Investment Thesis
Why permanence changes the founder conversation.
Thesis →Founder Buyout
Founder buyout. Succession structures for the DACH Mittelstand.
We acquire founder-led businesses across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Permanent capital from one balance sheet. Operational continuity preserved. Multi-year holds. Nachfolge structures designed around the founder's circumstances rather than around fund mechanics. Munich, Vienna, Baar.
Definition
What we mean by founder buyout.
A founder buyout is the controlled transfer of ownership from the founding shareholder, or founding family, to an external acquirer. The transaction can be a full sale, a staged transition with rollover equity, a recapitalisation that brings outside capital alongside continuing family ownership, or a vendor-financed transfer. The German term Nachfolge encompasses the same field.
The defining feature of a DACH founder transition is not financial. It is human. The founder has spent decades building the business and cares about what happens to employees, customers, and the brand after they step away. Operational continuity is therefore the design constraint, and acquirer permanence is the precondition. Founder buyout transactions that treat the company as a fund-cycle asset usually fail at the negotiation stage.
Market Context
Why it matters in DACH today.
The succession wave in the German-speaking Mittelstand is the largest structural M&A driver in DACH. The Institut für Mittelstandsforschung in Bonn estimates that more than 190,000 family firms will face a transition decision by 2030. The Austrian Wirtschaftskammer and the Swiss Bisnode have produced parallel estimates. A material share of these owners has no internal heir, no second-generation operator, and no aligned strategic acquirer. The default outcome, absent a credible buyer, is gradual decline.
Mid-market private equity has tried to fill this gap. Many founders, however, decline traditional buy-out fund offers because the implied second sale within five to seven years contradicts the operational continuity they want for their staff. Permanent capital changes the conversation. So does the willingness to design the transaction around the founder's tax, family, and operational preferences. Vendor loans, earn-outs tied to operational milestones, and rollover equity into the acquirer's holding structure are routine.
The founder built the company across decades.
The acquirer should hold it across decades.
Engagement
How we engage.
We deploy permanent capital from our balance sheet, which is why operational continuity post-closing is credible rather than promised. There is no fund-life clock and no LP redemption window forcing a second sale.
The acquisition follows our four-phase process. Phase one is a preliminary review against the exclusion list, completed in seven calendar days, and a first conversation with the founder. Phase two is structured analysis: commercial diligence, legal and tax structuring of the founder's preferred transition, and customer-relationship continuity planning. Phase three is term sheet and exclusivity. Phase four is signing and closing, sequenced around merger control and the EU FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452 where applicable.
Post-closing, we integrate the asset onto our platform while preserving the brand, the team, and the founder's relationship to the business if they elect to stay involved. See methodology and acquisition and process.
Boundary
What we are not.
We are not a strategic acquirer: we do not absorb the founder's brand into a parent organisation. We are not a closed-ended buy-out fund: we have no fund-life clock and no LP redemption window. We are not a search fund: we do not raise capital deal-by-deal and we are not first-time operators. We are not a holding company that sits passive: we engage operationally through platform-side operating partners. We are not the right counterparty for a founder who wants a quick auction with the highest bidder; we are the right counterparty for a founder who cares what happens after closing.
Track Record
Substance over slogans.
Fourteen platform investments since inception. Nine exits realised. Several originated as founder buyouts where the seller had explicitly declined offers from larger sponsors on hold-period grounds. Named portfolio companies include Quarero Robotics, Karyali Group, Knowingo, Datatronics, and OpenSpring. In two of these transactions the founder rolled equity into our holding structure and remains a shareholder; in another two, the founder stayed on as managing director through a multi-year transition and handed over to a successor we recruited together.
Operational continuity is documented. Workforce numbers across our platform have grown net of acquisitions. Brand identities have been preserved. The pattern is visible across our portfolio and the operating philosophy is set out in our profile.
Submit a situation
Founders. Families. Advisors. Written response within 72 hours.
Confidential. NDA on request before data exchange. The first conversation is structured around your circumstances, not a generic information template.
Methodology
How we structure transactions around founder preferences.
Methodology →Company
One balance sheet, three locations, fifteen years.
Company →