Cumulocity — MBO with Avedon, Schroders and Verso Capital

Düssel­dorf — Cumu­lo­city manage­ment joins forces with a consor­tium of inves­tors led by Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners to create the leading inde­pen­dent IoT platform.

Cumu­lo­city, the German IIoT (Indus­trial IoT) pioneer, has been acqui­red by its manage­ment team with the support of key inves­tors Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners, Schro­ders Capi­tal and Verso Capi­tal. The part­ner­ship will provide Cumu­lo­city with the neces­sary resour­ces and stra­te­gic support to conso­li­date its posi­tion as a market leader in the fast-growing IoT sector. This includes further impro­ving the product, scaling opera­ti­ons and inves­t­ing in talent. 

Cumu­lo­city has stood out for years as one of the leading plat­forms for IIoT and is reco­gni­zed by indus­trial equip­ment manu­fac­tu­r­ers in various sectors for its strong product-market fit and repu­ta­tion. Cumulocity’s cutting-edge tech­no­logy is now used by hundreds of compa­nies in various indus­tries world­wide. One of the largest and most compe­ti­tive growth markets for the Germany-based company is the United States, where Cumu­lo­city has alre­ady achie­ved signi­fi­cant success. In addi­tion, the company serves custo­mers in over 30 other count­ries, offe­ring a compre­hen­sive full-service approach, 24-hour support, Clou­dOps and custo­mi­zed IIoT solutions. 

Cumulocity’s manage­ment team — Bernd Gross, Jürgen Krämer, Stefan Vail­lant, Jari Salmi­nen and Philip Hooker — consists of passio­nate foun­ders with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in growth compa­nies in the IIoT sector. They are ideally equip­ped to drive forward the company’s ambi­tious global expan­sion plans. 

Cumulocity’s plat­form has been reco­gni­zed as a leader in both the Gart­ner Magic Quadrant for Global Indus­trial IoT Plat­forms and the Forres­ter Wave for Indus­trial IoT. The posi­tive feed­back and recom­men­da­ti­ons from Gart­ner Peer Insights unders­core the solution’s poten­tial to succeed in the rapidly growing market for smart, connec­ted products. 

Commen­ting on the tran­sac­tion, Bernd Gross, co-foun­­der and CEO, said: “We are very exci­ted to enter this new phase of inde­pen­dence with rene­wed momen­tum and a streng­the­ned struc­ture. Our new corpo­rate struc­ture will allow us to be more flexi­ble and adapt to the chan­ging needs of our customers.”

He added: “The dyna­mic IIoT market, where we have alre­ady proven our quali­ties, will provide the right envi­ron­ment for Cumu­lo­city to thrive in its next chap­ter. The long-term part­ner­ship with our inves­tors will enable us to deli­ver value to our custo­mers and part­ners while crea­ting an attrac­tive work­place for our talen­ted employees.”

Ben von Schulz, Invest­ment Direc­tor at Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners, said: “Cumu­lo­city is a funda­men­tal enabler for custo­mers tran­si­tio­ning to digi­tal busi­ness and service models. Cumulocity’s IoT plat­form enables manu­fac­tu­r­ers to trans­form their hard­ware into plat­forms for inno­va­tive services, unlo­cking new reve­nue streams and deli­ve­ring grea­ter custo­mer value. We look forward to support­ing the manage­ment team in taking Cumu­lo­city to the next level and reali­zing its full growth potential.”

About Cumu­lo­city

Foun­ded in 2012, Cumu­lo­city is a world-leading Indus­trial Inter­net of Things (IoT) plat­form that provi­des out-of-the-box device manage­ment and low-code appli­ca­ti­ons for rapid ROI. The cloud-native plat­form enables orga­niza­ti­ons to take a “buy and build” approach, shor­tening time to market for new, diffe­ren­tia­ting digi­tal services. Cumu­lo­city is the prefer­red choice for indus­trial equip­ment suppli­ers and is used by leading compa­nies world­wide to power their smart, connec­ted products in manu­fac­tu­ring, fleet manage­ment, consu­mer elec­tro­nics and other areas. Cumu­lo­city is available as a cloud, on-premi­­ses, edge and hybrid solution. 

About Avedon Capi­tal Partners

Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading private equity firm based in Amster­dam and Düssel­dorf. We focus on support­ing growth-stage compa­nies in the Bene­lux and DACH regi­ons and part­ner with excep­tio­nal entre­pre­neurs and manage­ment teams to acce­le­rate orga­nic growth, inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and buy-and-build stra­te­gies. Our invest­ments focus on four key sectors: Busi­ness Services, Soft­ware & Tech­no­logy, Smart Indus­tries and Consu­mer & Health. https://avedoncapital.com.

About Schro­ders Capital

Schro­ders Capi­tal offers inves­tors access to a broad range of private market invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, port­fo­lio buil­ding blocks and custo­mi­zed private market stra­te­gies. The Schro­ders Capi­tal team is focu­sed on deli­ve­ring supe­rior risk-adjus­­ted returns and execu­ting invest­ments through a combi­na­tion of direct invest­ments and broa­der solu­ti­ons across all private markets asset clas­ses, through comingled funds and bespoke private markets manda­tes. With $97.3 billion (£77.0 billion; €90.8 billion)* of assets under manage­ment, Schro­ders Capi­tal offers a diverse range of invest­ment stra­te­gies inclu­ding real estate, private equity, secon­da­ries, venture capi­tal, infra­struc­ture, secu­ri­ti­zed products and asset-based finance, private debt, insu­rance-linked secu­ri­ties and Blue­Or­chard (impact specialists). 

About Verso Capital

Verso Capi­tal is a Nordic private equity firm that invests in Euro­pean B2B compa­nies with a turno­ver between 10 and 100 million euros. We look for compa­nies that are aiming for a leading posi­tion in their target market. We specia­lize in carve-outs and buy-outs. Our team has expe­ri­ence from over 100 carve-out and M&A tran­sac­tions — we have the neces­sary know-how and metho­do­logy to execute even compli­ca­ted tran­sac­tions quickly and effi­ci­ently. We invest mainly in Nort­hern Europe and have offices in Helsinki, Stock­holm and Munich. 

Advi­sor Avedon Capi­tal Part­ners: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills, Düssel­dorf, Frankfurt:

Dr. Chris­tian Johnen, Dr. Sönke Becker (both lead), Gregor Klenk (all corpo­rate); Dr. Marius Boewe (FDI); Moritz Kunz, Dr. Anja Ling­scheid (coun­sel; both employ­ment law); Dr. Stef­fen C. Hörner (tax law); Dr. Marcel Nuys (anti­trust law); Stefa­nie Herkert (real estate law); Dr. Fritz Kleweta (Finance); Asso­cia­tes: Sören Flecks, Marjel Dema, Chris­toph Hempel, Tobias Beuker, Fran­ciska Meier, Dr. Marius Dicke, Nasta­sja Bühr­mann (all Corpo­rate); Dejan Einfeldt (FDI); Dr. Simone Zieg­ler, Julia Ickstadt, Matthias Joschko (all Employ­ment); Eva Jürgens, Dirk Metz­ler (both Tax); Anne Ecken­roth (Anti­trust); Florian Möller (Finance)

London: John Taylor (Corpo­rate); Michael Aherne, Mark Howard (Of Coun­sel; both Employ­ment); Asso­cia­tes: Matthew Gallag­her, Raul Vellani, Shuheb Ahmed (all Corpo­rate); Max Kauf­man, Louis Austin (both CRT); Hannah Gould, Khan Mir (both Employment)

New York: James Robin­son (Corpo­rate); Joseph Falcone (Dispu­tes); Asso­cia­tes: Tyler Hendry, Emily Shapiro, Yash Dattani (all Corpo­rate); Chris­to­pher Boyd (Dispu­tes); David Peraza (Finance)

Paris: Chris­to­pher Theris, Frédé­ric Bouvet, Martin Dijos (Of Coun­sel; all Corpo­rate); Sophie Brézin (Employ­ment); Asso­cia­tes: Lucas Lemasson (Corpo­rate); Guil­hem Sero­­nie-Doutriaux (Employ­ment)