Carlyle Acquires Majority Stake in GBTEC with Funding from €3bn CETP Fund

Global investment firm Carlyle announced today a majority investment in GBTEC Software AG and affiliates (“GBTEC”), a leading provider of business process management (BPM) and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) software.

GBTEC’s founder and CEO Gregor Greinke will remain the largest private shareholder and CEO of GBTEC. As part of the transaction, co-founder Marc-Oliver Stromberg and the extended GBTEC management team are reinvesting and investing respectively for significant stakes in the company. Main Capital Partners, which has supported GBTEC as a specialised software investor since 2019, has sold its stake in GBTEC as part of the transaction. Further details of the transaction were not disclosed.

GBTEC is a leading provider of SaaS software in the market segments of intelligent Business Process Management (iBPM), Digital Process Automation (DPA) and Process Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC). The company is differentiated by its modern and user-friendly products, which are driven by no-code and low-code technologies, and its state-of-the-art product platform. GBTEC’s products are commended by leading technology analysts. The company has over 1,200 customers, including many European and international blue-chip enterprises as well as public institutions, and employs around 300 people. In addition to its home markets of Germany and Austria, the company has established branches in Spain and Australia.

Carlyle will work with GBTEC’s management team to further accelerate the company’s international expansion and further develop its product portfolio, particularly in the area of digital process automation. The company plans to make significant investments particularly in sales & marketing and artificial intelligence.

Equity for the investment will be provided by Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (“CETP”) V, a €3bn fund which invests in technology companies across Europe. Carlyle will leverage its longstanding track record of internationalising European software companies, including current portfolio companies SER Group, Shopware, CSS, 1E, Phrase and Hack The Box.

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Gregor Greinke, founder and CEO of GBTEC, said: “With our modern and user-friendly products we have become a leading BPM and GRC SaaS provider in Europe in recent years. With Carlyle’s investment, we are now entering the next phase of GBTEC’s growth journey. We believe Carlyle, one of the leading technology investors, is the perfect partner to support us in realizing our growth ambitions. We would like to thank Main Capital Partners for the excellent cooperation and partnership over the last four years.”

Michael Wand, Managing Director and Co-Head of the CETP investment advisory team, said: “GBTEC is well placed to benefit from one of the most important technology trends, digital transformation and, specifically, the automation of business processes. We are excited that Gregor Greinke and his team have decided to partner with us. We believe that with our more than 20 years’ of experience in infrastructure software investments and supporting the internationalisation of European software companies, we can be a key contributor to GBTEC’s growth into a global market leader.”

Sven van Berge Henegouwen, Managing Partner at Main Capital Partners, said: “GBTEC‘s performance over the last years has been impressive and the time spent with the management on strategic initiatives such as internationalisation and product expansion has been extremely exciting. We believe Carlyle is investing in a well-positioned company with strong prospects for the future.”

Source: Carlyle

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