Author: Tatjana Anderer

Hamburg — Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advi­sed Chap­ters Group AG on the forma­tion of Alta­mount Soft­ware GmbH and on its invest­ment in GBS Europa GmbH. Alta­mount Soft­ware GmbH was foun­ded toge­ther with Andreas Phil­ippi, the former CEO of HR services provi­der West­house, and focu­ses on the deve­lo­p­ment and sale of secu­rity, GRC and finan­cial services soft­ware. With the acqui­si­tion of the shares in the secu­rity soft­ware company GBS, the Chap­ters Group is laying the foun­da­ti­ons for expan­ding an indus­try soft­ware plat­form with Alta­mount Soft­ware. Chap­ters Group AG is a holding company based in Hamburg that invests in small and medium-sized compa­nies from various sectors with a long-term, entre­pre­neu­rial approach. The Chap­ters Group focu­ses on compa­nies that offer their custo­mers so-called “mission criti­cal” services. The GROUP Busi­ness Soft­ware (GBS) Europa GmbH is a provi­der of solu­ti­ons and services for IBM and Micro­soft colla­bo­ra­tion plat­forms. The company offers Compe­tence Centers for Secu­rity, Moder­niza­tion, Mobi­lity and Portal & BPM. The custo­mer base compri­ses more than 5,000 custo­mers with 4 million users. GBS Europe is active in Europe, North America and Asia. The Euro­pean head­quar­ters are loca­ted in Frank­furt am Main, the North Ameri­can head­quar­ters in Atlanta, USA. Advi­sor Chap­ters Group AG: Norton Rose Fulbright led by Hamburg coun­sel Dr. Kars­ten Alex (photo © Norton Rose Fulbright) and part­ner Patrick Narr (both Corpo­rate / M&A). Malte Meyer (Senior Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate / M&A), Sebas­tian Sievers (Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate), Dr. Tim Scha­per (Part­ner), Dr. Tobias Teich­ner (Senior Asso­ciate) (both Anti­trust), Dr. Inge­mar Kart­heu­ser (Coun­sel, IT/Data Protec­tion), Dr. Frank Webern­dör­fer (Part­ner, Employ­ment), Dr. Max Mahl­mann (Asso­ciate, Employ­ment) (all Hamburg) and Tiffany Zilliox (Senior Asso­ciate, Munich, IP). The Chap­ters Group was advi­sed in-house by Thomas Hottung (Legal Coun­sel). About Norton Rose Fulbright Norton Rose Fulbright is a global commer­cial law firm. With more than 3,500 lawy­ers at over 50 loca­ti­ons world­wide in Europe, the USA, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Austra­lia, Africa and the Middle East, we advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies. We offer our clients compre­hen­sive advice in all major indus­tries. These include Finan­cial Insti­tu­ti­ons; Energy; Infra­struc­ture, Mining and Commo­di­ties; Trans­por­ta­tion; Tech­no­logy and Inno­va­tion; and Life Scien­ces and Health­care. Our global Risk Advi­sory Group combi­nes this exten­sive indus­try expe­ri­ence with its exper­tise in legal, regu­la­tory, compli­ance and gover­nance matters. This enables us to provide our clients with prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons to the legal and regu­la­tory risks they face. The Swiss asso­cia­tion Norton Rose Fulbright helps to coor­di­nate the acti­vi­ties of Norton Rose Fulbright members, but does not provide legal advice to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in more than 50 cities world­wide, inclu­ding London, Hous­ton, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johan­nes­burg. www.nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices.  

Munich/Baden — Funds advi­sed by Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) acquire a majo­rity stake in Baden-based BSI Soft­ware AG, the leading provi­der of soft­ware solu­ti­ons for custo­mer rela­ti­onship manage­ment (CRM) and custo­mer expe­ri­ence (CX) in its focus indus­tries. As part of BU’s invest­ment, Capvis Equity V LP, the fund advi­sed by the Swiss company Capvis AG, sold its shares after four years of successful part­ner­ship with BSI. The BSI manage­ment team remains inves­ted and conti­nues its successful work toge­ther with BU.

Holi­stic soft­ware plat­form for CRM & CX

For over 25 years, BSI has been deli­ve­ring inno­va­tive soft­ware solu­ti­ons for compa­nies that want to lead the way in digi­ta­liza­tion and custo­mer centri­city. More than 500 employees work “with heart and soul” for their custo­mers and the “BSI Custo­mer Suite”, which now compri­ses seven inte­gra­ted products. The modern cloud solu­tion is prima­rily used by deman­ding custo­mers from the finan­cial services, insu­rance, energy & utility and retail sectors to digi­tize rela­ti­onships with milli­ons of end custo­mers in a custo­mer-orien­ted, effi­ci­ent and intel­li­gent way. The BSI Custo­mer Suite comes with an Indus­try Cloud, which inte­gra­tes in-depth indus­try know­ledge with speci­fic proces­ses and regu­la­ti­ons into the soft­ware. Exis­ting IT systems are always fully inte­gra­ted via various stan­dard connec­tors to enable a high degree of auto­ma­tion and a consis­tent data flow. The soft­ware and data are stored in Swiss or German data centers.

Markus Brunold, CEO of BSI comm­ents: “BSI connects people and soft­ware. The BSI Custo­mer Suite combi­nes custo­mer focus and indus­try exper­tise based on a mature no-code/­low-code plat­form. With this recipe for success, we are conti­nuing our growth stra­tegy in Europe to inspire more customers.”

Successful part­ner­ship with Capvis in recent years

When Capvis joined the company in 2020, the aim was to conti­nue BSI’s success story and at the same time provide further impe­tus for growth. Over the past four years, new soft­ware products have been deve­lo­ped, state-of-the-art cloud archi­tec­tures rolled out and the indus­try modu­les expan­ded. BSI was also able to acquire three compa­nies and expand the func­tion­a­lity of the Custo­mer Suite with Snap­view (GDPR-compli­ant video consul­ting), InSign (elec­tro­nic signa­tures of the highest secu­rity level) and Riskine (soft­ware solu­tion for consul­ting proces­ses at banks and insu­rance companies).

André Perwas, Part­ner at Capvis, adds: “We were deligh­ted when the foun­ders and manage­ment deci­ded to join Capvis in 2020. We have achie­ved a lot in this part­ner­ship and are convin­ced that BSI will also successfully shape the next chap­ter of growth.”

Part­ner­ship with BU conti­nues to focus on custo­mer-orien­ted growth and supports BSI’s expan­sion in Europe
With BU, BSI has gained a part­ner with outstan­ding expe­ri­ence in the soft­ware sector. BU is the largest mid-cap inves­tor head­quar­te­red in the DACH region and has been active in the invest­ment busi­ness since 2015.

“Of course, our custo­mers and our products will remain the focus of our further growth stra­tegy,” explains Markus Brunold, CEO of BSI. He explains: “With BU, we can simul­ta­neously drive forward inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and expand in our focus indus­tries within Europe.

Chris Rusche, co-foun­der and board member of BSI adds “the growing size allows us to conti­nue to invest in our people and products. All our custo­mers bene­fit from BSI’s success with a strong, compre­hen­sive, Euro­pean soft­ware plat­form for CRM and CX”.

Phil­ipp Struth, Part­ner at BU (photo), says: “BSI impres­sed us not only with its inno­va­tive product port­fo­lio, but above all with its unique corpo­rate culture, which has turned a very large part of its work­force into true co-entre­pre­neurs. We are hono­red to be able to help shape and support BSI’s future growth as a BU.”

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial terms of the tran­sac­tion. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to the appr­oval of the rele­vant authorities.

About Bregal Entre­pre­neu­rial Capital

Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) is a leading private equity firm with offices in Zug, Munich and Milan. With a total of €7.0 billion in capi­tal raised since its foun­da­tion, BU is the largest mid-cap inves­tor head­quar­te­red in the DACH region. The funds advi­sed by BU invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Germany, Switz­er­land, Italy and Austria. With the mission to be the prefer­red part­ner for entre­pre­neurs and family busi­nesses, BU focu­ses on part­ner­ships with market leaders and “hidden cham­pi­ons” with strong manage­ment teams and growth poten­tial. Since its foun­da­tion in 2015, the funds advi­sed by BU have inves­ted over €3.0 billion in more than 100 compa­nies with over 27,000 employees. More than 7,700 jobs were crea­ted in the process. BU supports entre­pre­neurs and fami­lies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to further deve­lop, inter­na­tio­na­lize and digi­ta­lize their compa­nies, helping them to create sustainable value respon­si­bly and with a view to the next generation.
For more infor­ma­tion, please visit www.bregal.ch/ or follow us on LinkedIn.

About BSI

With the BSI Custo­mer Suite, the Swiss soft­ware manu­fac­tu­rer BSI offers a holi­stic, AI-supported plat­form for the digi­ta­liza­tion of custo­mer rela­ti­onships. BSI provi­des ever­y­thing that an excel­lent custo­mer expe­ri­ence needs for banking, insu­rance, retail and energy & utili­ties. In addi­tion to his many years of indus­try exper­tise, this also includes BSI’s CRM system with a gene­ra­tive 360° custo­mer view and a BSI Compa­n­ion. Around 230 corpo­rate custo­mers use BSI’s soft­ware to reach their more than 150 million end custo­mers throug­hout Europe. Since its foun­da­tion in Switz­er­land in 1996, the company has estab­lished itself as the market leader in its focus sectors in the DACH region. Its custo­mers include renow­ned compa­nies such as ADAC, the Raiff­ei­sen Banking Group, Signal Iduna, Post­Fi­nance and Merkur Versi­che­rung. Soft­ware and people working toge­ther — that’s what BSI stands for.
www.bsi-software.com

About Capvis

Capvis AG in Baar is the exclu­sive advi­sor to the Capvis funds, which prima­rily acquire majo­rity stakes in leading medium-sized tech­no­logy compa­nies. Its acti­vi­ties are based on many years of expe­ri­ence in crea­ting local and global market leaders in the fields of health­care, indus­trial tech­no­logy and advan­ced services and soft­ware. Close coope­ra­tion with strong manage­ment teams ensu­res that the compa­nies’ poten­tial is fully exploi­ted and long-term value is crea­ted. Capvis has been active in the private equity sector for more than 30 years and has inves­ted more than 4 billion euros in 63 compa­nies. The remar­kable number of 10 IPOs docu­ments the quality of the invest­ments mana­ged and deve­lo­ped by Capvis.
www.capvis.com

Neubeuern/Karlsruhe — ORCA Soft­ware GmbH (“ORCA”), based in Neubeu­ern and a leading soft­ware company in the cons­truc­tion indus­try, is under­go­ing a change of owner­ship. The foun­der and sole share­hol­der of ORCA Soft­ware GmbH and its sister company ORCA-online GmbH, Heinz Nießen, has sold all of his shares indi­rectly to funds mana­ged by LEA Part­ners (“LEA”) for reasons of age.

Heinz Nießen, foun­der and sole share­hol­der of ORCA Soft­ware GmbH and ORCA-online GmbH, is selling all his shares for reasons of age. Toge­ther with the LEA port­fo­lio compa­nies PROJEKT PRO and SOFTTECH, ORCA will signi­fi­cantly advance the market leader­ship in the DACH region for commer­cial cons­truc­tion soft­ware and acce­le­rate the digi­ta­liza­tion of the cons­truc­tion indus­try. The total of 15,000 custo­mers will bene­fit in future from the unique exper­tise of over 250 employees to further increase their econo­mic and plan­ning success

“In LEA, we have found a strong, relia­ble part­ner to lead the ORCA Group into the future. Of course, it’s diffi­cult when you hand over your life’s work to new hands,” says Heinz Nießen, who will also be step­ping down as Mana­ging Direc­tor, “but the LEA team is the perfect fit, both perso­nally and profes­sio­nally, to give ORCA the right impe­tus to conti­nue the impres­sive growth trajec­tory of recent years with the entire team.”

LEA plans to conti­nue the company at the Neubeu­ern site with the exis­ting manage­ment team. The purchase agree­ment, the terms of which the parties have agreed not to disc­lose, is to be comple­ted by the end of August at the latest.

The remai­ning Mana­ging Direc­tor, Manfred Scholz, adds: “We are deligh­ted for our entire team and our custo­mers that LEA has a long-term approach to estab­li­shing ORCA even more stron­gly as a premium brand in the cons­truc­tion soft­ware sector and to conti­nuously improve our port­fo­lio of products and services.”

Toge­ther with the exis­ting LEA port­fo­lio compa­nies in the cons­truc­tion soft­ware sector, PROJEKT PRO (project manage­ment and control­ling soft­ware) and SOFTTECH (AVA and visua­liza­tion soft­ware), ORCA will be able to drive forward the expan­sion of its market leader­ship in the DACH region for commer­cial cons­truc­tion soft­ware and acce­le­rate digi­ta­liza­tion. In future, the compa­nies will be able to combine their exper­tise in commer­cial solu­ti­ons and visua­liza­tion soft­ware to make the cons­truc­tion indus­try more effi­ci­ent and inno­va­tive. In future, custo­mers will bene­fit from the unique exper­tise of over 250 employees to further increase their econo­mic and plan­ning success.

Nils Berger, LEA Part­ners: “The digi­ta­liza­tion of the cons­truc­tion indus­try is one of the most exci­ting and biggest tasks that LEA Part­ners has been passio­nate about for years. With over 30 years of expe­ri­ence as a market leader in the AVA sector, ORCA is another important buil­ding block in achie­ving this goal of an abso­lute market leader. By working toge­ther with PROJEKT PRO and SOFTTECH, we can expand and opti­mize our soft­ware product offe­ring for the custo­mer groups. We are deligh­ted to be able to accom­pany the ORCA team on their future path as a spar­ring part­ner and investor.”

About ORCA Soft­ware GmbH

Foun­ded in 1990, ORCA Soft­ware GmbH is a leading soft­ware company in the cons­truc­tion indus­try. Over 110 employees work at the Neubeu­ern site near Rosen­heim. The ORCA AVA and AUSSCHREIBEN.DE product brands prima­rily support archi­tects, engi­neers, specia­list plan­ners and product manu­fac­tu­r­ers with intui­tive tools that offer opti­mum data quality and plan­ning relia­bi­lity. As a well-connec­ted part­ner, ORCA actively promo­tes the topics of BIM, digi­ta­liza­tion and sustaina­bi­lity in the cons­truc­tion indus­try. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at www.orca-software.com.

About LEA Partners

LEA Part­ners, as an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner, supports foun­ders and manage­ment teams at diffe­rent stages of deve­lo­p­ment in their growth and achie­ve­ment of a leading market posi­tion. With a 30+ team in Karls­ruhe, one of Europe’s largest tech­no­logy clus­ters, LEA has mana­ged invest­ments in more than 70 tech­no­logy compa­nies since 2002. More at www.leapartners.de

Hamburg / Munich — EQT Future and the globally opera­ting Kühne Holding acquire a 35% stake in Flix SE (“Flix” or the “Company”). In addi­tion to a primary invest­ment in Flix, EQT Future and Kühne Holding will acquire shares from exis­ting share­hol­ders in order to build a long-term anchor stake in Flix. The company recor­ded sales growth of 30% in 2023, reaching EUR 2 billion in total annual sales for the first time. — The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to certain custo­mary condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory approvals.

“We are plea­sed to welcome EQT Future and Kühne Holding as strong and focu­sed inves­tors with a proven track record of sustainable, long-term invest­ment stra­te­gies. Their capi­tal and exper­tise are a great asset to the over­all stra­te­gic vision of our company. We could­n’t wish for better part­ners to start the next chap­ter of the Flix jour­ney,” comm­ents André Schwämm­lein, CEO and co-foun­der of Flix.

“EQT Future supports high-quality, growing compa­nies that have the poten­tial to be leaders in their fields. Flix is the perfect exam­ple of this. We are deeply impres­sed by what André and his team have built. They have deve­lo­ped Flix from a start-up to a clear global market leader opera­ting in 43 count­ries,” said Andreas Aschen­bren­ner, Foun­ding Part­ner and Deputy Head of the EQT Future advi­sory team.

“For us at EQT, it’s always about provi­ding more than just capi­tal. We are proud to part­ner with Kühne Holding, one of the leading trans­por­ta­tion and logi­stics inves­tors, and André and his team and look forward to support­ing Flix’s stra­te­gic growth agenda in the long term. We want to ensure that Flix’s low-carbon solu­tion for long-haul travel reaches even more people around the world, and we believe Flix is well on its way to making a name for itself in the indus­try and beyond.”

Domi­nik de Daniel, CEO of Kühne Holding AG, commen­ted: “Flix is driving the next gene­ra­tion of coll­ec­tive trans­por­ta­tion. Kühne Holding is proud to support the company as a stra­te­gic part­ner in its next phase of expan­sion. Over the past few months, we have built up a good rela­ti­onship with our colle­agues at EQT Future. We have great confi­dence in André Schwämm­lein and his team and look forward to support­ing the future of Flix in a bene­fi­cial partnership.”

Karl Gernandt, CEO of Kühne Holding AG, added: “As one of the largest stra­te­gic inves­tors in the trans­por­ta­tion and mobi­lity sector, Kühne Holding is now taking a further step into the market for coll­ec­tive bus trans­port. With Flix’s proven asset-light opera­ting model, we see great syner­gies with our other invest­ments in the trans­por­ta­tion sector. We also want to support the inter­na­tio­nal network’s expan­sion stra­tegy. We are buil­ding on the great success Flix has had in estab­li­shing the bus as the leading sustainable mode of trans­por­ta­tion — for more than a decade in Europe and now overseas.”

Promo­ting profi­ta­ble growth

The invest­ment comes at a time when Flix is conti­nuing to grow stron­gly and expand strategically.
The company recor­ded sales growth of 30% in 2023, reaching EUR 2 billion in total annual sales for the first time. This will be achie­ved with increased profi­ta­bi­lity and an adjus­ted EBITDA of EUR 104 million in 2023. The strong momen­tum enables Flix to achieve stra­te­gic goals such as expan­ding its global presence, trans­forming the North Ameri­can bus market and further scaling Flix­Train to respond to the incre­asing demand for alter­na­tive rail services in Germany.

Expan­sion of global presence

In order to further streng­then its geogra­phi­cal presence, Flix recently ente­red two of the most important
bus markets world­wide: Chile and India. The company’s global presence now extends to 43 count­ries world­wide. Euro­pean expan­sion is being driven forward with both Flix­Bus and Flix­Train. Flix­Bus is signi­fi­cantly expan­ding its services in Great Britain, Portu­gal and the Ukraine and has added new services in Norway and Finland. Flix’s clear goal is to achieve market leader­ship in these markets.

Expan­sion of busi­ness in North America

Flix has been opera­ting in the United States since 2018. In 2021, the company acqui­red Grey­hound Lines, an iconic inter­city bus provi­der, further expan­ding its reach, inclu­ding in Canada and Mexico. The trans­for­ma­tion and inte­gra­tion of opera­ti­ons into the Flix plat­form is well under­way, which is incre­asingly reflec­ted in a growing share of “asset-light” assets, driving growth and profi­ta­bi­lity in the market.

About EQT

EQT is a purpose-driven global invest­ment orga­niza­tion with total assets under manage­ment of EUR 242 billion (EUR 132 billion in fee-gene­ra­ting assets under manage­ment), opera­ting in two busi­ness segments — Private Capi­tal and Real Assets. EQT owns port­fo­lio compa­nies and assets in Europe, Asia-Paci­fic and the Ameri­cas and supports them in achie­ving sustainable growth, opera­tio­nal excel­lence and market leadership.
Further infor­ma­tion: www.eqtgroup.com

About Flix

Flix aims to trans­form public trans­por­ta­tion by offe­ring sustainable and afforda­ble solu­ti­ons for long-distance bus and train travel in more than 40 count­ries on four conti­nents. With its asset-light busi­ness model and inno­va­tive tech­no­logy plat­form, Flix, which was foun­ded in 2013, has quickly become a market leader for long-distance coach travel in Europe. After North America and Turkey, Flix­Bus, Flix­Train, Kamil Koç and Grey­hound are expan­ding further into South America and India.

Driven by the growing aware­ness of sustainable travel, Flix aims to become climate-neutral in Europe by 2040 and world­wide by 2050. In order to evaluate its progress within a scien­ti­fi­cally reco­gni­zed frame­work, Flix has set short-term targets for emis­si­ons reduc­tion with the Science Based Targets initia­tive. While Flix mana­ges the commer­cial side of the busi­ness such as network plan­ning, pricing, opera­ti­ons control, marke­ting and sales, quality manage­ment and conti­nuous product deve­lo­p­ment with a data-driven approach, trus­ted Flix part­ners run the day-to-day opera­ti­ons. The inno­va­tive combi­na­tion of Flix’s tech­no­logy and distri­bu­tion plat­form with tradi­tio­nal passen­ger trans­por­ta­tion has turned a Euro­pean start-up into a leading and globally expan­ding travel tech­no­logy company.
Further infor­ma­tion: corporate.flixbus.com

About Kühne Holding

Kühne Holding AG, based in Switz­er­land, compri­ses the busi­ness inte­rests of Klaus-Michael Kühne. With an entre­pre­neu­rial focus on invest­ments in the logi­stics and trans­por­ta­tion sector, it holds a majo­rity stake in Kühne+Nagel Inter­na­tio­nal AG and is the largest single share­hol­der in Hapag-Lloyd AG, Deut­sche Luft­hansa AG and Brenn­tag SE. In April 2024, Kühne Holding announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of the Aenova Group, a global leader in phar­maceu­ti­cal contract deve­lo­p­ment and manufacturing.

Munich — Satel­lite launch services provi­der Isar Aero­space today announ­ced a signi­fi­cant increase of more than €65 million in its Series C finan­cing round, which now totals over €220 million. The NATO Inno­va­tion Fund (NIF) — an inde­pen­dent venture capi­tal fund supported by 24 NATO member states with an invest­ment volume of over one billion euros — is inves­t­ing in Isar Aero­space for the first time; this is also the first direct invest­ment by the NATO Inno­va­tion Fund in a satel­lite launch service provi­der. The fund supports deep-tech compa­nies in the fields of defense, secu­rity and resi­li­ence. The commit­ment repres­ents NIF’s first direct invest­ment in a satel­lite launch services provi­der and unders­cores the importance of space tech­no­lo­gies for both civil inno­va­tion and defense capabilities.

Other new inves­tors in the exten­sion of the Series C finan­cing round include the Euro­pean family office G3T as well as the inves­tors 10x Group, Besant Capi­tal, Finad­vice Med HOLDINGS and LP&E. Exis­ting inves­tors Lake­star, Early­bird, Airbus Ventures, Porsche SE, Bayern Kapi­tal and UVC Part­ners made signi­fi­cant contri­bu­ti­ons to the Series C finan­cing round.

Using commer­cial tech­no­lo­gies as a lever for sovereignty

Andrea Traver­sone, Mana­ging Part­ner of the NATO Inno­va­tion Fund, says: “Access to space is criti­cal to the tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty of Europe and the UK. Space tech­no­lo­gies like Isar Aerospace’s offer huge poten­tial and will enable us to build a secure and prospe­rous future for gene­ra­ti­ons to come. We will support Isar by promo­ting deploy­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in both govern­ment and commer­cial sectors.”

Leading nati­ons such as the USA are alre­ady basing their space and defense stra­te­gies on commer­cial space capa­bi­li­ties, as the procu­re­ment of private commer­cial services and products is more inno­va­tive, more effi­ci­ent and, above all, more cost-effective.
Daniel Metz­ler, co-foun­der and CEO of Isar Aero­space, says: “The NATO Inno­va­tion Fund’s invest­ment in Isar Aero­space is a strong sign of confi­dence in our approach and under­lines the funda­men­tal role of space tech­no­lo­gies for our economy and society. But more than that, it shows that Euro­pean govern­ments need to encou­rage and leverage private inno­va­tion and products to compete globally.”

Leading New Space company in Europe

With a total finan­cing volume of more than 400 million euros since its foun­da­tion in 2018, Isar Aero­space is the most capi­ta­li­zed inde­pen­dent New Space company in Europe. The company has estab­lished itself as a tech­no­logy leader thanks to complete verti­cal inte­gra­tion with its own deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion and test­ing proces­ses. Isar Aero­space relies on scalable series produc­tion to indus­tria­lize the produc­tion of launch vehicles.

In May 2024, Isar Aero­space announ­ced plans to build the world’s most modern produc­tion faci­lity for orbi­tal launch vehic­les near Munich. In coope­ra­tion with the pan-Euro­pean real estate company VGP Group, which will deve­lop and build the faci­lity, Isar Aero­space will be able to produce up to 40 Spec­trum launch vehic­les per year.

This latest funding will enable Isar Aero­space to invest in the initial set-up and ramp-up of its series produc­tion. With a high degree of auto­ma­tion and a focus on scala­bi­lity, the company will be able to meet the growing demand from the private and public sectors for the trans­por­ta­tion of small and medium-sized satel­li­tes and satel­lite constel­la­ti­ons at compe­ti­tive prices.

About Isar Aerospace
Isar Aero­space, based near Munich, deve­lops and builds launch vehic­les for the trans­por­ta­tion of small and medium-sized satel­li­tes and satel­lite constel­la­ti­ons into Earth orbit. The company was foun­ded in 2018 as a spin-off of the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich. Since then, it has grown to over 400 employees from more than 50 nati­ons, who have many years of prac­ti­cal space exper­tise as well as expe­ri­ence in other high-tech sectors. With a total finan­cing volume of more than EUR 400 million, Isar Aero­space is the best-finan­ced inde­pen­dent new space company in Europe and a pioneer in scaling and indus­tria­li­zing the produc­tion of launch vehic­les through verti­cal inte­gra­tion. The two-stage orbi­tal launch vehicle “Spec­trum” is speci­ally desi­gned for the cons­truc­tion of satel­lite constel­la­ti­ons and provi­des access to one of the most crucial tech­no­lo­gi­cal plat­forms of our time: space. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at: https://www.isaraerospace.com/.

About the new inves­tors in Isar Aerospace’s Series C finan­cing round

About the NATO Inno­va­tion Fund:
The NATO Inno­va­tion Fund is a venture capi­tal fund supported by 24 NATO member states that invests more than one billion euros in cutting-edge tech­no­lo­gies to address defense, secu­rity and resi­li­ence chal­lenges. The fund invests inde­pendently, with 24 states support­ing the success of the port­fo­lio and helping deep tech entre­pre­neurs gain access to commer­cial and govern­ment markets. The parti­ci­pa­ting NATO count­ries are: Belgium, Bulga­ria, Denmark, Germany, Esto­nia, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithua­nia, Luxem­bourg, the Nether­lands, Norway, Poland, Portu­gal, Roma­nia, Sweden, Slova­kia, Spain, the Czech Repu­blic, Turkey, Hungary and the United King­dom. Further infor­ma­tion: https://www.nif.fund/

About the 10x Group:
10x Group is a group of serial entre­pre­neurs inves­t­ing in foun­ders across Europe and Sili­con Valley. Previous invest­ments include Adyen, Equip­mentS­hare, Revolt, Enpal, Open­Door, Lumi­nar, Deli­ver­y­Hero, Robin­hood and seve­ral other well-known global companies.

About Besant:
Besant is an invest­ment company with assets under manage­ment of over USD 500 million and offices in Europe and the Ameri­cas. It offers dedi­ca­ted invest­ment solu­ti­ons in selec­ted growth sectors that are bene­fiting from far-reaching chan­ges. Besant’s team has exten­sive exper­tise in finan­cial, stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal manage­ment and brings more than 50 years of combi­ned expe­ri­ence in public and private markets, with over $2.9 billion inves­ted. Besant Digi­tal focu­ses on global venture capi­tal invest­ments with a focus on tech­no­logy and digi­tal busi­ness models. The main target regi­ons are Europe, Israel and the USA as proven centers for innovation.

About Finad­vice Med HOLDINGS:
Finad­vice Med HOLDINGS is a Swiss invest­ment company supported by a group of Euro­pean entrepreneurs.

About G3T:
The family busi­ness is a holding company with indus­trial roots. It was a share­hol­der in Aber­tis, one of the world’s leading compa­nies in the high­way and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons infra­struc­ture sector. Its main busi­ness areas are curr­ently rene­wa­ble ener­gies, real estate (Spain, France and Germany) and health­care centers, and it is also present in the agri­cul­tu­ral and indus­trial sectors through finan­cial invest­ments. It holds a signi­fi­cant stake in Flui­dra, the global market leader for swim­ming pool and well­ness equipment.

The corpo­rate busi­ness is mana­ged directly, and in the case of finan­cial invest­ments, whether listed or private equity, the company holds a signi­fi­cant and stable posi­tion, is closely linked to the manage­ment and pursues a long-term orien­ta­tion. Venture Capi­tal was inte­gra­ted into the stra­te­gic plan as a new busi­ness area with the aim of acqui­ring mino­rity inte­rests in tech­no­logy-orien­ted growth companies.

About LP&E:
LP&E is a priva­tely held venture capi­tal firm based in Switz­er­land that focu­ses on invest­ments in emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies and inno­va­tive busi­ness models.

About Porsche SE: