SMARTICULAR

Passau based Green Cup Coffee offers customers exclusively selected high end gourmet coffee whose origins can be tracked to the respective coffee plantation. These “Single Finca Coffees” are traded transparently, the business corresponding to criteria of ecologic sustainability. By selling Green Cup Coffee to a private investor the former owner mymuesli strengthens the focus of on core business areas.

Chessboxing combines the #1 thinking and the #1 fighting sport into 11 alternating rounds of fighting, whereby opponents win by checkmate or knockout – whichever comes first. Under its own brand Berlin based Chess Boxing Global Marketing builds a professional league. The first World Championships were held in Moscow in 2013 and in Berlin in 2014. After founding the World Chess Boxing Organization (WCBO) chessboxing clubs and associations started appearing all over the world. As of 2015 the WCBO already had members in China, India, Italy, Russia, Germany, Mexico, Turkey and the US. Funds raised allow to keep on building.

Berlin and Frankfurt a.M. based CineApp (Cinema Mobile GmbH) is a market place for mobile cinema tickets and a mobile App that allows cinema operators to involve mobile devices more effectively into communication and distribution. With CineApp the operator Cinema Mobile GmbH offers a cost transparent alternative to traditional sales channels, making the tickets of various cinemas available on one platform. Paper tickets are replaced by e-tickets that are saved directly on the smart phone. The opportunity to buy digital cinema tickets via smart phone creates one central market place for all cinema visitors and operators, also helping local and national partners to exploit the potential of actively winning clients in the mobile segment. In the future supported by funds of a Business Angel together with capital from a government investment vehicle.

Stuttgart based AX Semantics is one of the leaders in the area of natural language generation (NLG) worldwide. The company combines extensive journalistic and publishing experience with innovative technology. AX Semantics works on the vision to make the automized production of text available to as many users without programming know how as possible. With the help of the new investment by the German media companies Mueller Medien, Augsburger Allgemeine/ pd ventures and NWZ, AX Semantics keeps driving the development of its product suite, including the enhancement of its own programing language ATML3 (Automated Text Markup Language) as well as of its SaaS-Platform myAX.

Berlin based TreasureHunt, founded a.o. by veterans from EA, Zynga, Rovio and King has been developing games for mobile platforms since 2014 and came out with Pet Paradise, a “Bubble-Shooter-Pet-Collection-Game”, in June 2017 in both iOS and Android. In order to gain further market share in its mainstream, interactive user entertainment segment and keep enhancing the TreasureHunt organization Gauselmann Group as a strategic investor– next to business angels – not only contributes capital over the amount of USD 6M but also other company resources subsequent to the transaction.

As a producer of fresh meat home pet food Berlin based Barfer’s Wellfood (whereby “BARF” stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) has been growing dynamically for years. The company packages and distributes home pet food on- and offline through four retail shops as well as through an online shop, all company-owned, directly to end consumers and employs more than 30 staff. The capital acquired now by Cologne based private equity investor BE Beteiligungen allows the company to keep expanding its facilities in Berlin-Marienfelde and to plan for an expansion of offline distribution in Berlin and other German cities.

abravo GmbH , based in Germering (greater Munich area), is a service provider in the call center sector. Since company foundation in 2002 services in the area of consulting, training, outbound, increasingly inbound as well as related SW solutions have been offered to a client base which grew to several hundred small and medium enterprise accounts. Upon evaluating several transaction structures and following intensive discussions with a relevant group of potential partners, a solution for a company succession has been successfully implemented in 2018 together with the buyer CMH Holding DOOEL Skopje.

Drees & Sommer SE supports the construction and real estate sector as developer- and process consultant from the very first idea and realization to the potential revitalization, employs a staff of 3.200 at 40 company locations and realized revenues of EUR 380 million in 2017. In order to digitalize the business model several cooperations have already been started. In this context Drees & Sommer now acquired a minority stake in interfaceMA. interfaceMA has been founded in 2013 and specializes in the development of B2B software and services for the real estate sector.

With its publications and a 10-person team smarticular supports the transition away from mass consumption in a waste oriented society. The contents of the books are being inspired by the discussion with the community surrounding the various smarticular platforms and an audience of 3 million users per month, ensuring steady growth of themes and topics. With the 100% acquisition of Business Hub UG, the entity behind smarticular, by the Cologne based, stock exchange quoted publisher Bastei Luebbe AG (ISIN DE ISIN DE000A1X3YY0), Bastei Luebbe enhances its sustainability expertise and both companies expect significant synergy effects from the joint expansion of their self help book program.

Print Royal GmbH, founded in 2017 and based from Oranienburg, nearby Berlin, customizes and markets a great number of consumer goods via several platforms – including www.printroyal.de – to private as well as business clients. In the course of the sales process of Print Royal, SV Group – Schwäbischer Verlag GmbH & Co. KG Drexler, Gessler – with a seat in Ravensburg materialized as particularly interesting strategic partner. The acquisition strengthens Print Royals growing ecommerce business, with SV Group logistics, fulfillment and shared services capacities further supporting the company. SV Group in turn widens its product portfolio for the reader and user market and leverages new know how for additional e-commerce activities within the group.

The Central Europe based company provides connectivity as well as a SW/ SaaS solution, allowing to manage IoT devices with applications ranging from logistics/ connected cars over smart grids on to network operators/ IoT network providers. The peer group includes Jasper (Cisco) and Sigfox. In anticipation of a partnership with a wireless infrastructure provider managing several hundred million IoT devices, the company reached out to financial investors with a focus on B2B SaaS and IoT/ telecom raising funds to bring on new hires and broaden its customer base. In the year after the successful transaction, exclusively advised by in rebus corporate finance, revenues increased by 300%.