EMH Partners acquires a stake in Brainlab

Munich — The invest­ment company EMH Part­ners has acqui­red a double-digit mino­rity stake in Brain­lab AG, a leading global provi­der of soft­­ware-based medi­cal tech­no­logy. With its products, Brain­lab enables the precise, mini­mally inva­sive treat­ment of a wide range of clini­cal condi­ti­ons. The company’s core compe­ten­cies are in the areas of infor­­ma­­tion-guided surgery, radio­sur­gery and precis­ion radio­the­rapy, as well as digi­tal networ­king for infor­ma­tion exch­ange in the opera­ting room.

Brain­lab, based in Munich, was foun­ded in 1989 by Stefan Vils­meier. With its inno­va­tive soft­ware and hard­ware solu­ti­ons, the company has quickly become one of the global leaders in the indus­try. More than 4,500 hospi­tals world­wide, inclu­ding 750 of the top 1,000 cancer centers, alre­ady trust Brainlab’s soft­ware and hard­ware solu­ti­ons. In Germany, all 36 univer­sity hospi­tals rely on the company’s products.

“We have found the ideal part­ner in EMH Part­ners,” says Stefan Vils­meier, foun­der and CEO of Brain­lab AG. “The entre­pre­neu­rial approach and the strong focus on digi­ta­liza­tion and inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion convin­ced me. EMH Part­ners shares our vision to provide more acces­si­ble and effec­tive treat­ments for pati­ents around the world with inno­va­tive technologies.”

“Brain­lab shows what German SMEs are capa­ble of. The company is revo­lu­tio­ni­zing medi­cal tech­no­logy world­wide,” says Sebas­tian Kuss (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner of EMH Part­ners. “We are very plea­sed to support this idea­li­stic and highly inno­va­tive company in its future deve­lo­p­ment and thus indi­rectly contri­bute to better medi­cal care.” Brain­lab gene­ra­ted sales of around €275 million in fiscal year 2017 and opera­tes profi­ta­bly on a sustainable basis. The company employs a total of 1,370 people at 18 loca­ti­ons, inclu­ding more than 450 rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment engineers.

Last year, German Chan­cellor Angela Merkel atten­ded the opening cerem­ony of the new head­quar­ters at the former Munich-Riem Airport. In doing so, she prai­sed Brain­lab as an exam­ple of an inno­va­tive Germany. Tech­no­lo­gies deve­lo­ped by Brain­lab include image-guided maxillofacial, ENT and ortho­pe­dic surgery, spine, trauma and neuro­sur­gery, intra­ope­ra­tive imaging and inte­gra­ted surgi­cal solu­ti­ons. Compli­ca­ted surgi­cal proce­du­res become more effi­ci­ent and easier with Brainlab’s tech­no­lo­gies. In addi­tion, the company’s soft­ware solu­ti­ons simplify treat­ment plan­ning and the exch­ange and opti­miza­tion of medi­cal image data. They thus ensure faster diagno­sis and coor­di­na­tion between the trea­ting physi­ci­ans. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the amount of EMH’s invest­ment in Brainlab.

Brain­lab is alre­ady the fifth invest­ment of the EMH Digi­tal Growth Fund. EMH Part­ners invests in medium-sized Euro­pean compa­nies with high growth and digi­tiza­tion poten­tial. In doing so, the private equity firm relies on a long-term “build and scale” approach, in which the port­fo­lio compa­nies bene­fit not only from the capi­tal, but also and above all from the digi­tiza­tion exper­tise and entre­pre­neu­rial back­ground of the EMH team. In addi­tion to Brain­lab, the port­fo­lio includes Occhio, a leading company in Germany for high-quality design light­ing; the Kiveda Group, the leading multich­an­nel provi­der of fitted kitchens; Native Instru­ments, the world’s leading tech­no­logy company for music produc­tion and DJing ; and Design Offices, the German market leader in corpo­rate coworking.

About EMH Partners
EMH Part­ners is a Euro­pean invest­ment company by entre­pre­neurs for entre­pre­neurs based in Munich. The next-gene­ra­­tion private equity firm bridges the gap between venture capi­tal and buyout funds by support­ing the growth of medium-sized compa­nies with capi­tal and digi­tiza­tion exper­tise. — Foun­ded in 2010 by entre­pre­neurs Maxi­mi­lian and Sebas­tian Kuss, EMH Part­ners laun­ched the EMH Digi­tal Growth Fund in 2017 with a fund volume of €350 million. Inclu­ding a co-inves­t­­ment program by the inves­tors, the invest­ment volume is 700 million euros. EMH Part­ners follows a “build and scale” stra­tegy and provi­des part­ner­ship support to its port­fo­lio compa­nies. www.emh.com

About Brain­lab
Brain­lab deve­lops, manu­fac­tures and markets soft­­ware-based medi­cal tech­no­logy for precise, mini­mally inva­sive proce­du­res. The core compe­tence lies in the areas of infor­­ma­­tion-guided surgery, radio­sur­gery, precis­ion radio­the­rapy and digi­tal networ­king for the exch­ange of infor­ma­tion and know­ledge among medi­cal profes­sio­nals in the opera­ting room. Brain­lab tech­no­logy enables more effi­ci­ent treat­ments in the field of radio­sur­gery as well as in other nume­rous surgi­cal disci­pli­nes such as neuro­sur­gery, ortho­pe­dics, trauma surgery, ENT, maxillofacial and spine surgery. Foun­ded in 1989, the medium-sized company employs 1,370 people at 18 loca­ti­ons world­wide and is among the market leaders with more than 11,800 systems instal­led in over 100 count­ries. www.brainlab.com