Verdane Capital IX has closed the acquisition of a three-company portfolio from Germany-based Bauer Media Group.
The acquired portfolio consists of the three companies: navabi, CareerFoundry and Kyto, with Verdane Capital IX having taken over all of Bauer Media Group’s shares in the companies. Verdane Capital IX, a well-known investor in the fast-growing software and e-commerce space, will work actively to continue the three companies’ profitable growth and further expansion into new markets.
“We continue to see major opportunities in a maturing German market to employ our expertise and experience of working in the Nordic ecosystem. This acquisition is an excellent fit with our investment strategy of contributing to build rapidly growing tech companies and support international expansion,” says Staffan Mörndal, Partner at Verdane Capital Advisors.
navabi is a leading online retailer for women’s plus-sized fashion. Equipped with extensive e-commerce best practice knowledge, Verdane Capital IX will help drive growth and further penetration in both current and new markets in the EU and US. In addition, Verdane Capital IX will focus on building upon navabi’s brand equity and establishing more private brands.
“Navabi has a dedicated and competent team, a great offering and a strong growth potential in an attractive niche. Combined with our experience and expertise in building technology-enabled winners, we believe we have the perfect set-up for creating a global market leader in plus sized fashion,” says Mörndal.
The acquired portfolio also includes CareerFoundry, a provider of online tech courses in web development, user experience and user design, and Kyto, a provider of online optimisation solutions for small and medium-sized businesses that use various online classified portals to present their products and generate leads. Both companies are on a rapid growth trajectory, showing significant potential in new markets, and fit Verdane Capital IX’s strategy of acquiring assets within consumer internet and software.
“We are proud to have been part of navabi’s, CareerFoundry’s and Kyto’s journeys together with the excellent employees, management teams and other owners, and we are looking forward to follow the companies’ future development and growth,” says Philipp Meixner, Chief Investment Officer at Bauer Media Group.
Verdane Capital IX is already active in the German market, having invested over EUR30 million in Smava, the leading marketplace lender in Germany, Searchmetrics, one of Germany’s leading search engine optimisation platforms, and Hornetsecurity, a provider of cloud security solutions.
