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Deutsche Private Equity acquires stake in TKD Group
Munich — Funds advised by the Munich-based independent investment company Deutsche Private Equity (“DPE”) have acquired a majority stake in TKD Group (“TKD”) from the founders and managing directors. A large part of the investment, which is in the three-digit million range, will flow directly back into the operating structure in order to accelerate growth.
TKD offers large companies with international locations a rental model for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets from various renowned manufacturers. The leased mobile devices are sustainably integrated into a circular economy that ensures that departments such as purchasing, IT and finance are quickly and easily relieved and the customer’s ESG requirements are met. ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance.
By using the company’s own “Software as a Service” platform TKD.360, customers’ employees can order end devices including mobile phone profiles themselves after activation, manage them and flexibly replace them with the latest models after a fixed term. The mobile devices are automatically configured according to the company’s security specifications and sent to the employee’s workstation in a personalized manner. This means they are ready for immediate use. The companies not only benefit from CO2-neutral use and thus improve their sustainability strategy, but also relieve their IT department and receive a transparent cost overview of the mobile users through the monthly billing of the devices used in the rental model, which is digitally transmitted to the finance department.
“In recent years, working closely with our management team, we have succeeded in developing a range of products and services that are fully tailored to customer needs. With Deutsche Private Equity, we now have a strong partner at our side who not only recognizes the potential of our cooperation with key players in the device-as-a-service market, but also values it. In addition, DPE will make a significant contribution to our technological development and thus drive the expansion of our platform,” say Ulrich Winkler and Oliver Torlée, the founders of TKD.
Andreas W. Schmid, Partner at DPE, explains: “We are very impressed by TKD’s solution-oriented applications, which provide customers with the best possible support for administrative and IT challenges. We see significant growth potential not only nationally, but also internationally, as well as an attractive value lever in the financing of the devices and look forward to working with TKD.”
Advisors TKD: Houlihan Lokey (M&A sell side), FGS (tax) and Freshfields (legal)
Advisors to DPE: Roland Berger (Commercial), Deloitte (Financial), PwC (Tax & ESG), Gütt Olk Feldhaus (Legal), MCF (Debt Advisory) and Hogan Lovells (Financial Counsel).
About TKD
TKD offers large companies a rental model for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets
Renting as part of a circular economy is CO2-neutral and relieves the burden on customers’ purchasing, IT and finance departments. TKD has been based in Langenfeld near Düsseldorf since 2014 and now has more than 100 employees. Over the past two years, TKD has focused on sustainability and ISO certification and is now one of the one percent most sustainable companies in Germany (according to ecovadis Sustainability Rating, February 2024). This competitive advantage has enabled TKD to continuously drive forward the expansion of its business. As a result, TKD now manages a total of more than 150,000 mobile devices for over 1,000 major customers with international locations.
About Deutsche Private Equity
Deutsche Private Equity (“DPE”) is an independent investment company that supports medium-sized companies on their growth path as a partner investor. Over the past 15 years, DPE has become one of the largest growth investors in the DACH region and currently manages total assets of over €3 billion. The core of DPE’s investment strategy is in the areas of digitalization/software, healthcare, industrial technology, B2B services, energy and environmental technology. Within these sectors, DPE focuses on established companies that hold a strong market position with a leading product or service offering and offer significant growth potential for the future. DPE focuses on medium-sized companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and generally invests 50 to 200 million euros of equity per company. www.dpe.de