LEA Partners becomes new owner of ORCA Software

Neubeuern/Karlsruhe — ORCA Soft­ware GmbH (“ORCA”), based in Neubeu­ern and a leading soft­ware company in the cons­truc­tion indus­try, is under­go­ing a change of owner­ship. The foun­der and sole share­hol­der of ORCA Soft­ware GmbH and its sister company ORCA-online GmbH, Heinz Nießen, has sold all of his shares indi­rectly to funds mana­ged by LEA Part­ners (“LEA”) for reasons of age.

Heinz Nießen, foun­der and sole share­hol­der of ORCA Soft­ware GmbH and ORCA-online GmbH, is selling all his shares for reasons of age. Toge­ther with the LEA port­fo­lio compa­nies PROJEKT PRO and SOFTTECH, ORCA will signi­fi­cantly advance the market leader­ship in the DACH region for commer­cial cons­truc­tion soft­ware and acce­le­rate the digi­ta­liza­tion of the cons­truc­tion indus­try. The total of 15,000 custo­mers will bene­fit in future from the unique exper­tise of over 250 employees to further increase their econo­mic and plan­ning success

“In LEA, we have found a strong, relia­ble part­ner to lead the ORCA Group into the future. Of course, it’s diffi­cult when you hand over your life’s work to new hands,” says Heinz Nießen, who will also be step­ping down as Mana­ging Direc­tor, “but the LEA team is the perfect fit, both perso­nally and profes­sio­nally, to give ORCA the right impe­tus to conti­nue the impres­sive growth trajec­tory of recent years with the entire team.”

LEA plans to conti­nue the company at the Neubeu­ern site with the exis­ting manage­ment team. The purchase agree­ment, the terms of which the parties have agreed not to disc­lose, is to be comple­ted by the end of August at the latest.

The remai­ning Mana­ging Direc­tor, Manfred Scholz, adds: “We are deligh­ted for our entire team and our custo­mers that LEA has a long-term approach to estab­li­shing ORCA even more stron­gly as a premium brand in the cons­truc­tion soft­ware sector and to conti­nuously improve our port­fo­lio of products and services.”

Toge­ther with the exis­ting LEA port­fo­lio compa­nies in the cons­truc­tion soft­ware sector, PROJEKT PRO (project manage­ment and control­ling soft­ware) and SOFTTECH (AVA and visua­liza­tion soft­ware), ORCA will be able to drive forward the expan­sion of its market leader­ship in the DACH region for commer­cial cons­truc­tion soft­ware and acce­le­rate digi­ta­liza­tion. In future, the compa­nies will be able to combine their exper­tise in commer­cial solu­ti­ons and visua­liza­tion soft­ware to make the cons­truc­tion indus­try more effi­ci­ent and inno­va­tive. In future, custo­mers will bene­fit from the unique exper­tise of over 250 employees to further increase their econo­mic and plan­ning success.

Nils Berger, LEA Part­ners: “The digi­ta­liza­tion of the cons­truc­tion indus­try is one of the most exci­ting and biggest tasks that LEA Part­ners has been passio­nate about for years. With over 30 years of expe­ri­ence as a market leader in the AVA sector, ORCA is another important buil­ding block in achie­ving this goal of an abso­lute market leader. By working toge­ther with PROJEKT PRO and SOFTTECH, we can expand and opti­mize our soft­ware product offe­ring for the custo­mer groups. We are deligh­ted to be able to accom­pany the ORCA team on their future path as a spar­ring part­ner and investor.”

About ORCA Soft­ware GmbH

Foun­ded in 1990, ORCA Soft­ware GmbH is a leading soft­ware company in the cons­truc­tion indus­try. Over 110 employees work at the Neubeu­ern site near Rosen­heim. The ORCA AVA and AUSSCHREIBEN.DE product brands prima­rily support archi­tects, engi­neers, specia­list plan­ners and product manu­fac­tu­r­ers with intui­tive tools that offer opti­mum data quality and plan­ning relia­bi­lity. As a well-connec­­ted part­ner, ORCA actively promo­tes the topics of BIM, digi­ta­liza­tion and sustaina­bi­lity in the cons­truc­tion indus­try. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at www.orca-software.com.

About LEA Partners

LEA Part­ners, as an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner, supports foun­ders and manage­ment teams at diffe­rent stages of deve­lo­p­ment in their growth and achie­ve­ment of a leading market posi­tion. With a 30+ team in Karls­ruhe, one of Europe’s largest tech­no­logy clus­ters, LEA has mana­ged invest­ments in more than 70 tech­no­logy compa­nies since 2002. More at www.leapartners.de