Author: Tatjana Anderer

Zug / Frechen — Build­Tec Soft­ware Group, foun­ded by funds advi­sed by Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”), acquire a majo­rity stake in Digi­Para GmbH (“Digi­Para”), a Germany-based provi­der of BIM-based eleva­tor plan­ning soft­ware. The aim is to conti­nue the growth course of the Build­Tec Soft­ware Group and to expand the product portfolio.

Digi­Para, based in Frechen, Germany, has made a name for itself in buil­ding infor­ma­tion mode­ling (BIM) for eleva­tors and escala­tors. The experts deve­lop BIM-opti­mi­zed programs for the effi­ci­ent plan­ning and confi­gu­ra­tion of eleva­tors. The company has been in exis­tence for around 35 years, and eleva­tor manu­fac­tu­r­ers and archi­tects world­wide use the two solu­ti­ons Digi­Para Lift­de­si­gner and Digi­Para Elevatorarchitect.

The soft­ware with intel­li­gent BIM model supports 2D designs and the entire plan­ning process. BIM ensu­res easy and smooth colla­bo­ra­tion, so that the eleva­tor and escala­tor confi­gu­ra­tion process can be simpli­fied and acce­le­ra­ted with the tools. “I am very plea­sed about the inte­gra­tion of Digi­Para into the Build­Tec Soft­ware Group. This deve­lo­p­ment offers our employees and custo­mers added secu­rity,” says Andreas Fleisch­mann, CEO of Digi­Para, adds: “I am also exci­ted about the new oppor­tu­ni­ties that this part­ner­ship opens up: soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment cycles can be acce­le­ra­ted and the quality of our BIM products can be further impro­ved, guaran­te­e­ing our custo­mers more effi­ci­ent and powerful soft­ware solutions.”

The inte­gra­tion of Digi­Para is a further mile­stone for the Build­Tec Soft­ware Group to further expand its growth course and market posi­tion and to deve­lop into the leading Euro­pean plat­form for inno­va­tive soft­ware solu­ti­ons in the trade and cons­truc­tion indus­try. With the stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion of Digi­Para, the Build­Tec Soft­ware Group bene­fits from a comple­men­tary product range to the CAD/CAM soft­ware solu­ti­ons for timber cons­truc­tion, stair­case cons­truc­tion and sheet metal proces­sing of the SEMA group of compa­nies acqui­red in 2022. The expan­ded global custo­mer base also offers poten­tial for cross-selling.

“We are deligh­ted to have Digi­Para as an abso­lute expert in the field of eleva­tor BIM as a part­ner. We are thus expan­ding our port­fo­lio by an important area and consis­t­ently conti­nuing our growth course,” says Alex­an­der Neuss, CEO of the Build­Tec Soft­ware Group. “Buil­ding Infor­ma­tion Mode­ling is the future of the cons­truc­tion indus­try,” Neuss conti­nues. The new part­ner­ship will now result in bene­fits and syner­gies with regard to BIM tools.

Since 2023, Build­Tec Soft­ware Group, foun­ded by BU advi­sed Funds, has made six acqui­si­ti­ons and now unites well-known compa­nies such as SEMA, Haus­mann & Wynen, Glaser Programm­sys­teme, E‑KOMPLET, Acies and now Digi­Para under one roof.

About Bregal Entre­pre­neu­rial Capital

Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) is a leading private equity firm with offices in Zug, Munich and Milan. 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 mana­ged by BU have inves­ted over 3.0 billion euros in more than 100 compa­nies with over 20,000 employees. 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.

http://www.bregal.ch

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) is selling a signi­fi­cant portion of its stake in Solva­res, a leading provi­der of soft­ware solu­ti­ons for resource and route plan­ning. Five Arrows joins as a part­ner to support the company on its further growth path. The shares in DBAG ECF III, which was advi­sed by DBAG, will also be parti­ally sold. With its invest­ment in Solva­res, DBAG ECF III has successfully arran­ged the succes­sion of the former foun­der-mana­ged company.

Proceeds from the sale slightly above the fair value of the invest­ment as at Decem­ber 31, 2023

DBAG is now reali­zing proceeds from the sale that are slightly higher than the fair value of the invest­ment in the preli­mi­nary conso­li­da­ted balance sheet as at 31 Decem­ber 2023. This results in a slightly posi­tive value contri­bu­tion from the tran­sac­tion in the current quar­ter. The further invest­ment will allow addi­tio­nal value to be gene­ra­ted from the future deve­lo­p­ment of the company: DBAG and DBAG ECF III conti­nue to see very good deve­lo­p­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for Solva­res, which is now one of the largest Euro­pean plat­forms for resource opti­miza­tion, and will ther­e­fore retain a signi­fi­cant stake. The new share­hol­der, Five Arrows, brings valuable B2B soft­ware and indus­try exper­tise to support the expan­sion of Solva­res’ product port­fo­lio and inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion stra­tegy by acce­le­ra­ting orga­nic growth and acquisitions.

Second sale from the DBAG ECF III portfolio

With the sale of its stake, DBAG ECF III has achie­ved the second realiza­tion from its fund port­fo­lio. Since 2018, the fund has built up a port­fo­lio of three compa­nies. The sale of the invest­ment in BTV Multi­me­dia was the first MBO sale from the DBAG ECF III portfolio.

Dispo­sal under­lines DBAG’s progress in the IT Services and Soft­ware segment 

The successful sale also under­lines the good progress made by DBAG in the IT Services and Soft­ware segment. After buil­ding up exten­sive know-how and a strong network, seven invest­ments have now been made in this segment. The asso­cia­ted share of DBAG’s total port­fo­lio value has increased almost five­fold in the last three years from five to 24 percent (as of Decem­ber 31, 2023).

Leading provi­der of soft­ware solu­ti­ons for resource and route plan­ning in Europe

Solva­res offers its custo­mers indus­try-leading soft­ware solu­ti­ons for plan­ning, control­ling and opti­mi­zing their field service, distri­bu­tion and trans­port logi­stics. Solva­res’ solu­tion plat­form is at the center of resource and mobi­lity manage­ment and supports over 3,000 custo­mers in 45 count­ries in solving complex use cases through proprie­tary algo­rithms and best-of-breed tech­no­lo­gies. This achie­ves tangi­ble effi­ci­ency gains for field service orga­niza­ti­ons and at the same time signi­fi­cantly redu­ces resource consump­tion and CO2 emis­si­ons. With a clear stra­te­gic focus and far-reaching invest­ments, Solva­res has succee­ded in trans­forming itself from a tradi­tio­nal license busi­ness into a powerful SaaS solu­tion provi­der. Turno­ver has increased almost five­fold in the last five years. Acqui­si­ti­ons also contri­bu­ted to the average double-digit orga­nic growth. The targe­ted acqui­si­tion of a total of five compa­nies enab­led further expan­sion in the field sales manage­ment area and comple­men­ted the product port­fo­lio with logi­stics and mobile func­tions. Finally, the inte­gra­tion of a former UK sales part­ner helped with internationalization.

“The high growth dyna­mics of the market coupled with invest­ments in soft­ware code and targe­ted inter­na­tio­nal company acqui­si­ti­ons have made a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to forming a Euro­pean market leader,” comm­ents Tom Alzin, Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (photo © DBAG), on the partial sale. He added: “Our decis­ion to focus more on digi­tal busi­ness models is incre­asingly paying off — to the bene­fit of inves­tors in DBAG’s shares and funds.”

Ivan Baga­ric, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer of Solva­resadds: “Our solu­ti­ons deli­ver signi­fi­cant added value to our custo­mers on a daily basis. Our busi­ness has deve­lo­ped stron­gly in recent years and I look forward to conti­nuing our growth plan in the coming years and deve­lo­ping Solva­res into the Euro­pean market leader for field manage­ment and logi­stics soft­ware. Five Arrows, with its exten­sive global expe­ri­ence in scaling B2B soft­ware busi­nesses and long-term invest­ment perspec­tive, is our part­ner of choice to support us in this next phase of our jour­ney. We are grateful for DBAG’s support to date and are deligh­ted that they will remain our inves­tors along­side Five Arrows.”

About DBAG

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 indus­try focus is on manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­tiza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the broad­band tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, IT services, soft­ware and health­care sectors. Since 2020, DBAG has also been repre­sen­ted in Italy with its own office in Milan. Assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to appro­xi­m­ately 2.6 billion euros. As part of its stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with ELF Capi­tal Group, DBAG is adding private debt capi­tal to its range of flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs.