round. The PropTech company was able to raise a total of 13 million euros in the finan­cing round. Predium has deve­lo­ped an intel­li­gent soft­ware plat­form that combi­nes ESG manage­ment with econo­mic effi­ci­ency. The solu­tion enables real estate and finance compa­nies to meet regu­la­tory requi­re­ments while achie­ving sustainable increa­ses in value. The finan­cing round was led by Norrs­ken VC. Exis­ting inves­tors UVC Part­ners, b2venture and Mutsch­ler Ventures also parti­ci­pa­ted again in the round. The fresh capi­tal will be used to open up new markets and further deve­lop the plat­form in order to further streng­then Predium’s posi­tion as a real estate intel­li­gence plat­form and drive forward the decar­bo­niza­tion of the indus­try. The focus is on the decar­bo­niza­tion of the real estate indus­try, which is supported by data-based decis­ion-making and auto­ma­ted proces­ses. With the help of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and auto­ma­ted data analy­sis, Predium helps its clients to iden­tify ESG risks, prio­ri­tize reno­va­tion measu­res and opti­mize econo­mic decis­i­ons. Predium’s clients alre­ady include well-known compa­nies such as Deut­sche Invest­ment Group, Colliers and Baloise. About UVC Partners

UVC Part­ners is a leading venture capi­tal firm based in Munich and Berlin that invests in Euro­pean B2B tech start-ups from pre-seed to Series A stage. With appro­xi­m­ately €400 million in assets under manage­ment, UVC Part­ners typi­cally invests between €500,000 and €10 million initi­ally and up to €30 million per company. The port­fo­lio includes indus­try leaders in deep tech, climate tech, hard­ware, soft­ware and mobi­lity with various tech­no­lo­gies and busi­ness models. Advi­sor UVC Part­ners: Green­Gate Part­ners Rechts­an­walts­ge­sell­schaft mbH

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

Green­Gate Part­ners is a tech­no­logy law firm with special exper­tise in transactions
and venture capital. 

From offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich,
expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers offer their clients first-class advice on an equal footing.
Green­Gate Part­ners repea­tedly sets bench­marks in the German market.

News

Munich — The publi­shing group Harper­Coll­ins Germany has announ­ced the take­over of the German guide­book publisher Gräfe und Unzer (GU). The sales coope­ra­tion ISP Isar Sales Part­ner will also move under the new umbrella. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The seller is the Hamburg-based Ganske Group. With the acqui­si­tion, Harper­Coll­ins will more than double its busi­ness in Germany, Harper­Coll­ins Germany announ­ced. Gräfe und Unzer, which has been part of the Ganske publi­shing group in Hamburg since 1990, can look back on more than 300 years of publi­shing history and is argu­ably the market-leading guide­book publisher in Germany with successful best­sel­ling authors, a strong content pool and high brand aware­ness. “Gräfe und Unzer has an impres­sive publi­shing history, excep­tio­nal authors, books and brands, and has itself become a great brand that is trus­ted by gene­ra­ti­ons of readers. We are proud to welcome Gräfe und Unzer under the umbrella of the Harper­Coll­ins publi­shing group and look forward to shaping the future of the publi­shing house toge­ther with our colle­agues,” said Jürgen Welte, publisher and CEO of the Harper­Coll­ins Germany publi­shing group.

Advi­sor Harper­Coll­ins: Addle­shaw Goddard (Hamburg)

Dr. Huber­tus Schrö­der, Foto (Lead; Corporate/M&A), Manuela Finger (IP) Chris­tian Lang (Corporate/M&A; both Munich), Dr. Jan-Oliver Schrotz (Regu­la­tory), Jens Peters (Employ­ment); Asso­cia­tes: Fabian Neppe­ßen (Lead; Corporate/M&A), Dr. Theresa Rött­ger (Corporate/M&A and Regu­la­tory), Alex­an­dra Rose (Regulatory/Competition) Lars Schön­wald (IP; Munich) Inhouse Recht (Bris­tol): Tobias Hirst (Head of Legal Europe, Japan and Brazil)
Roser (Hamburg): Martin Aisen­brey (Tax) — known from the market

Advi­sor Ganske Publi­shing Group: Kümmer­lein (Essen)

Dr. Sebas­tian Longrée (lead; Corporate/M&A), Dr. Daisy Walzel (compe­ti­tion and anti­trust law), Dr. Jana Benzel (Corpo­rate), Jona­than Monz (employ­ment law); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Patric Sonder­mann (lead; Corporate/M&A), Johanna Pila­tus (M&A), Eva Sand­küh­ler (M&A), Roland Stem­pel­mann (IP/IT)
Inhouse Recht (Hamburg): Sven Grono­stay (Gene­ral Coun­sel) Mazars (Tax) — known from the market

News

Munich/ Berlin — YPOG has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to global tech invest­ment fund Partech on its invest­ment of over €25 million in QPLIX, a foun­der-led wealth tech company and leader in
wealth manage­ment soft­ware for family offices and private banks. This
stra­te­gic invest­ment was made through Partech’s Growth Fund and will support
QPLIX’s growth objec­ti­ves and help to realize its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion plans. The invest­ment posi­ti­ons Partech as an inves­tor along­side Deut­sche Bank, with both jointly holding a
mino­rity stake in the company. This part­ner­ship, which builds on Partech’s exper­tise in scaling inter­na­tio­nal soft­ware busi­nesses, will streng­then QPLIX’s expan­sion into key markets inclu­ding France, Switz­er­land, the UK, the Middle East and the APAC region. Kai Linde of QPLIX GmbH said: “Partech’s global network and exten­sive exper­tise make them an ideal part­ner for our vision of inter­na­tio­nal market leader­ship in the wealth tech sector. With Partech and Deut­sche Bank, we are ideally posi­tio­ned to enter new markets.” Andrew Whiting of Partech (photo: Partech) explains: “QPLIX sets the gold stan­dard for family offices and private banks, parti­cu­larly through its exper­tise in illi­quid assets and the highest secu­rity stan­dards. We look forward to support­ing QPLIX in acce­le­ra­ting their invest­ments in new markets and further expan­ding the plat­form.” This invest­ment marks another signi­fi­cant mile­stone in QPLIX’s successful journey.
Frank Schrie­ver, Vice Chair­man of Deut­sche Bank Private Bank, commen­ted: “With the
inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion of QPLIX, new oppor­tu­ni­ties and services are also opening up for our
clients.” QPLIX’s deep under­stan­ding of client needs and commit­ment to high quality
products has earned the company a strong repu­ta­tion in the market­place. The company’s advanced
wealth manage­ment soft­ware inte­gra­tes all asset clas­ses, provi­des powerful
analy­ti­cal tools and enables highly custo­mizable report­ing. This invest­ment will enable QPLIX to conti­nue to provide compre­hen­sive wealth manage­ment solu­ti­ons for its clients. 

Advi­sor Partech: YPOG

Dr. Tim Schlös­ser (Lead, Transactions/Corporate), Part­ner, Berlin
Barbara Hasse (Transactions/Corporate), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Cyra Ditt­ber­ner (Transactions/Corporate), Asso­ciate, Munich
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Chris­toph Cordes (IP/IT), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Char­lotte Petrasch (IP/IT), Asso­ciate, Berlin About Partech

Partech is a global tech invest­ment firm head­quar­te­red in Paris with offices in Berlin, Dakar, Dubai, Nairobi and San Fran­cisco. Partech combi­nes capi­tal, opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence and stra­te­gic support to nurture entre­pre­neurs from seed to growth stage. Foun­ded 40 years ago in San Francisco
, Partech today has €2.5 billion in assets under manage­ment and a current port­fo­lio of 220 compa­nies span­ning 40 count­ries and 4 continents.

Further infor­ma­tion can be found at partechpartners.com About QPLIX

QPLIX deve­lops and opera­tes a leading soft­ware solu­tion for the successful digi­tal manage­ment of
sophisti­ca­ted port­fo­lios. Clients include single and multi-family offices as well as foundations,
invest­ment funds, asset mana­gers, insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors and private banks across the EMEA region. The QPLIX plat­form holi­sti­cally maps both liquid and illi­quid asset clas­ses as well as various
client struc­tures and conso­li­da­tes all invest­ment data in a powerful data­base. The soft­ware enables users to perform real-time analy­ses at any time, whether via the powerful core appli­ca­tion, the indi­vi­dual end client portal or the app. QPLIX is also respon­si­ble for its own IT infra­struc­ture and secu­rity and proves to be a trust­wor­thy part­ner. This is under­li­ned by assets under manage­ment tota­ling more than 300 billion euros, which are curr­ently mana­ged via the plat­form. QPLIX GmbH was foun­ded in 2012 by Kai Linde, Phil­ipp Pötzl and Mathias Linder­meir and is head­quar­te­red in Munich. The team curr­ently consists of over 120 deve­lo­p­ment and finan­cial experts. www.qplix.com About YPOG
YPOG is a specia­list law firm for tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax, banking + finance and transactions.

The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include up-and-coming tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run SMEs as well as corpo­rate groups and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. Today, YPOG employs more than 150 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax consul­tants, tax specia­lists and a notary in four offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich. http://www.ypog.law

News

Munich — Para­gon acqui­res a stake in Primed Group, a leading provi­der of medi­cal devices and steri­liza­tion services based in Halber­stadt, Germany. Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank Akti­en­ge­sell­schaft (OLB) was advi­sed as super senior lender by the commer­cial law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Primed Group by Para­gon Part­ners. The senior tran­che was provi­ded by Capza Private Debt. Para­gon Part­ners ente­red into a part­ner­ship with Primed Group in Novem­ber 2023. Primed supplies hospi­tals and medi­cal faci­li­ties in over 60 count­ries and plans to invest in its product port­fo­lio and enter new markets with the support of Para­gon Part­ners. Working closely with the exis­ting manage­ment team, Para­gon will conti­nue the Primed Group’s alre­ady highly successful growth stra­tegy. As a deve­lo­per, manu­fac­tu­rer, steri­liza­tion service provi­der and distri­bu­tor, the Primed Group covers the entire value chain and offers an inno­va­tive and high-quality product port­fo­lio in the areas of tracheo­tomy and laryn­gec­tomy, wound drai­nage, thora­cic surgery and stool management. 

About the Primed Group

The Primed Group (head­quar­te­red in Halber­stadt) is a leading provi­der of high-quality medi­cal devices and steri­liza­tion services. With around 470 employees and a verti­cal range of manu­fac­ture that covers all produc­tion-rela­ted proces­ses, the group of compa­nies is deeply verti­cally inte­gra­ted as a deve­lo­per, manu­fac­tu­rer, steri­liza­tion service provi­der and distri­bu­tor. Inno­va­tive and certi­fied medi­cal products with a focus on tracheo­tomy and laryn­gec­tomy, wound drai­nage, thora­cic surgery and stool manage­ment are manu­fac­tu­red at seve­ral produc­tion sites in Switz­er­land and abroad. The Primed Group’s products are used in hospi­tals, the home care sector and other medi­cal faci­li­ties in more than 60 count­ries worldwide. 

About Para­gon

Para­gon is an owner-mana­ged, private group of compa­nies that has been invol­ved with medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since it was foun­ded in 2004. Para­gon works closely with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to ensure sustainable growth and improve opera­tio­nal proces­ses. The Para­gon port­fo­lio spans various sectors and curr­ently compri­ses 14 compa­nies. Para­gon is based in Munich and curr­ently mana­ges over €2.4 billion in equity. www.paragon.de. OLB is a broadly posi­tio­ned univer­sal bank with a nati­on­wide presence and more than 150 years of expe­ri­ence in the core region of northwest Germany. Under the OLB and Bank­haus Neelmeyer brands, the Bank advi­ses its appro­xi­m­ately 1 million clients in the Private & Busi­ness Custo­mers and Corpo­rate & Diver­si­fied Lending segments.

Legal advi­sors to OLB: Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich

Dr. Tilmann Gütt, LL.M. (London) (Part­ner, Banking/Finance), Anja Schmidt (Asso­ciate, Banking/Finance) About Gütt Olk Feldhaus

Gütt Olk Feld­haus is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm based in Munich.

We provide compre­hen­sive advice on commer­cial and corpo­rate law. Our focus is on corpo­rate law, M&A, private equity and finan­cing. In these specia­list areas we also take on the litigation.

News

Möglin­gen (Germany)/ London (UK) — Thoma Bravo, a leading soft­ware invest­ment company, has successfully comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in the USU Product busi­ness. USU GmbH (“USU Product”) is the Euro­pean market leader in IT manage­ment solu­ti­ons, with the core areas of IT service manage­ment, IT asset manage­ment, IT opera­ti­ons manage­ment and know­ledge manage­ment. Thoma Bravo is now the new majo­rity share­hol­der in USU Product to acce­le­rate growth and product inno­va­tion. As a result of the closing of the tran­sac­tion, the USU Product busi­ness will operate as an inde­pen­dent unit with more than 600 employees to drive the deve­lo­p­ment, imple­men­ta­tion, support and main­ten­ance of its strong product port­fo­lio. Under the leader­ship of Dr. Benja­min Strehl, the exis­ting manage­ment team will conti­nue to run the busi­ness to ensure conti­nuity for custo­mers. Bern­hard Ober­schmidt, CEO of USU Soft­ware AG, will also be a member of the Board of Direc­tors within the new holding struc­ture of USU Product. “With the closing of the tran­sac­tion, we are now fully focu­sed on expan­ding the USU plat­form and further deve­lo­ping our solu­tion offe­ring to create more value for our custo­mers,” says Benja­min Strehl, CEO of USU Product. “We are plea­sed to announce the closing of our second tran­sac­tion in the DACH region this year,” says Irina Hemmers, Part­ner at Thoma Bravo (Photo: Thoma Bravo). “We see nume­rous oppor­tu­ni­ties to further invest in the regio­nal tech­no­logy ecosys­tem and expand our port­fo­lio. The tran­sac­tion is an important mile­stone in our part­ner­ship with USU Product. Toge­ther, we will now conti­nue to scale and inno­vate the company.” Debt finan­cing for the tran­sac­tion is being provi­ded by funds advi­sed by Morgan Stan­ley Private Credit , clients of Guggen­heim Invest­ments and HSBC Inno­va­tion Banking UK.

About Thoma Bravo

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

About USU Soft­ware AG

As a leading provi­der of soft­ware and services for IT and custo­mer service manage­ment, USU enables compa­nies to master the chal­lenges of today’s digi­tal world. Global orga­niza­ti­ons use our solu­ti­ons to cut costs, become more agile and reduce risk — with smar­ter services, simp­ler work­flows and better colla­bo­ra­tion. With more than 45 years of expe­ri­ence and loca­ti­ons world­wide, the USU team brings custo­mers into the future. The USU Digi­tal Consul­ting busi­ness unit remains a wholly owned subsi­diary of USU Soft­ware AG.
http://www.usu.com

News

Munich / Zurich — Liberta Part­ners, a Munich-based multi-family holding company, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Avenir Group AG, a leading provi­der of HR outsour­cing services and digi­tal solu­ti­ons head­quar­te­red in Switz­er­land. The part­ners and key execu­ti­ves have also inves­ted signi­fi­cantly in the company. The tran­sac­tion is an important mile­stone in Avenir Group’s growth stra­tegy and enables both further geogra­phic expan­sion and the streng­thening of digi­tal capa­bi­li­ties. Avenir Group was foun­ded in 2005 and is today a trus­ted part­ner for compa­nies with a wide range of HR outsour­cing services, inclu­ding assess­ment, trai­ning, consul­ting and other HR outsour­cing solu­ti­ons. With around 140 employees, Avenir serves small and medium-sized compa­nies as well as large corpo­ra­ti­ons. Toge­ther with the manage­ment, Liberta Part­ners will focus on the acce­le­ra­ted expan­sion and further deve­lo­p­ment of Avenir Group’s digi­tal “HR hub” plat­form. In addi­tion, the company’s digi­tal compe­ten­cies will be further expan­ded to better support compa­nies in opti­mi­zing and digi­tiz­ing their HR proces­ses. The part­ner­ship with Liberta Part­ners will enable the Avenir Group to tap into new market segments more quickly and drive forward its digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion. A central focus is on the deve­lo­p­ment and inte­gra­tion of new soft­ware solu­ti­ons and the expan­sion of stra­te­gic part­ner­ships with leading HR soft­ware provi­ders. In this way, the Group aims to broa­den its service port­fo­lio and streng­then custo­mer loyalty. The Avenir Group is also plan­ning to expand into the German and western Swiss markets. To this end, the exis­ting service offe­ring will be adapted to the needs of new custo­mers in these regi­ons and the geogra­phi­cal presence will be expan­ded through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons. “The part­ner­ship with Liberta Part­ners opens up new oppor­tu­ni­ties for us to drive and acce­le­rate our growth. Toge­ther, we will streng­then our market posi­tion and support even more compa­nies in making their HR proces­ses more effi­ci­ent and future-proof with the help of digi­tal and AI-supported services,” says Chris­toph Kohler, CEO of Avenir Group AG. “Avenir fits perfectly with our philo­so­phy of inves­t­ing in dyna­mic compa­nies with strong growth poten­tial. We see great poten­tial in the combi­na­tion of Avenir’s compre­hen­sive and strong service port­fo­lio and our exper­tise in corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment,” adds Florian Korp, Part­ner at Liberta Part­ners.

About Liberta Partners

Liberta Part­ners is a multi-family holding company based in Munich. The company makes targe­ted invest­ments in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries, parti­cu­larly in succes­sion situa­tions and group spin-offs, with clear opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. These compa­nies are actively deve­lo­ped as part of the “100% Core & Care” concept and bene­fit from the entre­pre­neu­rial exper­tise of Liberta Part­ners. The Liberta Part­ners team consists of 20 employees working in the areas of M&A, Corpo­rate Deve­lo­p­ment and Legal & Admi­nis­tra­tion, supported by an active indus­try advi­sory board. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at: www.liberta-partners.com About Avenir Group AG

Avenir Group AG is a leading provi­der of HR services in Switz­er­land and specia­li­zes in provi­ding tailor-made solu­ti­ons in the areas of HR consul­ting, assess­ment, trai­ning and outsour­cing. With inno­va­tive plat­forms such as “HR-Hub” and “Zeugnis.ch”, Avenir offers forward-looking solu­ti­ons for the chal­lenges of modern HR depart­ments. Compa­nies invol­ved in the transaction:
Liberta Part­ners: Florian Korp (Photo: Liberta Part­ners), Dr. Chris­tian Szcze­syn, Baran Yagiz Atmaca Legal Team: Adves­tra (Dr. Alex­an­der von Jein­sen, Beda Kauf­mann, Göktug Gürbez, Annina Hammer) HR Tech / Digi­ta­liza­tion: Work­Tech Advi­sory (Jens Bender) Tax DD: Adves­tra (Laurent Ried­weg, Dr. Jan Selt­mann) Commer­cial DD: Telescope Advi­sory (Ludwig Prel­ler, Seve­rin Forst­ner, Stefan Kupka) Finan­cial DD: 8advisory (Patric Roth, Thomas Lagler)

News

Stock­holm — Sensire, a Finnish company backed by Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”), announ­ces the acqui­si­tion of ZONITH A/S (“ZONITH”), a Danish provi­der of person­nel secu­rity soft­ware with an inter­na­tio­nal presence. This acqui­si­tion is a first step in Sensire’s buy-and-build stra­tegy to expand its presence in the HSEQ (Health, Safety, Envi­ron­ment, and Quality) market. The stra­te­gic combi­na­tion of the two compa­nies aims to create a strong force in the wider HSEQ market in North West Europe. ZONITH, head­quar­te­red in Copen­ha­gen, Denmark, provi­des a plat­form for employee safety and lone worker protec­tion. The company’s proprie­tary plat­form inte­gra­tes wire­less indoor posi­tio­ning, GPS track­ing and smart­phone appli­ca­ti­ons to ensure the safety of employees in diffe­rent envi­ron­ments. The company prima­rily serves the Danish market, but is incre­asingly present in Norway, Sweden and other parts of Europe, working with well-known custo­mers such as Arla, the City of Copen­ha­gen and HSBC Bank. Sensire, head­quar­te­red in Joen­suu, Finland, is a leading provi­der of HSEQ soft­ware with a focus on medi­cal and food safety. Its plat­form supports custo­mers such as Attendo, Fazer and Essote with tools for condi­tion moni­to­ring, task manage­ment and docu­ment manage­ment, helping them to comply with strict regu­la­tory standards. 

Driving stra­te­gic growth

The acqui­si­tion expands Sensire’s product range by inte­gra­ting ZONITH’s person­nel secu­rity solu­ti­ons, enhan­cing the company’s value propo­si­tion to new and exis­ting custo­mers. This stra­te­gic move streng­thens Sensire’s compe­ti­tive posi­tion in the HSEQ market by opening up new oppor­tu­ni­ties in the market and provi­ding a more compre­hen­sive offe­ring to its custo­mers. With ZONITH’s estab­lished presence in Denmark and growing presence in Norway, Sweden and beyond, the acqui­si­tion furthers Sensire’s geogra­phic expan­sion stra­tegy in Northwes­tern Europe and crea­tes a more solid foun­da­tion for future inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. Custo­mers of both compa­nies will bene­fit from inte­gra­ted solu­ti­ons that address new secu­rity and regu­la­tory chal­lenges and promote over­all custo­mer satis­fac­tion and loyalty. Jonas Bäck­man (photo © Main Capi­tal), Sr. Invest­ment Mana­ger at Main Capi­tal Part­ners, empha­si­zes the stra­te­gic importance of the acqui­si­tion: “The acqui­si­tion of ZONITH is a signi­fi­cant step in our part­ner­ship with Sensire, which has been in place since May 2023. This stra­te­gic combi­na­tion streng­thens the Group’s posi­tion in the Nordic market, expands the product range from food safety to medi­cal safety and person­nel safety and lays the foun­da­tion for further growth in Northwes­tern Europe.” Jp Asika­i­nen, CEO of Sensire, adds: “The acqui­si­tion of ZONITH is an important mile­stone in Sensire’s jour­ney to expand and streng­then its presence in the HSEQ indus­try in Europe. By combi­ning our exper­tise in medi­cal and food safety with ZONITH’s advan­ced solu­ti­ons for person­nel safety and lone worker protec­tion, we are uniquely posi­tio­ned to deli­ver compre­hen­sive safety and compli­ance tools to our custo­mers. This move not only expands our geogra­phic reach in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and beyond, but also increa­ses the value we provide to orga­niza­ti­ons working in highly regu­la­ted and safety-criti­cal envi­ron­ments. Toge­ther, we are crea­ting safer work­places while simpli­fy­ing compli­ance for our custo­mers.” Kris­tian Hart­vig Sties­mark, CEO of ZONITH, said: “We at ZONITH are deligh­ted to join Sensire, led by Main Capi­tal Part­ners, and we look forward to working with the Sensire team to not only expand our offe­ring to clients, but also to streng­then our geogra­phic market presence. With the exper­tise of Main Capi­tal Part­ners and Sensire, we aim to drive expan­sion and foster further growth in the Euro­pean health and safety market. 

About Sensire

Sensire is a leading provi­der of medi­cal and food safety soft­ware with appro­xi­m­ately 25 employees and head­quar­ters in Joen­suu, Finland. Foun­ded in 2007 by Jp Asika­i­nen, Sensire has a long track record of deli­ve­ring high-quality medi­cal and food safety solu­ti­ons to both the private and public sectors. With over 400 custo­mers, Sensire is one of the leading provi­ders in this field. www.sensire.com

About ZONITH A/S

ZONITH was foun­ded in 2000 and is head­quar­te­red in Copen­ha­gen, Denmark. The company offers solu­ti­ons for employees who need to protect them­sel­ves against thre­ats and violence in their working envi­ron­ment. The discreet solu­ti­ons enable fast and relia­ble aler­ting and work seam­lessly both indoors and outdoors. ZONITH’s solu­ti­ons are desi­gned to protect person­nel in various sectors such as muni­ci­pa­li­ties, regi­ons, psych­ia­try, health­care, indus­try, retail and many other areas through a flexi­ble and cost-effec­tive person­nel secu­rity system. https://ZONITH.com

About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor mana­ging private equity funds active in Northwest Europe and North America. Main has over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in soft­ware inves­t­ing and works closely with the manage­ment teams in its port­fo­lio as a stra­te­gic part­ner to build profi­ta­ble growth and larger, outstan­ding soft­ware groups. Main employs 80 people and has offices in The Hague, Stock­holm, Düssel­dorf, Antwerp and an affi­lia­ted office in Boston. Main has appro­xi­m­ately €6 billion in assets under manage­ment and curr­ently has an active port­fo­lio of over 46 soft­ware compa­nies. Toge­ther, these compa­nies employ around 15,000 people.

News

Frank­furt — EQT has acqui­red ju:niz Energy GmbH. The acqui­si­tion of ju:niz Energy GmbH is the first tran­sac­tion in the context of EQT’s new Tran­si­tion Infra­struc­ture stra­tegy. As part of this stra­tegy, EQT will provide capi­tal as well as indus­trial and tech­no­lo­gi­cal know-how and sustaina­bi­lity exper­tise to support the growth of compa­nies and the trans­for­ma­tion to a decar­bo­ni­zed and climate-resi­li­ent future. 

ju:niz Energy GmbH, based in Germany, deve­lops, builds and opera­tes grid-connec­ted battery storage systems in accordance with the latest tech­ni­cal stan­dards. The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons and approvals. 

EQT is a global invest­ment firm with total assets under manage­ment of EUR 246 billion (EUR 134 billion in fee-earning assets), divi­ded into two busi­ness segments: Private Capi­tal and Real Assets. EQT owns port­fo­lio compa­nies and assets in the Ameri­cas, Europe and Asia Paci­fic and supports them in achie­ving sustainable growth, opera­tio­nal excel­lence and market leadership. 

Advi­sor EQT: Gibson Dunn

Dr. Dirk Ober­bracht, Part­ner, Dr. Jan Schu­bert, Part­ner (both Frank­furt), Asso­cia­tes Dr. Dennis Seif­arth (Munich), Simon Stöhl­ker and Lisa Holl­fel­der (both Frank­furt) as well as London Part­ners Feder­ico Fruh­beck and Alice Brogi and Of Coun­sel Cason Moore (all London).

Part­ner Dr. Georg Weiden­bach and asso­cia­tes Dr. Andreas Mild­ner and Jan Voll­kam­mer (all Frank­furt) advi­sed on anti­trust and FDI aspects, part­ner Benja­min Rapp (Frank­furt and Munich) and asso­ciate Daniel Reich (Frank­furt) on tax aspects. Part­ner Sebas­tian Schoon and asso­ciate Bastiaan Wolters (both Frank­furt) advi­sed on finan­cial aspects and part­ner Kai Giesing (Munich) on IP issues. 

About Gibson Dunn

Gibson, Dunn & Crut­cher LLP is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms and is ranked among the world’s top law firms in indus­try surveys and by major publi­ca­ti­ons. With more than 1,900 lawy­ers in 21 offices, the firm has a global presence in all major econo­mic regi­ons. Gibson Dunn’s offices are loca­ted in Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Century City, Dallas, Denver, Dubai, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Los Ange­les, Munich, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Beijing, Riyadh, San Fran­cisco, Singa­pore and Washing­ton, D.C. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit our website.

News

Rostock/ Tübingen/ Düssel­dorf — ARQIS has provi­ded legal advice to the share­hol­ders of Medi­zin­tech­nik Rostock GmbH (MTR) on the sale of a majo­rity stake to SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH. SHS acqui­res the share­hol­ding for its sixth fund gene­ra­tion (SHS IV) and thus secu­res the corpo­rate succes­sion of MTR. The two previous share­hol­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of MTR will remain asso­cia­ted with MTR through a signi­fi­cant share­hol­ding. The parties invol­ved have agreed not to disc­lose further details, such as the purchase price. Medi­zin­tech­nik Rostock GmbH, with main loca­ti­ons in Rostock and Berlin, is a medium-sized company that supplies pati­ents with therapy devices for home use. MTR is one of the leading therapy and reha­bi­li­ta­tion provi­ders and, as a part­ner of 80 health insu­rance compa­nies, carried out over 140,000 treat­ments in move­ment, elec­tri­cal and compres­sion therapy in 2023. SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH, based in Tübin­gen, is a private equity fund that specia­li­zes in invest­ments in the health­care sector. SHS is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which was laun­ched in 2022 and has a volume of around 270 million euros. The share­hol­ders and MTR have been advi­sed on health­care law for many years by a team from D+B Rechts­an­wälte Part­ner­schaft mbB led by Dr. Ulrich Grau, who recom­men­ded ARQIS for this tran­sac­tion. The team led by Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze then prevai­led in a pitch. 

Advi­sor Medi­zin­tech­nik Rostock GmbH: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze (Lead Part­ner), Seve­rin Stef­fens (Mana­ging Asso­ciate, both Tran­sac­tions), Part­ners: Thomas Chwa­lek (Tran­sac­tions), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP), Coun­sel: Jens Knip­ping, Dennis Reisich (both Tax), Anja Mehr­tens (HR Law), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Tim Brese­mann, Diana Pucho­wezki (both Real Estate), Daniel Schle­mann (Data Law), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial), Rolf Tichy (IP), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (Pensi­ons), Asso­cia­tes: Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial), Thomas Lipsky (IP), Jasmin Grünen (Tran­sac­tions), Sabine Müller, Dr. Hendrik Völker­ding (both HR Law), Senior Legal Specia­list: Qing Xia (Tran­sac­tions) D+B (Berlin)

Dr. Ulrich Grau (lead), Nicole Jesche, Tatjana Teter­ju­kow, Fran­ziska Dick­mann (all Health Law), Dr. Sabrina Neuen­dorf (Data Protec­tion Law) About ARQIS

ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firm opera­ting internationally.

Around 80 lawy­ers and legal specia­lists advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on German, Euro­pean and Japa­nese commer­cial law. With its focus groups Tran­sac­tions, HR Law, Japan, Data Law, Risk and Regu­la­tory, the firm is geared towards provi­ding its clients with compre­hen­sive advice. The law firm was foun­ded in 2006 and has offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo as well as a talent hub in Berlin. http://www.arqis.com.

News

Frank­furt am Main / Garrel — Frank­furt-based private equity firm VR Equi­typ­art­ner (“VREP”) has sold its signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake in Euro­pean Conve­ni­ence Food GmbH (“ECF”), a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of high-quality frozen food products, to the French food group Lambert Dodard Chan­cer­eul (“LDC Group”). As part of the tran­sac­tion, LDC Group, one of the Euro­pean market leaders in the poul­try sector and in the produc­tion of fresh and frozen conve­ni­ence products, which is majo­rity family-owned and listed on the Paris stock exch­ange, is acqui­ring the shares of all inves­tors in full. Some members of the ECF manage­ment team will conti­nue to be invol­ved in the form of a re-invest­ment. The ECF Group was formed in 2014 through the merger of the compa­nies Karl Kemper Conve­ni­ence GmbH (“Karl Kemper”) and Eich­kamp GmbH & Co. KG (“Eich­kamp”) and has deve­lo­ped into a leading player in the out-of-home cate­ring sector. The product range compri­ses over 230 products, which are sold under the Vegeta, Karl Kemper and new leaf brands. ECF also offers custo­mi­zed deep-freeze solu­ti­ons for the food proces­sing indus­try as well as indi­vi­dual private label products. The inno­va­tive vege­ta­rian product range has been parti­cu­larly successful in recent years — in line with the social mega­trend of an incre­asingly meat-free diet. In 2023, the Group gene­ra­ted conso­li­da­ted sales of almost 80 million euros, of which around 50% was attri­bu­ta­ble to the vege­ta­rian product range. VREP became the largest single inves­tor in 2013 with a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake and, toge­ther with a group of inves­tors, merged the two medium-sized compe­ti­tors Karl Kemper and Eich­kamp under the umbrella of the newly foun­ded ECF as part of a “buy-and-build” stra­tegy. In the follo­wing years, VREP consis­t­ently supported the manage­ment team in the inte­gra­tion of both compa­nies, the realignment and strin­gent imple­men­ta­tion of the growth stra­tegy as well as a targe­ted repo­si­tio­ning of the product range, as a result of which ECF achie­ved a market-leading posi­tion and at the same time took a leading posi­tion in the growing market for vege­ta­rian and vegan frozen products. “Toge­ther with the manage­ment team and our co-inves­tors, we have achie­ved a great deal in recent years and crea­ted profi­ta­ble, sustainable growth,” explains Peter Sachse, Mana­ging Direc­tor at VR Equi­typ­art­ner (photo: VREP). “With its excel­lent product quality, the consis­tent expan­sion of the vege­ta­rian and vegan segment and an outstan­ding opera­tio­nal set-up, ECF is ideally equip­ped for this deman­ding market. I am convin­ced that we have found the ideal part­ner for ECF’s next phase of growth in the LDC Group.” Bruno Lafon, CEO of LDC Inter­na­tio­nal: “The acqui­si­tion of ECF enables us to enter the stra­te­gi­cally important German market. We are deligh­ted that in ECF we have found an ideal plat­form company for further growth, whose strength and exper­tise in the out-of-home food market will greatly enrich us. Not only are we an excel­lent stra­te­gic fit, we also share common values and visi­ons for the future.” 

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the contract.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner at a glance

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 40 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 400 million. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at www.vrep.de. LDC at a glance

LDC (Lambert Dodard Chan­cer­eul) is a French family busi­ness specia­li­zing in the proces­sing and distri­bu­tion of poul­try and the produc­tion of fresh and frozen deli­ca­tes­sen products. With 102 loca­ti­ons, 25,000 employees and a turno­ver of 6.2 billion euros, the LDC Group is one of the Euro­pean market leaders in the poul­try sector and is repre­sen­ted in France, Poland, Hungary, Belgium and the United King­dom. The company markets its products under the Loué, Le Gaulois, Maître CoQ, Doux, Marie, Tradi­ti­ons d’Asie, Drosed and Nature et Respect brands. Its mission: to promote food sove­reig­nty while respec­ting people and nature. The LDC Group is listed on the Paris stock exch­ange and is expe­ri­en­cing sustainable, balan­ced and control­led growth, both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons in Europe. The VR Equi­typ­art­ner tran­sac­tion team: Daniel Seifert, Chris­tof Schmitt, Chris­tian Ockenfuß 

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VREP:

M&A: Houli­han Lokey (James Scal­lan) Legal: Noerr (Dr. Martin Neuhaus, Florian Döpking) Finance and Tax: Deloitte (Stefan Götzen) Commer­cial: Roland Berger (Martin Weissbart)

News

Zurich/ Unter­kulm — The KWC Group, premium specia­list for sani­tary room equip­ment, fittings and water manage­ment systems and part of the Equis­tone Funds port­fo­lio since 2021, is selling its OEM divi­sion, Nokite EcoSmart Water Heating Systems (Guang­dong) Co. (“Nokite”), to the Swiss Franke Group. KWC is thus successfully reali­zing the final step in its stra­te­gic focus on the core area of profes­sio­nal sani­tary room equip­ment, which is aimed in parti­cu­lar at (semi-)public faci­li­ties and busi­nesses. Supported by the Equis­tone funds as majo­rity share­hol­der, KWC intends to further exploit the high market poten­tial in this area and expand the busi­ness with full concen­tra­tion. Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe acqui­red a majo­rity stake in KWC Group in April 2021. As part of its new stra­te­gic focus, the KWC Group successfully sold its KWC Medi­cal divi­sion with products for the medi­cal sector to the Alum­bra Group in Janu­ary 2024. This was follo­wed in summer 2024 by the sale of the Home divi­sion with its high-quality bath­room and kitchen fittings for the private sector to the Italian sani­tary specia­list Paini. 

With around 150 employees, Nokite is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of high-quality private label kitchen fittings, which deli­vers world­wide from China and acts as a high-quality OEM supplier. Follo­wing the successful sale to the Franke Group, Nokite will now be inte­gra­ted into the busi­ness divi­sion of the leading inter­na­tio­nal supplier of kitchen equip­ment, appli­ances and access­ories, which is aimed in parti­cu­lar at private end custo­mers. In future, KWC will focus on the profes­sio­nal busi­ness, which serves (semi-)public insti­tu­ti­ons such as airports, shop­ping centers, schools, sports and leisure faci­li­ties as well as hospi­tals and secu­rity faci­li­ties. The company has loca­ti­ons in Switz­er­land, Germany, the UK, Austria, Finland and the Middle East and curr­ently employs around 400 people. Marten van der Mei, CEO of the KWC Group, and Viktor Bern­hardt, CFO, empha­size the stra­te­gic importance of this step: “The sale of the inde­pen­dent OEM divi­sion enables us to focus our resour­ces and exper­tise enti­rely on the successful profes­sio­nal busi­ness. This area offers enorm­ous market poten­tial and we want to further expand our posi­tion as a leading provi­der for (semi-)public insti­tu­ti­ons with inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons and the highest quality.” David Zahnd, Part­ner at Equis­tone, empha­si­zes: “With the sale of Nokite, KWC has successfully comple­ted its stra­te­gic realignment and can now fully focus on expan­ding the profi­ta­ble growth of the Profes­sio­nal busi­ness.” On the Equis­tone side, Stefan Maser, David Zahnd and Roman E. Hegglin were invol­ved in an advi­sory capacity. 

Advi­sor Equistone:
DC Advi­sory (M&A) and Bär & Karrer (Legal & Tax). About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe

The funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe are among the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with an expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment team opera­ting across Europe in a total of seven offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. The Equis­tone funds prima­rily invest in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million.

Since its foun­da­tion in 2002, the funds have inves­ted equity in more than 180 tran­sac­tions. More infor­ma­tion at www.equistonepe.com.

News

Berlin — YPOG provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the lead inves­tors Amadeus APEX Tech­no­logy Fund and Atlan­tic Labs as well as the inves­tor NRW.Bank in the € 8.6 million pre-seed finan­cing round of the AI hard­ware start-up GEMESYS. The Sony Inno­va­tion Fund and the Sili­con Valley-based Plug and Play Tech Center also parti­ci­pa­ted in the round. Foun­ded in Bochum in 2021, the start-up offers an analog chip design based on the same
infor­ma­tion-proces­sing mecha­nisms as the human brain. This enables providers
of AI hard­ware to sell a new type of chip that trains neural networks 20,000 times more energy-efficiently
than current tech­no­lo­gies. With the new funding, GEMESYS will advance its rese­arch and expand its team,
to further deve­lop its novel chip architecture. 

Consul­tant GEMESYS: YPOG

Dr. Martin Scha­per (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Cologne
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Anna Eick­meier (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Pia Meven (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Laura Franke (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Project Lawyer, Cologne
Dr. Jonas von Kalben (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Chris­toph Cordes (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Boris Schin­zel (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin

About YPOG

YPOG is a law firm specia­li­zing in tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax,
banking + finance and tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of
clients. These include up-and-coming tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run
medium-sized compa­nies as well as corpo­rate groups and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG
is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in
Germany. YPOG curr­ently employs more than 150 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers and tax advi­sors. www.ypog.law

News

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) has successfully comple­ted the capi­tal raising for DBAG ECF IV with invest­ment commit­ments of around 250 million euros — for which the DBAG team was able to convince new and exis­ting inves­tors in recent months. The volume raised by DBAG ECF IV has more than doubled compared to its prede­ces­sor fund, DBAG ECF III (DBAG ECF III: EUR 106 million fund volume). DBAG ECF IV increa­ses the assets mana­ged or advi­sed by DBAG to 2.7 billion euros. DBAG and members of the DBAG Invest­ment Advi­sory Team are invol­ved with a signi­fi­cant co-invest­ment. As the majo­rity share­hol­der, DBAG ECF IV invests in family-run medium-sized compa­nies with an initial invest­ment volume of between 10 and 40 million euros. Through add-on acqui­si­ti­ons, for exam­ple, capi­tal increa­ses of up to 60 million euros can be imple­men­ted. The fund focu­ses on manage­ment buy-outs of family-run compa­nies in the context of succes­sion situa­tions and/or capi­tal increa­ses. Carve-outs of one or more busi­ness units from larger groups are also possi­ble. In addi­tion, DBAG ECF IV gene­rally aims to acquire a majo­rity stake over a period of around five years. The fund’s invest­ment period runs until the end of 2028 and it is plan­ned to make up to five further invest­ments in addi­tion to the five exis­ting invest­ments. One of the active inves­tors in the German-spea­king Mittelstand

The initial tran­sac­tions of DBAG ECF IV were made between July 2023 and Octo­ber 2024 and contri­bute to two dedi­ca­ted mega­trends in the German-spea­king region. AOE, ProMik and UNITY AG are driving digi­ta­liza­tion and the asso­cia­ted increase in produc­ti­vity. While Avrio and TBD Tech­ni­sche Bau Dienst­leis­tun­gen are bene­fiting from the energy tran­si­tion in Germany. DBAG has expan­ded its sector focus in recent years to serve these indus­tries, which are charac­te­ri­zed by struc­tu­ral growth. Since then, the team has concen­tra­ted on compa­nies in the areas of IT services and soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture as well as indus­trial services and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies, i.e. compa­nies that enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion. “Despite the chal­len­ging market situa­tion, we have mana­ged to convince exis­ting and new inves­tors. This is proba­bly even rela­ted to the macroe­co­no­mic situa­tion. After all, we have often proven in the past that our team can iden­tify and successfully deve­lop attrac­tive medium-sized compa­nies even in a chal­len­ging macroe­co­no­mic envi­ron­ment,” says Tom Alzin, Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG. DBAG ECF IV bene­fits greatly from being inte­gra­ted into the DBAG ecosys­tem. The company’s invest­ment advi­sory team draws on a very broad range of expe­ri­ence with regard to German SMEs and family-run compa­nies in parti­cu­lar. The funds advi­sed by DBAG offer these compa­nies not only succes­sion solu­ti­ons, of which around 11,000 are to be imple­men­ted in Germany alone by 2026, but also indi­vi­dual equity solutions. 

DBAG ECF IV will help DBAG to further conso­li­date its posi­tion as an inves­tor in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with attrac­tive deve­lo­p­ment potential.

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), listed on the stock exch­ange since 1985, is one of Germany’s most renow­ned private equity compa­nies. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on medium-sized compa­nies with a focus on well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. The sector focus is on produ­cers of indus­trial goods, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the IT services and soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture sectors. Since 2020, DBAG has also been repre­sen­ted in Italy with its own office in Milan. The assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to around 2.7 billion euros. As part of the stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with ELF Capi­tal, DBAG is adding private debt capi­tal to its range of flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs. 

 

News

Berlin — POELLATH advi­ses Extan­tia Capi­tal on the launch of the Extan­tia Climate Flag­ship II fund with a fund volume of over EUR 200 million. Extan­tia Capi­tal Manage­ment GmbH (“Extan­tia” or “Extan­tia Capi­tal”), a Berlin-based venture capi­tal inves­tor, has successfully closed its EuVECA fund Extan­tia Climate Flag­ship II at EUR 204 million, far excee­ding its target volume of EUR 150 million. With its climate tech fund, Extan­tia invests in young tech­no­logy compa­nies in the field of decar­bo­niza­tion. The invest­ment focus is on the areas of energy, indus­trial proces­ses, buil­dings, trans­por­ta­tion and tech­no­lo­gies for remo­ving CO2 alre­ady emit­ted from the atmo­sphere. Extan­tia Capi­tal uses its own sustaina­bi­lity center Extan­tia Ignite for its impact analy­ses. This brings toge­ther scien­tists, ESG and sustaina­bi­lity experts to create trans­pa­rency and science-based guidance for the climate inno­va­tion ecosys­tem. Extan­tia has also estab­lished its own impact guide­lines for the purpose of funding. Accor­ding to this, part of the fund manager’s remu­ne­ra­tion is linked to the achie­ve­ment of pre-defi­ned sustaina­bi­lity targets. The inves­tor base of the Extan­tia Climate Flag­ship II fund includes major insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors such as the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund (EIF), Land­wirt­schaft­li­che Renten­bank, the Danish Export Invest­ment Fund (EIFO), the Austrian Fede­ral Pension Fund and KfW Capi­tal, as well as the Alli­anz insu­rance group, indus­trial compa­nies, well-known family offices and private indi­vi­du­als. Advi­sors: POELLATH advi­sed Extan­tia Capi­tal on all contrac­tual, tax and regu­la­tory aspects of the fund struc­tu­ring and distri­bu­tion as well as on the inves­tor nego­tia­ti­ons with the follo­wing Berlin team:

Dr. Philip Schwarz van Berk, LL.M. (London) (Part­ner, Lead, Private Funds)
Ronald Buge (Part­ner, Tax / Private Funds)
Nele Frie (Senior Asso­ciate, Private Funds)
Katha­rina Hammer (Asso­ciate, Private Funds)

www.pplaw.com

 

Subscribe newsletter

Here you can read about the latest transactions, IPOs, private equity deals and venture capital investments, who has raised a new fund, how Buy & Build activities are going.

Get in touch

Contact us!
fyb [at] fyb.de

Send email