Elatec Announces New Growth Equity Investment
- – DPE to sell majority stake in leading global provider of multi-standard RFID readers to Summit Partners
- – Elatec will seek to accelerate growth through internationalization and expansion into new end markets
- – DPE will remain a minority shareholder
Munich, Germany and London, United Kingdom (February 14, 2018) – DPE Deutsche Private Equity (“DPE”) and its co-investors reached a definitive agreement to sell their majority holding in Elatec, a leading global provider of multi-standard RFID readers, through a majority recapitalization by global growth equity investor Summit Partners. DPE and its co-investors will retain a minority stake in the company. The transaction is subject to investment review by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and is expected to close in the first half of 2018.
DPE and Elatec: Improved market position and strong growth
Elatec is one of the world’s leading suppliers of multi-standard RFID readers. Since DPE’s investment in Elatec in January 2016, the company, headed by CEO and co-owner Stefan Haertel, has nearly doubled its revenues and headcount. “With DPE’s expertise in growth, we have successfully accelerated the development of our core business, strengthened our market leadership in Europe, expanded our U.S. presence, established an Asian footprint in both China and Japan, and diversified the industries served by Elatec‘s market-leading products,” said CEO Stefan Haertel. “DPE’s support has been instrumental in this growth, and we are now excited to welcome Summit Partners to the Elatec team. We look forward to leveraging Summit Partners’ deep expertise in supporting the global expansion of high-growth technology companies.”
Summit Partners and Elatec: A partnership for continued growth
DPE partner Dr. Frank Müller added: “We are delighted by Elatec’s growth during our partnership. The company has achieved its goals faster than planned, and we look forward to participating in the company’s continued development as a minority shareholder. We believe Summit Partners will be an ideal partner for Elatec’s next stage of growth.”
“Elatec’s multi-protocol solutions uniquely address a market need, supporting more than sixty different transmission standards and enabling the use of RFID applications across myriad end- markets,” said Dr. Matthias Allgaier, a Managing Director at Summit Partners who will join the Elatec Board of Directors. “We believe the company is well-positioned for continued, accelerated growth, bringing Elatec’s solutions to new customers, new verticals and new geographies.”
About Elatec
Elatec, based in Puchheim near Munich, is specialized in the development and global sales of contactless (RFID, NFC, Bluetooth) and contact (SmartCard) readers/writers. Elatec modules enable the clear identification of individual users on end devices and are used across a broad range of numerous applications and solutions, such as secure printing, elevator systems, fitness devices, industrial production, kiosk, physical access, and point-of-sale systems. The readers/writers developed by Elatec support all common RFID standards worldwide, which allows the greatest possible degree of flexibility in integrating new peripheral devices into existing RFID-based security environments. Elatec is therefore the world’s leading manufacturer of multi-standard RFID readers for high- and low- frequency RFID coverage.
For more information, please see www.elatec.com.
About DPE Deutsche Private Equity
DPE is a partnership headquartered in Munich and founded ten years ago with the aim of supporting the growth of medium-sized companies. We view ourselves as entrepreneurs and pursue long-term strategies in the sustainable development of market leaders. Based in Munich, we focus exclusively on medium-sized companies in the German-speaking region.
Since its founding, DPE has successfully launched three funds. DPE has EUR 1.2 billion assets under management, EUR 600 million of which in DPE’s third fund. Since 2007, we have invested in 22 platform companies and made 50 follow-up investments together with these portfolio companies.
For more information, please see www.dpe.de.
About Summit Partners
Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global alternative investment firm that is currently managing more than $14 billion in capital dedicated to growth equity, fixed income and public equity opportunities. Summit invests across growth sectors of the economy and has invested in more than 475 companies in technology, healthcare and other growth industries. These companies have completed more than 140 public equity offerings, and more than 190 have been acquired through strategic mergers and sales. Notable technology and technology-enabled business services companies
financed by Summit Partners include Fineline Technologies, FleetCor, Hiperos, HelpSystems, Infor, Mi9 Retail, Navis, Parts Town, PSC Info Group and RELEX Solutions. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe, and invests in companies around the world.
For more information, please see www.summitpartners.com or on Twitter at @SummitPartners.
In the United States of America, Summit Partners operates as an SEC-registered investment advisor. In the United Kingdom, this document is issued by Summit Partners LLP, a firm authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Summit Partners LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC388179 and its registered office is at 11–12 St. James’s Square, London, SW1Y 4LB, UK. This document is intended solely to provide information regarding Summit Partners’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies.
