Consortium around EMERAM and Gimv supports learning platform sofatutor

Munich — EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners, one of the leading private equity firms for medium-sized compa­nies in the German-spea­king region, is leading an inves­tor consor­tium, inclu­ding the private equity firm Gimv, to take the digi­tal company sofa­tu­tor into its next growth phase. This replaces the previous shareholders.

sofa­tu­tor is the most compre­hen­sive digi­tal educa­tion plat­form for students in the German-spea­king world for grades 1 to 12 (K‑12). Number of users increased to more than one million students in 2020, the year of success. Further digi­tal lear­ning offe­rings and inte­gra­tion into school opera­ti­ons repre­sent a key growth lever. sofa­tu­tor plans to close the gap in online lear­ning and improve access to first-class educa­tion with further inno­va­tive offe­rings. In this way, the strong growth of recent years is to be continued.

Foun­ded in 2008, the company curr­ently has more than one million users. In addi­tion, sofa­tu­tor is now used by around 25 percent of all teachers throug­hout Germany, as well as in the German states of Saxony and Bremen. sofa­tu­tor thus sees itself as the most compre­hen­sive provi­der of digi­tal lear­ning assis­tance in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land, a market with a total of more than eleven million students.

The product and service port­fo­lio of sofa­tu­tor includes a wide range of more than 11,000 videos as well as exer­ci­ses and work­s­heets for 14 diffe­rent school subjects. Students can flexi­bly access mate­ri­als and have a real-time chat on home­work with quali­fied teachers through sofatutor’s web-based plat­form or app.

Dr. Chris­tian Näther, Foun­ding Part­ner of EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners, says: “Good educa­tion is a signi­fi­cant factor for a country’s society. That is why we want to support sofa­tu­tor in conti­nuously expan­ding its lear­ning offe­ring. Alre­ady, sofa­tu­tor is expe­ri­en­cing high demand for its digi­tal lear­ning offe­rings, which has been further streng­the­ned by home­schoo­ling and COVID-19. We would like to conti­nue this success story.” Matthias Ober­meyr, Part­ner at EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners, adds: “Thanks to its compre­hen­sive digi­tal offe­rings, inno­va­tive strength and good value for money, sofa­tu­tor alre­ady has a strong market posi­tion. An expan­sion of this digi­tal product offe­ring as well as the further deve­lo­p­ment of digi­tal lear­ning models also offers signi­fi­cant growth potential.”

Stephan Bayer, CEO of sofa­tu­tor and foun­der of the company, explains: “With more than one million users and the large network of teachers who inte­grate sofatutor’s digi­tal lear­ning content into their lessons, sofa­tu­tor has long been the leading provi­der of digi­tal lear­ning services. With the new inves­tor consor­tium, we now have another strong inves­tor group at our side that will very compe­tently accom­pany and support the company in the next growth phase. Inno­va­tive digi­tal lear­ning offe­rings will conti­nue to form our DNA in the future. We want to support schools, teachers and students not only in the after­noons, but also provide digi­tal lear­ning content in the mornings when schools are in session.”

Dr. Sven Oleow­nik, Part­ner and Head of Germany at the Euro­pean invest­ment company Gimv, which specia­li­zes in growth companies.With its invest­ment in sofa­tu­tor, Gimv rein­forces its ambi­tion to invest in future-orien­­ted compa­nies along the funda­men­tal consu­mer trends of digi­ta­liza­tion, sustaina­bi­lity and conve­ni­ence. Toge­ther with EMERAM, Gimv supports an excel­lently mana­ged company whose digi­tal offe­ring perfectly addres­ses the United Nati­ons goals of high-quality educa­tion and digi­tal inno­va­tion. Koen Bouck­aert, Mana­ging Part­ner and Head Consu­mer at Gimv, added: “We are ther­e­fore parti­cu­larly plea­sed to allo­cate part of our recently laun­ched Sustainable Bond to sofatutor’s growth story and thus make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to the company’s development.”

Advi­sor to the inves­tor consor­tium around EMERAM and Gimv:
IEG Invest­ment Banking Group (M&A), GLNS and McDer­mott (Legal), PwC (Finan­cial, Tax and Commer­cial) and Xperify (Tech/Marketing) advised.

The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties. Further finan­cial details will not be disclosed.