Author: Tatjana Anderer

Espoo (Finland) — IXI, an Espoo-based startup deve­lo­ping the worl­d’s first auto­fo­cus eyewear, has raised €32.2 million in Series A funding to fina­lize product deve­lo­p­ment of IXI Adap­tive Eyewear and launch commer­cial operations.

The round was led by Plural, with parti­ci­pa­tion from Tesi, byFoun­ders, Heart­core, Eura­zeo, FOV Ventures, Tiny Super­com­pu­ter and exis­ting inves­tors Maki.vc, First Fellow, Amazon Alexa Fund , First­mi­nute Capi­tal, John Lind­fors, Illu­sian and Bragiel Brot­hers.

Niko Eiden, co-foun­der and CEO of IXI, said: “Eyewear is the oldest garment in the world, rooted in centu­ries of science, design and craft­sman­ship. Yet it’s incre­di­ble that we haven’t seen more leaps in tech­no­logy, forcing milli­ons of people to compro­mise on the way they see the world. The time for change is now. We’re about to create a whole new era of tech­no­logy for vision — and we can’t wait to show the world what’s in store. Backed by inves­tors who reco­gnize the scale of this oppor­tu­nity, we are ready to rede­fine the possi­bi­li­ties of eyewear.”

Foun­ded in 2021 by a team from the fields of weara­ble tech­no­logy, optics and indus­trial design, IXI aims to disrupt the €175 billion eyewear market with dyna­mic lenses that auto­ma­ti­cally adapt to the wearer’s eyes. — The tech­no­logy offers a wider field of vision in a product that works exactly as nature inten­ded for the eyes”. 

The foun­ders of IXI, Niko Eiden (CEO) and Ville Miet­ti­nen (Chief Algo­rithm Offi­cer), were previously co-foun­ders of the mixed reality hard­ware startup Varjo. Their expe­ri­ence with advan­ced optics and eye-track­ing solu­ti­ons inspi­red them to deve­lop a new type of eyewear that solves the chall­enge of vision correc­tion and addres­ses the chal­lenges of poor eyesight. 

Dyna­mic lens technology

IXI aims to create a new cate­gory of eyewear charac­te­ri­zed by real-time and ultra-low-power eye-track­ing and dyna­mic lens tech­no­logy. The company’s mission is to break the boun­da­ries of tradi­tio­nal eyewear, which IXI belie­ves have exis­ted for centu­ries. Accor­ding to the company, conven­tio­nal progres­sive lenses force wearers to compro­mise: Narrow fields of vision, peri­phe­ral distor­tion and diffi­culty seeing clearly at diffe­rent distances are common compromises. 

IXI belie­ves that as the worl­d’s popu­la­tion ages, the number of pres­by­opia diagno­ses will increase and milli­ons of people will face signi­fi­cant compro­mi­ses in multi­fo­cal vision, turning an alre­ady wide­spread chall­enge into a looming global problem.

Sten Tamkivi, Part­ner at Plural Plat­form (photo © Sten Tamkivi), said: “Niko, Ville and the team have a rare Euro­pean hard­ware exper­tise that puts them at the fore­front of advan­ced optics and eye-track­ing deve­lo­p­ments. They are deve­lo­ping a wonderful, lite­rally invi­si­ble tech­no­logy that will pioneer a new approach to vision and improve human vision once and for all. By support­ing IXI, we are not just inves­t­ing in a company, but in a future where tech­no­logy is revo­lu­tio­ni­zing the way we see the world. 

https://ixieyewear.com

https://pluralplatform.com

Munich — Mile­stone, a Copen­ha­gen-based subsi­diary of Canon and a leading global provi­der of video surveil­lance tech­no­logy, is acqui­ring Berlin-based AI start-up Brigh­ter AI.

Foun­ded in 2017, Brigh­ter AI uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to anony­mize video data in accordance with Euro­pean data protec­tion regu­la­ti­ons. Exis­ting coope­ra­tion part­ners include Volks­wa­gen, Deut­sche Bahn and the US chip manu­fac­tu­rer Nvidia. 

With the acqui­si­tion of Brigh­ter AI, Mile­stone is pursuing the clear goal of estab­li­shing itself as a Euro­pean market leader for secure and privacy-compli­ant video data analy­sis. CEO Thomas Jensen is convin­ced that the market for data anony­miza­tion will conti­nue to grow stron­gly. By lever­aging Brigh­ter AI’s tech­no­logy, which is alre­ady used by well-known compa­nies world­wide, Mile­stone aims to further streng­then and expand its posi­tion in the field of AI-powered video surveil­lance solutions. 

With this tran­sac­tion, Mile­stone under­lines the incre­asingly influ­en­tial role of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in Europe.

Advi­sors to Mile­stone: Bird & Bird

Asso­ciate Yannick Stahl, LL.M. and Part­ner Stefan Münch (both Corpo­rate, M&A, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer, Coun­sel Sandy Gerlach (both Employ­ment Law, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Rolf Schmich and Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann (both Tax Law, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Stephan Wald­heim (EU & Compe­ti­tion, Düsseldorf). 

About Brigh­ter AI

To protect every iden­tity in the public domain, brigh­ter AI offers privacy services that enable any orga­niza­tion — working with privacy-sensi­tive image data — to focus on its core busi­ness objec­ti­ves. This is achie­ved through next-gene­ra­tion privacy tech­no­lo­gies, seam­less usage and meeting indi­vi­dual needs through custo­miza­tion options.
www.brighter.ai

About Bird & Bird

As a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm, Bird & Bird is the part­ner for ever­yone who wants to defend and streng­then their super­powers. Thanks to our orig­ins in IP law, we under­stand the core of every company, the requi­re­ments of the market and compe­ti­tion and how to achieve sustainable success. We call it sector focus. And with this DNA, we are now your law firm for all legal issues rela­ting to tech­no­logy, digi­ta­liza­tion and regu­la­tion. With over 1,600 lawy­ers in 32 offices in 22 count­ries, we are repre­sen­ted in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia-Paci­fic and Africa and main­tain close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 280 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich. For more infor­ma­tion visit www.twobirds.com.

Wies­ba­den — With the launch of the state of Hesse’s new Hessen­Fonds, BMH Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH is also taking up its role as mana­ger of Hessen­Fonds Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH. With a total volume of one billion euros, the fund aims to promote inno­va­tion and trans­for­ma­tion in the Hessian economy. 

The Hessian state govern­ment estab­lished the Hessen­Fonds with the aim of support­ing start-ups and small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses in all phases of their busi­ness in the areas of inno­va­tion and trans­for­ma­tion. Wirt­schafts- und Infra­struk­tur­bank Hessen (WIBank) is respon­si­ble for imple­men­ting the Hessen­Fonds. Of the fund’s total volume of one billion euros, 750 million euros will go to WIBank for loan products and 250 million euros to Hessen­Fonds Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH. The fund’s invest­ment period extends from 2025 to 2034. 

The invest­ments start at 200,000 euros and amount to a maxi­mum of 10 million euros per company. The funds are inves­ted in the form of silent parti­ci­pa­ti­ons or direct parti­ci­pa­ti­ons. Silent parti­ci­pa­ti­ons gene­rally have a term of eight years and in the case of direct parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, Hessen­Fonds acqui­res shares in the company, with the aim of selling the shares after five to seven years. Compa­nies can use the funds, for exam­ple, to invest in company restruc­tu­ring, the expan­sion and acqui­si­tion of new machi­nery and equip­ment, auto­ma­tion, digi­ta­liza­tion and rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment. The intro­duc­tion of the Hessen­Fonds is part of a compre­hen­sive stra­tegy by the state govern­ment to streng­then Hessen as a busi­ness loca­tion and support compa­nies in adap­ting to struc­tu­ral change. 

Dr. Stef­fen Huth, Mana­ging Direc­tor of BMH, explains: “With the Hessen­Fonds, we as an invest­ment company can provide targe­ted support where compa­nies need capi­tal for growth, trans­for­ma­tion and inno­va­tion. Our focus is on sustainable busi­ness models, digi­tal deve­lo­p­ment and streng­thening SMEs in Hesse. Toge­ther with WIBank and the state of Hesse, we can thus make an active contri­bu­tion to the future econo­mic viabi­lity of Hesse as a busi­ness location.”

Jürgen Zabel, also Mana­ging Direc­tor of BMH, adds: “We see oursel­ves as an equal part­ner for Hessian compa­nies that want to take the next step in their deve­lo­p­ment. Hessen­Fonds opens up new scope for future-orien­ted invest­ments — be it in the deve­lo­p­ment of new tech­no­lo­gies and products, entry into new markets or the imple­men­ta­tion of inno­va­tion and trans­for­ma­tion-orien­ted stra­te­gies. Company succes­si­ons can also be supported with the HessenFonds.”

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.
More infor­ma­tion about BMH and its funds: www.bmh-hessen.de

Stutt­gart — The HELUKABEL Group is expan­ding its network of inter­na­tio­nal loca­ti­ons: The specia­list for elec­tri­cal connec­tion tech­no­logy recently acqui­red the cables and wires divi­sion of its long-stan­ding sales part­ner, the service and trading group DKSH Austra­lia. A Deloitte legal team led by Stutt­gart-based corporate/M&A part­ner Michael Schnei­der advi­sed the HELUKABEL Group on the acqui­si­tion of the “Cables and Wires” divi­sion of DKSH Austra­lia Pty. Ltd. with the support of Austra­lian Deloitte colle­agues from the Legal, Tax and Finan­cial Advi­sory departments. 

The HELUKABEL Group, head­quar­te­red in Hemmin­gen near Stutt­gart, is an inter­na­tio­nally active family busi­ness and is one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers and suppli­ers of cables, wires, cable access­ories and other elec­tri­cal connec­tion tech­no­logy. With its own produc­tion sites and logi­stics centers and over 2,500 employees world­wide, the HELUKABEL Group offers a compre­hen­sive product port­fo­lio for indus­try, infra­struc­ture, mobi­lity and event & media tech­no­logy. As a result of the acqui­si­tion, the HELUKABEL Group is now present at 76 loca­ti­ons in 43 count­ries on all conti­nents (with the excep­tion of Antarctica). 

The DKSH Group, head­quar­te­red in Zurich, is a leading global market expan­sion service provi­der and trading group active in 36 markets. DKSH employs over 28,000 people and has a network of 850 busi­ness loca­ti­ons in Asia and 20 in Europe and America. DKSH is active in the Luxury & Life­style, Perfor­mance Mate­ri­als and Services sectors. 

HELUKABEL Austra­lia will serve custo­mers in Austra­lia, New Zealand and neigh­bor­ing markets with a team of around 35 dedi­ca­ted and expe­ri­en­ced employees at its logi­stics loca­ti­ons in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. Users bene­fit from an exten­sive product range with more than 33,000 stock items and an effi­ci­ent inter­na­tio­nal logi­stics network that ensu­res short deli­very times. Compe­tent service and custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons for indi­vi­dual requi­re­ments round off the offering. 

With the support of the global Deloitte (Legal) network, the Stutt­gart-based Deloitte Legal team has alre­ady advi­sed the HELUKABEL Group on various acqui­si­ti­ons in Germany and abroad. For exam­ple, the Stutt­gart team recently supported the HELUKABEL Group toge­ther with French Deloitte (Legal) colle­agues in the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in IC Auto­ma­tion SAS. 

Advi­sor HELUKABEL Group: Deloitte Legal

Michael Schnei­der (Lead, Part­ner, Stutt­gart), Jose­fin Wied­mann (Senior Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart), Sarah Roth (Senior Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart), Marc Albrecht (Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart), Dr. Johan­nes Kapp­ler (Asso­ciate, Stutt­gart) (all Corporate/M&A).

About Deloitte Legal

Deloitte Legal refers to the legal prac­ti­ces of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limi­ted member firms, their affi­lia­tes or part­ner firms that provide legal services. Deloitte provi­des indus­try-leading audit and assu­rance, tax, consul­ting, finan­cial advi­sory and risk advi­sory services to nearly 90% of Fortune Global 500® compa­nies and thou­sands of private compa­nies. Legal services in Germany are provi­ded by Deloitte Legal. Our people deli­ver measura­ble, long-term results that help build public confi­dence in the capi­tal markets, support our clients to trans­form and grow, and lead the way to a stron­ger economy, a fairer society and a sustainable world. Deloitte builds on more than 175 years of history and opera­tes in more than 150 count­ries. www.deloitte.com/de.

Müns­ter — German tech­no­logy start-up eeden, which has deve­lo­ped a breakth­rough textile recy­cling tech­no­logy, announ­ces the closing of its €18 million Series A finan­cing round. The round was led by Forbion, a leading venture capi­tal firm based in the Nether­lands, through its BioE­co­nomy Fund. Other new inves­tors include Henkel Ventures, the stra­te­gic venture capi­tal fund of Henkel, which has exten­sive exper­tise in surface and coating tech­no­lo­gies through its consu­mer and indus­trial busi­ness, and NRW.Venture, the venture fund of NRW.BANK, the deve­lo­p­ment bank of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. 

All exis­ting inves­tors have reinves­ted in the round, inclu­ding venture capi­ta­lists Tech­Vi­sion Fund (TVF), High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) and D11Z. Ventures — the early-stage invest­ment arm of Dieter Schwar­z’s family office. The finan­cing will enable eeden to build its demons­tra­tion plant in Müns­ter, opti­mize proces­sing on a large scale and estab­lish commer­cial projects with key play­ers in the textile industry. 

A big step towards a circu­lar economy

Ongo­ing chal­lenges such as rising costs, resource scar­city, mate­rial vola­ti­lity and growing regu­la­tory hurd­les conti­nue to plague the textile indus­try. To remain compe­ti­tive, brands and manu­fac­tu­r­ers are incre­asingly looking for textile mate­ri­als that offer high perfor­mance, scala­bi­lity and circu­la­rity at the same price. eeden addres­ses this need with its breakth­rough chemi­cal recy­cling tech­no­logy that reco­vers pure cellu­lose and PET buil­ding blocks (mono­mers) from cotton-poly­es­ter blends. Its products can be used to produce virgin lyocell, viscose and poly­es­ter fibers, offe­ring a resource-effi­ci­ent alter­na­tive to conven­tio­nal fibers and opening up new circu­lar value chains. 

Alex Hoff­mann, Gene­ral Part­ner at Forbion (Photo: Forbion): “eeden has deve­lo­ped a ground-brea­king solu­tion that can make large-scale textile recy­cling not only tech­no­lo­gi­cally feasi­ble, but also commer­ci­ally viable in the near future. We see enorm­ous poten­tial in their approach and are deligh­ted to support the team in brin­ging this ground-brea­king tech­no­logy to indus­trial scale.”

“With its inno­va­tive tech­no­logy, eeden not only makes a valuable contri­bu­tion to conser­ving resour­ces in the textile indus­try, but also offers a commer­ci­ally attrac­tive busi­ness model in the long term,” says Florian Stin­auer, Invest­ment Mana­ger at NRW.Venture, who will also repre­sent the fund on the company’s advi­sory board. “With this invest­ment, we are further expan­ding our exis­ting port­fo­lio in the field of sustainable future technologies.” 

Stef­fen Gerlach, CEO & Co-Foun­der of eeden: “Over the past years, we have deve­lo­ped a proven solu­tion that has the poten­tial to meet the indus­try’s long-term need for high-perfor­mance, cost-effi­ci­ent and circu­lar mate­ri­als. We are proud that our new and exis­ting inves­tors believe in our approach and share our vision. With their support, we are ready to scale our tech­no­logy and turn textile waste into mate­ri­als that the indus­try really needs.”

eeden has deve­lo­ped a unique chemi­cal recy­cling process for mixed fibers that allows them to be reco­vered from old texti­les and used as raw mate­ri­als for new textile fibers. With its tech­no­logy, the start-up closes the textile cycle and redu­ces depen­dence on resource-inten­sive raw mate­ri­als in this indus­try. The capi­tal from the current finan­cing round will enable the cons­truc­tion of a demons­tra­tion plant in Müns­ter, which repres­ents the next step on the way to indus­trial scaling of the recy­cling process. In addi­tion, commer­cial projects are to be reali­zed with key play­ers in the textile industry. 

With invest­ments such as this one, NRW.BANK speci­fi­cally streng­thens young compa­nies that contri­bute to the sustainable trans­for­ma­tion of the economy and society with their inno­va­tive solutions.

About eeden

eeden is a tech­no­logy company based in Müns­ter, Germany, pionee­ring the chemi­cal recy­cling of cotton-poly­es­ter texti­les. Foun­ded in 2019, eeden has deve­lo­ped a breakth­rough tech­no­logy that effi­ci­ently sepa­ra­tes and reco­vers cellu­lose and PET mono­mers. These are proces­sed by fiber manu­fac­tu­r­ers into new lyocell, viscose and poly­es­ter fibers, enab­ling the tran­si­tion to a fully circu­lar textile indus­try. https://eeden.world

About Forbion

Forbion is a leading global venture capi­tal firm with exten­sive exper­tise in Europe and offices in Naar­den (Nether­lands), Munich (Germany) and Boston (USA). Forbion invests in inno­va­tive biotech compa­nies and mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately € 5 billion in various fund stra­te­gies cove­ring all phases of (bio)pharmaceutical drug deve­lo­p­ment. In addi­tion, Forbion lever­a­ges its biotech exper­tise beyond human health to address the chal­lenges of “plane­tary health” with its BioE­co­nomy fund stra­tegy, which invests in compa­nies deve­lo­ping sustainable solu­ti­ons in the areas of food, agri­cul­ture, mate­ri­als and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­lo­gies. Forbi­o­n’s team of over 30 invest­ment profes­sio­nals has an impres­sive track record of 128 invest­ments across 11 funds since the late 1990s. Forbi­o­n’s track record in sourcing, buil­ding and mana­ging life science compa­nies has led to nume­rous appro­ved breakth­rough thera­pies and valuable exits. The company is a signa­tory to the United Nati­ons Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment. Forbion opera­tes a joint venture with BGV, the mana­ger of seed and early-stage funds with a parti­cu­lar focus on the Bene­lux and Germany. 

About Henkel Ventures

Henkel Ventures is the corpo­rate venture capi­tal arm of Henkel and pursues a balan­ced approach with stra­te­gic focus and solid finan­cial returns. Henkel Ventures part­ners with start-ups for joint inno­va­tion and invests in early stage, late seed to B rounds in the areas of consu­mer products (CPG), adhe­si­ves tech­no­lo­gies, sustaina­bi­lity and digi­tal commerce. You can find more infor­ma­tion at Henkel Ventures 

About TVF

Tech­Vi­sion Fund (TVF) is a leading early-stage VC fund based in Aachen, Germany, focu­sing on tech­no­logy start-ups in the pre-seed to Series A stage. TVF focu­ses on outstan­ding teams from the Rhine­land region, inclu­ding the neigh­bor­ing Nether­lands and Belgium. TVF’s manage­ment has expe­ri­ence from four gene­ra­ti­ons of funds and curr­ently mana­ges assets of over 100 million euros. The funds are backed by strong inves­tors such as NRW.BANK, eight savings banks from western NRW and more than 15 successful entrepreneurs.
TVF supports start-up teams with its network and know-how and paves the way for them to become the next inter­na­tio­nal indus­try leader. Through the network of the S‑UBG Group, TVF offers unique access to over 150 successful compa­nies in various sectors and estab­lishes cont­acts between start-ups and their first custo­mers, part­ners and advi­sors. www.tvf.vc

About NRW.Venture

NRW.Venture is NRW.BANK’s venture capi­tal fund. It is the deve­lo­p­ment bank for North Rhine-West­pha­lia’s response to the shortage of finan­cing for young, inno­va­tive, often tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies that are often unable to obtain finan­cing through loans. Their main capi­tal consists of a new market idea, which makes it diffi­cult to assess their chan­ces of success. NRW.Venture invests up to EUR 15 million in such start-ups over seve­ral rounds — typi­cally from the second finan­cing round onwards — toge­ther with private-sector inves­tors. NRW.BANK takes mino­rity stakes over a period of three to seven years. Howe­ver, the commit­ment does not only comprise capi­tal — an expe­ri­en­ced team is the key to joint success. NRW.Venture’s invest­ment profes­sio­nals with many years of venture capi­tal expe­ri­ence, and often also tech­no­logy and start-up expe­ri­ence, use their know-how and network to ensure that start-ups have the best chan­ces of success. www.nrwbank.de

 

Berlin — Munich-based Defen­seTech company ARX Robo­tics has raised over €31 million in its Series A finan­cing round. The round was led by HV Capi­tal, with parti­ci­pa­tion from Omnes Capi­tal and exis­ting inves­tors NATO Inno­va­tion Fund, Project A and Summi­teer. ARX Robo­tics was advi­sed by YPOG on this transaction. 

ARX Robo­tics deve­lops auto­no­mous, unman­ned ground vehic­les and the AI-based opera­ting system Mithra OS. ARX robots can be equip­ped for a variety of mili­tary scena­rios, inclu­ding live-fire trai­ning and simu­la­tion, trans­por­ta­tion and medi­cal evacua­tion or special sensor appli­ca­ti­ons for recon­nais­sance missi­ons. Foun­ded in 2022, the company focu­ses on a fully Euro­pean supply chain and addres­ses the growing demand for modu­lar, soft­ware-defi­ned defense systems. Six Euro­pean armed forces are alre­ady using ARX Robo­tics’ solu­ti­ons, inclu­ding the largest western-deve­lo­ped fleet of unman­ned ground vehic­les deli­vered to the Ukrai­nian army. 

With the fresh capi­tal, the company plans to increase its produc­tion capa­city five­fold in the coming year at
, drive forward its expan­sion into other Euro­pean markets and acce­le­rate the further deve­lo­p­ment of its opera­ting system for exis­ting vehic­les. ARX Robo­tics recently announ­ced the opening of an office in London and a new produc­tion faci­lity in the south of England. In addi­tion, a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship was signed with Daim­ler Truck to deve­lop the next gene­ra­tion of mili­tary vehicles. 

Foun­ded by Marc Wiet­feld (co-foun­der and CEO), Maxi­mi­lian Wied (co-foun­der and CFO) and Stefan Roebel (co-foun­der and COO) — all former Bundes­wehr offi­cers — the Munich-based company is dedi­ca­ted to streng­thening Euro­pean resi­li­ence. Its unique offe­ring in mobile robo­tics, inclu­ding the worl­d’s first inde­pen­dent AI opera­ting system for legacy vehic­les, ARX Mithra OS, helps armed forces increase opera­tio­nal effi­ci­ency and improve situa­tio­nal aware­ness as they moder­nize their fleets. 

“The demand for modu­lar, soft­ware-based defense systems is growing rapidly — and we are buil­ding the company that will define this cate­gory in Europe. At the core of ARX Robo­tics is a clear mission: to create the next gene­ra­tion of defense infra­struc­ture through scalable robo­tics and soft­ware. We are deligh­ted to be working with such pres­ti­gious inves­tors who support this mission. This new funding is a signi­fi­cant mile­stone and cata­lyst that will allow us to move from successful deploy­ments to indus­trial scaling,” said Marc Wiet­feld, Co-Foun­der and CEO of ARX Robo­tics

Advi­sor ARX Robo­tics: YPOG

Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Jonas von Kalben (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Jacob Schrei­ber (Tax), Senior Asso­ciate, Munich
Cyra Ditt­ber­ner (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Munich

About ARX Robotics

ARX Robo­tics was foun­ded in 2022 by Marc Wiet­feld, Maxi­mi­lian Wied and Stefan Roebel, former offi­cers of the German Armed Forces. The company specia­li­zes in scalable unman­ned ground systems and modu­lar soft­ware archi­tec­tures for defence appli­ca­ti­ons. With its tech­no­logy — in parti­cu­lar the Mithra OS opera­ting system — ARX Robo­tics supports Euro­pean armed forces in the moder­niza­tion and digi­ta­liza­tion of their fleets. The aim is to sustain­ably streng­then Euro­pe’s defense sove­reig­nty through inno­va­tive, AI-driven solu­ti­ons. www.arx-robotics.com/about

About YPOG

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

London — McDer­mott Will & Emery has advi­sed Main Capi­tal Part­ners and its port­fo­lio company Foco­nis, a leading soft­ware part­ner for finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons in the DACH region, on the acqui­si­tion of Swiss-based MACD AG, a leading provi­der of trading connec­ti­vity. The merger streng­thens Foco­nis’ posi­tion in its exis­ting markets while expan­ding its presence in Switz­er­land and the UK. 

Foco­nis supports finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons in criti­cal opera­tio­nal areas such as payment tran­sac­tions, data analy­sis, process effi­ci­ency, busi­ness intel­li­gence and compli­ance manage­ment. Around 350 employees work at the loca­ti­ons in Herzo­gen­rath, Hamburg, Vils­ho­fen an der Donau and Landau in der Pfalz. 

MACD has been deve­lo­ping custo­mi­zed products and services for finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons for more than 25 years and is the market leader for trading connec­ti­vity in Switz­er­land. More than 60 banks and stock exch­an­ges in Europe rely on MACD’s services in the areas of soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment, project manage­ment, consul­ting, hosting and support. 

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor in the DACH region, the Bene­lux count­ries, the Nordic count­ries and the United States. Main Capi­tal mana­ges assets of around EUR 6 billion and main­ta­ins an active port­fo­lio of more than 50 soft­ware groups.

Advi­sors to Main Capi­tal Part­ners and Foco­nis GmbH: McDer­mott Will & Emery

Fatema Orjela (Corporate/M&A, London), Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger (Munich), Dustin Schwerdt­fe­ger (Düssel­dorf; both Finance; all lead), Dr. Claus Färber (Coun­sel, Data Protec­tion Law, Munich), Adrian Helfen­stein (Coun­sel, Real Estate Law, Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Arjun Sehgal, Tom John­son (both London), Darius M. Mosleh (Düsseldorf/Cologne; all Corporate/M&A), Sophie Rezki, Emily Rees (both London), Matthias M. Bosbach, Romy Lanz (both Düssel­dorf; all Finance)

About McDer­mott Will & Emery

McDer­mott Will & Emery is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm with over 1,400 lawy­ers in more than 20 offices in Europe, North America and Asia. Our lawy­ers cover the entire spec­trum of commer­cial and corpo­rate law with their advice. The German prac­tice is mana­ged by McDer­mott Will & Emery Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP. www.mwe.com/de

Berlin/ Brussels/ Oslo (Norway) — The Scan­di­na­vian IT group Visma has acqui­red a mino­rity stake in Accoun­ta­ble, a German-Belgian fintech company specia­li­zing in intel­li­gent accoun­ting and tax solu­ti­ons for the self-employed. Visma is owned by the London-based private equity firm HG Capital. 

Finan­cial details were not disc­lo­sed, but Visma announ­ced its inten­tion to take over the start-up comple­tely in the future.

Accoun­ta­ble offers an app for Germany and Belgium that self-employed people can use to manage their finan­ces and taxes. The valua­tion for Accoun­ta­ble in the course of the take­over is said to be in the high double-digit million range. 

Accoun­ta­ble was foun­ded in Brussels in 2017 by Nico­las Quarré, Alexis Egger­mont and Hassan Ayed and was later joined by Tino Keller. — Accoun­ta­ble serves over 26,000 custo­mers in Belgium and Germany. Its mobile plat­form enables free­lan­cers and sole trad­ers to manage their taxes, invoices, banking and accoun­ting in colla­bo­ra­tion with profes­sio­nal advi­sors, often supported by AI tools. 

Merete Hver­ven, CEO of Visma (photo: Visma), explains that the invest­ment is in line with the company’s goal to expand its presence in Belgium and Germany. “With Accoun­ta­ble, we are expan­ding our range of intui­tive busi­ness soft­ware for the self-employed and remo­ving pain points and admi­nis­tra­tive burden,” she says. 

Despite the invest­ment, Accoun­ta­ble will conti­nue to operate inde­pendently with its current team. This is Visma’s fifte­enth acqui­si­tion in Belgium and under­lines its stra­te­gic push into the soft­ware market in the region. 

www.accountable.de

www.visma.com

Munich — EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners, one of the leading inde­pen­dent growth buy-out inves­tors for medium-sized compa­nies in the German-spea­king region, has successfully concluded the 2024 finan­cial year, which was a diffi­cult one for the indus­try. In 2024: Four invest­ments, one exit and comple­tion of fund­rai­sing for Fund II. 

Funds advi­sed by EMERAM have inves­ted in the German company Provi­tal GmbH. The company sells species-appro­priate dog and cat food in the premium segment via its specia­list advi­sors and its online store. Provi­tal is bene­fiting from the incre­asing demand for quality products. With its largest brand “Anifit”, the company has grown faster than the market in recent years and has signi­fi­cantly expan­ded its market share in Germany and Austria. 

In addi­tion, funds advi­sed by EMERAM have acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Garde­ros GmbH, a provi­der of rugge­dized router solu­ti­ons for secure data commu­ni­ca­tion and opti­mal connec­ti­vity in harsh envi­ron­ments. Garde­ros was foun­ded in 2002 as a spin-off of Siemens AG and has deve­lo­ped into a market-leading system provi­der capa­ble of supp­ly­ing large quan­ti­ties of rugge­dized routers with proprie­tary, appli­ca­tion-opti­mi­zed soft­ware to opera­tors of criti­cal infra­struc­tures (energy networks, traf­fic moni­to­ring) and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons compa­nies worldwide. 

Acqui­si­tion of CoCo­Net AG, a provi­der of soft­ware for the digi­tal corpo­rate client busi­ness with a focus on payment tran­sac­tions and cash manage­ment, by funds advi­sed by EMERAM. The company offers stand-alone front-office solu­ti­ons that enable finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons to improve secure custo­mer proces­ses without having to change their core banking systems. CoCo­Net has contin­ued its growth trajec­tory of the last ten years and is now expan­ding from Germany into other count­ries such as Italy, the Nether­lands, the UK, Switz­er­land and Austria. 

Invest­ment in ace Group (advan­ced clean energy Group), which opera­tes as an EPC provi­der in the clean energy sector and offers corre­spon­ding services in the areas of photo­vol­taics and char­ging infra­struc­ture. The company, which emer­ged from the two indus­try cham­pi­ons HMB and Charge Cons­truct, is alre­ady Germany’s largest full-service part­ner for long-term B2B custo­mers in the rene­wa­ble energy sector. 

Exit from diva‑e

In June 2024, EMERAM sold its port­fo­lio company diva‑e to the Dutch Conclu­sion Group. Since 2015, diva‑e, with the support of EMERAM, has succee­ded in buil­ding one of the leading provi­ders of end-to-end digi­tal expe­ri­ence solu­ti­ons in the DACH market by merging a total of 12 compa­nies. diva‑e has all major CX tech­no­lo­gies (e.g. Adobe, Sales­force, SAP, Spry­ker, Scayle and Pimcore) and counts leading compa­nies such as ALDI SÜD, Alli­anz, Bent­ley, E.ON, ZF Fried­richs­ha­fen and FC Bayern Munich among its custo­mers. In the 2023 finan­cial year, diva‑e gene­ra­ted sales of around 100 million euros with over 800 employees. 

Buil­ding on this series of succes­ses, EMERAM comple­ted the fund­rai­sing for Fund II last year, from which further invest­ments will be made in the current year 2025. In the first quar­ter of 2025, ]init[ AG, a joint port­fo­lio company of EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners and Rivean Capi­tal, comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of the HBSN Group imme­dia­tely after the turn of the year. Through this acqui­si­tion of a leading specia­list for digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion in the health­care indus­try, ]init[ AG was able to expand its holi­stic port­fo­lio for end-to-end digi­tiza­tion beyond the public sector into the health­care indus­try. The acqui­si­tion crea­tes a leading digi­tal specia­list with more than 1,500 employees at 18 locations. 

Due to the contin­ued expan­sion of the port­fo­lio compa­nies, EMERAM also expects double-digit percen­tage growth for the current finan­cial year 2025.

Solid deal pipeline

EMER­AM’s deal pipe­line will remain robust in 2025. The reason for this is the clear invest­ment focus on high-growth compa­nies that want to build on the three trend themes of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, health & well­be­ing and energy tran­si­tion and conti­nue to grow. The current market envi­ron­ment in parti­cu­lar offers great poten­tial and attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for the neces­sary trans­for­ma­tio­nal change. 

Confi­dence despite a chal­len­ging environment

“The entire private equity sector contin­ued to face chal­lenges in 2024 due to a persis­t­ently vola­tile market envi­ron­ment. We are proud that our port­fo­lio once again mana­ged to achieve an outstan­ding result last year. All compa­nies signi­fi­cantly increased their turno­ver and profit. We also expect a posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment for 2025,” explains Dr. Chris­tian Näther, Mana­ging Part­ner of EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners (photo: Emeram). “With our focus on the tren­ding topics of digi­ta­liza­tion, health & well­be­ing and energy tran­si­tion, we have clearly posi­tio­ned oursel­ves to support both successful compa­nies and the German-spea­king economy and society in the neces­sary transformation.” 

More than a decade of success on the market

Since its foun­da­tion in 2012, EMERAM has acted as a spar­ring part­ner for its port­fo­lio compa­nies and their manage­ment. The company accom­pa­nies and supports the port­fo­lio compa­nies of the funds it advi­ses with capi­tal and exper­tise in day-to-day busi­ness. Here are some figures: 

- Inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion was defi­ned as a stra­te­gic goal for two thirds of all invest­ments and successfully implemented.
— A total of 34 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons were inte­gra­ted to increase value.
— The increase in the value of the invest­ments was achie­ved prima­rily through growth: the port­fo­lio compa­nies’ sales increased by an average of 134% and EBITDA by 96%.
At the same time, the number of jobs rose by an average of 47%. This not only shows the scala­bi­lity of the port­fo­lio compa­nies, but also the social respon­si­bi­lity as an entre­pre­neur. This is because more than 1,200 new, attrac­tive jobs were created.
The imple­men­ta­tion and moni­to­ring of ESG measu­res increased the corre­spon­ding ESG score by 100 percent. In terms of fund perfor­mance, the funds advi­sed by EMERAM rank in the top group of their respec­tive years. 

EMERAM funds record top performance

EMERAM Private Equity Fund I, with a volume of EUR 400 million, is curr­ently ranked in the top quar­tile with a TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In) of 2.3x. The very good deve­lo­p­ment is driven in parti­cu­lar by the strong perfor­mance of the growth buy-out segment, which compri­ses the largest share of fund invest­ments with a volume of EUR 254 million and ranks among the top 10 percent with a TVPI of 3.5x and DPI (Distri­bu­ted to Paid-In) of 2.9x. EMERAM Private Equity Fund II, which was closed in 2024, conti­nues the successful growth buy-out stra­tegy. Here too, the TVPI is alre­ady 1.5x and is ther­e­fore also in the top decile. 

About EMERAM

EMERAM is one of the leading invest­ment mana­gers for invest­ments in medium-sized compa­nies in the German-spea­king region. Funds advi­sed by EMERAM provide more than EUR 800 million in capi­tal for the deve­lo­p­ment of growth compa­nies. The invest­ment stra­tegy focu­ses on the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, health and well­be­ing and energy tran­si­tion sectors. EMERAM acts as a long-term busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment part­ner for its compa­nies and promo­tes sustainable growth (orga­nic and inor­ga­nic). In addi­tion, the focus is on the imple­men­ta­tion of holi­stic ESG concepts.

The port­fo­lio curr­ently consists of eight plat­form holdings with a total of more than 3,500 employees. In addi­tion, a total of 34 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons have acce­le­ra­ted growth and enab­led inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion. www.emeram.com

 

Munich — Rantum Private Equity Fund II has orga­ni­zed a new growth finan­cing for its port­fo­lio company Aqua Group GmbH. The finan­cing package provi­ded by Cres­cent Capi­tal enables the refi­nan­cing of exis­ting bank liabi­li­ties as well as the future acqui­si­tion of further compa­nies as part of Aqua Group’s buy & build strategy. 

Aqua Group is a leading natio­nal provi­der of water and fire damage resto­ra­tion services with over 35 bran­ches and more than 550 employees. The acqui­si­tion of further add-ons in the stra­te­gi­cally important regi­ons of nort­hern Bava­ria and North Rhine-West­pha­lia is another signi­fi­cant step for the Buy & Build plat­form in its deve­lo­p­ment towards beco­ming a leading water and fire damage resto­ra­tion company in Germany. Cove­ring the entire value chain from diagno­sis to claims sett­le­ment, the company acts as a link between insu­rance compa­nies, property mana­gers, clai­mants and other stakeholders. 

Rantum Capi­tal is an SME finan­cier for the German-spea­king region (DACH) foun­ded by finan­cial experts, entre­pre­neurs and former DAX board members. Rantum Capi­tal curr­ently mana­ges seve­ral private equity and private debt funds. The private equity funds focus on majo­rity equity invest­ments in medium-sized compa­nies and invest capi­tal prima­rily from German insti­tu­tio­nal investors. 

Markus Wenz, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Rantum Capi­tal (photo: Rantum Capi­tal), adds: “The part­ner­ship with Cres­cent Capi­tal is an important mile­stone for Aqua Group. The finan­cing enables us to consis­t­ently imple­ment our successful buy & build stra­tegy in the future and to sustain­ably streng­then Aqua Group’s market posi­tion on its way to beco­ming a Germany-wide player. At the same time, we would like to thank Hypo Vorarl­berg Bank and Raiff­ei­sen­lan­des­bank Ober­ös­ter­reich for their great coope­ra­tion and support of the Aqua Group in recent years.”

Advi­sor Aqua Group and Rantum Private Equity Fund II on the various transactions:

RSM Ebner Stolz (Dr. Rode­rich Fischer, Holger Beck, Matthias Kran­kow­sky, Alex­an­der Stoll, Dr. Tobias Weiss).

Herter & Co — Teneo Capi­tal Advi­sory (Paul Kim, Marvin Wruck) acted as exclu­sive debt advi­sor to Aqua Group and Rantum Private Equity Fund II. The debt finan­cing was provi­ded by 

Cres­cent Capi­tal (Nicole Waibel, Jannik Callenberg).

McDer­mott Will & Emery (Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger, Alex­an­der Klein) provi­ded legal advice to Aqua Group and Rantum Private Equity Fund II on the nego­tia­tion of the debt financing.

Olpe/Munich — The inves­tor Para­gon Part­ners is acqui­ring the family-run Schell GmbH & Co. KG. — Comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties and is expec­ted to take place in May 2025. Oppen­hoff advi­sed the share­hol­ders of Schell GmbH & Co KG on the transaction. 

SCHELL GmbH & Co KG, head­quar­te­red in Olpe in the Sauer­land region of Germany, is an inter­na­tio­nal specia­list for fittings, inno­va­tive sani­tary tech­no­logy products and digi­tal solu­ti­ons for main­tai­ning drin­king water quality. The company is the global market leader in the fields of water manage­ment systems and angle valves. SCHELL employs around 450 people and is active in over 80 count­ries. With its water-saving fittings and angle valves, SCHELL offers future-proof solu­ti­ons for sustainable and resource-conser­ving water use. 

Para­gon Part­ners is an owner-mana­ged invest­ment company that has been inves­t­ing in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since it was foun­ded in 2004. Para­gon’s port­fo­lio covers various sectors and curr­ently consists of thir­teen compa­nies. The company is head­quar­te­red in Munich and mana­ges equity capi­tal of more than 2.4 billion euros. 

The Oppen­hoff team led by Dr. Günter Seulen and Dr. Phil­ipp Hein­richs (both Corporate/M&A) compri­sed Holger Hofmann, Dr. Cars­ten Bormann (both Public Commer­cial Law), Dr. Daniel Dohrn, Renée Cherelle Eckruth (both Anti­trust Law), Stefa­nie Minzen­may, Julia Höyng (both Real Estate), Marc Krischer, Dr. Gunnar Knorr, Jan Keesen (all tax), Jörn Kuhn, Moritz Coché (both employ­ment law), Georg Leche­ler, Dr. Patric Mau (both IP), Till Liebau (W&I), Anto­nia Timpa­ni­dis and Julian Spruy­ten­burg (both corporate/M&A).

Advi­sor to SCHELL share­hol­ders: Oppenhoff

Led by Dr. Günter Seulen and Dr. Phil­ipp Hein­richs (both Corporate/M&A); Holger Hofmann, Dr. Cars­ten Bormann (both Public Commer­cial Law), Dr. Daniel Dohrn, Renée Cherelle Eckruth (both Anti­trust Law), Stefa­nie Minzen­may, Julia Höyng (both Real Estate), Marc Krischer, Dr. Gunnar Knorr, Jan Keesen (all tax), Jörn Kuhn, Moritz Coché (both employ­ment law), Georg Leche­ler, Dr. Patric Mau (both IP), Till Liebau (W&I), Anto­nia Timpa­ni­dis and Julian Spruy­ten­burg (both corporate/M&A).

About Oppen­hoff

The full-service law firm Oppen­hoff finds indus­try-speci­fic solu­ti­ons for groups, large owner-mana­ged compa­nies and finan­cial inves­tors. More than 110 lawy­ers advise on all important areas of commer­cial and tax law.
Oppen­hoff & Part­ner Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter mbB (“Oppen­hoff”) is a part­ner­ship regis­tered in the part­ner­ship regis­ter of the Essen Local Court with the regis­tra­tion number PR 1850 and its regis­tered office in Colo­gne. A list of the part­ners autho­ri­zed to repre­sent the firm is available at https://www.oppenhoff.eu/de/allgemeine-seiten/impressum.

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.

Darmstadt/ Wies­ba­den — HCP Sense GmbH, a deep-tech start-up from Darm­stadt, has successfully comple­ted a seven-figure seed finan­cing round. The lead inves­tor is BMH Betei­li­gungs-Manage­ment­ge­sell­schaft Hessen mbH via its Hessen Kapi­tal I fund. The round was supple­men­ted by seve­ral renow­ned busi­ness angels. The funds will be used to further deve­lop the sensor solu­tion for rolling bearings and scale it up to an indus­tri­ally appli­ca­ble series product. 

Foun­ded in 2021, the company is a spin-off of the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Darm­stadt and is deve­lo­ping a new gene­ra­tion of high-tech sensors based on a multi-paten­ted tech­no­logy for moni­to­ring the lubri­ca­tion of rolling bearings — a criti­cal but previously barely trans­pa­rent area of indus­trial plant engi­nee­ring. The sensor from HCP Sense is inte­gra­ted directly into the machi­nes, works inde­pendently of the design, lubri­cant or bearing size and enables precise, conti­nuous analy­sis of the lubri­ca­tion status using edge compu­ting and AI-supported cloud evaluation. 

HCP Sense aims to initiate a para­digm shift in bearing moni­to­ring: away from clas­sic vibra­tion analy­ses, which only detect damage that has alre­ady occur­red, and towards moni­to­ring the causes, such as lubri­ca­tion condi­ti­ons, in order to proac­tively prevent fail­ures, i.e. predic­tive main­ten­ance. The company is thus addres­sing a massive effi­ci­ency poten­tial in a market worth billi­ons: around 80% of all prema­ture bearing fail­ures are due to inade­quate lubri­ca­tion. HCP Sense intends to use the fresh capi­tal to further deve­lop its exis­ting indi­vi­dual custo­mer solu­ti­ons into an indus­tri­ally scalable product. HCP Sense’s custo­mer base has grown conti­nuously in recent years and now includes both DAX-listed corpo­ra­ti­ons and nume­rous medium-sized companies. 

Dr. Tobias Schirra, co-foun­der and CEO of HCP Sense, says: “This finan­cing gives us the decisive impe­tus to bring our sensor tech­no­logy to series matu­rity and revo­lu­tio­nize predic­tive main­ten­ance in the rolling bearing market. With BMH, we have gained a strong part­ner that not only provi­des capi­tal, but also valuable exper­tise for our next deve­lo­p­ment phase.”

Chris­toph Wolf from BMH (photo © BMH) adds: “We were parti­cu­larly impres­sed by the excel­lent foun­ding team, which draws on in-depth rese­arch expe­ri­ence and has deve­lo­ped its tech­no­logy in close colla­bo­ra­tion with indus­try from the outset. With its solu­tion, HCP Sense also has its finger on the pulse of the times — predic­tive main­ten­ance for rolling bearings has the poten­tial to funda­men­tally change produc­tion proces­ses, mini­mize down­time and signi­fi­cantly increase the effi­ci­ency of entire plants.”

About BMH

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

Munich — Mile­stone, a Copen­ha­gen-based subsi­diary of Canon and the worl­d’s leading provi­der of video surveil­lance tech­no­logy, has acqui­red the Berlin-based AI start-up Brigh­ter AI. Mile­stone was advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion by the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird. 

Foun­ded in 2017, Brigh­ter AI uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to anony­mize video data in accordance with Euro­pean data protec­tion regu­la­ti­ons. Exis­ting coope­ra­tion part­ners include Volks­wa­gen, Deut­sche Bahn and the US chip manu­fac­tu­rer Nvidia. 

With the acqui­si­tion of Brigh­ter AI, Mile­stone is pursuing the clear goal of estab­li­shing itself as a Euro­pean market leader for secure and privacy-compli­ant video data analy­sis. CEO Thomas Jensen is convin­ced that the market for data anony­miza­tion will conti­nue to grow stron­gly. By utili­zing Brigh­ter AI’s tech­no­logy, which is alre­ady being used by well-known compa­nies world­wide, Mile­stone intends to further streng­then and expand its posi­tion in the field of AI-supported video surveil­lance solutions. 

With this tran­sac­tion, Mile­stone under­lines the incre­asingly influ­en­tial role of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in Europe.

Advi­sor Mile­stone: Bird & Bird

Asso­ciate Yannick Stahl, LL.M. and Part­ner Stefan Münch, Foto (both Corpo­rate, M&A, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer, Coun­sel Sandy Gerlach (both Employ­ment Law, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Rolf Schmich and Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann (both Tax Law, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Stephan Wald­heim (EU & Compe­ti­tion, Düsseldorf). 

About Bird & Bird

With its orig­ins in IP law, Bird & Bird under­stands the core of every company, the requi­re­ments of the market and compe­ti­tion and how to achieve sustainable success. We call it sector focus. And with this DNA, today we are your law firm for all legal issues rela­ting to tech­no­logy, digi­ta­liza­tion and regu­la­tion. With over 1,600 lawy­ers in 32 offices in 22 count­ries, we are repre­sen­ted in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia-Paci­fic and Africa and main­tain close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 280 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich. www.twobirds.com.

Cologne/Aachen — MedTech startup Clino­mic, a pioneer in digi­tal inten­sive care medi­cine, announ­ces the successful comple­tion of a Series B finan­cing round of 23 million euros. The round was co-led by the DeepT­ech & Climate Fund (DTCF) and a private family office. The funds will be used to expand the company’s presence in inter­na­tio­nal markets and further deve­lop its AI-powered health­care solutions. 

A HEUKING team led by Colo­gne part­ner Dr. Oliver Bött­cher and Sala­ried Part­ner Mark Ross­broich provi­ded legal advice to the med-tech start-up Clino­mic GmbH on this finan­cing round.

Foun­ded in 2019 by inten­sive care physi­ci­ans at RWTH Aachen Univer­sity, Clino­mic’s goal with Mona, an AI-supported plat­form for inten­sive care units, is to improve medi­cal decis­i­ons, opti­mize work­flows and signi­fi­cantly increase the quality of care through struc­tu­red, real-time data. Mona inte­gra­tes medi­cal hard­ware, soft­ware and data analy­sis in a single system and is desi­gned to trans­form inten­sive care so that it meets both human and tech­ni­cal stan­dards for pati­ents and medi­cal staff. 

Georg Grie­se­mann, CEO of Clino­mic, comm­ents: “We are proud to be able to further advance our vision of better inten­sive care medi­cine with such strong part­ners. This funding will enable us to expand our inter­na­tio­nal acti­vi­ties in a targe­ted manner, deepen our AI exper­tise and scale data-driven solutions.”

Günther Bogen­rie­der (photo), Invest­ment Mana­ger at DTCF, adds: “From our first discus­sions, it became clear how Clino­mic is solving key chal­lenges in health­care with the help of AI — and doing so with a tangi­ble, measura­ble impact. Georg, Arne, Lukas and their outstan­ding team are rede­fi­ning inten­sive care medicine. 

Clino­mic GmbH, a medi­cal tech­no­logy start-up from Aachen, was foun­ded in 2019 as a spin-off of RWTH Aachen Univer­sity and deve­lops intel­li­gent assis­tance systems for inten­sive care units. Its main product, “Mona”, uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and speech proces­sing to analyze medi­cal data and support nursing staff. The inter­di­sci­pli­nary team curr­ently consists of over 70 experts. 

Consul­tant Clino­mic GmbH: HEUKING

Dr. Oliver Bött­cher, Mark Ross­broich, LL. M. (King’s College London) (both lead, both venture capi­tal), Dr. Ruben A. Hofmann (IP, media & tech­no­logy), all Cologne;
Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (anti­trust law), Hamburg;
Michael Kömpel, Meike Dani­els, Stefan Cesar (venture capi­tal), all Cologne 

About Clino­mic

Clino­mic is a medi­cal tech­no­logy start-up foun­ded by inten­sive care physi­ci­ans from RWTH Aachen Univer­sity Hospi­tal. With its central solu­tion Mona, the company combi­nes state-of-the-art AI tech­no­logy with advan­ced data analy­sis to opti­mize work­flows in inten­sive care units, reduce the admi­nis­tra­tive burden and sustain­ably improve pati­ent outco­mes. By inte­gra­ting hard­ware, soft­ware and data services on a single plat­form, Clino­mic is setting new global stan­dards in digi­tal inten­sive care medi­cine and driving the moder­niza­tion of acute care world­wide. www.clinomic.ai

About the DeepT­ech & Climate Fund

The DeepT­ech & Climate Fund (DTCF) finan­ces high-growth DeepT­ech and Clima­te­Tech compa­nies in Germany and Europe with up to EUR 30 million per invest­ment. As an anchor inves­tor and part­ner of long-term orien­ted Euro­pean inves­tors, the DTCF offers support to compa­nies with long deve­lo­p­ment cycles and high finan­cing requi­re­ments in order to imple­ment a sustainable growth stra­tegy and actively contri­bu­tes to the expan­sion of the tech­no­logy ecosys­tem. The fund acts as a bridge between inves­tors, SMEs and inno­va­tive start-ups in the fields of climate, compu­ting, indus­try and life scien­ces. Finan­ced by the Future Fund and the ERP Special Fund, the DTCF plans to invest 1 billion euros in the coming years to streng­then the Euro­pean tech­no­logy ecosys­tem. www.dtcf.de

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Lifco

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

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

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

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

Streng­thening the next gene­ra­tion of health­care professionals

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

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

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

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

Advi­sor to the follo­wing inves­tors: YPOG 

Project A Ventures

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

Consultant:inside Partech

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

Advisors:inside Burda Prin­ci­pal Invest­ments and Quadrille Capital

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

About AMBOSS

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

About Partech

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

About Burda Prin­ci­pal Investments

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

About Quadrille Capital

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

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

Legal advi­sors Maxburg Betei­li­gun­gen: Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich

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

Legal advi­sors ASSA ABLOY: Clif­ford Chance, Frankfurt 

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

About Maxburg Capi­tal Partners

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Consul­tant Ambienta: 

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

About Ambi­enta

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Oakley Capital

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

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

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

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

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

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

Advi­sor SCIO Auto­ma­tion: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

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

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

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

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

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

Consul­tant: V14, Berlin

Florian Kozok, Sinje Clau­sen

The law firm V14

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

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

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

Advi­sor Early­bird: V14

Dr. Simon Pfef­ferle (Photo: V14)
Sven Demarczyk

The law firm V14

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

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

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

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

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

Advi­sor Buyno­mics: HEUKING

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