Bregal Unternehmerkapital sells majority stake in ACTICO to Keensight Capital

Zug / Fried­richs­ha­fen — Funds advi­sed by BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”), the largest and most active mid-market private equity firm based in the DACH region, have ente­red into an agree­ment with Keen­sight Capi­tal (“Keen­sight”), one of Europe’s leading growth buyout firms, under which Keen­sight will acquire a majo­rity stake in ACTICO Group. The Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal Fonds (“BU Funds”), the previous majo­rity share­hol­der since March 2021, as well as the manage­ment team of ACTICO Group will remain invol­ved via a reverse invest­ment and will conti­nue to closely support the expan­sion of the market posi­tion of the leading provi­der of soft­ware solu­ti­ons for regu­la­tory compli­ance and risk manage­ment in the long term. The plan is to acce­le­rate inter­na­tio­nal growth and conti­nuously expand the product range both orga­ni­cally and through acquisitions. 

ACTICO Group, with head­quar­ters in Fried­richs­ha­fen and four other loca­ti­ons, specia­li­zes in the intel­li­gent auto­ma­tion of compli­ance, asset manage­ment, regu­la­tory report­ing and credit proces­ses for finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons world­wide. The company stands for modern tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons that support finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons in comply­ing with growing regu­la­tory requi­re­ments and effec­tive risk manage­ment. ACTICO was foun­ded in 1997 and acqui­red by a German indus­trial group in 2008; in 2015, the manage­ment team sepa­ra­ted the company from the parent company as part of a carve-out. As part of a struc­tu­red busi­ness succes­sion, the company part­ne­red with the BU funds in 2021 to realize its growth plans and vision with a well-funded and soft­­ware-expe­ri­en­­ced new majo­rity shareholder. 

In close part­ner­ship, the orga­niza­tion and proces­ses were expan­ded in the follo­wing years and further profes­sio­na­li­zed for the strong growth ahead. Among other things, the company’s manage­ment was put on a broa­der footing, sales struc­tures were expan­ded and the IT infra­struc­ture was streng­the­ned. At the same time, signi­fi­cant invest­ments were made on the product side in areas such as cloud tech­no­logy, inte­grabi­lity, machine lear­ning and AI capa­bi­li­ties. In parti­cu­lar, the new deve­lo­p­ment of a credit risk plat­form and the trans­for­ma­tion of the ACTICO Compli­ance Suite into a cloud-native solu­tion also gene­ra­ted strong inte­rest outside the previous Euro­pean core market. In 2022, ACTICO Group acqui­red Fact Infor­ma­ti­ons­sys­teme und Consul­ting, a company specia­li­zing in the digi­ta­liza­tion of invest­ment manage­ment. The merger led to a signi­fi­cantly broa­der custo­mer base in the finan­cial sector, parti­cu­larly in the areas of fund compa­nies and insu­r­ers. In the course of the part­ner­ship with BU, ACTICO Group was thus able to record strong growth in its core market of Europe as well as strong momen­tum with new custo­mers in America and Asia, more than doubling its turno­ver. The Group is one of the market leaders in the DACH region and today serves more than 300 well-known compa­nies in the finan­cial sector worldwide. 

Hans Jürgen Rieder, CEO of the ACTICO Groupsays: “We would like to thank BU for their support over the past four years. The team has deve­lo­ped ACTICO Group with dedi­ca­tion and expe­ri­ence in the soft­ware indus­try and we are plea­sed that BU will conti­nue to be a valued part­ner under the new majo­rity owner­ship of Keen­sight. By part­ne­ring with Keen­sight, we can embark on the next phase of our growth. Keensight’s expe­ri­ence in scaling soft­ware busi­nesses and their global network will enable ACTICO Group to capi­ta­lize on new oppor­tu­ni­ties in key markets and deli­ver even grea­ter value to our customers.”

Phil­ipp Struth (photo), Part­ner at BU, explains: “Over the past four years, we have actively supported ACTICO Group in deve­lo­ping its product port­fo­lio, buil­ding a strong manage­ment team and posi­tio­ning the company for sustainable growth. With this strong foun­da­tion, ACTICO Group is well posi­tio­ned for the next phase of scaling. We look forward to conti­nuing to support the fanta­stic team as a partner.”

Stanis­las de Tinguy, Part­ner at Keen­sight Capi­tal, added: “ACTICO Group is uniquely posi­tio­ned to capi­ta­lize on the rapidly evol­ving market for credit and compli­ance soft­ware. With its expe­ri­en­ced and inno­va­tive leader­ship team, we look forward to support­ing the company’s expan­sion and acce­le­ra­ting growth in exis­ting and new markets.”

About BU

BU Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal (“BU”) is a leading private equity firm with offices in Zug, Munich, Milan and London. With a total of €7.0 billion in capi­tal raised since incep­tion, BU is the largest mid-market private equity firm 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 in more than 140 compa­nies with over 29,000 employees. Around 10,000 jobs have been 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. — www.bu-partners.ch

About ACTICO Group

ACTICO Group is a leading inter­na­tio­nal provi­der of digi­tal solu­ti­ons for regu­la­tory compli­ance, invest­ment manage­ment, credit risk, data & report­ing and decis­ion auto­ma­tion. Its flexi­ble and agile soft­ware solu­ti­ons help compa­nies meet regu­la­tory requi­re­ments, opti­mize proces­ses and focus on growth with the help of AI-powered tech­no­logy. With over 25 years of expe­ri­ence, ACTICO Group serves more than 300 clients world­wide in the finan­cial, indus­trial and tech­no­logy sectors, provi­ding powerful solu­ti­ons with a clear focus on custo­mer success. The company opera­tes in six loca­ti­ons and employs a team of 230 people support­ing clients in over 25 count­ries. — www.acticogroup.com

About Keen­sight Capital

Keen­sight Capi­tal (“Keen­sight”), one of Europe’s leading growth buyout firms, is dedi­ca­ted to helping entre­pre­neurs realize their growth stra­te­gies. With more than 25 years of expe­ri­ence and €5.5 billion in assets under manage­ment, the Keen­sight Capi­tal team lever­a­ges its diffe­ren­tia­ted private equity expe­ri­ence to invest in profi­ta­ble growth compa­nies with reve­nues between €10 million and €400 million. Drawing on its exper­tise in the tech­no­logy and health­care sectors, Keen­sight iden­ti­fies the best invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in Europe and works closely with manage­ment teams, provi­ding capi­tal, stra­te­gic advice and opera­tio­nal support. Keen­sight opera­tes in more than 90 count­ries world­wide and has offices in Paris, London, Boston and Singa­pore. — www.keensight.com